Contributors’ Statements

I’m delighted that you are doing this documentary. The trailer is wonderful and captures so much of who Chris was and the important work that he did! Chris came to Haverford several times to speak with students in my global health classes. Students were awed by all that he had accomplished in so many parts of the world, as well as inspired by his gentle manner, his sense of humor, and his commitment to service. Thank you for honoring Chris through this documentary! When do you anticipate that the film will be ready for screening?  Is there something scheduled at Haverford? Please let me know if I can help. We could co-sponsor the showing with the Quaker Affairs Office and the Health Studies Minor.

Mary Kaye Edwards, Haverford College

Friends understand the connection between faith and action to be very close. That is to say if your faith is based on experience of the love of God, that love flows in, but it also flows out as connection and love for God’s creation, all the people and creatures in it. So in that sense Chris’s work was clearly a Witness. But we also understand that not only is the Witness a connection between our faith and action in the world, but it’s also grounded in the sense that we can make a difference. There’s the potential for change that’s part of a Witness. … Friends don’t have basic tenets of theological belief, but this is really basic to us – the idea that by acting on our love we can make a difference in the world, and that’s clearly what Chris was doing everyday – so he’s a perfect example of Quaker Witness.

Carol Walz, Director of Grant Making, Philadelphia Yearly Meeting

To me, being a Quaker is about service. I’ll tell you a funny saying that I learnt early on “When the worship ends, the service begins”. Quakers are very quiet people – Chris was sometimes, sometimes he wasn’t – but it’s that giving back and seeing the value in people, seeing the light in everyone, God’s light in everyone and Chris exemplified that in all his good works over the many years.

John Bailey, Member, Buckingham Friends

 Chris’s life is a reminder, and in our busy, distracted lives, we need reminders, of the lasting imprint that people like Chris make on this fractured world we live in. So many people are in desperate need and so many others oblivious to those needs, and precious few are willing or able to act on the impulse to change things for the better. I know this project has taken a lot of your time and effort, not to mention financial support, and I commend you for taking the initiative and seeing it through to bring Chris’s story and his example out into the public. I truly hope this will end up having wide distribution.

Anne Stephano

The origins of giving back I think come from family values, people’s religious commitments if they have them and sometimes ..seminal experiences that they remember vividly or that in someway changed their lives. So it’s an expression of the need to act out your moral values in your real life and work, what you do and where you do it and Chris embodied that totally.

H. Jack Geiger, MD, MSciHyg, Founder Delta Health Center ,Mound Bayou, Mississipi

I met Chris really in the middle 60s during a period of great schism in this country during the time of the civil rights movement when there was a great divide in the state of Mississippi. He had a very serious need and commitment to help the least of these obtain health care, and felt overwhelmed when he couldn’t give enough of himself or when he saw the system as it was in Mississippi at the time he was here.  He couldn’t understand politicians and those people in charge. He was upset because at that time there was no statewide system of healthcare for children, for primary healthcare. Things that people take for granted. It just wasn’t there. Those were the things that drove Chris nuts.

Dr. Robert Smith, Executive Director Central Mississippi Health Services, Inc.

Rocket Man Outreach

It is hoped that the experience of watching the Rocket Man will act as a catalyst to encourage discussion and debate, particularly among young people. A distribution plan has been drawn up for the film to include a program of targeted film festival applications, a search for possible theatrical and online distribution, and plans for community outreach screenings for schools, colleges and local communities.

The documentary will be submitted to film festivals in the U.S. and around the world to gain attention and help find a distributor for theater, television and online showings. As part of community outreach, there will be a series of organized public screenings at local cinemas in the Pennsylvania/New Jersey area, such as the County Theater in Doylestown with the director attending. It is hoped, as part of the distribution plan, the film will be broadcast on a public television network in the U.S. (A New Jersey affiliate of PBS, has already screened short excerpts from the film). To further raise awareness and encourage debate, it is intended that the film have a strong online presence, and be freely available on the designated Rocket Man website and on other sites such as Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, Haverford College and other college websites. Shorter formats of the documentary will be available for screening at schools and colleges and it is hope they will be used as part of a longer seminar about volunteering for social justice. (Kaye Edwards, Director of Haverford’s interdisciplinary minor in Health Studies, has personally supported the project, and is interested in screening the completed documentary at the school. The Haverford Magazine published a piece about Chris soon after he died, including a reference to the documentary).

Help Support the Documentary

We have received many generous offers of support from people moved by Chris Hansen’s story of a life spent giving back to others. But we still need your help to finish the film. If you would like to support Rocket Man, please donate now via PayPal link or contact the filmmaker at: michaelc@threehumansinc.com  or Telephone: 917 622 6103

 

If you would like to follow the production please click the links below.

Acknowledgements

With their permission all donors to the documentary will be credited in the film titles and press releases. Thanks go to the following donors for their support to date:

John Bailey. Julie Barnes. Obadiah Brown Benevolent Fund. Amy Hansen & Mark Canright. Mary Kaye Edwards. Jaimi Goralnick. Alix Hansen. Jonathan & Anne Hansen. Max and Andrea Hansen. Nathaniel Hansen & Shunyi Wu. Haverford Friends. Nile Lanning. Jill & Stephen McDonnell. Rick Newbold. Jonathan E. Rhoads Trust. Jonathan & Grace Scott. Annsi Stephano. Kim & Breck Taylor. Carol Waltz. Alexandra Warren