CAPTURING THE “REAL” GREAT DEBATERS
AMS Pictures partners with Wiley College on new documentary
Dallas, Texas�The real-life Wiley College experience will be captured on film thanks to a partnership between the College and AMS Pictures. The production of a documentary that will explore the story of the Wiley College debate team, whose remarkable defeat of an all-white champion debate team at the University of Southern California in 1935 inspired the 2007 film The Great Debaters starring Denzel Washington, is expected to be completed by September 2008.
The Great Debaters, which debuted in movie theaters across the country December 2007 and was released nation-wide on DVD this month, depicts the Wiley College debate team in its championship 1935 season and chronicles its amazing journey from obscurity and struggle to its historic victory, a triumphant achievement for a small black college in the Jim Crow South of the 1930s.
The new documentary The Real Great Debaters of Wiley College delves deeper into the real-life events that inspired the film chronicles the personal stories of the 1935 debaters, including Professor Melvin B. Tolson and debater James Farmer, Jr., as well as Henrietta Bell Wells, Nolan Anderson, Hobart Sydney Jarrett, Hamilton Boswell and Henry Heights. The Real Great Debaters will also explore the legacy of their achievements and show how professors and students, skilled in oratory and rhetoric honed in black churches and debate societies, would take up the cause of social and political progress, become major figures in the Civil Rights Movement and make vast contributions to American society.
But the story does not end with the historic debate against USC, nor even the lasting influence of Tolson or his debate team. So inspired by the story of the 1935 debaters, in December 2007, Mr. Washington contributed $1 million to Wiley College to reestablish the famed debate program with a new generation of students. The Real Great Debaters, which will be a flagship addition to AMS Pictures� Black History Uncovered series of documentaries on African American history, also will chronicle the actual adventures of today�s Wiley College students as they form a new debate team and set out to re-claim the national debate title.
AMS Pictures is pleased to be chosen to partner with Wiley College on the production of this documentary. �I watched The Great Debaters in a movie theater last December and immediately thought this would make a great documentary. I am very proud to be able to tell the true story behind this inspirational movie,� said Andy Streitfeld, CEO of AMS Production Group and AMS Pictures.
Dr. Haywood Strickland, President of Wiley College, remarked �Wiley College is excited to be partnering with AMS Pictures on this documentary. Our college is proud of its history and working hard to bring that history into the present. We play an important role in educating students for the challenges they will face in a competitive work world. This documentary will tell that story as well.�
About AMS Pictures
AMS Pictures brings 25 years of experience in creative media and visual storytelling to create original programs that inspire, provoke and entertain. From inspiring original documentaries on forgotten people and events to controversial topics like electroconvulsive therapy and domestic violence, from entertaining peeks at American art and culture to informative hints on balancing body and mind, AMS Pictures delivers quality non-fiction entertainment. We make pictures that move you.
About Black History Uncovered
Black History Uncovered is a series that explores inspiring and untold stories in the African American legacy as seen through a contemporary perspective. The series currently includes: Rising from the Rails: The Story of the Pullman Porter, In the Shadow of Hollywood: Race Films & The Birth of Black Cinema, Flying for Freedom: Untold Stories of the Tuskegee Airmen; and A Colored Life: The Herb Jeffries Story.
Wiley College Public Relations 903-927-3201 Wiley College | 903.927.3300 | 711 Wiley Avenue, Marshall, Texas 75670 Contact Wiley College
Dallas, Texas�The real-life Wiley College experience will be captured on film thanks to a partnership between the College and AMS Pictures. The production of a documentary that will explore the story of the Wiley College debate team, whose remarkable defeat of an all-white champion debate team at the University of Southern California in 1935 inspired the 2007 film The Great Debaters starring Denzel Washington, is expected to be completed by September 2008.
The Great Debaters, which debuted in movie theaters across the country December 2007 and was released nation-wide on DVD this month, depicts the Wiley College debate team in its championship 1935 season and chronicles its amazing journey from obscurity and struggle to its historic victory, a triumphant achievement for a small black college in the Jim Crow South of the 1930s.
The new documentary The Real Great Debaters of Wiley College delves deeper into the real-life events that inspired the film chronicles the personal stories of the 1935 debaters, including Professor Melvin B. Tolson and debater James Farmer, Jr., as well as Henrietta Bell Wells, Nolan Anderson, Hobart Sydney Jarrett, Hamilton Boswell and Henry Heights. The Real Great Debaters will also explore the legacy of their achievements and show how professors and students, skilled in oratory and rhetoric honed in black churches and debate societies, would take up the cause of social and political progress, become major figures in the Civil Rights Movement and make vast contributions to American society.
But the story does not end with the historic debate against USC, nor even the lasting influence of Tolson or his debate team. So inspired by the story of the 1935 debaters, in December 2007, Mr. Washington contributed $1 million to Wiley College to reestablish the famed debate program with a new generation of students. The Real Great Debaters, which will be a flagship addition to AMS Pictures� Black History Uncovered series of documentaries on African American history, also will chronicle the actual adventures of today�s Wiley College students as they form a new debate team and set out to re-claim the national debate title.
AMS Pictures is pleased to be chosen to partner with Wiley College on the production of this documentary. �I watched The Great Debaters in a movie theater last December and immediately thought this would make a great documentary. I am very proud to be able to tell the true story behind this inspirational movie,� said Andy Streitfeld, CEO of AMS Production Group and AMS Pictures.
Dr. Haywood Strickland, President of Wiley College, remarked �Wiley College is excited to be partnering with AMS Pictures on this documentary. Our college is proud of its history and working hard to bring that history into the present. We play an important role in educating students for the challenges they will face in a competitive work world. This documentary will tell that story as well.�
About AMS Pictures
AMS Pictures brings 25 years of experience in creative media and visual storytelling to create original programs that inspire, provoke and entertain. From inspiring original documentaries on forgotten people and events to controversial topics like electroconvulsive therapy and domestic violence, from entertaining peeks at American art and culture to informative hints on balancing body and mind, AMS Pictures delivers quality non-fiction entertainment. We make pictures that move you.
About Black History Uncovered
Black History Uncovered is a series that explores inspiring and untold stories in the African American legacy as seen through a contemporary perspective. The series currently includes: Rising from the Rails: The Story of the Pullman Porter, In the Shadow of Hollywood: Race Films & The Birth of Black Cinema, Flying for Freedom: Untold Stories of the Tuskegee Airmen; and A Colored Life: The Herb Jeffries Story.
Wiley College Public Relations 903-927-3201 Wiley College | 903.927.3300 | 711 Wiley Avenue, Marshall, Texas 75670 Contact Wiley College
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