I’m excited to share a promo trailer for a new documentary I’m currently working on with the Lombard Historical Society. We are well into production and hope to have it finished by Spring 2021. For more information go to frakesproductions.com or contact the Lombard Historical Society at lombardhistory.org

On a small network of curving, treelined streets in Suburban DuPage County, Illinois, rests a collection of homes known today as The York Center Homeowners Association.

From 1947 to 2007, these custom, single family homes built on 1 acre plots over ground once occupied by a dairy farm, came to be known as the York Center Co-op.

This pioneering, faith-based effort provided fair housing, community and opportunity in an era of white flight, redlining and restrictive covenants that effectively prevented non-white Americans from fully participating in the American dream.

It’s a dream that influenced the course of American history during the Civil Rights era when a young attorney for the NAACP who would later go on to become a Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, wrote a legal brief to President Harry S. Truman, advocating on behalf of the Co-op, just as Truman and Congress were grappling with the crisis of an epic housing shortage after World War 2.

Despite acts of overt racism that included a cross burning, bullet holes through widows, internal conflict and systemic economic racism, the York Center Co-op and the white, black, asian and Jewish families who lived there, demonstrated to themselves, their neighbors and America, what results when determined people put aside racial, religious and class differences, and work together for the common good.

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WCFC-TV38 was in some ways, a typical television station. Cameras, studio, set’s, lights, video tape machines, a master control, offices. But in other ways it was different. The call letters, W-C-F-C stood for “Winning Chicagoland for Christ.” At the time, TV-38 was the largest, independent Christian television station in America and part of an emerging trend that saw the rise and public fall of famous televangelists like Jim Bakker and Jimmy Swaggert, the emergence of the religious right on the conservative political landscape, and a mainstreaming of the American Pentecostal movement.

TV-38 also nurtured a grass-roots ecumenical movement that crossed ecclesiastical, racial and economic barriers that had divided Christians in Chicago for decades.

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Sheldon Peck, Portrait of an Ordinary Man in Extraordinary Times from Tim Frakes on Vimeo.

Register Here

Please join Tim Frakes Productions Inc. and the Lombard Historical Society for an exclusive premier showing of the new documentary, Sheldon Peck: Portrait of an Ordinary Man in Extraordinary Times this Thursday night in Lombard, Illinois. Admission is free.

The Sheldon Peck Homestead will be open for tours from 6:00-6:45 p.m., followed by the film at 7:00 p.m. at the Lombard Community Building across the street.

Tim Frakes, of Tim Frakes Productions, Inc., a Lombard resident and business, produced the documentary and will introduce the film and entertain questions after the screening.

Board members and staff from the Lombard Historical Society will also be available for questions regarding Sheldon Peck, the documentary and the upcoming exhibit of original Sheldon Peck paintings, Sheldon Peck: Footsteps of His Life.

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What A Fellowship – Rev. Clay Evans & the AARC Mass Choir from Tim Frakes on Vimeo.

How about some Gospel music! The Rev. Dr. Clay Evans, Pastor of the Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church was a major Gosple recording artist in the 1970’s and 80’s. Evans bought airtime on TV-38 and made regular appearances during telethons. It’s all part of a new documentary I am producing on WCFC TV-38, once the largest independent Christian television station in America.

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The half hour broadcast version will air every Sunday at noon in December (beginning this Sunday) on ABC 7.2 Live Well Network Chicago.

A longer version will be offered on DVD this spring, available through the Lombard Historical Society.

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Sheldon Peck, Portrait of an Ordinary Man in Extraordinary Times is now complete! A 28 minute broadcast version of the documentary began airing on the Live Well Network in Chicago every Sunday in December, 2018 at noon. Check local listings for Sanctuary, Greater Chicago Broadcast Ministries.

Here is a link to the broadcast version:
http://www.frakesproductions.com/2018/sheldon-peck-an-ordinary-man-in-extraordinary-times/

The full, 37 minute documentary will be offered beginning in January, 2019 on DVD for a $20 donation to the Lombard Historical Society.

Here is the script for the documentary.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1R4SVOKIDCro9UOckPP0HYlifiMzZmHyytfqIEJKoPHs/edit?usp=sharing

Sheldon Peck, Portrait of an Ordinary Man in Extraordinary Times is the is a story infused with a humanity that resonates today. Largely forgotten in the decades after his death in 1868, Sheldon Peck and his legacy have seen a revival and renewed appreciation that recognizes his talent, passion, courage and vision. It’s a story of American Western expansion in the days of manifest destiny, and how one man embraced the important issues of his day and was not afraid to speak out or get personally involved where he saw injustice. “What Sheldon and his spouse Harriett Corey Peck did, the way they are sharing their values…. It spreads” says Sarah Richardt from the Lombard Historical Society.

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Today was fun. Recorded an interview with Kenneth B. Morris at the American Writers Museum in Chicago.
Morris descends from two of the most influential names in American history: he is the great-great-great grandson of Frederick Douglass (he looks just like him) and the great-great-grandson of Booker T. Washington.

It’s part of a new documentary I’m creating with Sarah Richardt, Executive Director of the Lombard Historical Society, on the life of primitive American portrait artist, radical abolitionist, and temperance crusader Sheldon Peck.

Thanks Jim Quattrocki for running camera. You are a peach.

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With all the talk this week relating to the summit between US President Donald Trump and North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un, I decided to dig up Peace, Arms and a Test of Faith, a 1992 documentary I produced for Jean Martensen and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, through the ELCA Department for Communication and the Division for Church in Society.

We recorded most of this program in the Rocky Mountain Synod of the ELCA at a conference attended by ELCA members who were actively engaged in social opposition to the nuclear arms industry and specifically the re-opening of the Rocky Flats Nuclear Arsenal near Boulder, Colorado. The conference was also attended by members of the ELCA who were then employed in the U.S. nuclear defense industry either in formal military roles or as scientists.

The keynote speaker at the event was the late Dr. Timothy Lull, then Academic Dean and Professor of Systematic Theology at Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary in Berkeley, California. Lull was a prolific writer and widely sought speaker with a particular interest in the life and work of Martin Luther.

During filming at a protest, I was nearly arrested along with peace activists as we recorded their provocation of Rocky Flats security personnel and successful attempts to get arrested themselves. At the time, I was struck by the contrast in costumes between the two groups; the peace activists with their Birkenstock sandals and tie-dye shirts and the security personnel with their camoflage uniforms and aviator sunglasses. Everyone has their herd.

Interviews included:
Mag Seaman, American Friends Service Committee
Dr. Gary Rochau, Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, New Mexico
Rev. Nelson Bock, Araria Higher Education Center, Denver, Colorado
Melody Buck, Peace and Justice Activist
Dr. Timothy Lull, Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary
Janet Miller, Hill Air Force Base, Utah
Lorne Matheson, NOAA Space Environment Lab Boulder, Colorado

Typically I misspelled Matheson’s title using the name “NOAH” instead of NOAA, National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration. Oh well, it was a church video…

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Sanctuary LCFS Promo from Tim Frakes on Vimeo.

Lutheran Child and Family Services traces its roots to 1873 when several Lutheran churches
in northern Illinois established the German Evangelical Lutheran Orphan Home in Addison, Illinois.
Opening its doors that year to six young children, the orphan home grew quickly and expanded its services.
Today, Lutheran Child and Family Services works to improve the well-being of people across the state of
Illinois by protecting children, strengthening families and building futures for those who have experienced trauma
including people of all faiths, races, orientations and ethnic backgrounds.

Join us for the next edition of Greater Chicago Broadcast Ministries Sanctuary as we hear three Chicago area stories of people who’s lives have been
transformed through hard work, expertise and passionate, faith-based compassion.
Watch Sanctuary, every Sunday in June at Noon, on ABC 7.2 LiveWell Network in Chicago.

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Five hundred years ago, Martin Luther kicked off the Protestant Reformation, which contributed to the birth of our modern age. In this one-hour special — filmed on location in Europe — Rick Steves tells the story of a humble monk who lived a dramatic life. Rick visits key sites relating to the Reformation (including Erfurt, Wittenberg, and Rome) and explores the complicated political world of 16th-century Europe — from indulgences to iconoclasts, and from the printing press to the Counter-Reformation. It’s a story of power, rebellion, and faith that you’ll never forget.

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