Current Project

The first of these films, The Judge – Character, Cases and Courage, is currently in production and is scheduled for completion in the fall of 2019. The subject of this film is Judge Robert R. Merhige Jr.’s tenure on the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.

At the height of his judicial career, Robert R. Merhige Jr. was perhaps the most influential federal trial judge in the United States. He made rulings ordering the desegregation of the public schools in Richmond, Virginia, and ordered the University of Virginia to admit women as students. Also among his many notable cases, was the criminal trial arising from one of the worst environmental disasters in American history, the Kepone chemical contamination of the James River, which lead to the creation of the Virginia Environmental Endowment.

In addition to founding the TADFF, Mr. Griffith as the Producer/Director and Mr. Calderaro as Executive Producer head up the production team for The Judge. The scriptwriter and primary adviser on legal history is Mr. Rodney A. Smolla, currently Dean of Delaware Law School. Mr. Smolla has served as dean of University of Richmond School of Law, dean of Washington and Lee University School of Law, and president of Furman University. In addition, Mr. Smolla has authored a number of books including, “Deliberate Intent”, which was made into a television movie.

Filming for The Judge began on Thursday 7/7/16, with an interview of Ms. Anne Holton, Virginia’s former Secretary of Education. Ms. Holton clerked for Judge Merhige from 1983 to 1984 and has fond memories of their association. In addition, we interviewed Ms. Holton’s father, former Governor A. Linwood Holton. We were able to film both prior to Ms. Holton’s resignation in order to join her husband, Senator Tim Kaine, on the campaign trail. In addition to Ms. Holton, other former clerks were interviewed, such as Rita Ruby, Esquire, Mary Kelly Tate, Esquire and Lewis F. Powell III, Esquire.

Also interviewed were Judge Merhige’s former colleagues on the Eastern District bench – The Honorable James R. Spencer (Ret.), The Honorable Henry E. Hudson and The Honorable Judge Robert E. Payne. Other interviewees of note are; The Honorable J. Harvie Wilkinson, III (Judge of the United States Court of Appeals of the Fourth Circuit), The Honorable Gerald L. Baliles (the 65th Governor of Virginia), the past president of The American College of Trial Lawyers and former clerk to Judge Merhige, Michael W. Smith, Esquire, and the noted civil rights attorney and founder of the ACLU in Virginia, Philip J. Hirschkop, Esquire. United States Senator Tim Kaine (the 70th Governor of Virginia) and The Honorable Roger L. Gregory (Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals of the Fourth Circuit) also shared their remembrances of Judge Merhige. The most recent, and final interview was with Senator Mark Warner (the 69th Governor of Virginia).

The Mary Morton Parsons Foundation, The Virginia Sargeant Reynolds Foundation, The Royall Charitable Fund, The Richard S. Reynolds Foundation, Hunton & Williams, LLP, McGuireWoods, LLP, the Virginia Film Office, the Virginia Trial Lawyers Association, the Virginia Environmental Endowment, The Lewis Butler Foundation and The Historical Society for the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, are all supporting our current production. In addition, The Virginia Sargeant Reynolds Foundation and The Royall Charitable Fund have pledged continued support for The American Documentary Film Fund with new documentary projects in the future.

As a non-profit educational foundation all income generated by the distribution of The Judge will be rolled back into the corporation to support the ongoing operation of the organization and future documentary projects. The Judge will be entered in documentary film festivals in order to attract a national distributor and, in addition, we will self-distribute the film to educational institutions, law schools in particular, around the Mid-Atlantic Region.