"The Fort Fisher" RECEIVES EMMY NOD.
The Nashville/Midsouth Chapter of The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) announced the nominations for the 22nd Annual Midsouth Regional Emmy® Awards at a cocktail reception November 16 at BMI’s Nashville headquarters.
Common Sense Films, the Wilmington, North Carolina-based film and television production company, received a nomination in the category of historical documentary for their documentary feature, The Fort Fisher Hermit: The Life & Death of Robert E. Harrill.
Harrill, better known as “The Fort Fisher Hermit,” lived off the land supplemented by contributions from his many coastal North Carolina visitors over a period of 17 years, first arriving at Fort Fisher in 1955. By the late 1960s he had unofficially become North Carolina’s second most popular tourist attraction. Over 100,000 tourists lined up to hear his philosophies on life at his "School of Common Sense," all from the abandoned Army ammunitions bunker he called “home.”
Narrated by actor Barry Corbin, the film explores the human behind “The Hermit” persona, from his tumultuous origins to his mysterious and still-unsolved death. The hour-long documentary premiered in May on UNC-TV, North Carolina’s public television network, and will be nationally distributed by American Public Television library in April of 2008.
Inspired by the film, the North Carolina Aquarium at Fort Fisher has developed “The Fort Fisher Hermit’s School of Common Sense.” This environmental education program begins with a screening of the film and ends at the salt marsh, where participants are provided fishing gear and encouraged to try their hand at living like “The Hermit,” all the while learning about the local environment.
Along the way there is a stop at the “Hermit Bunker” where the Fort Fisher State Recreation Area, a division of the North Carolina State Park System, recently erected two large placards about the life of Robert Harrill and the years he lived there. Today, the bunker has become a permanent exhibit and sits along a stretch of hiking trails that allow visitors to travel through the beautiful undeveloped beach and marshes between the Cape Fear River and the Atlantic Ocean.
“Most times you do a film and even if you are fortunate for it to find an audience, it is usually judged in terms of its financial success, or lack thereof,” said the film’s director, Rob Hill. “It’s very rewarding to have been involved in a project that has had such a social and educational impact. That’s pretty rare.”
More than 700 entries resulted in nominations for 58 stations and companies in 70 categories. Entries under consideration by the Midsouth Chapter were reviewed and nominated by members from NATAS’s Mid-America Chapter in Chicago and Rocky Mountain Southwest Chapter in Phoenix. The awards ceremony will be held on January 26, 2008 at the Schermerhorn Symphony Center in Nashville.
Executive Producer Richard Sirianni reports that DVD sales of the film have been gradually increasing via Lulu.com, the division of Lynx creator Robert Young’s Red Hat that has pioneered the area of self-publishing. Starting out with books, Lulu.com moved into DVD distribution with The Fort Fisher Hermit, which has proved to be a classic example of artists controlling and distributing their own works.
Recently, Common Sense Films entered into a non-exclusive licensing agreement with IMOOVIE.COM. The New York-based Internet DVD distributor carries well-known independent feature film and documentary titles.
Separately, Sirianni’s Mulberry Street Entertainment is shopping a feature film version inspired by the Harrill story from a script by Wilmington writer and educator Anne Russell. Russell and Fred Pickler of the Fisher Film Corporation will serve as Executive Producers.
Common Sense Films is currently in production on The Appropriate Genius, a feature-length documentary about Jock Brandis and the Fully Belly Project’s efforts combating extreme poverty and hunger. The Full Belly Project is a nonprofit organization that Brandis formed with a group of returning Peace Corp members.
Brandis, a career film and television industry electrician, was honored with the Popular Mechanics Breakthrough Technology award in 2006. In 2000, as part of an effort to help villagers in Mali, Africa Brandis develop a more efficient manner to shell peanuts by creating a simple hand-cranked peanut sheller using concrete and scrap metal. This led to a pedal-powered version and further modifications. Today, Brandis’ “universal sheller” is a key component in the movement to utilize appropriate technology to assist developing nations. The “universal sheller” can be used to process a wide range of agricultural products from shea nuts to coffee, all without modern conveniences such as electricity.
Other entities involved in assisting the development of rural agriculture in impoverished nations, include Jeffrey Sachs’ Millennium Village and The Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Both groups have embraced the efforts of the Full Belly Project. Recently, Brandis and Full Belly have collaborated the internationally recognized organization Meds and Food for Kids in Haiti, where the universal sheller will be used for the purpose of creating a peanut based “Ready to Use Therapeutic Food” (R.U.T.F), whose medicinal qualities are used to combat the widespread malnutrition that exists in the country. The first Fully Belly production facility was recently established in Uganda.
With one additional year of production remaining, the filmmakers will have documented Brandis’ travels to Uganda, the Sudan, Kenya, the Philippines, Haiti, Guatemala, and Guyana, as well as to the United Nations and M.I.T. Along the way they have encountered such notable personalities as former U.S. President Jimmy Carter (on camera working the peanut sheller) and space travel inventor Burt Rutan.
The International Documentary Association (IDA), a nonprofit filmmaker support group based in Los Angeles has signed on as the film’s 501c fiscal sponsor. This has allowed Common Sense Films to take a unique approach to fundraising; securing the services of friends and family, philanthropists, patrons of the arts and those involved in humanitarian efforts to host a series of intimate dinner parties. Fundraising events have been held in North Carolina, with additional opportunities being planned for Colorado, New Mexico and California.
To learn more about The Fort Fisher Hermit: The Life & Death of Robert E. Harrill or The Appropriate Genius, you may visit www.thefortfisherhermit.com and www.theappropriategenius.com.
Common Sense Films, the Wilmington, North Carolina-based film and television production company, received a nomination in the category of historical documentary for their documentary feature, The Fort Fisher Hermit: The Life & Death of Robert E. Harrill.
Harrill, better known as “The Fort Fisher Hermit,” lived off the land supplemented by contributions from his many coastal North Carolina visitors over a period of 17 years, first arriving at Fort Fisher in 1955. By the late 1960s he had unofficially become North Carolina’s second most popular tourist attraction. Over 100,000 tourists lined up to hear his philosophies on life at his "School of Common Sense," all from the abandoned Army ammunitions bunker he called “home.”
Narrated by actor Barry Corbin, the film explores the human behind “The Hermit” persona, from his tumultuous origins to his mysterious and still-unsolved death. The hour-long documentary premiered in May on UNC-TV, North Carolina’s public television network, and will be nationally distributed by American Public Television library in April of 2008.
Inspired by the film, the North Carolina Aquarium at Fort Fisher has developed “The Fort Fisher Hermit’s School of Common Sense.” This environmental education program begins with a screening of the film and ends at the salt marsh, where participants are provided fishing gear and encouraged to try their hand at living like “The Hermit,” all the while learning about the local environment.
Along the way there is a stop at the “Hermit Bunker” where the Fort Fisher State Recreation Area, a division of the North Carolina State Park System, recently erected two large placards about the life of Robert Harrill and the years he lived there. Today, the bunker has become a permanent exhibit and sits along a stretch of hiking trails that allow visitors to travel through the beautiful undeveloped beach and marshes between the Cape Fear River and the Atlantic Ocean.
“Most times you do a film and even if you are fortunate for it to find an audience, it is usually judged in terms of its financial success, or lack thereof,” said the film’s director, Rob Hill. “It’s very rewarding to have been involved in a project that has had such a social and educational impact. That’s pretty rare.”
More than 700 entries resulted in nominations for 58 stations and companies in 70 categories. Entries under consideration by the Midsouth Chapter were reviewed and nominated by members from NATAS’s Mid-America Chapter in Chicago and Rocky Mountain Southwest Chapter in Phoenix. The awards ceremony will be held on January 26, 2008 at the Schermerhorn Symphony Center in Nashville.
Executive Producer Richard Sirianni reports that DVD sales of the film have been gradually increasing via Lulu.com, the division of Lynx creator Robert Young’s Red Hat that has pioneered the area of self-publishing. Starting out with books, Lulu.com moved into DVD distribution with The Fort Fisher Hermit, which has proved to be a classic example of artists controlling and distributing their own works.
Recently, Common Sense Films entered into a non-exclusive licensing agreement with IMOOVIE.COM. The New York-based Internet DVD distributor carries well-known independent feature film and documentary titles.
Separately, Sirianni’s Mulberry Street Entertainment is shopping a feature film version inspired by the Harrill story from a script by Wilmington writer and educator Anne Russell. Russell and Fred Pickler of the Fisher Film Corporation will serve as Executive Producers.
Common Sense Films is currently in production on The Appropriate Genius, a feature-length documentary about Jock Brandis and the Fully Belly Project’s efforts combating extreme poverty and hunger. The Full Belly Project is a nonprofit organization that Brandis formed with a group of returning Peace Corp members.
Brandis, a career film and television industry electrician, was honored with the Popular Mechanics Breakthrough Technology award in 2006. In 2000, as part of an effort to help villagers in Mali, Africa Brandis develop a more efficient manner to shell peanuts by creating a simple hand-cranked peanut sheller using concrete and scrap metal. This led to a pedal-powered version and further modifications. Today, Brandis’ “universal sheller” is a key component in the movement to utilize appropriate technology to assist developing nations. The “universal sheller” can be used to process a wide range of agricultural products from shea nuts to coffee, all without modern conveniences such as electricity.
Other entities involved in assisting the development of rural agriculture in impoverished nations, include Jeffrey Sachs’ Millennium Village and The Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Both groups have embraced the efforts of the Full Belly Project. Recently, Brandis and Full Belly have collaborated the internationally recognized organization Meds and Food for Kids in Haiti, where the universal sheller will be used for the purpose of creating a peanut based “Ready to Use Therapeutic Food” (R.U.T.F), whose medicinal qualities are used to combat the widespread malnutrition that exists in the country. The first Fully Belly production facility was recently established in Uganda.
With one additional year of production remaining, the filmmakers will have documented Brandis’ travels to Uganda, the Sudan, Kenya, the Philippines, Haiti, Guatemala, and Guyana, as well as to the United Nations and M.I.T. Along the way they have encountered such notable personalities as former U.S. President Jimmy Carter (on camera working the peanut sheller) and space travel inventor Burt Rutan.
The International Documentary Association (IDA), a nonprofit filmmaker support group based in Los Angeles has signed on as the film’s 501c fiscal sponsor. This has allowed Common Sense Films to take a unique approach to fundraising; securing the services of friends and family, philanthropists, patrons of the arts and those involved in humanitarian efforts to host a series of intimate dinner parties. Fundraising events have been held in North Carolina, with additional opportunities being planned for Colorado, New Mexico and California.
To learn more about The Fort Fisher Hermit: The Life & Death of Robert E. Harrill or The Appropriate Genius, you may visit www.thefortfisherhermit.com and www.theappropriategenius.com.
posted by robhill at 9:58 AM
