Project of the Day: Profile of Whittaker Chambers, Author of Spiritual Classic 'Witness'

Indiewire.com ^ | 01/03/2012 | Indiewire

[iowamark]

Here's your daily dose of an indie film in progress; at the end of the week, you'll have the chance to vote for your favorite.

In the meantime: Is this a movie you’d want to see? Tell us in the comments.

"The Whittaker Chambers Story"

Tweetable Logline:

Feature-length documentary about Whittaker Chambers: journalist, theologian, and writer of the political and spiritual classic "Witness"

Elevator Pitch:

A feature-length documentary about Whittaker Chambers, whose book Witness is a political and spiritual classic. Chambers had insight into the human condition that transcended his time. He was a member of the communist party in the 1920s but after years of secrecy revealed his past - and fingered Alger Hiss. The Chambers-Hiss case was the trial of the 20th Century; the story had espionage, revenge, thrilling escapes and even a subtext of homosexuality. More than a simple spy story from the 1950s, the Chambers story touches on humankind's quest for utopias - and the role of suffering in triggering fanaticism.

Production Team:

Producer/Writer: Mark Judge, producer/writer
Director/Editor/Cinematographer: H. Paul Moon
Executive Producer: Stana Benesova Kimball

About the Production:

The Story of Whittaker Chambers combines historical narrative with artful reenactment. Mixing interviews of scholars (and eyewitnesses to history) with dramatic tableaus in the style of film noir, it chases facts along a winding tale of espionage, leading to the emotional and spiritual heart of the man behind the story. A first documentary feature on Whittaker Chambers, the film invites audiences to ruminate on the dangers we earlier faced, the truths and fictions behind the Red Scare, and even today, the threats that Chambers foretold. The independent production is planned for release in 2012.

Current Status:

Pre-production.

For more information and to support this project:

Kickstarter Page
Filmmaker Website

[iowamark]

Whittaker Chambers documentary competes at Indiewire
""This month in 1950, Alger Hiss, an American lawyer and government official, and a Soviet spy, was convicted of perjury and sentenced to five years in prison. He was tried and convicted thanks to the efforts of Whittaker Chambers. A former communist himself, Chambers turned from what he later called “the vision of Man without God” and brought Hiss’ true political affiliations and allegiance to light. Chambers was one of our nation’s greatest anti-communists, and, as the author of “Witness,” has left a lasting mark on both conservatism and U.S. history.

Journalist and author Mark Judge is now teaming up with director Paul Moon to make a documentary about Chambers’ compelling and historic life.

“It’s a film that needs to be made for the same reasons that the works of Dante, St. Augustine and William F. Buckley (a friend of Chambers) need to be preserved,” Judge said. “America’s public schools and academia are certainly not interested in remembering the man who revealed Soviet espionage in the United States government.”

Judge and Moon’s project, “The Story of Whittaker Chambers,” is currently competing for recognition and support at Indiewire.com. Each day Indiewire picks a “Project of the Day” to feature, and every week readers vote for one project to consult with an independent film website like SnagFilms or IndieGoGo. These “Project of the Week” winners compete to be the “Project of the Month,” and the winner gets to consult with the Sundance Institute, which runs the esteemed Sundance Film Festival. Voting is today, and it’s free. To support “The Story of Whittaker Chambers,” visit http://apps.facebook.com/my-polls/pomzh4m to vote.

And here’s a poignant and applicable quote from Chambers that should resonate today: “Economics is not the central problem of this century. It is a relative problem which can be solved in relative ways. Faith is the central problem of this age.”""

[Old Teufel Hunden]

I tried to go there and it now says the poll is closed.

[drpix]

"To support “The Story of Whittaker Chambers,” visit http://apps.facebook.com/my-polls/pomzh4m to vote."

I went to the page to vote only to get this message: "The poll is now closed. Thank you for your participation."

Do you know the result of the vote?

[iowamark]

I’m sorry, I am not a Facebooker. I am just a Chambers fan.

[Old Teufel Hunden]

I’m not much of a facebooker either. Have an account and never go on it. However, I wanted to vote to support the Whittaker Chambers project. Hopefully it will be on the history channel sometime soon. These are the types of things I’d like to see more of on the different history channels. It just seems like we get Hitler and the Nazis on those channels way too much. While WWII is very important in history, there are other things in history that are worth watching.