The Fayetteville Public Library will honor the late Andrew Kilgore and his photographs on Sunday, Feb. 15. A screening of the 2014 documentary “A Lens to the Soul: The Photography of Andrew Kilgore” is scheduled for 2 p.m. that afternoon.
The film’s director, Dan Robinson, came to the Carver Center for Public Radio to talk about the screening, and he told Ozarks at Large’s Kyle Kellams the first time he discussed the movie was with us several years ago.
Dan Robinson: Oct. 4, 2011.
Kyle Kellams: And this was at the genesis of the project?
Robinson: It was kind of the beginning. Yes, it was as we were getting started and we knew it was going to take some time, and we knew that we needed to raise some money to make it happen. So you kindly invited me to come in and discuss Andrew’s work.
Kellams: So how… OK, so it took a while.
Robinson: It was four years. Over the course of four years, most of the shooting happened in the first two years. But we were really hoping for the opportunity to talk to President Clinton. And that didn’t shape up until 2014. And I had just about given up hope. And then we got the call that it might be able to happen.
Kellams: Tell me about that. What was that like?
Robinson: Well, we knew that Andrew had taken a very famous photo of him. And so we knew that he had had interactions with Andrew. And so we wanted to get his take on what he felt like Andrew’s work had done. And we put the word out to the Clinton Foundation. It was like, we would love to do this. And there were a couple of times when he came to town for basketball games, and it’s like, he’s so close. Could we please line this up?
But fortunately in 2014, finally, we were able to pull some strings combined with them saying, you know, he will consider doing this. But it was not official until he was in the elevator.
Kellams: Wow. What was it like working with Andrew making this film?
Robinson: It was an incredibly special four years. It was fascinating because again, this was back in 2010, 2011, and Andrew was doing retrospectives on his work at that point. So hearing him kind of reflect on the 40 years, 50 years that he had been working at that point and the various bodies of work and the impact they had had.
And it was kind of like hearing him talk about old hats, you know. It’s like I put this hat on for a while, and then I put this hat on for a while, and I did this cool thing. And so it was interesting to hear him tell his story.
And over the course of those four years, I interviewed him multiple times. So you’ll notice in the film he’ll be commenting on things from 2011 and then from 2013, and his perspectives were the same. But also, you know, the different things that come up when you have the same conversation with someone several times, new little gems present themselves.
Kellams: What made you want to do this project?
Robinson: My late wife, Amanda, knew about his work and we had done several photo shoots with our family. But his advocacy work, I think, was something that spoke very strongly to us. And we recognized back then that there needed to be a comprehensive something that showed his work for future generations in a movie form.
So she looked at me and said, we’ve got to do a documentary about this. And so the process began.
Kellams: Did you know Andrew before that?
Robinson: I did not. He attended St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, and so I knew Andrew through church, and he was very active in the youth group that my wife was running. And so we spent a lot of time together. He loved being around the kids and photographing them. And so it was interesting to get to know him that way. And then, of course, Andrew was thrilled at the idea of having a documentary made about him. So he was eager to hop on board.
Kellams: Yeah, I can imagine that he’s the ideal subject because he’s incredibly interesting, incredibly talented, and loves to talk.
Robinson: He does, and especially about his work and about people, about the people he got to meet. It was all about the stories, and it was all about the connections he made with people who were very different than him.
Kellams: How many hours did you spend with him over the course of—
Robinson: Countless. Over the four years, it was a combination of interviews, shooting sessions, but also just meetings about the story we were telling. And then it was curating photographs. Andrew presented me with a thousand photographs.
Kellams: Of course he did.
Robinson: That I curated into 250 photographs that made it into the film. So, but there was lots of discussions about, you know, this one’s got to be in the film. And, you know, like, we’ve got to choose between this one and this one.
And so we spent a lot of time. And then when the film was released, we had the opportunity to tour around. We went to the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival, where it was screened, and we took it to various—we did it at the library. We did it at Crystal Bridges. So I had the opportunity to spend a lot of time with him in the light of the movie as well, once the movie had been released.
Kellams: All right. So when you’re having that tour and those presentations and then you have other things that happen, you have a job and everything, how long goes between you viewing the documentary?
Robinson: So there was a long period. I actually watched it recently, kind of nervous, because in a way, it’s kind of a filmmaker’s nightmare to have you say to them, hey, we’re going to celebrate this movie you made 11 years ago. Technology has come so far, and I’ve grown as a filmmaker. There are things that, looking at it, you know, I’ve learned so much since then. But as I watched it, Andrew’s work is so timeless that it really, I think I kind of got the benefit of that with the piece, in that the piece is kind of timeless.
It’s amazing to see just those eras represented, the wide variety of people, but you feel so connected by the time you’re done looking at 250 sets of eyes and making that connection that you can only make through a Kilgore. He did something very special that made it to where when you’re looking into that person’s eyes, it feels like you’re sitting across the table from them. And so it’s very special.
It’s going to be amazing to bring it back. We premiered it at the library in 2014, and now, 11 years later, we’re bringing it back on a much bigger screen. And that really is the largest format you will ever see Andrew’s work, which is fascinating when it’s on a screen that huge, it just hits you different.
Kellams: Now, you did —You have to find funding for this, right?
Robinson: We did. We had some amazing cornerstone donors, the Garners and the Carvers, who were also big fans of Andrew’s work and big supporters of the arts here, were very supportive on the front side, the Beldens, and then we did some crowdfunding. We got some community support.
And then the library actually completed the film’s budget so that we could get it finished across that threshold. Four years later, we were able to get it wrapped up and released.
Kellams: It’s so wonderful that it happened when Andrew was working and very much still in his advocacy work, but it’s also wonderful to have it now.
Robinson: Yes.
Kellams: And it’s an example of why it’s important. I’m just saying this for all documentarians who are going out and trying to do this. The work matters when it happens, but it might even matter more 11 or 20 or 50 years later.
Robinson: That’s right. That is my goal. I have a passion as an archivist. That’s why I love Fayetteville Public Television. That’s why I love doing the streaming work at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church. Capturing moments, and it’s a time-in-a-bottle sort of thing. And so that people, you know, generations later, can go back and get a snapshot of what we’re experiencing right now.
I think that’s very important work, and I really love doing it.
Kellams: And as you mentioned, Fayetteville Public Television. Let’s just quickly, because you don’t have to be an expert to walk into FPTV and start creating content.
Robinson: That’s correct. It is built for the people who are not experts. We want everyone to have the opportunity to come in without the obstacles of cost or censorship, and learn about producing media so that you can tell the story that you’re passionate about.
We can check out equipment like a library book. We can help you on your production journey. But Fayetteville Public Television is a diamond in the state, especially now with PBS and everything with all the things that are happening. The fact that the city of Fayetteville is committed to funding its own public access resource and empowering us to do workforce development, along with archiving the culture of northwest Arkansas, is a very special task that I’m very proud of.
Kellams: Sunday, Feb. 15th, the Andrew Kilgore documentary beginning at 2 p.m., with the conversation after.
Robinson: Correct.
Kellams: Thanks so much for coming in.
Robinson: Thanks so much, Kyle.
Dan Robinson’s 2014 documentary, “A Lens to the Soul: The Photography of Andrew Kilgore,” will be shown Sunday, Feb. 15, at 2 o’clock at the Fayetteville Public Library. A discussion about the documentary will follow. The screening is free and open to the public. Dan Robinson talked to Ozarks at Large’s Kyle Kellams earlier this month, in the Anthony and Susan Hui News Studio.
Ozarks at Large transcripts are created on a rush deadline. Copy editors utilize AI tools to review work. KUAF does not publish content created by AI. Please reach out to kuafinfo@uark.edu to report an issue. The audio version is the authoritative record of KUAF programming.
