The seed that led to my involvement in The Truth About Reading documentary was planted back in 1997. My daughter’s reading struggles at the time were the catalyst that diverted my career path from nursing to literacy. Since then, my hope, passion, and life’s work have been focused on the goal of high-level literacy for all.
Fast forward to 2008 when I got a call from Donna York, an expert EBLI teacher. She was stranded in a rural mechanic shop and a tattered copy of The Rotarian magazine was the only reading material. In that magazine was an article about John Corcoran, a literacy advocate and former teacher who couldn’t read. I googled John’s foundation, called him, and we had an honest, deep 3-hour conversation about literacy. Our stories had many parallels and we knew we were kindred souls on this literacy journey! Since that day, John and I have been sounding boards for each other, talking regularly and sharing our literacy thoughts, experiences, frustrations, celebrations, and ideas. We have steadfastly lifted each other up when the going got tough and worked diligently toward our shared literacy goals.
In 2020 John invited me to join him at a three-day summit for just over a dozen people at Jack Canfield’s home in California. Jack is the co-founder of the Chicken Soup for the Soul book series and author of many other bestselling books. The day before I was to fly out, COVID shut down the country. We attended the event virtually in September. Jack and his team were to advise us and we wanted to get their insight on steps to pursue a movie about John’s story, get quality research studies on EBLI, and expand the reach of effective literacy instruction in general. We were also interviewed by Jack. Among other things, he and his team suggested we do a documentary and gave us contact information for Nick Nanton, a 22 time Emmy award-winning documentary director Jack and his team had worked with.
John emailed Nick about his story. Nick said it sounded interesting but he’d need a bigger story to move forward. That was a perfect opening to share the rest of the story as far as the reading situation in the US and beyond. We had a Zoom meeting with Nick and the process to starting on a documentary was underway soon after.
John and I embarked on this journey with little to no idea of what it would entail! Our first task was to educate Nick and the story producer for the film about the varied and multiple tentacles that impacted illiteracy and sub-literacy. We also had to equip them with information on the varied and widespread personal and societal negative outcomes that result from millions of children and adults not being taught to read. I flooded them with dozens if not hundreds of research articles, podcasts, blogs, and other information!
One of my tasks as a volunteer consultant for this documentary is to line up those to be interviewed for the film. It takes a village and many people I know in the literacy world helped us connect with dozens of experts, educators, parents, learners, and others who had extensive knowledge and experiences to share. Almost everyone we invited sent responses to our questions and over 70 agreed to take part in this project.
Another interesting experience for John and me was the task of fundraising for the film. The greatest challenge, in the beginning, was acquiring enough funding for filming and production of the documentary teaser video, which was needed in order to move forward with fundraising for the full 90-minute documentary…! It was a chicken and egg situation that provided another significant learning curve for us to tackle. I want to shout out to friends and family who were the bulk of donors at the beginning stages of this process! Fundraising is ongoing and we continue to welcome donations as the production of the full documentary continues.
Once enough funds had been accumulated to at least get started, it was time to schedule interviews. This was a job in itself and it fell to me for those initial groups of interviewees as Nick’s story producer was on maternity leave. We finally hit the road for filming in May. I was very fortunate to have been invited to travel with Nick and the film crew and sit in the interviews. What a learning experience that was!
The first filming jaunt was a 3-day road trip up the east coast from Washington DC to New York City to the last stop in Boston. As those initial interviews commenced, Nick and his team began to realize the enormity of the topic at hand. Nick is a consummate learner as well as a gifted storyteller and does everything with the utmost integrity. After just about every group of interviews in a city, he would rattle off requests for more experts in various areas so he could continue to expand his knowledge. The already copious list of interviewees continued to grow! John Corcoran’s interview was needed for the teaser so he was filmed in California that same week.
A few weeks later several days of filming took place in Michigan. It was an emotional rollercoaster and a whirlwind! David, who you see featured in the opening of the 4-minute teaser video, flew in from Vancouver, Canada for 11 hours of instruction over 5 days. All of his instruction was filmed that week, as well as almost 20 other interviews including many educators and administrators, adult students, a professor/researcher at University of Michigan, the Genesee County Sheriff, and some inmates at the jail in Flint.
While some interviews were filmed after May in Orlando, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Syracuse, NY, filming mostly paused at this point while the sizzle reel teaser video was being edited and produced. Nick and his gifted team took almost 40 hours of footage and created the powerful 4-minute piece to introduce The truth about reading documentary project to the world. John and I were fortunate to be there when the sizzle reel video was premiered in Hollywood in September 2021. Before the viewing, all we knew about it from Nick was that it would make anyone watching it angry, sad, and hopeful. We were in awe at how succinctly, accurately, and passionately Nick and his team conveyed the issue! The feedback from around the world has been overwhelmingly positive; people shared that they indeed felt sad, angry, and hopeful – as well as motivated – by the teaser footage.
We have had many invitations to talk about the documentary, especially since the release of the teaser video. It is thrilling that the excitement and buzz about the film continues to build! This Melissa and Lori Love Literacy podcast interview was done a few months before the teaser was released and Melissa and Lori have been staunch supporters of the project ever since!
So, now what is the plan? Disclaimer: My specialty is not filmmaking so pardon me if my verbiage is not completely on point!
Here is what is happening as we move forward. The sizzle reel teaser video was created to help with our grassroots fundraising initiative. We are currently fundraising to get donations for the remainder of filming, production of the 90-minute documentary, private showings, and distribution of the film to film festivals and the public.
The current goal, depending on funding available, is to resume filming around the country and in England in November. The current trajectory for the documentary to premier is September 2022, at which time it will be available for private showings and film festivals. After that, it will be released on a major streaming platform for all to see!
The official The Truth About Reading website was launched with the sizzle reel teaser video. This site, which will evolve as the film production continues, currently houses a variety of information including national literacy data, interviews and podcasts of Nick, John, and me sharing more about the film, the goals of the documentary, and an opportunity to donate. We’d love for you to share the site and, if you feel so moved, to donate. We greatly appreciate every single person who has, to date, donated $1 to $25,000; each donation helps!
I want to do a shout-out to Donna Hejtmanek, founder of the Science of Reading, What I Should Have Learned in College Facebook page, for leading a fundraising campaign with that group. Hundreds have donated and they’ve raised almost $6000 in 6 days! Please contact me for further information if you know anyone wishing to be an Executive Producer level donor or if you want other information on helping with fundraising.
This process for this documentary continues to evolve as Nick learns more and connections continue to be made with others who are integral in advancing literacy, significantly and from many angles. I’m especially enamored with the fact that Nick is a tenacious truth seeker and this film is guided by the truths he discovers. It is obvious that he will leave no stone unturned in this project. He and his film crew have said many times that they see this evolving into something even more than this documentary. My hope, among other things, is that it will become an ongoing series.
When we were in Hollywood for the premiere of the teaser, I felt overwhelming emotion that was fueled by anticipation and hope. For the decades I’ve been involved in literacy, I’ve dared to hope but could not see how it could unfold that high-level literacy for all could shift from a dream to a reality. With this project and the impact it will have, I see it happening! The actual truth about reading in my mind is this: high-level literacy for all can and will be obtained. If someone can speak, they can learn to be a proficient reader. Many have paved the way to show how this is possible and I have no doubt that this goal will be reached. It will take the passion, motivation, and efforts of all of us to achieve it, and we WILL make it happen!!