Remembering
Henry
by Trudi Brown
A couple of years ago, I received a call from Blackside inviting me to produce one of the programs for the Breakthrough: Minorities in Science series. It was one of the most exciting offers of my career. My eagerness to join Blackside, one of the country's most respected African-American documentary film companies, was coupled with a sense of urgency. Public TV insiders had known for a while that Henry Hampton was fighting a battle with cancer.
When I arrived at Blackside, the first thing to strike me was the deliberateness that must have gone into the making of the production teams. The teams reflected Henry's trademark series, Eyes on The Prize, the story of the civil rights years. Each production team was inclusive of white, black, Latino and Asian talented people who assumed a variety of production roles. They seemed to be a family at ease with one another working for a common cause: to get the history right and to tell the stories well. It was Henry's fundamental belief that people who tell stories about others should reflect the culture of the people whose stories they are telling. Henry was a man filled with humanity and a deep respect for others.
After the year-long project ended and I was about to return to Philadelphia and WHYY, Henry invited me out to dinner at a very nice restaurant. At dinner, we talked about the all-too-short time we'd spent together and about his life and his illness. Henry was proud to be winning his battle with cancer, which was in remission. In the years after I left Blackside, I only saw Henry at PBS conferences and spoke with him infrequently over the phone. But I will always remember that I met a great man in Henry Hampton.
And now, with Henry's passing, I am filled with both regret and joy. I regret that my visit was much too brief, but I feel the joy of having the experience of spending some valued time with Henry Hampton.
Trudi Brown is Executive Producer at TV12.
|
