The new documentary film "Ralph Waldo Emerson: Give All to Love" will begin streaming on November 1.
ASHFORD, Conn., Nov. 1, 2023 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Connecticut-based independent filmmakers Michael Maglaras and Terri Templeton of 217 Films announce that their new film project, "Ralph Waldo Emerson: Give All to Love," a full-length documentary on America's greatest philosopher and thinker, will begin streaming for free personal use on November 1.
To view "Give All to Love" click here.
"Ralph Waldo Emerson is undoubtedly not only the father of American literature and the guiding spirit of that flinty idea called 'Transcendentalism,'" commented Michael Maglaras, "but he is also the father of our American conscience. This film tells the story of Emerson the man, the father, the husband, and eventually the guiding spirit of our American soul."
Emerson (1803–1882), through his journals, essays, lectures, and poetry, guided the development of American thought, spiritual expansion, and adherence to moral principles. Emerson's approach to living and to life was dynamic, forceful, and radical in its conception and fulfillment.
"Without Emerson's legacy," said Maglaras, "it would be difficult to imagine American cultural life and impossible to imagine the development of America as a society. Emerson is the spiritual father of the poetry of Walt Whitman, the music of Charles Ives, the teachings of Martin Luther King."
Shot on location in and around Concord, Massachusetts, "Ralph Waldo Emerson: Give All to Love" has as its focal point and backdrop "Bush": the wonderful Emerson home where the poet and his wife Lidian reared their children and where Emerson, the great "Sage of Concord," resided as a simple but revered citizen of America until his death.
The noted Emerson scholar and writer James Marcus is featured in the film: "I'm delighted to be collaborating with director Michael Maglaras on this important project that will bring Ralph Waldo Emerson to life." Marcus added, "Emerson speaks to our time with tremendous urgency…touching on the entirety of the American experience."
Bay Emerson Bancroft, President of the Ralph Waldo Emerson Memorial Association, has said of this new Emerson film project, "We are so pleased to endorse this new documentary film on Emerson…really the first of its kind…and we were happy to cooperate with filmmakers Michael Maglaras and Terri Templeton on its production. As we celebrate the 220th anniversary of Emerson's birth, this film will introduce him to an entirely new audience."
"What's important for me as a filmmaker is not only what Emerson wrote and said," added Michael Maglaras, "but also that he surrounded himself with people of brilliance, such as Margaret Fuller, Henry David Thoreau, and Louisa May and Bronson Alcott. To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment… said Emerson. This film will capture the essence of Emerson as the deeply original and radical thinker he was."
This film had a triumphant world premiere in Concord, Massachusetts to a sell-out audience on September 30, 2023.
Media Contact
Tami Burke, 217 Films, 1 207-838-0816, [email protected], www.two17films.com
SOURCE 217 Films

Share this article