You could say the documentary “In Their Own Words: The Tuskegee Airmen” was prayed into existence.
The idea was birthed at an Augusta Huddle House restaurant.
Bryan Williams was sitting with Denton Adkinson, his partner in Augusta-based Bryton Entertainment, and Thomas Burroughs, an actor and recording engineer. They had just finished two music video shoots. He mentioned to the others that his wife had said that they were going to produce a documentary.
Such a project was really out of their wheelhouse, but they prayed about it anyway. Nothing. No bolt of lightning. No commanding voice.
The food came. They prayed again, asking God to point them in the direction “you would have us go.”
The door opened and an older African-American man came in wearing a Tuskegee airman hat, jacket and shirt. They talked, and Williams said that meeting “changed our company.”
The seed was planted for the film project.
“God gave it to us and it is the right thing to do,” he said.
The movie will be shown at several metro area theaters at 7 p.m. Tuesday as a one-night Fathom Event.
This year marks the 75th anniversary of the Tuskegee Airmen, the popular name for a group of African-American military pilots and support personnel who fought in World War II. It included African-Americans and whites, as well as men and women.
Sixteen airmen are featured in the 90-minute documentary.
Included are three Georgia men: Charles Dryden, Leroy Eley and Hiram Little.
The documentary features interviews, rare photographs, archival footage and computer-generated re-creations.
Included in the Fathom presentation will be a panel discussion at the National Air Force Museum with Lt. Col. George Hardy of the Tuskegee Airmen; Col. Fred Gregory, former administrator of NASA; plus Williams, the film’s producer, and Adkinson, the director.
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