Ct Insider LogoHearst Newspapers Logo

Litchfield’s Harvey Hubbell perfects the art of the documentary

By

Litchfield >> The camera in Harvey Hubbell’s mind is always rolling. As a documentary filmmaker he sees a subject for a new film everywhere he turns. We are sitting outside his farmhouse in Litchfield, watching two boys across the road play basketball.

“We can build a whole film around their activity,” Hubbell said “As a writer you can supply the dialogue and determine what their lives are like, who they are. I can supply the images, how they interact together; going further, what their goals are, what they want to be. Once I have that initial first frame, the rest just unfolds in front of me. It just rolls right along.”

Well, it is probably not all that easy, but Hubbell has spent his life studying people and environments and has produced numerous award-winning documentaries, many of which focus on education. His own educational experiences have made him more aware of what is lacking in our schools and in the treatment of children with special needs.

Advertisement

Article continues below this ad

“I am dyslexic,” Hubbell explained, “and as a kid I had trouble connecting with my teachers and educators. I used to daydream in class because no one ever questioned why I couldn’t learn. I learned to read outside the school system and I love to read. I do it more slowly than the next guy. But that shouldn’t mean that I’m a failure.

“Back then, the school system did not understand that everyone processes things differently. Once you begin failing in what you’re supposed to be learning — reading, writing, arithmetic — you are setting up all kinds of obstacles and there is no one to help you. It never occurred to me that I would wind up becoming an education advocate. My teachers would never believe that I now get paid to speak to educators and that I am making films that hopefully will make a difference in kids’ lives.”

Hubbell was born on the West Coast, but moved east and grew up on a farm in Newtown. Thus, it should come as no surprise that he now has a farm of his own — a 73-acre spread where he raises chickens, grows countless vegetables, and where he also has his documentary film company Captured Time Productions.

Advertisement

Article continues below this ad

Back in the 1960s when Hubbell was growing up, no one really understood what dyslexia was. In elementary school his teachers wrote, “His artwork and his written work in general indicate a lack of maturity, perhaps a perceptual problem. Printing is readable at times, but all spelling is phonetically written. You’ll discourage him if you require written work and he is unable to do it. He needs help in all areas.”

“But there was no positive attitude toward me,” Hubbell explained. “Kids who were out of the norm were lost causes. What we are trying to do through our films is show educators and parents and kids how we can fix these things. Let’s find the gifts in kids, not what’s bad in kids.”

In spite of what educators considered his shortcomings, Hubbell began working with film crews and learning about the business. He then went to work for a commercial art director in Danbury working on high-end commercials.

The ability to communicate visually is the key to Hubbell’s success. From doing commercials (which Hubbell brands as a form of lying,) he ventured into the world of documentary filmmaking where he felt he could best tell stories about real people. To that end, he piled his nephew, his camera, batteries, and basic life necessities into his Volkswagen hatchback and drove 13,000 miles around the country, shooting film 24 hours a day for 60 days. Highlighting cultural differences and the uniqueness of this country, Hubbell illustrated that “people who are different from us are not necessarily our enemies.”

Advertisement

Article continues below this ad

“Electronic Road Film,” which he wrote and directed, received an Emmy for Outstanding Entertainment Program.

“Humans like stories,” Hubbell said. “Before the advent of radio and television, our ancestors sat around the fire and told stories. Documentaries are a way of bringing people’s stories to the rest of the world.”

Since that first film, Hubbell has gone on to produce works that stretch across an amazing tapestry of subjects. While he has occasionally taken on a commercial film to subsidize his own work, he is most at home in the world of documentaries. Hubbell maintains that commercials are film lies, while documentaries are film truths.”

Hubbell refers to himself as an “itinerant filmmaker,” traveling the world to create films about people, passion, and the search for happiness. He has filmed everything from “Loop Dreams: The Making of a Low Budget Movie,” which garnered him the Gold World Medal for Comedy at the New York Festival and three Emmys for Outstanding Entertainment Program, Individual Achievement for Directing, and Program Writing, to “Dislecksia: The Movie.” It is this particular film which resonates the most with Hubbell.

Advertisement

Article continues below this ad

He spent six years creating this comprehensive documentary on dyslexia, a learning condition that affects approximately 35 million Americans. Hubbell presents it not as a learning disability but a learning difference and uses his own experiences to illustrate the misconceptions about dyslexia. The spelling of the title indicates one technique dyslexics use to teach themselves — by spelling words phonetically. Featured in the film are several well-respected and successful people who are dyslexic such as lawyer David Boies, television writer Stephen J. Cannell, actor Billy Bob Thornton, and Barbara Corcoran, founder of the Corcoran Group. Hubbell includes interviews with researchers who are developing new methods that have proven successful and have begun to help erase the stigma attached to being dyslexic.

“Dislecksia: The Movie” has received extraordinary reviews and has won numerous awards on the film festival circuit, including Best Documentary and Best Director at the Greenville International Film Festival and Best Feature Documentary at the Black Hills Film Festival. Thanks to the movie a movement has begun to change or correct laws that affect people who are affected with dyslexia. “We are in the middle of a revolution and we have to gently wake up a lot of people,” Hubbell said.

And therein lies one of the secrets of his success: He doesn’t preach, he doesn’t shout. He simply presents the facts and what needs to be done, in his quiet way.

He has recently completed a new film titled “One by One: The Teachings of Diana King.” King is a co-founder of The Kildonan School and Founding Fellow of the Academy of Orton-Gillingham Practitioners and Educators. The Kildonan School is a private coeducational boarding and day school in Amenia, New York, exclusively for students with dyslexia and language-based learning disabilities.

Advertisement

Article continues below this ad

“Diana is amazing and her story needed to be told, for she is an integral part of the progress being made with dyslexic children,” Hubbell said. “There are so many great films to be made and they don’t have to be boring. You have to approach things with humor so they can remember. We want to entertain and teach at the same time. We can all learn by presenting other people’s experiences. And film is a vehicle for that. The technology is constantly changing. But in the end you still need good sound, a good lens, and the ability to tell the story.” And Hubbell has that in spades.

By