A documentary about the 50th anniversary of the Slaughterhouse-Five novel, produced by a Franklin College professor and some of the college’s journalism students, has been nominated for two Emmy awards.
The documentary, “Slaughterhouse-Five at 50,” takes a look at not only the book and its impact on the literary world, but also delves into its author’s personal life, including interviews with several close friends and family members and their discussions of some of the pros and cons of the newfound fame that met World War II veteran and Indianapolis native Kurt Vonnegut after the book was published in 1969.
Vonnegut, who died in 2007 at the age of 86, was an Indianapolis native and World War II veteran who survived the bombing of Dresden, which killed about 60,000 civilians. Slaughterhouse-Five, his most famous book, is based on his experience in the war.
The process of putting the documentary together started early last year, when the editors of Indianapolis Monthly Magazine asked John Krull, director of Franklin College’s Pulliam School of Journalism, to write a piece for the half-century anniversary of the publication of Slaughterhouse-Five. Krull, who met Vonnegut in 2000 and was friends with him until his death in 2007, had a better idea, he said.
“I said, ‘this is kind of a big event, should we look at doing a documentary on it too?’ There was sort of the traditional going back and forth on that and we decided that it was worthwhile,” Krull said. “I knew Sidney Offit. We filmed him in his midtown Manhattan apartment. He was Kurt’s best friend at the end of his life, regarded as a writer’s writer.”
Sidney would meet with Krull and have dinners during which the two discussed various anecdotes of Vonnegut’s life. Once the documentary began, the puzzle pieces of Vonnegut’s life came together, including introductions and conversations with those friends and the Vonnegut family, Krull said.
Some of those puzzle pieces, however, involved Franklin College students. To make the documentary, which had to be cut down to its final version just short of a half-hour, Vonnegut presented the opportunity to students at the journalism school to work on the project. The nine students who came on board were paid for their work.
“If we’re preparing people to be professionals, one of the things that defines that is they get paid,” Krull said. “They all got paid for work on the documentary and it’s above and beyond the work that goes on in the classroom that students take on. We did some early shooting in the spring and the summer. Some of the heaviest lifting was a brutal trip we took over fall break. We drove 2,000 miles and did three or four major shoots in three days.”
One student who had a major role in the project was assistant producer Erica Irish.
Irish, a Franklin College junior, worked on another Emmy-nominated Franklin College production, “Richard Lugar: Reason’s Quiet Warrior,” which came out in 2018. The “Slaughterhouse-Five” documentary, however, holds a special place in her heart because she grew up reading Kurt Vonnegut, she said.
“This story is personal to me; I grew up reading Kurt Vonnegut and his presence helped me understand the power of storytelling,” Irish said. “The more we can get this out on a national scale—it’s been picked up by PBS for national circulation—is super important.”
As an assistant producer, Irish helped recruit students to work on the documentary. She also did extensive archival research at The Lilly Library at Indiana University’s main campus in Bloomington.
During the home stretch, the documentary crew still needed some final interviews, which is where the 2,000-mile road trip came into play, she said.
“We basically took a college car and drove to the east coast over our fall break, over the course of four days,” Irish said.
She, Krull, and fellow assistant producer Emily Ketterer traveled to Quincy, Mass. and New York City to speak to Offit; Mark Vonnegut, son of Kurt Vonnegut; and Marc Leeds, past president and founder of the Kurt Vonnegut Society. The trip also gave Krull an opportunity to show his students places in New York City that he and Vonnegut frequented, she said.
“Based on John’s personal relationship with Kurt, John was able to pinpoint restaurants they had been to and streets he wanted to get shots of,” Irish said. “We walked by the apartment Kurt used to live in with his second wife.”
“Slaughterhouse-Five at 50” has been nominated for two Emmys, one in the history and biography category and one in the best writing category. Emmy Awards are given in recognition of excellence in the television industry.
Regardless of whether the documentary wins an Emmy, it will help students launch their careers, Krull said.
“I hope it launches the students,” Krull said. “I’m in the autumn of my career; I don’t need this to move forward, but it’s very helpful to students going out and looking for jobs, that they’re (potentially) entering the workforce as Emmy Award winners.”
