The
Road of Fate and Miracles--
A Dialogue with the Executive
Producer of "Keeping the Faith With
Morrie,”
a 30-Minute Documentary
Bludogbiz recently spoke with
Angel Harper, the executive producer
of, “Keeping
the Faith With Morrie,” about
her award-winning 30-minute documentary. The film salutes the pioneering
life of the first African-American syndicated cartoonist,
Morrie
Turner.
Heaven Sent Production debuted the documentary at
the 2001 Parable (In His Presence) Christian Film Festival. On
June 11, 2001, Ashley Rogers (Writer/Director) won for Best Director
- Documentary at the awards ceremony held at the Director’s Guild
America in Los Angeles, California. Then in February 2002, at the
Hollywood Black Film Festival, in Los Angeles, Angel Harper received
an award for Best Documentary.
As Bludogbiz got to know Ms. Harper more, we learned
that she is a born-again Christian and believes in “helping others.”
So it was no coincidence that we met at Theatre
West in North Hollywood, California, where the actor was volunteering
for the day.
BDbiz: In your film, we learn that young
Morrie Turner lived through the Great Depression, and served our
country during World War II, where he also drew cartoons for military
newspapers. He later did the same as a police clerk. How did you
learn about Morrie Turner?
Angel: Quite, by accident. I think it was
1991, when I first met Morrie. I was doing animation voice-over
work and learned about Morrie’s "Wee Pals" cartoon strip.
I hadn’t heard of the cartoon before. "Wee Pals," I learned,
was the first, multi-ethnic, syndicated cartoon strip in America.
Morrie created "Wee Pals" back in the ‘60’s. Its theme
was tolerance and in it there were kids of all races, gender, and
physical disabilities who formed the “Rainbow Club.” Then in the
‘70’s, Michael Eisner, who was then at ABC, put the comic strip
in an animated network television series called “Kid Power.” I
called Morrie after someone gave me his telephone number. I wanted
to know more about him, and I also had selfish reasons.
BDbiz: What did Morrie have to say?
Angel: I told him who I was and him how much
I had admired his work. We spoke about his cartoons and what he
was doing. Then somehow, he turned the table on me and got me to
talk about myself. I admitted a lot of things to him, which I usually
don’t do. But that’s Morrie--he somehow gets you feeling so comfortable
that you open up to him. We spoke for quite sometime. At the end,
Morrie said, “You just keep the faith.” And that statement stuck
in my mind over the years.
BDbiz: So about tens years went by before
you made the documentary. What were you doing between then?
Angel: I had moved to Los Angeles. I had
hopes like all actors: to have my own TV series, then to do feature
films, and then to produce, which was my major in college. l graduated
from Cornell University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Radio
and Television Production. But even while keeping busy appearing
in soap-operas, sitcoms, television dramas, films, and doing voice-over
work, I had Morrie in the back of my mind. I had stayed in touch
with him over the years. Several projects that I had tried to put
together involving Morrie fell through for one reason or another.
Throughout the years, after I first had met Morrie Turner (by telephone
only), I always thought I would like to do something involving Morrie.
BDbiz: So let’s fast forward to the year
2000. What happened next?
Angel: “God works in mysterious ways.”
Looking back, “I believe I was destined to do this.” I had volunteered
to help with the Parable Christian Film Festival in 2000. That
year I helped other people at my church realize their dreams of
making their films. That experience made me believe that I too
could make a film. At the time, I was working on starring in a feature
film. I had also been actively involved in Women in Animation’s
Voice-over Committee. At first, I thought of my Morrie project
as an animated TV pilot, which I could involve the Voice-over Committee,
and then enter in the Parable Christian Film Festival.
BDbiz: How did it evolve from an animated
short into a documentary?
Angel: I was working on both the feature
film and Morrie’s animation project. Then someone asked me if I
had read the film festival’s application. The reason was that you
couldn’t do animation for the festival. I then looked at the application
and saw that they accepted documentaries. So I decided to do a
documentary on Morrie Turner and put the comic strip in it. The
documentary was to promote Morrie Turner.
BDbiz: How long did it take you make the
documentary? And how much did it cost?
Angel: The making of the documentary just
proved to me how God works. By now, the feature film deal had fizzled.
But the minute I decided to do the documentary—it just took off!
A series of miracles occurred--they truly did since we had virtually
“no- budget.” Everyone who worked on this film volunteered to do
it. With that kind of commitment, and with a story like Morrie’s,
you can’t help but succeed. First, Ashley Rogers signed on as writer/director.
Her boyfriend, Mark Milkin, a professional cameraman then joined
us as the Director of Photography. They secured the Sound Engineer,
Michael Young. Sherry King from the WIA Voice-over committee added
her talents and became the Associate Producer, and coordinated the
interviews. Sherry got Sally Banter to agree to be our Editor.
We now had a great professional team. That’s totally God! With
such talent and commitment, we took nine months from development
to entering the documentary in the 2001 Parable Christian Film Festival.
Now that I’m learning more about documentaries, I realize how fast
we made our film. I now know that some people take years to make
theirs because they do it in their spare time and mostly with their
own money.
BDbiz: That’s pretty remarkable--to get
the documentary made in nine months. But did you run into any technical
difficulties along the way?
Angel: We had our share of difficulties,
but also miracles. The making of this documentary was an act of
faith for each and every one of the team members. The height of
such miracles was going to San Francisco for a four-day shoot.
We had no money for airline tickets, hotels, or a rental car. Ashley,
the director, called me two weeks before our scheduled date and
asked me whether we were still going? That night I could not sleep.
I had already called several airlines to ask for a corporate donation.
They all said they would need at least six weeks to process such
a request. I then remembered that a Cornell alumni, whom I had
meet at a recent, alumni event, was a pilot. So at three or four
o’clock in the morning, I got up and started looking for his business
card. Guess, what? It took just five minutes to find it. The
next day, I called him and politely asked him, a person whom I knew
only as an alumnus, for a donation from his airline. He not only
remembered me, but also said he would ask and call me back. I didn’t
expect him to call back. He did, but said the airline needed six
to eight weeks to process my request. He then said he would ask
his pilot-friends at sister airlines. Again, I thought he was just
being polite and thanked him. But you know he called back the next
day. Again, he said the other airlines said the same thing. I
thanked him and was about to hang up. He said, but wait. He then
said he’d pay for it. He asked if we would mind going on Southwest
Airlines? I said, it’s no problem. The next day, he emailed me
the e-tickets. I then told the director. She was so inspired that
she later called Budget Rent-A-Car to ask them to donate a rental
car. To her surprise, they said, yes. We then arranged to stay
with friends so we were now set for our San Francisco trip.
BDbiz: You announced at the Hollywood Black
Film Festival that you secured fiscal financing to extend the documentary
to an hour. What will your goal be in extending it?
Angel: First of all, fiscal sponsorship
means that we now qualify as a nonprofit Section 501(c)(3) organization
[under the Internal Revenue Code]. I’m hoping to raise $100,000
for the budget. But with our nonprofit status, we can now give
volunteers a charitable write-off, which they can use as a tax deduction.
As far as my goal, it is to make the 60-minute version not only
about Morrie Turner’s life, but also about how he integrated the
cartoon strips with people of color. So it will also be about the
industry before Morrie and after Morrie.
BDbiz: What are your plans for the documentary?
Angel: I’m hoping to distribute it to schools
and libraries to educate kids about Morrie Turner’s groundbreaking
life, place in the history of comic strips, and lifetime commitment
to teaching “tolerance,” and “humanity.”
**********
Morrie Turner’s work on the Kid Power network series
not only gained him a wider audience, but also helped him earn the
prestigious “Sparky Award,” named for his friend and mentor, Charles
“Sparky” Schultz, the creator of the world renown “Peanuts” comic
strip. It is one of many awards he has received over the years.
To read more about Morrie Turner, you can begin
at the most popular website listed for him on the Google search
engine, by clicking HERE, or on his name
in the article!
Angel Harper, in addition to being an actor and
an award-winning voice-over performer, is also comedian, a winner
of America’s Funniest People, and has appeared on BET’s Comic
View and Show Me the Funny. Ms. Harper’s talents also
extend to the printed word. She has written a book, Master the
Art of Cold Reading, published by Heaven Sent Publishing and
available at Barnes & Noble or Samuel French Bookshop. She
is also the entertainment health-reporter for Behealthylifestyles.com
where she writes about the latest health tips for actors and where
she is a movie critic for the column, “Eyes on the Movies.”
To find out more about Ms. Harper's documentary
click HERE,
or on "Keeping the Faith With Morrie," in this article.
Bludogbiz wishes Ms. Harper all the best and will
be there to see her 60-minute documentary, which will remain appropriately
entitled, “Keeping the Faith With Morrie.”
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