The short subject 30-minute film, is about the inspiration both inside and outside the classroom that Shipley students receive from their teachers, specifically, two who are Shipley alumni. Much like dominoes falling in a row, each one affecting the next, students are influenced by teachers, to become teachers themselves and in turn, influence younger students. Although crew and Shakespeare are central to the film, the story isn’t just about shells on the water, or reciting lines fin a play. It’s about how Rich, ten years ago, inspired a quiet tentative student, Emmy Miller, to become a Classics major at college, and her return to Shipley to inspire a new generation of students in Latin, Greek, and Shakespeare. It’s a story about how a coach inspired a rower, Jeff Hanna, to reach beyond the pain and strive for perfection.

In a recent New York Times editorial, Thomas L. Friedman wrote, “When I think back on my favorite teachers, I don't remember any more much of what they taught me, but I sure remember being excited about learning it…. What has stayed with me are not the facts they imparted, but the excitement about learning they inspired. To learn how to learn, you have to love learning—while some people are born with that gene, many others can develop it with the right teacher (or parent).”

To hear Rich speak of this movie is very much like listening to a Hollywood film director speak of the passion that drives him to make a movie. “I wanted to make a movie that depicts the power of teachers to initiate the cycle of giving and giving back.  Their words, like those of a great bard, live on in the psyche of their students with the inevitable power of a grand river.”

Steve Piltch, Head of School, says: “This film eloquently captures the essence of Shipley—the richness and complexity of the relationships between faculty and students. Behind the scenes, it’s also the story of David Rich, who made the film, and is a very talented Latin teacher as well as film maker. What he has produced is not the standard marketing film, but a real work of art in itself.”

May 2005