Politics of Beauty – A film by Stewart Udall

Stewart Udall and the Politics of Beauty is an hour-long biography, produced in cooperation with Arizona Public Television which follows the trajectory of Udall’s life from his Mormon childhood in the tiny hamlet of St. John’s, Arizona, through his World War II service in Europe, his student years at the University of Arizona where he played basketball and fought for integration, his years in Congress, and then, most significantly, as Secretary of the Interior under presidents Kennedy and Johnson, and finally his later years as an author, activist and advocate for victims of atomic testing and uranium mining. A documentary about the life of Stewart Udall is long overdue. It reveals in-depth the period during the sixties and seventies when the environmental movement in America grew into adulthood. Perhaps more importantly, in our now deeply partisan environment, it reveals a time when Americans were not yet so polarized, when big ideas could still capture bipartisan attention, and when America awoke to the unfolding destruction of paradise and determined to stop it. Director/Writer: John de Graaf Producers: Zelie Pollon and Laurence Cotton Photographer/Editor: Greg Davis Executive Producers: Vada Manager and Kevin White Impact Producer: Jennifer Ekstrom