Robbie Leppzer (born 1957/1958) is an American filmmaker and videographer known for directing documentary films about grassroots activism. He is the owner of the production company Turning Tide Productions. Works directed or co-directed by Leppzer include Seabrook 1977 (1978), Harvest of Peace (1985), Columbus Didn't Discover Us (1992), An Act of Conscience (1997), The Peace Patriots (2005), and Power Struggle (2016).
Early life Leppzer was born in Wendell, Massachusetts, and grew up in Winchester. In high school, he produced a radio show titled Roots of the Earth, which explored the Wounded Knee Occupation, and which earned a first prize award in a National Public Radio (NPR) young people's festival.
Career In the 1970s, Leppzer moved from Winchester to Leverett in the Pioneer Valley, and attended Hampshire College in Amherst for two years. Leppzer's first feature-length video documentary film, Seabrook 1977 (1978), which he co-directed with Phyllis Joffe, chronicles demonstrators protesting the construction of the Seabrook Station Nuclear Power Plant in Seabrook, New Hampshire. In the early 1980s, Leppzer produced a 13-part radio series titled Rural Lives, which was broadcast on WFCR.
In 1984, Leppzer premiered Choose Life, a short film that documents an anti-nuclear protest in New York City on June 12, 1982; the protest was attended by around one million participants. That same year, Leppzer began production on Harvest of Peace (1985), a documentary about a group of Americans participating in the cotton harvest in a village in northern Nicaragua. Produced on a budget of $20,000, filming for Harvest of Peace took place for two weeks in Nicaragua, followed by 14 months of post-production in Leverett. The documentary premiered at the Telluride Film Festival in September 1985, and received a theatrical release in November 1985. With the release of Harvest of Peace, Leppzer established his own production company, Turning Tide Productions.
In 1992, Leppzer premiered Columbus Didn't Discover Us, a short documentary filmed at the First Continental Conference on 500 Years of Indian Resistance in Quito, Ecuador, in 1990. In 1994, the Leppzer-directed short documentary film Futbolito (also known as Viva Futbolito!) was released, which follows footbag enthusiasts in Nicaragua and Guatemala.
In 1997, the Leppzer-directed documentary An Act of Conscience premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. The film documents events surrounding war tax resisters Randy Kehler and Betsy Corner, whose home was seized by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and sold by the US government to another couple, prompting Kehler, Corner, and hundreds of supporters to occupy the property in protest. In 2001, Leppzer directed Voices for Peace, a documentary about the post–September 11 anti-war movement. In 2005, he premiered The Peace Patriots, which centers around opposition to the Iraq War.
In 2010, Leppzer began filming on Power Struggle, a documentary about activists opposed to the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant in Vernon, Vermont. The film, which features peace activist Frances Crowe, was released in 2016.
Personal life Leppzer has been a member of a pro-feminist men's group based in the Pioneer Valley since the 1970s.
Partial filmography Year Title Notes 1978 Seabrook 1977 Documentary film; co-directed with Phyllis Joffe 1984 Choose Life Short documentary film 1985 Harvest of Peace Short documentary film 1992 Columbus Didn't Discover Us Short documentary film 1994 Futbolito Also known as Viva Futbolito!; short documentary film 1997 An Act of Conscience Documentary film 2001 Voices for Peace Short documentary film 2005 The Peace Patriots Documentary film 2016 Power Struggle Documentary film
Accolades Year Award Category Nominated work Result 1986 San Antonio Film Festival Best Non-Fiction Filmmaker Harvest of Peace 1987 New England Film & Video Festival Curator's Choice Harvest of Peace
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