With Robert Redford and Erik Barnouw National Video Festival, Kennedy Center, 1981
With Studs Terkel and Charlie Andrews National Video Festival, Kennedy Center, 1982
With David Sheridan and Robert Prosky Interface studio for “On the Line,” 1982
With Jack Lemmon Hollywood Center Studios for Union Yes, 1988
With Nick DeMartino and Gwenn Kelly Labor Institute of Public Affairs, 1983
With David Weiner and Gordon Quinn Advocacy Video Conference, 1993
With Bill Clinton The White House for KidsCampaigns, 1997
I brought video into the film program
at American University
Washington, DC, 1976–1980
With Daniel Schorr, Paul Rusnak and Joe Wiedenmayer
The Capitol for “Abortion: Right to Life vs.
Right to Choose,” 1979
With Jessica Yu, visiting filmmaker “Last Call at the Oasis,” 2013
With Mary Alice McMillan, Shannon Lawrence
and Sunshine Yang
March for Science, 2018
larrykirkman.com is about my media marathon, my work in media for public knowledge and action, from television documentaries and social advertising campaigns to online journalism projects and strategic communications for nonprofits.
At American University, I was dean of the School of Communication, 2001–2011, and professor of Film and Media Arts until my retirement in 2018. I served as executive director of the Benton Foundation, 1989–2001, and founding director of AFL-CIO’s Labor Institute of Public Affairs, 1982–1989. As the first director for TV and Video at the American Film Institute, I produced the National Video Festival in 1981 and 1982.
This home page features three PROJECTS that resonate today, for UNIONS, SCICOMM and ABORTION. The ABOUT section offers in-brief and in-depth coverage of my career. Selected PUBLICATIONS range from essays on children’s campaigns and NGO news online to articles on documentaries and public media.
UNIONS
Watch the AFL-CIO’s first advertising campaigns, public TV documentaries, video news magazines, electronic conventions, and national videoconferences, produced by the Labor Institute of Public Affairs, including the Union Yes campaign, adapted across the country for organizing, community service, strikes and boycotts.
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Labor Institute of Public Affairs, Union Yes, One Sheets
Union Yes '89 Labor's Communications Campaign: The Second Year
Labor Institute of Public Affairs, Union Yes, Edward James Olmos
Labor Institute of Public Affairs, Union Yes Resource Guide - Part 1
Labor Institute of Public Affairs, Union Yes Resource Guide - Part 2
Labor Institute of Public Affairs, Union Yes Resource Guide - Part 3
Labor Institute of Public Affairs, Union Yes Resource Guide - Part 4
Labor Institute of Public Affairs, Relay, Issues 1 - 3
Labor Institute of Public Affairs, Relay, Issues 4 - 5
Labor Institute of Public Affairs, Relay, Issues 6 - 7
Labor Institute of Public Affairs, Relay, Issues 8 - 9
Labor Institute of Public Affairs, Relay, Issues 10 - 11
Labor Institute of Public Affairs, America Works
SCICOMM
Watch SCICOMM: Raising Our Voice for Science in Public Policy, a documentary on the March for Science. “Science not silence” was the rallying cry for marchers who have seen their work ignored, defunded, misinterpreted, and censored, despite conclusive evidence that the consequences of inaction will be profound and irreversible.
ABORTION
Watch Voices of Choice, a documentary on the November 12, 1989, “Mobilize for Women’s Lives” demonstrations across the country responding to the Supreme Court’s Webster decision upholding anti-Choice legislation in Missouri. Voices of Choice was made from more than 200 hours of volunteer-produced video, recruited from 60 of those cities. The film has five themes: we are everywhere, we are everybody, we are motivated, we are organized, and we are mobilized!
