Stewart Udall and the Politics of Beauty (working title), an hour-long biography, produced in cooperation with Arizona Public Television, will follow the trajectory of Udall’s life from his Mormon childhood in the tiny hamlet of St. John’s, Arizona, through his World War II service in Europe, his student years at the University of Arizona where he played basketball and fought for integration, his years in Congress, and then, most significantly, as Secretary of the Interior under presidents Kennedy and Johnson, and finally his later years as an author, activist and advocate for victims of atomic testing and uranium mining.

A documentary about the life of Stewart Udall is long overdue.  It will reveal in depth that period during the sixties and seventies when the environmental movement in America grew into adulthood.  Perhaps more importantly, in our now deeply partisan environment, it would reveal a time when Americans were not yet so polarized, when big ideas could still capture bipartisan attention, and when America awoke to the unfolding destruction of paradise and determined to stop it.

Director/Writer: John de Graaf
Producers: Zelie Pollon and Laurence Cotton
Photographer/Editor: Greg Davis

For more information about the project, see this pitch deck.