Documentary Filmmaker George C. Stoney Dies at 96

George C. Stoney, dean of the documentary film American and a leader of the movement of every American citizen has the right to a public access television program of his own, died Thursday at his home in Manhattan. He was 96 years.

Mr. Stoney, who has taught film at New York University from 1970 until the last years of his life, was equally acclaimed for his role as director, teacher and prophet of social change in a barrel camera.

In addition to mentoring two generations of students, many of whom have spread in the film industry, Mr. Stoney is dedicated to the training of community activists in the use of film as a tool for people who do not have a voice.

Their role in creating public access television was based on the hope that it would be an outlet for this type of documentary film to create communities.

His 50 documentaries as "occupation" of Canadian students who have taken over the building of McGill University in 1970, "The rebellion of '34" (1995), the brutal legacy of a strike, the textile workers crushed by the owners of factories, and "All My Babies" (1953), a film originally commissioned by the Georgia Department of Public Health to educate midwives who work in poor rural areas. It became a classic.

In the filming of "All my babies," met Mr. Stoney, son of a preacher in North Carolina, all safety practices required by the Ministry of Health requirements.

However, with the hope of a better distribution of information to a largely illiterate public, has hired a midwife of 51 years of age named Mary Coley to play the lead role in a series of dramatic reconstructions.

The film, which includes a sequence of 15 minutes showing a live birth, was widely considered a masterpiece of propaganda, in the best sense.

It became a staple of the curriculum of medical school, and was published by UNESCO and the World Health Organization.

In 2002 the film was introduced at the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress, a list that basically defined the canon of American cinema.

Listed in alphabetical order, including "All About Eve" and "All Quiet on the Western Front."

Mr. Stoney had just entered the faculty of the film school at NYU in 1971 when he co-founded the Alternate Media Center, a university project for the education of students and community members to use video cameras, a technology that was new at that time.

This project led him to become interested in another cable and emerging media at significantly expanded its spectrum presents the basis for the film.

With other media savvy activists, including its Media Center co-founder of Red Burns, Mr. Stoney has helped create the National Federation of Local Cable Programmers, who began lobbying industry and government regulatory agencies .

If cable companies are going to put their wires under or over public roads, according to them, should be obliged to give the public a part of the broadcast spectrum for new public access cable. This requirement was introduced in the federal Communications Act in 1984.

"There will be no public access, except for George Stoney," said Rika Welsh, another member of the first cable programmers and lobbying member of the Association Board of Cambridge Community Television, the public access to the operator of Boston. "He understands what could be, and believe in its potential to unite communities."

In an interview some years ago (in a public access program), Mr Stoney said the public access television is not only a question of public access. "We do not see the cable as a way to encourage public action, not just access," he said. "I" as people can get information to your neighbors and your neighbors can take to the streets to organize. "

In another interview, said that public access was not meant to aim, in fact, was a bit "otherwise" anyone famous. "" To celebrate the ordinary people doing things to help each of the "something else".

Cashel George Stoney was born on July 1, 1916, in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and made his way through the University of North Carolina, majoring in English and history.

He studied at Balliol College, Oxford, and received certification in film education at the University of London.

He worked as an assistant field of research groups in the South for civil rights in 1940, was a Secret Service agent photo during World War II and later worked as a journalist. He has made films for state governmental agencies before starting her film company.

His survivors include a son, James, a daughter, Louise, a sister, Elizabeth Segal, a grandson and a nephew.