David E. Simpson, producer, director, and editor, has crafted award-winning documentaries for over two decades. David’s pioneering film about disability culture, When Billy Broke His Head…,garnered dozens of awards, including a jury prize at Sundance and a DuPont-Columbia Baton. David directed “Refrigerator Mothers,” about the mothers of autistic children, which aired in 2002 on POV. David’s latest film, “Milking theRhino,” about community-based conservation in Africa, aired in 2009 on PBS’ Independent Lens. David has edited numerous long-form documentaries, including “Forgiving Dr. Mengele”(Special Jury Prize, Slamdance), “Shtetl”(grand prix, Cinema du Real), the critically praised PBS series “The New Americans,” and programs for Frontline and NOVA.
Bob Hercules is an award-winning producer/director and co-owner of Media Process Group—a Chicago-based production company. Hercules’ work has been seen widely on PBS, the Discovery Channel, IFC, The Learning Channe,l and through television syndication nationwide. His newest documentary, “Radical Disciple: The Story of Father Pfleger,” chronicles the iconoclastic priest, Mike Pfleger, whose confrontational methods to fight racism has put him in direct conflict with the Catholic hierarchy. Hercules’ 2007 film, “Senator Obama Goes to Africa,” was released on DVD by First Run Features, and has run on television stations in over 100 countries. The film is a chronicle of Obama’s momentous 2006 diplomatic trip to Africa, including a stop at his late father’s homeland near Kisumu, Kenya. Hercules’ 2006 documentary, “Forgiving Dr. Mengele,” tells the remarkable story of Auschwitz survivor and former ‘Mengele twin’ Eva Mozes Kor, whose decision to forgive the perpetrators as an act of self-healing sparked a firestorm of criticism. The film won the Special Jury Prize at the 2006 Slamdance Film Festival, the Crystal Heart Award at the 2006 Heartland Film Festival, and is in home video release from First Run Features.
Gordon Quinn is Artistic Director and founder of Kartemquin Films, a2007 recipient of the MacArthur award for Creative and Effective Institutions, Gordon’s 45 years of documentaries include Home for Life, Taylor Chain, Golub, Hoop Dreams, Vietnam, Long Time Coming, and The New Americans.Other Executive Producer credits include The Interrupters, Five Girls, In The Family, Typeface, Milking the Rhino, At The DeathHouse Door, and No Crossover: The Trial of Alan Iverson. Recently he directed Prisonerof Her Past and co-directed with Bob Hercules A Good Man. Gordon is a supporter of public and community media, and has served on the boards of several organizations including The Illinois Humanities Council, The Chicago Public Access Corporation, The Public Square Advisory Committee, and The Illinois Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.
About the Film
A Good Man follows acclaimed director/choreographer Bill T. Jones (Last Supper at Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Still/Here, FELA!) as he and his company create their most ambitious work, an original dance-theater piece in honor of Abraham Lincoln’s Bicentennial. Through two tumultuous years, we witness raw moments of frustration as Jones struggles to communicate his vision to his dancers and collaborators, as well as moments of great exhilaration when movement transcends the limitation of words. Jones and his company come face to face with America’s unresolved contradictions about race, equality and the legacy of our 16th President. Initially an indictment of The Great Emancipator, the work evolves into a triumph of hope for our struggling democracy, with Jones revealing that Lincoln was “the only white man I was allowed to love unconditionally.” Premiering on the heels of Jones’s Tony Award for FELA! and 2010 Kennedy Center Honor, A Good Man is a window into the creative process and, indeed, the creative crisis of one of our nation’s most enduring, provocative artists as he explores what it means to be a good man, to be a free man, to be a citizen.
A Good Man is a co-production of Kartemquin Films, AMERICAN MASTERS, Independent Television Service (ITVS) and Media Process Group, in association with Ravinia Festival.
