Distilling the Vietnam war into 13 parts

Richard Ellison , whose 13 -part series ``Vietnam: A Television History " pioneered the epic TV documentary, will be honored at the Plymouth Independent Film Festival with a screening and panel discussion .

Ellison, who died two years ago, spent most of the last 20 years of his life in Kingston.

``Richard did so much to revolutionize documentary filmmaking," said Lisa Mattei , director of the Plymouth Independent Film Festival . ``The research and the storytelling he did complemented each other. People watched the series together. It was an event."

The film festival begins four days of screenings, classes, and other programs tonight at several venues in Plymouth. The festival will screen the fifth episode of ``Vietnam," produced by public television, at noon Sunday in the Amphitheatre room of the Radisson Hotel Plymouth Harbor. The event is free.

Broadcast in 1983 , Ellison's Vietnam series won six Emmy awards and ``paved the way for Ken Burns ," Mattie said. Before Ellison produced that series, networks had never devoted the resources required for the ``enormous epic documentaries" such as Burns's popular TV documentaries on the Civil War, jazz, and baseball, she said.

Ellison was the executive producer and a writer for the comprehensive series on America's war in Vietnam. It brought some of the highest audience ratings for documentaries, and won not only Emmys but also a George Foster Peabody Award , the George Polk Award , and a DuPont-Columbia Award .

When the series was broadcast, Ellison said the film maintained a neutral point of view on the war, choosing instead to present the viewpoints of ``those who lived through the war." Watched by 9.7 million Americans, its episodes provoked critical praise and impassioned attacks. The series has since been used as a teaching tool in hundreds of high schools and universities, and is available in many regional libraries.

``What makes this documentary important is all the research and scholarship that went into it," said Sara Altherr of Kingston, Ellison's wife. ``Dick really hoped this would be an educational thing."

Altherr, who worked as a publicist for PBS in Washington and New York and was the publicist for ``Vietnam," will moderate the panel discussion following the two-hour screening Sunday. Guests will include film maker Drew Pearson and film scholar Lawrence Lichty of Northwestern University .

Both were involved in the making of ``Vietnam." Pearson, nephew of journalist Drew Pearson, was the line producer for the episode being screened Sunday. Lichty was central to the research that framed the program, Altherr said, and as director of media research helped gather, organize, and edit media material.

The episode being screened, ``America Takes Charge ," chronicles the period from 1965 to 1967 when America undertook a massive troop buildup in Vietnam, sending 1.5 million soldiers to the country .

Born in Lansing, Mich ., Ellison ``got his education from the bookstore" owned by his father, according to Altherr.

As a teenager he ran away from home and picked fruit with migrant farm workers in upper Michigan, learning of their dismal living conditions.

``It was a seminal experience," Altherr said. A few years later he joined the merchant marines and traveled to New York City, where he found work as a gaffer in films.

As a free lancer, Ellison wrote, produced, and directed documentaries that appeared on CBS , Altherr said. He also produced many of the programs in the classic TV educational series ``The World Around Us ," which was broadcast by PBS, the BBC , and German television.

In Kingston, he participated in the life of the community, serving as a library trustee and a member of the board of local public access television, PACTV.

The festival's second year will also feature programs on an influential group of documentary filmmakers who came of age in the '60s. Films by Richard Leacock , D.A. Pennebaker , and Albert Maysles will be screened.

For more information and a complete schedule, see the website www.plyfilmfest.org .

Robert Knox can be contacted at rc.knox@gmail.com.