Harry’s Shadow

“‘Harry’s Shadow’ explores, in a style that can be solemn but more often veers into the
absurd, what it was like growing up as Harry Truman’s neighbor. “‐‐Aaron Barnhart,
The Kansas City Star

“…a bittersweet goodbye by a famous man to his boyhood home.”‐‐Francis Ford Coppola, Lost & Found Sound. Received Peabody Award as part of Lost & Found Sound.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=3602566

Harry’s Shadow credits

Written and directed by Dwight Frizzell
Music by Michael Henry
Video shot by Tony Allard, Dwight Frizzell
Video edited by Rhondda Francis, Tony Allard, Scott Anderson and Dwight Frizzell
Audio mix by Dwight Frizzell

On Harry’s Shadow

“This story comes from Independence, Missouri, September 12, 1957. Harry S. Truman had been out of office for five years. Rev. Dwight Frizzell grew up in Truman’s home town, and several years ago he went to the Truman Presidential Library and found this recording. With the help of a musician friend, Michael Henry, he added music. But the tape is otherwise unedited. It’s a bittersweet goodbye by a famous man to his boyhood home.”
–Francis Ford Coppola, Lost & Found Sound

Harry’s Shadow Review

“‘Harry’s Shadow’ isn’t exactly Truman lite: The Rev. Dwight Frizzell’s film about the manfrom Independence includes some unsettling contrast. “You could say that the Rev. Dwight Frizzell has spent a quarter-century working on his new film, ‘Harry’s Shadow.’ “A series of short films stitched together into a 29-minute opus, ‘Harry’s Shadow’ explores, in a style that can be solemn but more often veers into the absurd, what it waslike growing up as Harry Truman’s neighbor.

“As a teenager in Independence, Frizzell took copious home movies of Truman’s funeralin 1972, then later stole garbage from outside the Truman home. “‘I wouldn’t say I’m obsessed with Truman,’ said Frizzell, who has kept busy on the local arts scene and whose newEar chamber ensemble is heard on the soundtrack. ‘But he’s always been someone who’s been in the back of my mind.’

‘Harry’s Shadow,’ which was completed with a grant from the Missouri Arts Council, is told in a personal style and is often darkly funny. (The footage young Dwight took at the funeral is not exactly reverent.) “Frizzell also incorporates archival material from the Truman Library and his own collection, video taken of the RLDS Temple in Independence, and even some improvised whistling…in an attempt to include one of Truman’s most notorious habits in the film.

“…’He was revered by the community and I respected him,’ Frizzell said. ‘But there was always part of me that was ambivalent because my neighbor had dropped the atomic bomb.’

“The film’s highlight is a short piece centered on Truman Corners, which grafts the words of the ex-president at a 1957 dedication of the Grandview shopping center onto less-than-flattering images Frizzell recently shot there. It’s funny and poignant all at once. ‘It’s marginal history, but it tells us a lot about Harry,’ Frizzell said. ‘Here is the place that was his boyhood home and helped shape his character, and he comes back to it and it’s all covered with asphalt. You can hear the disorientation in his voice.”
—Aaron Barnhart, The Kansas City Star

Share This Episode