Richard P. Rogers (1944-2001) was a renowned producer and director of nonfiction films, and a gifted teacher and mentor who taught filmmaking and photography for many years at S.U.N.Y., Purchase, and at Harvard University, where he was director of the Film Study Center. His films range from political to experimental and self-reflective, and include the independent documentaries Living at Risk and Pictures from a Revolution, about Nicaragua; an award-winning portrait made for PBS of the poet William Carlos Williams; and a dramatic adaptation of Laurel Thatcher Ulrich's book A Midwife's Tale.
In June 1975, Richard Rogers appeared on Screening Room to show and discuss National Anthem, Quarry, an excerpt from Moving Pictures: The Art of Jan Lenica and Elephants: Fragments in an Argument.
Screening Room was a 1970s Boston television series that for almost ten years offered independent filmmakers a chance to show and discuss their work on a commercial (ABC-TV) affiliate station. The series was developed and hosted by filmmaker Robert Gardner (Dead Birds, Forest of Bliss), who was Chairman of the Department of Visual and Environmental Studies and Director of the Carpenter Center for Visual Arts at Harvard for many years.
This unique program dealt even-handedly with animation, documentary, and experimental film, welcoming such artists as Jan Lenica, John and Faith Hubley, Emile DeAntonio, Jean Rouch, Ricky Leacock, Jonas Mekas, Bruce Baillie, Yvonne Rainer and Michael Snow. Frequently, guests such as Octavio Paz, Stanley Cavell, and Rudolph Arnheim appeared as well.
Nearly 100 programs were produced during the years Screening Room was broadcast. Recently, The Museum of TV and Radio in New York City offered to copy the two-inch master tapes that had been given to the Film Study Center.
