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Here is a new video I produced for Lombard’s Helen Plum Library. The new, planned library location at 411 S. Main Street, Lombard (get it, 411… information… library) will be built on the site of the former Mr. Z’s Grocery story.
The Helen Plum Library worked out an agreement with the Lombard Fire Department and the Village of Lombard, to use the facility as a fire training site, in advance of the building’s demolition later in May.
I’m proud to have this opportunity to serve my local community and help make Lombard and even better place than it already is.
Drone footage by Pictision , LLC

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

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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.

The post Rescheduled: Community Showing of Sheldon Peck: Portrait of an Ordinary Man in Extraordinary Times appeared first on Tim Frakes Productions.

The year started off working with Chris Meyer from Orange Flux to produce a series of stories for Lutheran Child and Family Services. Jim Parks and I continued to work with Northwestern Medicine producing a video on NM Supportive Communications at Marianjoy Rehabilitation Hospital.

Lutheran Social Services of Illinois kept me busy with Good Shepherd Sunday and Amicus Certus videos. I also continued to record and edit staff training videos for their deployed staff around the state of Illinois. Strategic Coach invited me back to their Rosemont offices as well as several special events as they help entrepreneurs organize their lives and businesses.

The Deaconess Community of the ELCA asked me to cover their assembly at the Mt. Olivet Retreat Center in Farmington, MN. I also produced a video on their work with the food bank ministry at Shekinah Chapel in Chicago. Jim Quattrocki and I did New York’s Times Square on a shoot with Patient Power and OncologyTube, recording recording the latest in Oncology.

Lutheran Life Communities asked me to introduce their new CEO and tell more stories about vibrant, grace filled living across all generations. Franciscan Outreach had me produce a 2018 video about their vital work with Chicago’s homeless. Chicago Theological Seminary and Michael Jordan from 31 Lengths in New York sent me on shoots in Los Angeles, Seattle and here in Chicago telling stories for their Leaders for the Next campaign.

Zach Shepherd with Braddock Investment Group and Bill Powers RTO Properties gave me a birds eye view of the real estate flipping business. Belniak Media in Glen Ellyn hired me to record interviews and landscape photography. Christian Fellowship Breakfast is going strong. We produced a new “About” video as well as several of their 2018 events. Pure Processing, a medical equipment company had me create some fancy product videos about endoscopes!

Catholic Theological Union invited me to their gorgeous seminary campus in Hyde Park, to record gatherings of Catholics from around the globe at the Bernadine Center. Excel Marketing took me back to Ramcel Engineering.

Two big projects outside the continental United States included RCAP Solutions and their solid waste management efforts in Puerto Rico and an absolutely delightful project with Haiti Outreach Ministries in Port Au Prince with my friend Ulrick Louijeune.

Great Lakes RCAP took me to the Sandwich, Illinois fairgrounds to record their field day training with rural waste water and drinking water professionals. The Seattle Cancer Care Alliance whisked me off to San Diego to cover the American Hematology Society (ASH) conference. My ELCA colleague Melissa Ramirez Cooper called and asked me to cover a teachers strike for INCS.

And I wrapped up the year with the Amish at the Home Guard Industries factory near Fort Wayne, Indiana with Darren Harrison. And of course my big personal project in 2018 was a 37 minute documentary on the life of Lombard Illinois most famous son, 19th century folk artist Sheldon Peck. Thanks to all my clients for making 2018 a year filled with meaningful work and energizing adventure.

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On August 9, 2018, I interviewed Kenneth B. Morris, the great-great-great grandson of Frederick Douglass and the great-great-grandson of Booker T. Washington. Morris is the President of the Frederick Douglass Family Initiatives(FDFI).

Morris explained to me how President Trump’s apparent gaff, actually did some good by generating publicity. The Frederick Douglass Family Initiatives is trying to print and distribute one million hardcover copies of a special Bicentennial Edition of Frederick Douglass’s Narrative. They are asking one million students across the country to read the book and, in 2018, the Bicentennial year, participate in meaningful service projects within their communities and internationally.

My interview with Kenneth B. Morris is part of a documentary I’m producing on the life of Sheldon Peck, an early settler of DuPage, County, Illinois, primitive American portrait artist, radical abolitionist and conductor on the underground railroad.

You may purchase a copy of the Special Bicentennial edition of Frederick Douglass’s Narrative from Syracuse Cultural Workers, for $19.95.

https://www.syracuseculturalworkers.com/products/book-narrative-of-the-life-of-frederick-douglass-an-american-slave-narrative-bicentennial-edition

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On January 1, 2018 US President Donald Trump published a Twitter message stating, “The United States has foolishly given Pakistan more than 33 billion dollars in aid over the last 15 years, and they have given us nothing but lies & deceit, thinking of our leaders as fools. They give safe haven to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan, with little help. No more!”

Two days later, US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley confirmed the administration will withhold $255 million in aid to Pakistan.The Pakistani government responded that recent comments from US leaders were “completely incomprehensible” and could damage the trust between the countries.

Launched in 2011, the US-Pakistan Interreligious Consortium, (UPIC) became a nonpartisan, interreligious alliance consisting of religious, academic and community leaders from over fifty Pakistani and American civil society organizations and I’m proud to be a part of it.

In 2013, 14, 16 and again in 2017 I had the privilege of traveling to Pakistan with the UPIC team. We met with a broad range of Pakistani civil, government, military, and religious society. We witnessed first hand the passionate desire on the part of Pakistani’s to reach out to the global community with a message of good will and cooperation. We also interviewed Pakistani’s who risk their lives confronting extremism and destabilization brought on by instability in neighboring Afghanistan.

The topic of Bin Ladin in Pakistan is interesting. It’s worth noting that since 9/11, Pakistan paid the terrorism butchers bill at a far higher rate than has the the United States.

The annual death toll from terrorist attacks has risen from 164 in 2003 to 3318 in 2009, with a total of 35,000 Pakistanis killed between 11 September 2001 and May 2011. One estimate shows a total of more than 60,000 to date.

According to the government of Pakistan, the direct and indirect economic costs of terrorism from 2000–2010 total $68 billion.

Shortly after our team departed Lahore, Pakistan in 2016, terrorists detonated a bomb in a crowded park filled with families (many Christian) celebrating Easter. Hundreds were killed and maimed. This spike in terrorism in Pakistan coincides with the US invasion of Afghanistan.

Imagine an insurgent group operating inside US territory, but before the US had full control of its vast western territory. Say, Arizona in the 1870’s. Then imagine a foreign invasion of Mexico forcing tens of thousands of refugees sprinkled with insurgents and other foreign fighters seeping over the Arizona/Mexico border.

In this, scenario, would Washington struggle to control insurgents who were launching attacks in both the US and Mexico? I think so.

Interestingly, a large percentage of Pakistanis reject the idea that Bin Laden was killed in Pakistan. It’s sort of the Pakistani version of “Fake news”.

I’ve no doubt that Bin Ladin found quite refuge in Abbottabad under the noses of the Pakistani military. It’s even likely some members of the Pakistani military were complicit in aiding and abetting him. This likelihood however, does not justify the inditement of an entire nation.

In response to the recent escalation of rhetoric and the potential for a destructive erosion of future US/Pakistan relations, I encourage members of the UPIC team, Christians, Jews, and Muslims, and all people of good will, to call on US and Pakistani leadership to reflect on the faithful foundations of their respective societies and renew efforts to find sustainable paths toward a just constructive and peaceful relationship between both societies. In honor of the late Dr. Mumtaz Ahmad, whose guiding spirit helped launch and sustain UPIC over the six years of its life, we cannot remain silent.”

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Hi all,
This is a political topic that hits close to home for me as an independent content producer. Since the internet began (for me at least) in the 1990’s, access to streaming content has been an amazingly level playing field. If I produce great content, I’ve got just as good a chance as large media corporations like Verizon, AT&T, and Comcast do, to get content seen. Admittedly, I’m not a big, viral deal. However, some of my programs have been viewed by ten’s and even hundred’s of thousands of people.

Understanding the Roman Catholic Church
123,109 views

Opening the Door to Luther with Rick Steves
28,001 views

Tour a Cold War Era Atlas Missile Silo
120,958 views

Up until now, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has forced internet service providers to make internet speeds neutral for everyone: the little guy like me, or big corporations. It doesn’t matter. Imagine if your city road system was divided into two kinds of through-fares, paved roads and dirt roads. Now imagine that access to the best paved roads was limited to corporations who could afford to pay fees. High fees. You could still get to where you want to go, but you’d have to take a dirt road.

The internet is an amazing, global phenomenon generating enterprises like my business, www.frakesproductions.com. If access to the internet is limited to a few mega corporations, entrepreneurs like me will be out of luck. FCC chair just declared war on the internet. Tell Congress: Don’t let FCC end Net Neutrality!

The post Tell Congress: Don’t let FCC end Net Neutrality! appeared first on Tim Frakes Productions.

How’s this for a selfie? Working on a documentary on the history of WCFC TV38, I unearthed these vintage 1980’s stand-up’s featuring your’s truly as a cub reporter on the weekly news magazine, Page Two. We covered all kinds of stories, often with a conservative bent that makes me cringe these days. Thanks to Wade Bobbitt, David Oseland and Clark Gray among many others for help getting my career launched and not making too much fun as I played “reporter.”

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Kind of went nuts today a bought a vintage, Swiss made Paillard Bolex H16 F25, 16mm Movie Camera with crank handle, three lenses and a cool leather carrying case.

The Bolex company was founded by Jacques Bogopolsky in 1927. Bolex cameras were particularly important for early television news, nature films, and documentaries and are still used by film animators. The H16 F25 is fully mechanical and uses a spring-wound clockwork power system. The camera also came with an auto hand/pistol grip made in Denmark especially for the Bolex.

An internet search reveals that my new Bolex, serial number 16443 was manufactured between 1941 and 1943. Switzerland, of course, was neutral during World War II and thus was able to continue manufacturing non-military goods like film cameras.

Now the big question, do I buy a magazine and spend a small fortune to shoot something? Probably not. But is sure is cool.

The post Paillard Bolex H16 F25, 16mm Movie Camera appeared first on Tim Frakes Productions.

2015 was a busy travel year with 80 days on the road including Scandinavia, Germany, Honduras, Puerto Rico and Haiti. 2016 also started on the road in Ireland on family holiday, followed by Israel/Palestine with Pastor Eric C. Shafer, recording our Stations of the Cross project. Plus stories for the Lutheran World Federation and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land.

Then, in February it was back to Pakistan with Intersections International and the US/Pakistan Interreligious Consortium. We visited with government leaders, student groups, women’s organizations and religious leaders in that vast Asian nation of 200 million people.

Looking forward, I’m working hard to finish our Stations of the Cross project, a new documentary on the history of America’s largest independent Christian television station, WCFC TV-38 Chicago, a half our broadcast special presenting J.S. Bach’s St. John Passion with Greater Chicago Broadcast Ministries, the First United Methodist Church Chicago Temple, Valparaiso University and the Leipzig Baroque Orchestra which airs on ABC7 Chicago, Sunday March 20 at 1:00 p.m.

And continued work on our history of Pietism documentary.

Thank you to all of my clients and supporters here in Chicago, around the United States and the world. I’m looking forward to another year of documentary and image video for non-profit, faith-based, broadcast and corporate clients.

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