In our angry, polarized time, Americans are looking for positive inspiration. The story of Stewart Udall brings audiences such inspiration and more. No American political figure is as relevant to the issues we face today as a nation--learning to work together, achieving racial and environmental justice, improving international relations, enhancing beauty and the arts, alleviating climate change and moving toward sustainability--as Stewart Udall. Check out the trailer to see why!

Stewart Lee Udall was the most prominent and effective Secretary of the Interior in American history.

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. Our 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.