Ronni Diamondstein

It’s A Family Affair: Local Award-Winning Father & Son Filmmakers

May 31, 2019 by Ronni Diamondstein

The Kunhardts Produce Documentaries That Shape Our World and Focus on Moral Leadership

For Peter Kunhardt, a six-time Emmy and a Peabody Award winner, collaboration with family is in his DNA. As Executive Producer and Director, Peter partners with two of his sons, Teddy and George, at Kunhardt Films to produce critically acclaimed and socially relevant documentaries about the people and ideas that shape our world.

After ten years as a producer at ABC News, Peter gave up the hectic commute to New York City and founded Kunhardt Productions in Westchester in 1987. His first film project for HBO, JFK: In His Own Words, was in collaboration with his father, Philip B. Kunhardt, Jr., the longtime managing editor of Life Magazine. He had watched the toll that forty years of commuting from Chappaqua took on his father. Peter and his wife Suzy were raising their family in Chappaqua and he wanted to work closer to home.

A Family Business at Heart

“It’s definitely a family business with multiple departments,” says Peter Jr. All the Kunhardt children interned with their father. Peter Jr. worked on two Lincoln books with his father and grandfather. He is now the Executive Director of the Meserve-Kunhardt Foundation and the Gordon Parks Foundation that preserves the work of photographer Gordon Parks and educates the next generation of scholars and students on his work.

Teddy and George joined their father at Kunhardt Films in 2009. George knew as a teen that filmmaking was his future. Teddy, an artist and chef, took a slight detour and ultimately joined his father’s company. Both brought their gifts and talents.

“My skill set and interests are the creative and the technical. I’m more of the people person, in the trenches on filming and working with my crew,” says George whom his father and brother call the “peacekeeper.” “He’s the best spokesman for the company,” says Teddy.

Teddy’s skill set is the business side: deals, the budgeting and more of the legal side, dealing with the lawyers. Their father Peter is overarching, and knows everything about everything says George. “He sits back and listens and chimes in when needed when he has something appropriate or important to say.”

“I listen hugely hard to both Teddy and George. Frankly, they are taking over more and more of what I used to do, and I continue listening,” says Peter. They agree 95% of the time, but Peter will have the last word when they disagree.

While their business office is in Pleasantville near the Jacob Burns Film Center and Metro-North, which were draws for this location, most of the team is in New York at HBO.

“We are fortunate to be partners with HBO. People would be surprised to learn how long it takes to produce a film, and HBO gives us the time we need,” says Teddy. “Pleasantville is the brains, the budgeting, the pre-development side of the projects, and the heavy lifting of producing,” says George. “The HBO team is young, creative, hip and where the exciting culture of filmmaking is done.”

(L-R): George, President Bill Clinton and Teddy

(L-R): George, Hillary Clinton and Teddy

(L-R): Teddy, John McCain, George and Peter

Exploring Moral Leadership Through Film

The notion of moral leadership is always their default in selecting subjects for their films. “Years ago, we said we wanted to explore this concept of moral leadership,” says Peter. “In this day and age of what we’re experiencing now it seems to be a more and more important thing to be doing to remind people what true leadership and true moral courage look like. Fortunately, we were a little ahead of ourselves picking an important kind of theme early on. That’s why it takes us so long to pick the people.”

“And sometimes you have to wait for the hook,” says Teddy. The hook for King in the Wilderness was the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s death. He was on their list in 2009 but the film did not come into fruition until 2018. “We couldn’t have found a home ten years ago, but once the anniversary was approaching it all seemed right.”

Their very personal film in 2015, Living with Lincoln chronicles their six-generation struggle to preserve Abraham Lincoln’s image for more than a century. As a love letter to Peter’s grandmother Dorothy Meserve Kunhardt, it explores the emotional and physical connection to the president starting with William Meserve and his Civil War diary. Dorothy, a quirky Lincoln scholar, is best known as the author of the beloved interactive children’s book, Pat the Bunny. It was a glorious burden for the family. “I never planned to dedicate so much of my life to Lincoln, it just happened. I felt I owed it to my father, just as he owed it to his mother, just as she felt she owed it to her father,” says Peter.

Teddy and George enjoy working with their father. “We know each other’s strengths and weaknesses. Our communication is so strong that it has been the key to our success,” says George. One of the downsides though is that they talk about their work all the time, which is fun for them, but not so much for their wives.

“We get a lot more from people because we are a family business,” says George. “When we interviewed Joe Biden for John McCain: For Whom the Bell Tolls, we got a lot more access from him. He loved that Teddy and I were brothers. He took my cellphone and called my dad, and told him how much he enjoyed working with us.”

Trust is Key

“The biggest challenge we face is gaining trust,” says Peter. “Once you gain the trust of your subject you begin getting better access, content and stories.” When they filmed Becoming Warren Buffett, Buffett gave them strict restrictions in the beginning, only one interview, but they ended up filming him for fifteen hours. “Trust comes in a few ways: for one, they have to feel that we’re not out to give you a gotcha question. We’ve never been in that business, but we’re not in the business of a soft fluffy story either.”

Storytellers at the Core

They take a deep dive into the lives of their subjects. “We’re not historians, business people or news correspondents,” says Teddy. “We’re storytellers and in order to tell the story we need to get all the pieces of the puzzle.” They often look for people who have a relationship or don’t have a relationship with their parents and explore that in the film. “That’s a unique perspective to take because we’re very interested in lineage: Fathers/sons, fathers/daughters, mothers/sons, mothers/daughters,” says George. “That’s our wheelhouse. It is fun for us to do that within a film and something we look for when we do a project.”

“When you go back to someone’s childhood you learn about strengths and weaknesses and how they came to be in a way that would be hard to imagine by just focusing on the adult period of someone’s life and their success,” says Peter. “It’s fascinating to go back and see what influenced a child, what hurt a child, what helped a child. And how they were shaped by that.”

On the Horizon

Teddy and George have brought some fresh ideas to the film company. In addition to cable, there is now the film festival route. Jim: The James Foley Story premiered at Sundance and won the Audience Award, King in the Wilderness had its world premiere at Sundance and True Justice: Bryan Stevenson’s Fight For Equality will open the AFI DOCS film festival in June. George says that one of the best things that they are doing now is the establishment of the Kunhardt Film Foundation with its mission to put their high-quality educational programs, raw interviews and teaching tools into the hands of the public and schools. “This is our future where we are heading towards. We are doing more not-for-profit,” says Peter.

Their next film, True Justice: Bryan Stevenson’s Fight For Equality will have a screening at the Jacob Burns Film Center on June 25th, and debuts on HBO the following day.

Always reflecting as well as looking forward, they are proud of their high-quality work and very thoughtful filmmaking. “We are fortunate in that we can continue to infuse values into the work we do, and pick people to tell their stories that we think have lessons,” says Peter. George sums it up well: “We’re curating an interesting perspective of people and ideas that people need to be learn about. That is what I hope people enjoy about Kunhardt Films.”

A Dog to Love – Maggie Mae

October 25, 2018 by Ronni Diamondstein

I never thought I could love an animal as much as I love my Maggie Mae. She is, without a doubt, my best friend and my biggest fan. She will follow me anywhere, is totally devoted to me–even when I scold her. Maggie Mae loves me unconditionally. She’s a black and white Parti-Toy Poodle and the joy of my life.

When I first saw her, her outgoing personality attracted me, and I knew right away that she was mine. But maybe it was the other way around and she chose me. Nearly eleven years ago, when she came to live with me, she was three months old and weighed only three pounds.

I can’t imagine my life without her. She’s a wonderful companion, and she makes me laugh. She can be sound asleep, but if the phone rings and I answer, she is by my side in a minute so I will play with her. When I say to her, “You’re the best girl I know,” she always rewards me with a kiss.

They say that dogs are man’s best friend, and they’re not kidding. When a fly is buzzing around the house, she’s right there to alert me and to guard me. She alerts me when I have accidentally left the front door ajar or if there’s something in the wrong place. And then there is Maggie Mae neighborhood watchdog. She can spot a car blocks away and frequently knows who’s in it.

As a perennial single person, I have lived alone for most of my adult life, and it is easy for a single person to become self-indulgent. Having to think about the well-being and care of another were valuable changes for me. That’s one reason I’m so grateful for Maggie Mae’s presence in my life. She also keeps me healthy. No matter what the weather, I am outside with Maggie Mae at least three times a day. We take long walks that are good for both of us–and not just physically. I often get good ideas as we walk. One was her Maggie Mae Pup Reporter column that many of you read in this magazine for years. I’m also grateful because she has made my life more interesting. I learned to write from a dog’s point of view.

As many of you readers know, Maggie Mae is “personable” and well-known by merchants in town. She has high self-esteem, which shows in the way she carries herself and walks down our streets and into the shops as if she owned Chappaqua. Other people notice her, and I could not have been more proud when Sophie Mendelson included her in the Chappaqua Children’s Book Festival mural in the center of town.

Maggie Mae loves to ride in the car and is a great traveling companion who’s always happy with whatever we do. Since she was a puppy, she’s been a regular guest at the Red Lion Inn and has many fans in Stockbridge and the Berkshires.

As much as Maggie Mae loves to snuggle up next to me, especially when I am doing something that doesn’t include her, she is an independent dog who often likes to be alone. She’ll go into her crate, lie on her bed or find a square of sunlight on the carpet just to chill.

My heart is bigger than I ever thought. I love Maggie Mae’s little kisses, how she curls up at my feet to give me a hug. How she puts her head under my hand so I can pet her. I love her wagging tail and how she waits for me at the door.

So little can make her happy and that is a lesson we can all learn.

And as I was writing this, she came up to me, leaned in, pushed my pad and pen away and climbed on my lap. I can’t imagine life without Maggie Mae. She’s my girl and I love her dearly.

The Emergency Shelter Partnership: Helping the Homeless

October 21, 2017 by Ronni Diamondstein

Mel Berger and ESP President Phyllis Ruppert
PHOTO BY RONNI DIAMONDSTEIN

In the winter it’s hard to imagine not coming home to a warm dinner, a cozy bed to sleep in, and a nutritious breakfast in the morning. But even in our affluent Westchester neighborhoods, that is not the case for everyone. There are homeless people right in our own backyard.

“My first awareness of homeless in our community was knowing that people lived in parked cars in different locations and in semi-abandoned buildings in the community,” says Rev. Dr. Paul Alcorn, longtime Pastor of the Bedford Presbyterian Church and member of the Northern Westchester Interfaith Clergy Association.

Mount Kisco pharmacist Melvin Berger, Chairman of The Mount Kisco Drug and Alcohol Abuse Prevention Council often wondered what happened to the immigrants he saw in the courts. Then in 2004 he had learned that a homeless immigrant had frozen to death in the woods nearby. So through this confluence of events, Berger went to Alcorn with his concerns and the seeds for the Emergency Shelter Partnership (‘ESP’) were sown.

The two joined forces with the Northern Westchester Interfaith Clergy Association and the Town of Mount Kisco and developed a plan to launch an emergency shelter by mid-January. Berger also brought in Carola Bracco, Executive Director of Neighbors Link. “I trusted her opinions and judgments when it came to making ESP happen.” Berger values her and Neighbors Link as a resource, and relies on her knowledge of their guests and their culture.

The partnership’s simple concept consisted of houses of worship opening their doors to offer a safe place to sleep to those in need of shelter. Alcorn says that his congregation had been very involved with the homeless in New York City so ESP was a natural next step for them. On January 24, 2005 the Bedford Presbyterian Church in Bedford Village opened its doors to provide shelter for four men. Volunteers from the organizing group provided the coverage each night of that first week. The American Red Cross provided the cots and bedding for the shelter. There are now 17 participating congregations in Northern Westchester.

From November through the end of March, between 10 and 30 shelter guests are picked up by a bus at the court house in Mount Kisco. “The program runs like clockwork,” says Noah Sorkin of Chappaqua who has been the coordinator of Temple Beth El of Northern Westchester’s participation for the past ten years. Arriving around 9 p.m., they eat a buffet dinner and it is lights out by 10 p.m. A paid staffer and congregational volunteer remain with them overnight. Up around 6 a.m. for coffee and something light, they leave with a breakfast/lunch bag by 6:30 a.m.

Twice a week they shower at the Boys and Girls Club of Northern Westchester in Mount Kisco before they arrive for their evening meal. Each congregation adds their personal touch to the experience for the shelter guests from storytelling to musical experiences. Girl Scout Troops or Little League teams sometimes serve dinner, as this is a great opportunity for community service. “The congregants put a lot of love into this. It’s a credit to our congregation that we have a lot of repeat families. It has brought the best out of our congregation,” says Sorkin.

Berger says that the majority of the shelter guests are from Guatemala. “So many come from Chiquimula that the Mount Kisco Library named their Wednesday afternoon film festival for the homeless after that city.”

There is a lot of prep work that goes into this well-oiled machine. Berger has a good relationship with law enforcement. Prior to each congregation hosting the shelter, Berger reaches out to the fire and police departments in those neighborhoods so that they are aware that the house of worship has overnight guests.

Phyllis Ruppert of Mount Kisco had been on the team providing meals at St. Francis of Assisi Parish for at least five years when a year and a half ago she was asked to join the Board of Directors and now serves as President. “ESP is a group of compassionate people who care deeply about serving people in need and who are willing to mobilize their congregations to support homeless people.”

While ESP does so much for those in need, it is also so valuable to those who support the program. “All of a sudden, over the course of a winter we have hundreds of people volunteer and get to know and interact with some of the people who are struggling to survive. Some of the stereotypes are broken down,” says Alcorn.

One of the biggest challenges for ESP is financial support. Each member congregation makes a financial commitment as well as providing shelter. “We have one grant, a couple of holiday fundraisers and a list of loyal donors,” says Ruppert. They have expanded their fundraising activities this year and held an informational and fundraising event on October 15 to commemorate World Homeless Day. The driving forces of the ESP and volunteers spoke about their different experiences at the event that took place at Saint Francis of Assisi Parish Hall in Mount Kisco.

And there are other challenges. “Severe winter weather causes us to move the hosting location to a congregation location closer to where we pick people up to minimize the need to drive,” says Ruppert who would also like to see that the accommodations are more sensitive to women’s needs, although their shelter guests are primarily and sometimes exclusively male.

The ESP has developed into more than just a traveling homeless shelter. With the educational programs they provide such as ones that teach them how to manage money, they have high hopes for their shelter guests. “My goal is to have all our shelter guests in a position to move up the ladder,” says Berger. He is very proud of what he calls his “success story.” One of their documented shelter guests got a place of his own, went back to school and now has a job as a chef.

“Our program is very successful and has been a model for other communities,” says Berger. The partnership has consulted with other towns to set up sister programs in the County.

“In the future I hope to expand the number of congregations hosting ESP and to mobilize the broader community to provide financial support,” says Ruppert. She would also like to see more unaffiliated people help this faith-based organization. “There is a lot of talent out there. We want to tap more members of the community to get involved. Everyone has some faith in something.”

EMERGENCY SHELTER PARTNERSHIP COMMUNITY PARTNERS

Antioch Baptist Church – Bedford Hills

Bedford Community Church – Bedford Hills

Bedford Presbyterian Church – Bedford Village

Bet Torah Synagogue– Mt. Kisco

First Congregational Church – Chappaqua

Katonah United Methodist Church – Katonah

Katonah Presbyterian Church – Katonah

Lutheran Church of the Resurrection – Mt. Kisco

Pleasantville United Methodist Church – Pleasantville

The Presbyterian Church of Mt. Kisco – Mt. Kisco

St. Francis of Assisi Parish – Mt. Kisco

St. Luke’s Episcopal Church – Katonah

St. Mark’s Episcopal Church – Mt. Kisco

Temple Beth El of Northern Westchester– Chappaqua

Temple Shaaray Tefila – Bedford Corners

Unitarian Universalist Fellowship – Mt. Kisco

United Methodist Church of Mt. Kisco – Mt. Kisco

For more information: www.emergencyshelterpartnership.org

9/11 Flag of Remembrance Finds a Home

October 21, 2017 by Ronni Diamondstein

9/11 Memorial & Museum installation team working with the piece in the museum
PHOTO BY JIN LEE

Overwhelmed by the unfathomable loss of September 11, 2001, Mindy Kombert began to sketch boxes to represent each life lost. The sketch became a blueprint for the Flag of Remembrance that has found a permanent home at the 9/11 Memorial & Museum in New York City, where it is currently on exhibit. The 20-foot-by-27-foot masterpiece created by Kombert and Sherry Kronenfeld, both Chappaqua residents was a labor of love that gave these women a way to process the events of that fateful day.

“I really felt the need, being a visual person, to visualize the scale of the loss,” says Kombert, a multi-talented artist. She had 12 pages and went to Kronenfeld with her first sketch. “I wanted to learn all about them and what had brought them all together on that day.”

Since the two women had been working together at a local design firm before they started this project, Kronenfeld knew it would be seamless. “Mindy and I have perfectly matched–that is, complementary– skills and talents, so our roles easily fell into place. She came up with the concept and handled the visuals, the graphics, the materials–ink and fabric, etc., and I did more of the organization and the communication.”

Installation at Chappaqua Library in 2004
PHOTO BY JONATHAN C. HYMAN

They suspended their business and formed a committee that grew into a not-for-profit. “It was very difficult initially, we met at my kitchen table,” says Kombert. “We had no idea what it would cost. “They found an anonymous donor to fund the project and received donations of materials and printing services.

Close-ups of the flag
PHOTO BY JONATHAN C. HYMAN

“I took the skills I had, quilting and graphic design, and it evolved into a monument two stories high,” says Kombert. Kronenfeld did the press releases, the media outreach, the contacts and relationships with companies. She contacted all the World Trade Center companies who lost large numbers of employees and the city agencies (FDNY, NYPD, etc.) who lost first responders–to make sure as many people as possible knew about the project.

For ten years I photographed memorials and artwork–large and small–across the country made in response to the 9/11 attacks. The Flag of Remembrance is one of only a handful of objects or artworks I consider to be truly remarkable. Staggering in its scale, detail, and craftsmanship, this flag speaks powerfully to the zeal, compassion, and need to memorialize and speak publicly that was evident across the culture in the aftermath of the attacks. Though generically resembling an American flag, I stood before it the day it was hung the first time, humbled by its ability to be both deeply personal and speak viscerally about our nation’s grief. Indeed, it is a monument unto itself. – JONATHAN C. HYMAN

CNN correspondent Jeanne Moos caught wind of the project and highlighted it in one of her segments on 9/11 victims. Following that special, Kombert and Kronenfeld set up an 800 number to provide a convenient and quick way for people to contact them if they had any questions about the Flag or to send in photos for inclusion. However it also turned out to be a way for family members to tell them about the person they lost. “I had one woman, a widow, who called me several times just to talk about her daughter, who was living with her at the time of the attacks. She talked about what a wonderful daughter she was, how dedicated to her mother and to her job, and how much she was going to miss her,” says Kronenfeld. “In this and many other cases, it seemed to be therapeutic for the family members to talk, for them to communicate everything they could about the special person they had lost. Others were just as heart-wrenching, including several who asked if instead of one close-up photo–as we had indicated was optimum–they could have two in a photo, because they had lost two or more family members.”

The Flag of Remembrance on display at the 9/11 Memorial & Museum PHOTO BY JIN LEE

The Flag was made by transferring victims’ photographs to individual pieces of fabric. The blue field with white stars was dedicated to uniformed first responders while the stripes of white and red were reserved for civilians. Each victim’s name and age were included. An image of a memorial candle accounted for those whom photographs were unavailable.

Deeded to the Museum in 2007, the Flag is now part of the museum’s permanent collection. Kombert kept it folded under her bed in Chappaqua for many years until it was transferred to the Museum’s conservation facility to ready it for the Museum. The Flag will hang for one year and then fall into a rotation schedule with other large works in the collection. “My hope is that it will be loaned or travel,” says Kombert. In addition to its debut at the Chappaqua Library in 2004, the red, white and blue muted-toned flag has been on display at the Kensico Dam memorial The Rising, the Liberty Plaza Marriott, John Jay College of Criminal Justice and the Doral Arrowwood Westchester.

“The project itself was gratifying, as we felt all along that we were doing everything we could to pay tribute and forever remember the victims of 9/11,” says Kronenfeld.

“The Flag is a reminder of the scale of the loss we suffered,” says Kombert. “I am so happy that it is where it belongs.”

For more information, please visit www.911memorial.org.

How Barbara Dee Strikes a ‘Just Right’ Note for Middle Schoolers

August 25, 2017 by Ronni Diamondstein

Chappaqua author Barbara Dee has her finger on the pulse of older kids, and she knows what they are thinking about. For more than a decade Dee’s popular books for middle-grade students have been on the right track with topics that interest kids.

As the market for children’s books has evolved so have Dee’s books. From her debut novel, Just Another Day in My Insanely Real Life, to her latest Halfway Normal, Dee’s writing has gotten more serious, yet she has consistently maintained her trademark sense of humor.

Author Barbara Dee
PHOTO BY
Ronni Diamondstein

“Kids want to feel like they are reading about themselves, so the voice has to be just right,” says Dee. As an adult you come to writing for young people with your own life experience: for Dee it is Mom and teacher. “I felt a strong connection to my 12-year-old self and was able to tap into those feelings easily.”

For many of Dee’s books, resilience and empathy are themes. Such is the case for Halfway Normal, a story about 12-year-old Norah Levy who returns to school after two years of treatment for leukemia. Dee wrote from her own experience as a Memorial Sloan Kettering mom whose child was undergoing treatment. She also spoke to girls who were survivors. Dee is thrilled that this book has been chosen as a Junior Library Guild title, a first for her.

“While kids today are so sophisticated and have such internet savvy, they are still kids. They can be confused, silly, anxious and testing their boundaries,” says Dee. “My books always have substance and are a great way to get kids to open up to a subject.” Dee’s idea for her book Star-Crossed came after she noted the acclaim that GEORGE, a book about a transgender child, received. She decided to dip her toe into the LGBT book pool. “I thought there are so few children’s books on this topic, why not take it down a notch.” Star-Crossed is a story of young love in middle school. “I know that kids question their orientation so this is a sweet and happy comedy about acceptance.”

Dee hears from a lot of her readers and the range of her audience has surprised her. She has discovered that teens and adults have been reading middle-grade books.

“I get a lot of letters and Star-Crossed has gotten the most response from teens and adults asking ‘where was this book when I was in middle school?’” They share their personal stories with Dee. “It’s so moving and I feel honored.”

Staying serious yet maintaining an upbeat tone and characters with spunk, her forthcoming book Everything I Know About You takes on the topic of tween eating disorders. The book deals with friendship issues. On a school trip to Washington, D.C. the main character that is fine with her large body notices that her roommate has an eating disorder, and handles it with humor. Dee says that humor is a great coping mechanism. “For kids, it is important to blend humor into the work, but it’s hard to be funny!”

In her spare time, Dee loves to read. She also visits schools and attends conferences and book festivals. She is a Founder and member of the Board of Directors of the Chappaqua Children’s Book Festival. Among her favorite books as a child are

A Wrinkle in Time, Island of the Blue Dolphins and Harriet the Spy. Now she reads a lot of contemporary fiction. But her readers would be most surprised to discover that she is obsessed with the English rock band Radiohead and has been to their concerts.

When she speaks to kids, Dee tells young writers to read lots of different things for pleasure, and to get used to sharing their work. “Develop a thick skin and take constructive criticism.”

Dee says of her own experience: “A rejection letter with feedback is a gift.”

When she was a child, Dee always thought of herself as a writer one day and she’s doing exactly that, although her journey began by teaching, going to law school, and reviewing books. And she never realized what a job writing was, its business aspect and all the traveling. It is less glamorous than kids think. But in the end Dee finds it a dream job. “I’m lucky to be able to do it. What a privilege to say this is my job even when I am having a hard day!”

Barbara Dee will be giving a talk and signing her books at the Chappaqua Library on Thursday, September 14 at 4 p.m. On October 14, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., you can also find Dee greeting young and old alike at her table at the Chappaqua Children’s Book Festival.