Robert A. Emmons Jr.

Robert A. Emmons Jr.

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Diagram for Delinquents 2014

In 1950, America was in a state of panic. Juvenile delinquency was destroying the very fabric of society. Ninety percent of all children were reading comic books. In 1954, psychiatrist Dr. Fredric Wertham wrote a scathing indictment of comics called Seduction of the Innocent. Its central premise: Comic books were the leading contributing factor to juvenile delinquency. That same year, Dr. Wertham testified at special hearings on comic books at the Senate Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency in the United States. Comics were on trial. Diagram for Delinquents captures the zeitgeist of late 1940s and early 1950s America and investigates how the funny books found themselves on the fire. Using expert and comic book insider interviews, never seen before historical photographs and films, and animation, DIAGRAM goes further than any previous comic book documentary to explore and understand the controversial figure at the center of this American tale: Fredric Wertham.
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Palimpsest 2025

Palimpsest is an interactive documentary that traces childhood fear and anxiety from the Cold War to school shootings in America, while along the way connecting Archimedes, Choose Your Adventure books, Baseball, Ray Bradbury, Charles Dickens, Peter Pan, John Fahey, Turtles, and every demographic cohort from The Greatest Generation to Gen Z. Palimpsest scrapes at this messy history in an attempt to reveal causes and solutions for one of America's greatest public health epidemics.