The book: “Five Letters From Prison That Have Changed the World” objectively examines the embryonic stages of major historical events as conceived or inspired in the ready minds of five incarcerated history-makers (with the special feature of one letter from a prisoner in a Chinese labor camp). Though halted by confinement, their lives were approaching a crossroads of sorts. Both resolutions and revolutions were started because they influenced governmental change, justice, a new social order, or the application of spiritual or moral absolutism as they saw it. Whether for goodwill or ill will, each letter written by these prisoners influenced a change in public policy to varying degrees, and whole societies have been affected respectively.
The documentary is designed to run between one hour to one hour and a half as an in-depth narrative description of 10-15 minutes will be dedicated to each history maker. Combining some of the documentary film techniques used by Ken Burns and classical Hollywood film staging, the producer will use voice-overs, archive footage, site visits, and interviews to package the project with appropriate background music.
This topic is relevant because indicators show that our nation’s high school students are beginning to lose a contextual appreciation for History. As the background information of my topic is in alignment with our state exam in U.S History, World History I and II, as well as Civics, we’d like the documentary to be used by the school district to support state exam preparation since exam scores in History have been notoriously low over the last ten years.
