Hudson West Productions makes socially meaningful documentary films about the arts, history, and education. Founded in 1985, Hudson West’s mission is to fill in gaps in the “cultural dial” left by commercial media by preserving, interpreting, and presenting unique but overlooked narratives to a wider audience. Hudson West’s latest film, A Place Out of Time—The Bordentown School, tells the story of the rise and fall of the last publicly funded, co-educational, all-black boarding school north of the Mason-Dixon line. Directed by Dave Davidson , co-produced by Amber Edwards and narrated by legendary actress Ruby Dee, A Place Out of Time premiered nationally on PBS in May 2010. (Praise from The New York Times : “Bittersweet humanity...You could listen to a lot of dry lectures...and still not learn as much about race issues as you do in A Place Out of Time”)

Over the past 25 years, Hudson West has introduced PBS viewers to gospel and rhythm & blues pioneer Cissy Houston (Cissy Houston: Sweet Inspiration, 1988;) the legendary one-legged tap dancer and resort owner Peg Leg Bates (The Dancing Man: Peg Leg Bates, 1992;) the inventors and impresarios of the early motion picture industry (Into the Light—The Furious Birth of the Motion Picture Industry, 1995;) and the not-so-ordinary life of public schools, as seen from the inside (Quicksand & Banana Peels-A Year in the Life of Two Principals, 1998; Brick City Lessons, 1999; No Place to Be Smart-The Brightest Kids in Public Schools, 2000.)

All of Hudson West’s documentaries have been broadcast in the USA on PBS stations. Our films have also been seen on television in the UK, Norway, and Australia, and have screened at film festivals in New York, Chicago, Paris, Dublin, Montreal, Amsterdam, St. Petersburg, Sydney, and Upsala (Sweden.) A partial list of awards includes 2 Emmys, 4 CINE Golden Eagles,  the Golden Gate Award from the San Francisco International Film Festival, the Silver Plaque from the Chicago Film Festival, Director’s Choice at the Black Maria Film Festival, and a CEN Programming Award for Public Affairs.   As a not-for-profit, 501(c)3 production company, Hudson West has received grants from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, the New Jersey Council for the Humanities, the Hyde-Watson Foundation, PSE&G, and the New Jersey Historical Commission.

 

DAVE DAVIDSON

Independent filmmaker and media educator Dave Davidson, has just completed A Place Out of Time—The Bordentown School a documentary about the elite all-black school that flourished  for 70 years during the “Jim Crow”  era and was abruptly closed  in 1955—a victim of the rush to integration. The film had its national prime time broadcast premiere on PBS in May 2010. The New York Times says of the film, “You could listen to a lot of dry lectures by a lot of windy history professors and still not learn as much about race issues in the century after the Civil War as you do in “A Place Out of Time: The Bordentown School.” ….But by the time the story is told, you have come to see the school as a microcosm of all the good intentions, misguided theories and veiled prejudice that have made equality so elusive for so long”.

Davidson is currently Co-Producer and Director of Photography on, Michael Feinstein’s American Songbook, a three-part documentary series for PBS, Produced and Directed by Amber Edwards, exploring the music that helped shape the style, attitude and self-image of America for more that a century. He is also in production with HANS RICHTER: Everything Turns – Everything Revolves, a documentary portrait of the Dadaist, pioneering filmmaker and revolutionary educator.

Davidson has received The American Film Institute Independent Filmmaker Grant, an Emmy Award, the National Endowment for the Arts Mid-Atlantic Artist Fellowship, and the Outstanding Artist Award from The New Jersey State Council on the Arts. Davidson founded Hudson West Productions in 1985 and currently serves as President. For Hudson West, Davidson has directed numerous award-winning films, including the nationally broadcast PBS documentaries Cissy Houston—Sweet Inspiration (“An exquisite documentary…This is the story of a woman who has thought deeply about the roots of black music.” - the Boston Globe) and The Dancing Man—Peg Leg Bates (” ...provides a captivating portrait of Bates, but it does something more. It offers encouragement and salutes determination. The life of Peg leg Bates is an inspiration during Black History Month or any time at all  -The Kansas City Star).

Davidson is Professor of Film at The City College of New York (City University of New York) in Harlem, where he is the Founding Director of the MFA in Media Arts Production program—the only MFA production program in the largest media market in the world offered at an affordable / accessible public institution. In its first decade students from the program have achieved world wide recognition including winning 3 Student Academy Awards and 4 Student Emmys.

Michael Feinstein’s American Songbook is Producer/Director AMBER EDWARDS’ eighth PBS documentary project. Most recently she co-produced, with director Dave Davidson, A Place Out of Time—The Bordentown School, about the last all-black, publicly funded boarding school North of the Mason Dixon line, which was broadcast nationally on PBS in May 2010.

Amber also produced, directed, wrote, and edited the award-winning Words and Music by Jerry Herman about the legendary Broadway composer/lyricist, which aired on PBS on January 1, 2008 (CINE Golden Eagle; Gold Remi, Houston WorldFest.) Previous PBS broadcasts include the 2001 documentary George Segal: American Still Life about the famous Pop Art sculptor (CINE Golden Eagle; Gold Remi, Houston WorldFest; "Chris" Award, Columbus International Film Festival; Silver Screen Award, US International Film and Video Festival; NETA Award for Documentary Biography;) Quicksand and Banana Peels—A Year in the Life of Two Principals (1998, APT/PBS; CEN Programming Award—Public Affairs ;) Against The Odds: The Artists of the Harlem Renaissance (1994, PBS Black History Month Special; CINE, “Chris” Award ;) Vladimir Feltsman In Moscow (1993, PBS ;) and The Dancing Man—Peg Leg Bates, about the remarkable one-legged black tap dancer and resort owner (1992, PBS Black History Month Special; CINE Golden Eagle; Silver Plaque—Chicago Film Festival; Silver Apple-NEFVF; Director’s Choice—Black Maria Film Festival.)

Amber has been with Hudson West Productions since 1989, and for twenty-one years was Senior Producer and Host of NJN Public Television‘s long running weekly series State of the Arts, where she earned thirteen regional Emmy Awards and numerous other honors for her national PBS documentaries.

Radio work includes producing features for WBGO (Newark, NJ), the public radio jazz station; and she is currently producing a multi-part radio series with Michael Feinstein for WFMT public radio (Chicago) titled “Forever and a Day—The Gershwin Legacy.”

Ms. Edwards grew up in Kansas City and graduated from Yale University, where she is a Fellow at Branford College. Amber is also a singer, having appeared in the 92nd Street Y’s “Lyrics and Lyricists” series, and she can currently be heard on the soundtrack of the upcoming HBO series “Boardwalk Empire.” She lives in Connecticut with her husband, the novelist Justin Scott.