Robert Reed, shown near the site of his home at Crescent Ridge Mobile Home Estates near Crescent Ridge Road on Nov. 14.
Buy Photo Michelle Lepianka Carter | The Tuscaloosa News
Published: Sunday, November 27, 2011 at 3:30 a.m.
Last Modified: Saturday, November 26, 2011 at 10:50 p.m.
TUSCALOOSA | A University of Alabama professor and a student who became intrigued by Robert Reed are making a short documentary, not just of Reed?s heroism on April 27, but his life story.
?It?s a personal story. It?s a story that had a life before the 27th, and it continues after the 27th,? said Dwight Cammeron, a telecommunication and film professor at UA.
Reed has lived a hard life. After football glory as a quarterback at Aliceville High School in the 1990s, his dreams of sports fame fizzled when he dropped out of college. He later served nearly eight years in prison for drug charges.
But he managed to reunite with his high school girlfriend, April Watson, after prison, and was fortunate in finding a friend in Jeff Stewart, a firefighter who owned a mobile home park in Holt. Stewart looked beyond Reed?s past and named him property manager.
If not for his life before April 27, Reed wouldn?t have been in the trailer park at all to rescue people from the rubble. And perhaps only he could have saved them in time because of his physical strength.
?The 27th was a major opportunity for him,? Cammeron said.
Reed said that before April 27, people saw only his intimidating size and his past. Now, he?s considered a hero, and that day has rewritten the way people look at him.
?I wasn?t a hero beforehand,? he said. ?People looked at me as big and scary.?
It?s that story of redemption that touched Cammeron, he said.
Called ?April?s Hero,? the 30-minute documentary will delve into Reed?s life a bit deeper than previous media coverage. Reed was an open book, allowing Cammeron and student Shelby Hadden to delve into his life.
A near-finished draft of the documentary is stored in Cammeron?s computer, and he hopes to show it at film festivals next year. It?s possible it could be aired on Alabama Public Television, but there is no agreement, he said.
Cammeron won an Emmy from the National Academy of the Arts and Sciences for the documentary ?Still Holding On: The Music of Dorothy Love Coates and the Original Gospel Harmonettes,? and has a lengthy list of documentary credits.
Reach Adam Jones at adam.jones@tuscaloosanews.com or 205-722-0230.
Source: http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/article/20111127/news/111129827
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