Sean Mansfield: As a film-maker I am making a film about an interesting group of people who defy common demographic labeling. It is a "textbook" Documentary 101 approach to the subject matter. When completed the piece will be a collection of interviews and portraits of some very good people engaged in a noble effort. Even sections with some rather controversial people are contributing to a greater understanding of the truth of these events. However, as a political scientist, I am engaged in an effort to show that the issues the research community is concerned with is no longer heresy but rather very mainstream political thought. It is important to show the goodness and mercy of the majority of the people who contribute to the effort. The concept of these people as a group of 40 year old white males "over-intellectualizing" history is inaccurate. The research community appears to be a thousand different kinds of people from as many different backgrounds. The interest in the assassination and its source and consequences is the only ticket to the show. If you can walk the Walk and do the Talk then you can be involved in the democratic action of the research community. The substantial work being done by those engaged full time in uncovering the truth is spiritually supported by many many other folks doing their part. Even if they are just reading the books, watching the videos, attending a symposium, joining the Coalition and perhaps having the courage to encourage others to ask again for the truth, they are contibuting. I am interested in all these "people stories" and from what I have shared from my film with others I think it is very engaging story telling.
Fair Play: And what was its genesis?
Sean Mansfield: I got interested when I had several opportunities to listen to Keith Preston speak about the murder of John Kennndy. His calm, clear articulation in explanation of the events that surround Dallas on the 22nd of November '63 caused me to want to know a whole lot more of the academic sleuthing. So by the time I read a few books, I too wanted to contribute something to the noble effort. In college I studied government and ever since I was in High School I had worked on political campaigns. So you can well imagine the emotional turmoil of confronting the truth versus the "reality" of what we had been taught in school by the blinded system.
By showing the truth as understood and uncovered by the research community, I can perhaps ask those who see the film to ask again for the truth and not see the lie repeat again. Me... I'm just another guy who sees the light.
Keith Preston: My educational background is in history, and as a historian I had always felt what Kevin Phillips' chart in "Arrogant Capital" demonstrated: America's precipitous decline in the confidence in our government began with what most Americans sensed was a bald-faced lie---the "lone-nut" explanation of the death of President Kennedy. As a life-long Republican, it wasn't always easy to accept the culpability of people I had grown up admiring, in at least some aspects of this deception (if not the plot itself).
Fair Play: Surely you don't mean to suggest that the Republican Party is in some way culpable in JFK's assassination?
Keith Preston: No, but when you consider people like Nixon, and Hunt, Ford, Belin, even Reagan were members of the (yep) Rockefeller commission, well, dig in the Republican party in the 60s and 70s and a lot of the same names appear...and remember, Warren was Tom Dewey's running mate on the '48 election...as a historian, all these threads are too significant not to notice.
The Stone film re-energized my interest in the JFK assassination; Sean and I decided that the community's story was so distorted and yet so important and was one that needed to be told. Frankly, there are times when we have felt that it may never come to completion (family life, funding, and frustration are key battles), but we just keep on in the hope that a right idea must of necessity find its proper place in the future.
Fair Play: Is your documentary a look at the contemporary research community? If so, is there a historical aspect to it?
Sean Mansfield: It is a look at the research, and so then the research community from day one. Mary Ferrell's persistent collecting of information from the moment after the gunfire in Dallas is a great story. We got that. Mark Lane had to write a book... Why? It is another great story. What set people off on the search for truth was not the profit of maybe publishing a book, or having a crowd of people around you listening intently to what you are saying. I am convinced it was a noble effort on behalf of humanity that caused many of the early Questioners to embark on the endeavor. Okay, so this does sound a little too sweet but this is part of what Keith and I are trying to find out about and then share in this documentary.
Keith Preston: How I wish we had Mark Lane...perhaps someday we will...There is no way some of the the pioneers can give us their ideas...Penn Jones is too ill, Sylvia Meagher, Bud Fensterwald, Larry Howard, and others are gone. We are very pleased to have many who have agreed to be in the film. What has been interesting is to see the difference in attitude of those whom we talked to in 92, after the Stone film, and the changes in the last two years, after the Posner book and the media's "dropping" of the issue as a result of that book. It's been very demoralizing and very evident in the community morale, in spite of the solid progress resulting from the material coming out of the files. In spite of the demonstrated ability to attract more serious academics, as the recent COPA lineup showed, the battle to fight the disparaging "conspiracy theorists" moniker continues to be a thorn in the side of this effort.
Sean Mansfield: Without the early investigations, much of what is now known might have been launched into space at the Sun to be consumed by fire. So egad yes there is historical aspect to Search for Truth, and by including it in the documentary I can express my gratitude to those who had the courage to keep focus on Truth.
Fair Play: How far along is the project and how much further does it have to go?
Sean Mansfield: We've done Dallas a few times, Chicago a couple times, a few radio shows here and there, some bits some pieces ...Yeah we are pretty far along. We've spent mostly personal monies to do what we have done. It didn't start that way but that has been the only way to keep it pure research community oriented. We once lost a sizable contribution at the last minute just days before we were headed to Chicago to cover the Midwest Symposium on Assassinations because our patron thought we were trying to evangelize a subversive point of view. This was a good man who withdrew after really already committing the funds and he must have just showed the business plan and script notes to one too many people. We had a great time in Chicago anyhow, but we did have to sacrifice later by using money that should have been spent on other things. So you know why I wear hard worn blue jeans.
The interviews we have are good and we could at any time edit something watchable. Keith and I would like to do some work with it in Washington. Once we are able to accomplish that, we will look at the creative spin and conclude it. The availability of it will depend on how much more money we are able to spend on it.
We would like to turn this whole thing into something bigger than it currently is. So we may use our material already shot to create a collection of video essays. Which would stand alone as something interesting but would also allow us continue to pitch the idea of a bigger, grander more comprehensive documentary.
Fair Play: Who are some of the researchers you've interviewed so far? Who do you hope to talk to?
Keith Preston: I would like to get a few more people (Weisberg---who has so far declined in writing, but could hopefully be persuaded---Lifton, add the LaFontaines now, Walt Brown, Prouty, Aguilar, Salandria, etc.) and refresh a few now (Newman post-LHO book, Fonzi, Judge with the founding of COPA). I hate to name names because we talk to a lot of "normal Joes" too who use part of their own meager resources to work and attend these meetings. I suppose I am resigned to the fact that there will be those who will object to some we will include. We have become friendly with many of our subjects---Robert Groden for instance. We think it important to include Harry Livingstone in this work as well. In spite of my personal feelings about what some of his criticisms have done to this quest, I believe he has done important work in this field and I refuse to let my personal opinions preclude including important contributors to this field. I don't know if Harry would do it...I have been public in some of my disapointment in some of his statements. He called me before I came to ASK 93, and tried to warn me away from talking to those who were working for those who were trying to deflect this work away from the truth. I don't generally respond well to statements of omniscience. But if Harry is willing, we would hope to include him. I would like to interview Posner. Perhaps we will be able to, but I don't think it possible because I won't softball him; I won't be rude but I'm ready for the guy. I'd do Belin, Moore, I mean the "nutters" are easy...I expect that if I can figure out his alias, we'll get McAdams at the next COPA meeting!
Sean Mansfield: To list who we've talked to would include many of the authors of the leading books and videos in the field and then some. The leaders of the organizations that keep a momentum going to search for truth are included before and after coalition.
The members of the research movements congregation are also included. These are my favorite interviews. I am interested in the people story. What captured your attention to this subject matter is always a fascinating tale.
I hope to keep talking to as many people as we can for a little while longer.
Keith Preston: Many of these people are "departing" this life, or soon may, so we hope to keep on in the next year or so. I don't know how much longer this may take, but whenever it is done, I expect that this will still be an ongoing movement.
Sean Mansfield: If you were to cut loose on this it would be as big as Ken Burns' Civil War. It doesn't take a very big set of binoculars to see that the whole of the earth is somewhat interested in who shot JFK and RFK and MLK and MJK and MM and JR and so on and so on. Only our media, our government, and our educational institutions seem shocked that this case is not only still open, but still fairly firmly in the conspiracy side. Our political system cannot evolve effectively to help us survive the next century until we deal with the facts of our human history. Not to apportion blame or to lynch the guilty. I think it will be to just learn a better way of handling the tide of times. I apologize for my vernacular. It does mean something more specific than that I haven't really gotten over the Sixties. You remember... back when the Universe meant something.
Fair Play: Have you had any difficulties in getting people---researchers in particular---to cooperate with you?
Sean Mansfield: Keith is the guiding intellect behind being able to converse on an equal level with many of the finer folks in the research movement. Their acceptance of him and his good character is the reason we have interviewed many of the movement. He asks great questions and gleans fine responses in a pleasant manner that resembles a conversation amongst colleagues at a meeting.
Keith Preston: Sean is very generous, but actually he was initially more effective in persuading people to participate in our project.
FaIr Play: I would imagine many readers will find your film very interesting (as I have). When do you think it will be finished? Where do you think interested parties can see it?
Keith Preston: It will probably get circulated amongst ourselves...the quality of the production is hindered by borrowed equipment and spotty funding...but if I waited till I had the money to do it right, half of the subjects would be dead.
Fair Play: Any surprises so far?
Sean Mansfield: The biggest surprise was when John Judge said, "The bodies haven't stopped dropping."
I ardently believe, as Jefferson said, that "Democracy cannot be both ignorant and free." We must continue to know what truth will do for us.
Keith Preston: At the first ASK meeting that I attended, I was rather in awe of people that I had admired and whose work I had pored over for years. Our most fruitful experience was the Chicago meeting in 93...we had a better setup and a great line-up. I really wish we had gotten Bob Tanenbaum, Philip Melanson, David Lifton, Ed Lopez, or Burt Griffin there.
Again, I caution that there will be reactions of "What did you talk to him for?" We aren't even talking as much about what they have found---and believe---as much as what this has meant to these people, their families, their careers, their lives...
Moments I remember are:
A quiet late evening when Carl Oglesby had to answer a "has it been worth it" question with a pensive unsure response...going over what being a leader in SDS and the ACB meant...and what it cost his wife and children...
Catching a glimpse of Bob Artwohl versus Lifton and company outside the Chicago 93 conference...it was surprisingly civil.
Many attendees frantically conferring on what to do when it was discovered that the speaker on MLK at the Chicago 93 conference was a closet devotee of Lyndon Larouche...
The poignant moments on the Grassy Knoll this year with former ARC founders Larry Ray Harris and Robert Johnson...Larry Howard is gone, and Gary Shaw was not there.
Randy Robertson's stunning and sparsely attended Sunday morning breakthrough x-ray presentation at Chicago 93...we weren't even set up to tape it as it wasn't on the agenda and we missed a great opportunity.
Watching Wallace Milam send the audience rolling on the floor with laughter with his satire of the Latimer paint-skulls videos---with Latimer forced to watch---at the JAMA debate. Then watching Lundberg storm out in the middle of Cyril Wecht's usual brillant devastation of JAMA's pitiful "investigation" of the JFK medical evidence.
We interviewed ace archive researcher Anna Marie Kuhns-Walko at ASK 93 and were stunned at the vast amount of new info that she had turned up...and little of it was being presented at the conference.
My favorite two moments happened at ASK 93...one was kinda one of those "had to be there" moments, but I'll try to set it up. We had a great time with Mary Ferrell, and shortly into it we coerced Peter Dale Scott into joining us. I could watch just that interview alone and be greatly satisfied.
The other came in the wake of an interview we taped of Peter Dale Scott interviewing Mexico City KGB man Oleg Nechiporenko. I think Prevailing Winds has since distributed this, but after the cameras went off...well, ours kept rolling...
Shortly after the Colonel departed, Dr. Scott was remarking on areas where he felt "Nechi" was dissembling or just quoting works of others. We all were remarking on the lack of truthful track record on the part of the KGB. Could we trust them not to simply be saying what their new capitalist friends at the CIA would want to hear? As the Russian's heavily accented words resonated in our thoughts, the room became very pensive and quiet. Suddenly, Sean simply said, "Moose and squirrel...." in his best Boris Badenov impression and the room exploded in laughter.
As I said, you had to be there, but sometimes you just gotta have some release from disinformation arguments and autopsy photos!
Our thanks to all who have gone before our cameras so far. I don't know when we will finish, but we will try to include as many of you as possible in the final product; if not all of you.
And thanks to John Kelin and Fair Play for the interest and the work that this publication is doing.
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