![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Through archival footage and interviews, Won’t You Be My Neighbor reveals this image of Rogers – though in a more or less generalized way. Long has shown, Rogers was a radical pacifist whose belief in a peaceful and accepting God informed a countercultural message of nonviolence, tolerance, and love. Nor did he wear long-sleeved sweaters to cover violent tattoos.īut neither was Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood mere sentimental sap. With great care for Rogers’ guiding philosophy, Won’t You Be My Neighbor looks beyond the unassuming and soft-spoken demeanor to reveal the depth of his programs, and his serious devotion to creating a positive, meaningful experience for children through television.īut no, he wasn’t a Navy sniper with dozens of confirmed kills. McFeely), Joe Negri (Handyman Negri), Rogers’ wife Joanne, long-time producer Margaret Whitmer, and friend Yo-Yo Ma, the film charts Rogers’ career beginning with his early years as a producer and puppeteer on local Pittsburgh television, his ordination as a Presbyterian minister, and his work at the Arsenal Family & Children’s Center at the University of Pittsburgh. Won’t You Be My Neighbor?, the new film about Rogers’ life and legacy from Academy Award-winning director Morgan Neville ( 20 Feet From Stardom, Best of Enemies), is an intimate and moving portrait of the beloved host and the friendly television neighborhood he created.įeaturing interviews with friends and family members like Clemmons, David Newell (Mr. What the neighborhood didn’t have in slick production values, it made up for with love. It didn’t need them.įor Rogers, the most important thing was that he could establish a relationship with a child through television – to create a space in which he could tell her, with genuine caring in his voice, that “there’s no person in the whole world like you, and I like you just the way you are.” ![]() It didn’t have an elaborate set, fancy graphics, or a big budget. In contrast to much of children’s programming – with its cartoon violence, frenetic pacing, and rampant commercialism – Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood was deliberate, peaceful, and understated. With the help of puppets like Daniel Striped Tiger, King Friday XIII, X the Owl, and Henrietta Pussycat, Rogers (along with the other humans of the neighborhood) addressed some of life’s most serious subjects – anger, death, divorce – in a direct, but comforting way that would make sense to a child. Recognizing that children had deep emotional needs that weren’t being served in any meaningful way by commercial television, Rogers used the medium to speak directly to his young viewers, teaching them to love themselves and to care for each other. His approach was quite radical for its time – in a button down-and-cardigan kind of way. “People are having serious disagreements, and those disagreements are separating us rather than saying our humanity is more important.”Īt a time of intense polarization and numbing incivility, nostalgia for our favorite neighbor is something we might not have known we needed.įor over thirty years, Rogers – who passed away in 2003 – shared a message of love and caring and neighborliness with generations of preschoolers who grew up watching his show. “I think it’s important for people to express care for one another,” Clemmons continued. So replied the actor-musician François Clemmons, who for 25 years played Officer Clemmons on Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood (Family Communications, 1968-2001), when he was asked recently why he thought it was that the new documentary about his friend Fred Rogers, Won’t You Be My Neighbor (Tremolo, 2018), was resonating so powerfully with audiences. “Well, we all need a little love in our lives.” Website screenshot taken from Focus Feature’s film website. ![]()
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