In the same year the World War II Foundation marks its milestone 10th anniversary, its founder and president Tim Gray is inducted into the Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame (October 23, 2021). The honor is only the most recent Tim has earned as a national award-winning documentary film director, producer, and writer.
Tim’s collection of 29 completed and post-production feature-length documentaries produced under World War II Foundation/Tim Gray Media consistently rank in the top-5 of most requested programs nationally by PBS affiliates. The collection is recently available on Rhode Island PBS Passport through release by American Public Television (APT).
The non-profit World War II Foundation honors the legacy of the veterans and survivors of one of history’s most important periods by producing educational documentary films to preserve these relevant stories for current and future generations. For his work, Tim Gray has won 5 Regional Emmy Awards for documentary film writing and outstanding documentary film. The Foundation has also captured three prestigious Indie Film Fest Awards in that international competition. The World War II Foundation and Tim Gray Media have also been recognized with American Public Television’s prestigious National Programming Excellence Award, which recognizes the best in film work by producers, writers and directors across the national public television spectrum.
Tim says he does not produce World War II films; he chronicles the profoundly moving personal stories of the World War II generation.
Rhode Island PBS features one such personal story on Veterans Day, November 11, 2021, at 9 p.m. It is a story that will resonate with many Rhode Islanders, who will recognize the hero, Bruce Sundlun - the man who went on from World War II to become a successful business man, advisor to presidents, and the 71st governor of the State of Rhode Island. The full title of the film is almost as extraordinary as the story itself: Above and Beyond: The Incredible Escape of Jewish-American B-17 Pilot Bruce Sundlun from Nazi-Occupied Europe in World War II.
From the World War II Foundation website:
During overseas active duty beginning in June 1943, Bruce Sundlun, a Jewish-American college student, served as a B-17 Flying Fortress pilot in the England-based 384th Bomb Group of the Eighth Air Force at Grafton-Underwood Air Base. Sundlun’s plane, the Damn Yankee, was shot down over Nazi-occupied Jabbeke, Belgium, on December 1, 1943, after being damaged by flak and attacked by German fighter planes following the bombing of Solingen, Germany, on the “Yankee’s” 13th mission over Europe. Five of his crew were killed, four others captured by the Germans. After being smuggled out of Belgium on more than 100 stolen bicycles and hidden by Catholic priests and, after six months’ time, cooperating with the French Resistance under the code name Salamander, Bruce Sundlun made several attempts to enter neutral Spain in an effort to escape back to England. However, after deciding that there was too much danger of capture or loss in the snowy Pyrenees, Sundlun made his way, once again on stolen bicycles, north-eastward across France, where he finally escaped into Switzerland.
The film is narrated by Governor Sundlun’s daughter, Kara Sundlun.
Providing additional colorful insight is an in-depth article authored by Kathie Raleigh in the August 15, 2014, issue of The Independent.
WSBE Rhode Island PBS transmits high-definition (HD) programming over the air on digital 36.1; Cox 08 / 1008HD, Verizon FiOS 08 / 508HD, and Full Channel 08; Comcast 819HD and Verizon FiOS 18 / 518HD; DirecTV 36, Dish Network 36. Live stream the full schedule within the broadcast viewing area at watch.ripbs.org/livestream.
