Vitae & Film Summary: Lou Buttino
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Bio:
Professor, Film Studies Department, UNC Wilmington. Chair, 2004-2010. Advisory Board,
International Documentary Association.
Colgate University, B.A.; the University of Miami; M.A., Colgate Rochester Divinity School, M.A.;
The Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University, PhD.
Three books (history, biography & fiction); twenty-three documentary projects; two produced
plays; 55 articles and feature stories 20 teaching and academic scholarship awards; 22 academic
grants; 30 university lectures (Harvard, Brown and Syracuse among others); the development of
46 courses across three disciplines: political science, communication studies and film studies.
Twenty-four community speeches and lectures; 60 newspaper, radio and television interviews; 8
reprints in newspapers, magazines; and inclusion in a college text that also included James
Baldwin, Annie Dillard and Alice Walker.
Twenty-one state, national or international writing and documentary awards; six screenplay and
playwriting awards; two produced plays, and the Inauguration of a Special Manuscript & Film
Collection housed at William M. Randall Library, The University of North Carolina at
Wilmington.
Award for Faculty Scholarship; J. Marshall Crews Distinguished Faculty Award; Distinguished
Teaching Professorship Award; Chancellor’s Teaching Excellence Award; UNC Board of
Governors Award for Teaching Excellence; Trustees Award for Distinguished Scholarship, St.
John Fisher College; Teaching Excellence Award, SJFC. Father Joseph B. Dorsey Award for
Outstanding Faculty Service (twice).
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Filmography (A Select List):
The Lady and the “Outlaw Horse”, hour-long. Theatrical premiere, Laemmle Fairfax Theater,
Los Angeles, March 10, 2006; second theatrical premiere at Village East Cinemas, New York
City, May 2006. Special Jury Award, “Best Documentary,” WorldFest Houston (2007); Selected
by the New York International Independent Film Festival for showcasing.
The story of a woman without means who took a horse that the Army was going to shoot and
turned him into a champion. Jane Pohl was considered the greatest rider in America in the late
1940s and helped break down barriers for women to be able to compete in the Olympics.
Broken Brotherhood: Vietnam and the Boys from Colgate, feature-length. Broadcast on WNETTV, New York City, November 13, 2006. How the Vietnam War affected friendships at this
small, upstate New York men's school. A microcosm of what happened across America.
Troubled Waters: The Illusion of Abundance, writer, director and producer, hour-long PBS
documentary, broadcast October 8, 2003. Repeat broadcast for the next three years. CASE
Award for documentary excellence. Gold Grand Jury Prize for Best Environmental
Documentary, WorldFest Houston, 2005. Script available on UNCW website. INSIGHT
Media, national distributor.
The Lessons of September: One School Remembers 9/11, Co-producer with WNET-TV, NYC,
Broadcast September 5, 2002; re-broadcast September 9, 2003; selected by PBS for the national
catalogue. Nominee, George Foster Peabody Award; Winner, Bronze Prize, Best Documentary,
WorldFest Houston, July 2003.
Paving the American Dream: Southern Cities, Shores and Sprawl, writer, director, co-producer,
hour-long PBS documentary, broadcast June 20, 2001; CASE Award, “Best Documentary,”
February 2002. Repeated broadcast on PBS in North Carolina, Maryland, Virginia, South
Carolina, Georgia and Florida. Script available on UNCW website. INSIGHT Media,
distributer.
Honduran Hope, writer, director and producer. Selected for inclusion in “North Carolina
Visions,” a PBS art series, broadcast three times in 2001; First Place, “Best Documentary,”
Broadcast Education Association, April 3, 2000.
Fighting the Mob: The Story of Carmen Basilio, ESPN Classics, April 13, 2000. Consultant and
on-air interviewee. Program still in broadcast.
Hoover’s Legacy, writer, director and co-producer, with PBS, hour-long documentary broadcast
on PBS, May 23, 1995. Silver Prize, WorldFest Charleston, “Best Independently Produced
Documentary,” 1997. International competition.
Choices of the Heart, writer/co-producer, broadcast on “All Things Considered,” National
Public Radio, October 27, 1987. The Ohio State Award for “Best Documentary” in radio.
Even the Heavens Weep, writer and creative consultant, broadcast on PBS, 1985, 1986 and 1987.
Critically acclaimed by The New York Times. The Ohio State Award for “Best Documentary,”
also, “Best Documentary” for IRIS Award and CINDY awards. The documentary was also
shown at the National Coalition of Black Lung and Respiratory Clinics, Inc., in Knoxville,
Tennessee, at a meeting of medical and service staffs from 2l states, and introduced by Senator
Jennings Randolph who helped in the passage of legislation establishing federal involvement in
black lung care. Even the Heavens Weep was selected by the State Department to tour
internationally. It has been purchased by the Maine library and school system for use.
Steichen ... A Century in Photography, writer and creative consultant, PBS, l980. Now part of the
permanent collection of The Museum of Modern Art.
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Works-in-Progress
Books:
Lincoln, His Sons, and America. How being a father affected Abraham Lincoln and impacted
the nation.
The Hidden Gospel. A female apostle, who’s psychic, shares what was left out of the New
Testament. This includes the role of woman and humor.
Nearby Star. A biography of character actor Pat Hingle (Batman, Splendor in the Grass, and
scores of stage, television and movie roles).
Plays:
War Over Time (tentative title). Five one act plays about WWI, WWI, the Cold War, Vietnam,
and a modern re-interpretation of Dostoevsky’s “The Grand Inquisitor.”
Screenplays: Shadowboxing the Mob (the story has thus far placed in numerous national
screenplay competitions).
Documentaries:
A Changed Marine Corps. The USMC is vastly different than it has ever been. The
documentary includes interviews with a General and the new initiatives of the Corps.
Heart and Hometown. A college professor in his mid-sixties goes back to his small hometown
on the 50th anniversary of his championship football team. He was quarterback of the team.
An Unfinished Death. A lesbian woman was brutally killed in Wilmington, NC and nobody
seemed to care. Worse yet, local churches refused her a funeral service or proper burial.
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