Documentary Film Screening with film director John de Graaf ~ Stewart Udall: The Politics of Beauty

Date: 10/08/2023
Time: 3:00 pm-5:00 pm

Please join us for a screening of Stewart Udall: The Politics of Beauty, which will be introduced by the film’s director John de Graaf, followed by Q&A and discussion. Register below for this free program.

Stewart Udall left a profound legacy of conservation and environmental justice as Secretary of the Interior during the Kennedy and Johnson Administrations. His social and environmental successes stemmed from his ability to bring together people with disparate interests, and inspire them to achieve common goals. His example can serve us well today! More importantly perhaps, Udall called on all Americans to move away from our emphasis on economic growth and consumerism and toward quality of life, and a new politics centered on beauty, frugal living, appreciation of nature and the arts, and a recognition of the Earth’s limits.

Stewart Udall and the Politics of Beauty is a feature documentary that examines the trajectory of Udall’s life from his childhood through his Mormon mission, his World War II service, his student years at the University of Arizona, his time in Congress, and then, most significantly, his years as Secretary of the Interior and beyond. The program introduces us to the birth pangs of modern environmental politics, to figures like Leopold, Rachel Carson, David Brower, and John Saylor. We see how Udall’s ideas evolved, best illustrated in his conversion from a pro-power dam Arizona representative to the Interior Secretary who dealt the death blow to proposed Grand Canyon dams. We examine his long fight to win compensation for Navajo Indians and “downwinders” who got cancer from their exposure to radiation during the Cold War without being warned of the dangers. And we see the relevance of his concerns—he was the first public official to speak out about global warming, for example—to our current day crises.

A documentary about the life of Stewart Udall is long overdue. Udall was filmed, photographed and interviewed often, and a wealth of archival material will make this program visually dynamic. But while two recent and excellent print biographies about Udall are now available, only short video retrospectives can be found on YouTube. This full-length video biography reveals in depth that period during the sixties and seventies when the environmental movement in America came of age, showcasing the victories and defeats with which Udall was intimately connected, without neglecting criticism or Udall’s own frequent doubts. Perhaps more importantly, in our now deeply partisan environment, it reveals a time when Americans were not yet so polarized, when big ideas could still capture bipartisan attention, and when America awakened to the unfolding destruction of paradise and determined to stop it.

John de Graaf—Project director/ film director/writer.  De Graaf has been producing and directing PBS documentaries for 43 years.  He spent 31 years at KCTS, the Seattle PBS affiliate.  Fifteen of his programs have been broadcast nationally in primetime on PBS, including his 1997 hit special, Affluenza.  He has directed and written many biographies and history programs, including the PBS national Earth Day 1990 special, For Earth’s Sake: The Life and Times of David Brower, which includes an interview with Stewart Udall.  His 1992 biography of Japanese American internment resister Gordon Hirabayashi, A Personal Matter, won the highest award for legal reporting from the American Bar Association and inspired the acclaimed play Hold These Truths.  He has won more than 100 regional, national, and international filmmaking awards, and The John de Graaf Environmental Filmmaking Award, named for him, is presented annually at the Wild and Scenic Film Festival in California. 

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