Peter Rodis sits in front of an African painting at his Highland Beach home. A documentary of African-American singer Nina Simone he made as a young man is now incorporated in an Academy Award-nominated documentary. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star
By Rich Pollack
Peter Rodis was a young film-school student at New York University in the late 1960s when he decided to embark on an ambitious project.
Using his own money, Rodis enlisted the help of some classmates and set out to produce a documentary about singer Nina Simone.
“I love music and I always loved Nina Simone,” said Rodis, 74, now a full-time resident of Highland Beach.
Rodis’ film, Nina Simone: To Be Free, first aired on a New York television station in 1970 and became known as one of the most definitive films about the singer’s life.
Now, most of the footage included in that 28-minute film is playing a major role in a new documentary, What Happened, Miss Simone? which last month was one of five documentaries nominated for an Oscar.
“This is a lifelong dream,” he said. “It only took 50 years.”
For Rodis, who spent a year on-and-off with Simone, the use of his material in an Academy Award-nominated film is the result of determination and dedication to help get Simone’s story out to the public.
“I never gave up on Nina or on the project,” he said.
Then a resident of Queens, Rodis was a young real estate broker in his mid-20s when he decided to go back to college.
“I always loved film,” he said.
During his last year in school, he approached Simone’s husband, who was also her manager, about the idea of doing a documentary with the singer, pianist and civil rights activist.
For the project, Rodis interviewed Simone in her Mount Vernon, N.Y., home and also followed her on the road — along with a small crew that included the film’s director, fellow student Joel Gold.
The short documentary includes candid conversations with Simone as well as rehearsals and performances that show the true scope of her talent and her connection with audiences.
During trips with her, Rodis saw firsthand the prejudice the singer encountered when servers at hotels kept walking by without stopping to take an order and when rooms that had been available to white customers were no longer available for the entertainer.
Once it was completed in the early 1970s, the film appeared on New York’s WOR television station and was nominated for an Emmy Award. It was later used in a segment of the Great America Dream Machine, a television program produced by New York’s public broadcasting station WNET from 1971 to 1973.
Rodis’ career in film was somewhat short-lived. He co-produced a feature film that featured Richard Burton and O.J. Simpson and later worked as a production director on several commercials but spent most of his career in real estate.
His film, however, enjoyed resurgence in the mid-2000s following Simone’s death, when Sony Records put out a CD set of recordings and included a DVD of the film. The set received a Grammy Award nomination and Rodis’ documentary received recognition, 35 years after it was made.
Then a couple of years ago, Rodis received a call from Liz Garbus, director of What Happened, Miss Simone? who told him about the project she was working on with Netflix.
“She said, ‘You have the most amazing film with Nina Simone,’ ” Rodis said.
After their conversation, he agreed to let the film be used in the documentary, now available through Netflix.
“A number of people wanted to license the film over the years, but I never allowed it,” Rodis said. “I figured if I ever wanted people to see it, this was the opportunity.”
Rodis, who leads a monthly film discussion group at the Highland Beach Public Library, has already shown and discussed What Happened, Miss Simone? and plans are being made to show it again this month.
Today, Rodis is pleased his footage is being used in an Academy Award-nominated film and is proud of his 28-minute documentary’s newfound exposure.
“It was a matter of love for me,” he said.
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