Eye on the 60s
A 2013 Film featuring the Photography of Rowland Scherman
88 minutes
Wednesday, July 22 at 4 pm
in the Hermann Gallery at the Falmouth Art Center
Free and open to the public
Eye On The 60s is an intimate portrait of former LIFE Magazine photographer Rowland Scherman and how his photographic eye captured the essence of America’s most remarkable decade. Experience candid recollections of seldom seen moments of major celebrities, politicians and breathtaking events. Follow the path of a self-driven man who became the first Peace Corps photographer, an insider to the Kennedy and Shriver families, and who created an astounding record of The March on Washington.
Travel with Scherman through time to witness the young Bob Dylan, The Beatles, Arthur Ashe, Barbara Walters, Joni Mitchell and Judy Collins.
From Washington, DC to the site of the Woodstock Festival in 1969—and to the healing vistas of Cape Cod, Eye on the 60s is the story of a man who, despite technological change and the great passage of time, moves in a space of peace, humor and hope, while remaining forever driven by the need to create.
About the film: The film’s director, Chris Szwedo, met photographer Rowland Scherman in August 2011 at the Artworks Gallery in Orleans, MA.
The director, a young child in the 1960s, was instantly motivated to make a film about the journeys of the free-spirited Scherman, who had remarkable access to a wide range of celebrities and events of the era.
However, time was of the essence, as within three weeks the 50th Anniversary of the Peace Corps was to be held in Washington, DC—an event critical to the story. The Peace Corps was the first important stop in Scherman’s storied career. An immediate decision was to go to DC and begin the project.
From the outset, Szwedo was determined to capture the essence of Scherman’s creative eye and to provide the project the proper context. To do so, he enlisted the on-screen presence of former LIFE Washington Bureau Chief Richard B. Stolley, and legendary singer Judy Collins—the subject of Scherman’s 1969 LIFE essay.
The film was shot in locations in Washington, DC; Newport, RI; Boston, MA; Bethel, NY (site of the 1969 Woodstock Festival); New York City; Berkeley, CA; Santa Fe, NM; and the coastal terrain of Outer Cape Cod.
Says Szwedo, “The goal of the film all along was to produce a work that would honor Rowland and his talent and his journey and to provide another valid context for that amazing decade.
