Robert K. Sharpe


Robert K. Sharpe was an American TV and film director, who produced the film Before the Mountain Was Moved, which was nominated for as Best Documentary Feature in the 1970 Academy Awards.

Biography

Sharpe was born in Chicago, Illinois, and graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a B.A. in writing from Brown University. Sharpe served as a writer and director for films at CBS The Twentieth Century series with Walter Cronkite. He also worked as director for NBC Special Projects, including an adaptation of E.B. White's "Here is New York" for The Seven Lively Arts with John Houseman and Andy Rooney, and Omnibus with Alistair Cooke. He served on the executive board of the Screen Directors International Guild, along with Shirley Clarke, Leo Hurwitz, and Willard Van Dyke, among others, in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
Before the Mountain Was Moved was distributed by the Office of Economic Opportunity about the devastation that strip-mining inflicted on people's lives in Appalachia. The film was based on the story of the VISTA volunteers who came to work along Coal River in West Virginia in 1966–1967. Excerpts of the film were included in "Voices from the Sixties," a four-part radio documentary funded by the Humanities Foundation of West Virginia, which was written and produced by Gibbs Kinderman in 1987.

Filmography

Here is New York, 1957, as director, shot on 127 locations throughout the cityLight--as you like it, 1959, as director, commissioned for Superior Electric Co to show the latest styles and designs for home lightingThe Forgotten, 1959, as director, documentary about Chicago slumsThe Long Night, as director, based on Julian Mayfield's 1958 novel of the same nameA Night in the Pet Shop, 1961, as writer and director, documentary short, shot on location in a New York pet shop after the proprietor locks upKeep It Cool, 1963, as director, on the YMCA Detached Worker program in ChicagoThe Twentieth Century
  • * 1961: Season 5/Episode 9: The Jazz of Dave Brubeck
  • * 1963: S6/E18: Rhodes Scholar
  • * 1963: S7/E1: Keep It CoolWisdom – A Conversation with Andres Segovia, 1962The Ordeal of Woodrow Wilson — A Personal Memoir by Herbert Hoover, 1962, as director, for NBC Special Projects, narrated by Herbert HooverTo Live and Learn, 1963, for USIAJoe, 1964, produced for the US Information Agency about a skilled factory worker, who receives retirement assistance from federal program
  • The Great Debates – Lincoln vs. Douglas, 1965, starring Hal Holbrook as LincolnVolunteers for Head Start, 1966, produced for the Office of Economic Opportunity, Head Start programPancho, 1967, produced for the Office of Economic Opportunity, documentary short, follows the development of a young boy due to Head Start programBefore the Mountain Was Moved, 1970, as writer, producer, and director