| Summary: | American Cameraman recounts the history of motion picture news, starting with the hand-cranked camera and ending with the dawn of video. From the silent newsreels through the first two decades of television, news cameramen were the prime movers of the news business. This film is the story of Bill Birch, who created many of the iconic news images of the 20th century. As Bill puts it, "A cameraman was a reporter with a camera instead of a pencil." When Bill was drafted into the Army, he ended up in the Signal Corps under the legendary film director Frank Capra. They were responsible for the much-watched "Why We Fight" series. After the war, Bill went to Movietone News and then to NBC. He reported on the Leopold and Loeb trial, the desegregation of the schools in Little Rock, and Castro's triumphant march into Havana. He covered presidents Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Nixon, including John Kennedy's fateful trip to Dallas. Bill Birch had a flair for being in the right place at the right time.
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