About

ASHLEY L. HAWKEN: Producer/Director/Writer

I am a storyteller.

My platforms have been the stage, celluloid frames, digital images, and the written and spoken word.  As this blog develops, I hope to share some of those stories. First, an overview of my professional journey.

An early passion for acting morphed into a career in documentary films, television production, reporting, writing and public speaking. In this journey, I have walked roads leading me into the worlds of dramaturgy, diplomacy, politics, education, religion, current events, and world history. A formal education in the liberal arts, a grounding in economic theory, a commitment to promote international cooperation and curiosity about human endeavor have driven me to shape stories that I hoped would be interesting and important to audiences.

After my discharge from the U.S. Army in 1962, during which time I served in uniform for three years as a radio/television broadcaster based in New York, Seoul, and Hollywood, I began a career in the Motion Picture and Television Service of the U.S. Information Agency (USIA), producing programs for overseas use. USIA was more popularly known as the Voice of America. The sign over the door I entered on my first day at work read, “Telling America’s Story to the World.” I took that motto to heart. I began as a Production Assistant and left as an Executive Producer.

USIA was an exciting and prestigious place to begin a career. It was led by the iconic CBS correspondent, Edward R. Murrow, who was a member of President John F Kennedy’s cabinet. I was hired to work in the Television Service, directed by Chuck Hill, Murrow’s long-time New York producer. Shortly thereafter, the Motion Picture Service, headed up by George Stevens, Jr., merged with the TV Service, bringing Hollywood’s glitter to the Agency. Experienced producers, directors and filmmakers were coming on board from the country’s networks and studios. Young women and men from the nation’s communication schools were arriving daily to join the growing production units.

My first assignment at USIA in 1962 was to assist in the production of a program reporting that the Soviet Union was installing intercontinental missile launchers in Cuba aimed at the USA. I was among the first Americans to peruse the aerial reconnaissance photos that we used to make the case. Later, we came to know how perilously close we had come to nuclear war during that fateful autumn week. It was a dangerous world, in the grip of a “Cold War;” the free world’s struggle against communist expansion. It was a war of ideas and we were the tip of the spear in defense of democratic institutions. Our arsenal was bolstered by ideas. Our strength lay in their truthful projection. Our challenge was to shape them credibly to a skeptical world.

My twenty-six years at USIA took me into the wider world of production projects, distributed in many languages. Before they were over, I could count some 250 programs with my name on the credits. They included four television series: one for Thailand and three for the Spanish and Portuguese speaking countries of Latin America. Many of my films and video productions were seen worldwide, narrated in Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, Arabic, Chinese, Indonesian and the languages of Eastern Europe. All of this programming reflected a common theme: “The United States was an innovative and striving country of diverse and hardworking people, with a political system grounded in law and a Constitution crafted to preserve personal freedom and protect God-given rights.

In this work, I encountered people in all walks of life, political leaders and personalities in the arts, politics, and commerce. I interviewed presidents in their offices and farmers in their fields. I collaborated with Oscar winning actor and director José Ferrer, movie stars Jack Palance and Kirk Douglas, and the popular and prodigious author, James Michener. In Mexico, comedy icon, Cantinflas, invited us into his studio, in Buenos Aires, novelist Jorge Luis Borges and composer Alberto Ginastera sat for our cameras. We were on set with John Wayne, on court with Billy Jean King and in tune with jazzman Benny Goodman. The list of celebrities is long, but I end the name dropping to recount the privilege of covering Thailand’s King Bhumibol Adulyadej and the beauteous Queen Sirikit on their 1967 state visit to the United States that began in Hawaii and ended a week later in an embassy salon where His Majesty gave an impromptu clarinet performance to invited friends; moments that his worshiping subjects back home had not and would never again witness.

During my time at USIA, our products improved from grainy grey kinescopes to sparkling color images. Our production modalities progressed from fixed studio productions to on-location film shoots. Our overseas distribution moved from plodding diplomatic pouch deliveries to live satellite feeds. Our personality as a visual information service moved from exploring big themes to chasing breaking news. I entered an organization resembling a Hollywood studio and left it as a participant in a news-oriented satellite network that called itself “Worldnet.”

The media theorist, Marshall McLuhan, posited that electronic communications made the world a “Global Village.” Fascination with that idea motivated me and two of my colleagues at Worldnet to leave our government positions and establish Global Village Communications (GVC) in Old Town Alexandria Virginia. In that two-decade venture, we put together people and facilities to accommodate clients desiring an electronic voice in the international marketplace of ideas. Our three connected town houses became crossroads for international correspondents, film crews, editors, and writers: narrating in recording booths, emoting on insert stages and producing in edit pavilions. On any given day, GVC was a virtual tower of Babel, with Spanish, Russian, Serbian, French, Arabic and Portuguese, emanating from offices and spoken around the coffee bar.

As creative director for GVC, I tackled communications challenges, large and small. Clients asked us to develop and execute strategic plans to educate employees and promote their products. The US Government contracted us to; promote the privatization process in the former Soviet Union, develop a television newscast for Cuba, train reporters in countries newly emerging from Communism and provide production facilities for correspondents temporarily resident in the USA in pursuit of their stories.

In a multi-year effort assisting a Puerto Rican client group establish a congressionally authorized self-determination process for the island, we launched an on-line newspaper and created several support groups. In mass media we produced videos, radio spots, and newspaper ads. Additionally, we covered elections, plebiscites, and congressional hearings. Ultimately, our efforts succeeded in the US House of Representatives but failed in the Senate. Regrettably, the American citizens of Puerto Rico remained in a colony and its metropolitan state continued as an empire.

Perhaps my greatest satisfaction during the GVC days was the opportunity to donate my professional services to Gonzaga College High School, the Jesuit institution in Washington DC from which I graduated in 1953. Beginning with a documentary film of the school’s history, narrated by the late actor Robert Prosky, there followed a series of videos to promote the school’s culture and academic excellence. In recognition of my cinematic efforts for the school, I was invited to address the graduating class of 2015. I began my remarks, “I am a storyteller.”

Production management and client development leave little time for personal creative pursuits. Accordingly, some months ago, I said “goodbye” to office and commerce and am now digging into long dormant stories that have been crying for my attention and need telling. Profiles of personages that I have researched need to be voiced and images that depict my country’s broken immigration policies need to be revealed. As I am able, these efforts will be placed on this blog for your perusal and comment. Perhaps in that response, you can tell me a few stories of your own.