October/November 2023
This month, Carmel Month-to-month is happy to function Carmel resident Ashton Gleckman on the quilt. Now we have printed earlier articles over time on Gleckman’s work as an award-winning director and gifted composer, and now we’re honored to debate Gleckman’s eight-part docuseries “Kennedy.”
Marking 60 years since JFK’s assassination, “Kennedy” is about to premiere Saturday, November 18 at 8 p.m. ET/PT with three back-to-back one-hour episodes. The next three episodes air Sunday, November 19 and the ultimate two air Monday, November 20 at 8 p.m. ET/PT.
“Kennedy” was made potential by the collaborative skills of Blackbird Photos [Gleckman’s production company] and Academy Award®-winning manufacturing firm RadicalMedia and is narrated by Peter Coyote. The docuseries chronicles the life, management and legacy of the youngest U.S. president elected to workplace and options interviews with Conan O’Brien, members of the Kennedy household and a number of other people who had been intimately concerned in John F. Kennedy’s life and/or administration throughout his presidency.
Gleckman, who directed, edited, co-scored and produced the docuseries, labored carefully with the documentary movie firm Drew Associates to incorporate excerpts from the groundbreaking movies of documentarian Robert Drew. The collection additionally makes use of intensive sources from the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library archives and lots of different sources to weave collectively this compelling narrative of JFK as an influential determine in American historical past.
The Genesis of the Challenge
At 14 years previous, Gleckman developed a ardour for movie scoring and composition that led to a exceptional collection of tasks. In 2018, he even caught the eye of Academy Award®-winning composer Hans Zimmer (“Gladiator”), who dubbed him the “boy with bat ears” and supplied him a job.
In 2019, Gleckman launched into his directorial debut with the discharge of “We Shall Not Die Now,” a feature-length Holocaust documentary that premiered on the Heartland Worldwide Movie Competition. Following its success, his sophomore movie, “The Hills I Name Dwelling,” is an intimate profile a few small city in the course of the Appalachian Mountains. Gleckman, now 23, is about to premiere his third undertaking with “Kennedy.”
After we sat down with Gleckman to debate the undertaking intimately, we started the dialog with “why?” Why JFK, and why did Gleckman really feel that the 35th president’s life was an vital topic for him to discover as a younger documentarian?
“One of many issues that I’m grateful for is that my mother and father launched me to cinema at a really early age,” Gleckman shared. “What I imply by ‘cinema’ is basic historic movies, and in consequence, I grew up studying about and loving historical past. I’ve a reference to the topic of World Warfare II and the Holocaust as a result of my great-uncle was one of many liberators in one of many [concentration] camps. Since an early age, I’ve been considering historical past and the way occasions all through the years have led us to the place we at the moment are.”
Gleckman’s curiosity in JFK stems from his early schooling and a fascination with the late president’s iconic speeches.
“’Ask not what your nation can do for you — ask what you are able to do in your nation,’” Gleckman mirrored. “These phrases have all the time caught with me as I’ve progressed in my profession. I had simply completed my second movie and was on the lookout for topics that fascinated me. The extra I’ve sunk into the historical past of JFK, the extra I spotted it’s a narrative that basically is the American story. JFK was a man born in 1917 and lived a comparatively quick life — 46 years. However he completed a lot, and he impressed a whole technology via his speeches and oratory reward. He was struck down earlier than he may do extra. What I wished to do with this collection was to step away from Dallas and step away from the assassination and conspiracies. I wished to concentrate on Jack Kennedy the person. This handsome, charismatic, well-spoken, reckless however fascinating, good particular person who, to today, is a little bit of an enigma. We nonetheless don’t completely perceive him, and I attempted my greatest [with this docuseries] to actually get into his thoughts. Why keep in mind JFK? His is a superb story that tells us what public service means, and in a world immediately the place we’re more and more disillusioned with the state of affairs, it’s a narrative I feel we want.”
A Dedication to Telling JFK’s Story
For the final three years, Gleckman poured himself into books written about JFK, researched artifacts by way of the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, and performed greater than 80 interviews with members of the Kennedy household, the Kennedy administration and historians to greatest chronicle the life and legacy of JFK.
Gleckman and his crew, comprised of solely three individuals, traveled to 25 states and hung out in places that had been vital to JFK’s private and political life tales.
“I feel one of many coolest moments was to be in Hyannis Port [Massachusetts], the place we filmed a few interviews,” Gleckman mentioned. “The ‘Ambassador’s’ home seems the identical, principally. That’s the large dwelling that individuals have seen in images the place JFK is enjoying soccer on the garden together with his siblings. It was an incredible expertise.”
Gleckman had unprecedented entry to a number of first-hand sources that embody ‘Agent Quantity 9’ Clint Hill, a legendary former Secret Service agent who served in Kennedy’s administration and 4 different U.S. presidents’ administrations. Hill is thought for his act of bravery on November 22, 1963 — shielding Mrs. Jacqueline Kennedy and the fatally wounded president together with his physique because the automobile raced to Parkland Memorial Hospital.
“I used to be in a position to interview [Hill], who’s 91, and had the wonderful privilege of filming him for 16 hours in California,” Gleckman mentioned. “That’s the following movie that I’m engaged on and am near ending filming. We hope to have a movie pageant run with ‘Agent Quantity 9’ starting in 2024. That’s the aim.”
When requested about assembly and interviewing Conan O’Brien, Gleckman shared, “Conan is a former board member for the JFK Library Basis. He’s a stunning one that was excited to speak about JFK. I feel he feels quite a lot of connections to the story, having gone to Harvard College, been born in Boston, and, in fact, coming from the Irish Catholic heritage. He naturally feels a kinship to Jack Kennedy.”
Gleckman added, “There was a second in the course of the Conan interview after we had been sitting in his studio and I assumed to myself, ‘I’m interviewing Conan O’Brien! What am I doing right here?’ It immediately felt like I used to be in a dream. After which there was this humorous second the place, in the course of filming, Conan paused and immediately mentioned, ‘You understand, I’ve by no means needed to card a documentarian earlier than.’ He was, in fact, referring to my age.”
Success Stems from Help and Encouragement
The brilliance of Gleckman’s star has solely begun to shine. Although, he humbly acknowledged that it’s with the help of his household, buddies, colleagues and neighborhood that he has reached extraordinary heights so early on in his profession as a filmmaker and composer.
Gleckman additionally expressed his gratitude for The HISTORY® Channel’s curiosity and help on this docuseries. “Kennedy” is produced for The HISTORY® Channel by RadicalMedia in affiliation with Blackbird Photos and Drew Associates Inc. Jon Kamen and Dave Sirulnick function government producers for RadicalMedia. Ashton Gleckman serves as producer for Blackbird Photos. Eli Lehrer, Mary E. Donahue and Zachary G. Behr function government producers for The HISTORY® Channel.
“I used to be very lucky to companion with [executive producers] Jon Kamen and Dave Sirulnick,” Gleckman acknowledged. “Their manufacturing firm is a exceptional Oscar®-winning documentary manufacturing firm [RadicalMedia], and I used to be lucky to satisfy these actually nice and, most significantly, very skilled people who have this steep historical past in making docs and in distributing them.”
Gleckman continued, “Actually, all the pieces I’ve carried out is as a result of my mother and father not solely supported it — they inspired each concept that I’ve ever had. It’s quite a lot of enjoyable to incorporate my household within the journey, and when there are quite a lot of tiresome, very anxious days combing via 170-plus hours of footage and I must decompress, I take walks, get recent air and spend time with my household. That’s how I do it.”
A screening of “Kennedy” will happen on November 13 on the Paley Heart and can embody notable company similar to Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, the late Robert F. Kennedy’s daughter.
A+E Networks holds worldwide distribution rights to “Kennedy.” The collection will stream the following day on The HISTORY® Channel app and historical past.com and will probably be obtainable to personal wherever you buy your favourite collection.
For extra data, please go to: historical past.com/exhibits/kennedy.