WSRE, PBS for the Gulf Coast, will present Academy Award-nominated and Emmy® Award-winning producer Rory Kennedy on Tuesday, May 19 at 7 p.m. as part of the station’s new Public Square Speakers Series. The free event will be held at the WSRE Jean & Paul Amos Performance Studio.
Kennedy’s “Last Days in Vietnam†documentary, which premiered at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival, has been nominated to win the Academy Award for Documentary Feature at the Oscars® this month.
“Last Days in Vietnam†chronicles the chaotic final days of the Vietnam War as the North Vietnamese Army closed in on Saigon. With the clock ticking and the city under fire, American officers on the ground faced a moral dilemma: follow official policy and evacuate U.S. citizens and their dependents only, or ignore orders and save the men, women, and children they had come to value and love in their years in Vietnam. At the risk of their careers and possible court-martial, a handful of individuals took matters into their own hands. Engaging in unsanctioned and often makeshift operations, they waged a desperate effort to evacuate as many South Vietnamese as possible.
In late April, PBS will broadcast “Last Days in Vietnam†during a week of programming to mark the 40th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War. Distributed by AMERICAN EXPERIENCE, the film will air locally on WSRE at 8 p.m. on April 28. WSRE also has a free preview screening of the film planned for March 24 at the Amos Studio.
Having produced, directed and/or written more than 30 highly acclaimed documentaries, Kennedy is recognized for films that tackle issues of human rights, mental illness, poverty, domestic abuse, political corruption and drug addiction.
Her film “American Hollow,†about the rural existence of a poor Appalachian family, attracted attention from film critics and the public in 1999. She also directed and produced the Emmy-nominated series “Pandemic: Facing AIDS,†which premiered in 2002 at the Barcelona World Aids Conference and became a five-part series on HBO.
Kennedy is also well known for her films “Ghosts of Abu Ghraib†(2007), “Thank You, Mr. President: Helen Thomas at the White House†(2008), “Shouting Fire: Stories from the Edge of Free Speech†(2009) and “Bobby Fischer Against the World†(2011).
At the 2012 Sundance Film Festival, she premiered the film “Ethel,†a feature length documentary on the life of her mother Ethel Kennedy, wife of Robert F. Kennedy, which was nominated for five Emmy® awards.
In addition to her role as an independent documentary filmmaker, Kennedy is considered a masterful story teller and compelling speaker devoted to taking on the world’s most pressing social and human rights issues.
Her talk on “Last Day in Vietnam†will be the second event of WSRE’s new Public Square Speakers Series, which launches next week, on Tuesday, Feb. 17, with Pulitzer Prize-winning writer and bestselling author, Rick Bragg.
Public Square Speakers Series events are open to the public; admission is free. Doors open at 6:30 p.m.; programs begin at 7 p.m. Visit wsre.org/speakers to learn more.