Filmmaker, UNO Alumnus Helps Share Omaha’s Stories in PBS Series

A local filmmaker and Maverick alumnus is helping share the stories and perspectives of people across Omaha as part of the television docuseries “American Portrait.”

The series shares crowdsourced videos exploring themes of family, work, fun, faith, and community. Contributors are provided with prompts such as “I stand for…” or “You don’t know what it’s like to…” and numerous others. Building on the prompt, they are invited to share their feelings, experiences, and views.

No stranger to filmmaking and storytelling, UNO alumnus Nick Beaulieu spent the latter part of his undergraduate career gaining valuable experience as editor-in-chief of The Gateway, UNO’s student newspaper, and as an intern assisting in translation and editing of a documentary.

He began his career after college by working in advertising and in journalism but recently began to focus more heavily on film. An online community of documentary professionals and some connections through mutual friends led him to PBS, which was searching for filmmakers from Nebraska for the “American Portrait” series.

After connecting with producers, it was a matter of determining who to feature in his videos.

Beaulieu’s previous work had led him to meet people with interesting stories, but many times, he didn’t have the opportunity to feature their stories. “I began by thinking about people around Omaha who I knew were interesting and that I wanted to know more about,” he said. “I wanted to showcase a diverse representation of Omaha, which is the Omaha I like to live in. My goal was to do this not only through age and identity but geographically too.”

“It's impossible to completely represent a place or population by choosing five participants, but that's what I tried my best to do.”

Among the stories he shared were Gladys Harrison, owner of Big Mama’s Kitchen and Catering, describing the risk she took when she decided to run for Congress in 2020. Artist Watie White spoke with Beaulieu about embracing change once the COVID-19 pandemic comes to an end. White is pictured in front of one of his pieces from his “100 People” exhibit, which was displayed at UNO in early 2020.

One of the stories he felt was most impactful was a video about a local woman talking about perseverance through the unknown – a story that required some help filming to be able to share safely.

“Maria's feature was really unique because I let her film everything. It was necessary due to the risk COVID-19 presented, especially for her grandmother who's 93. And this ended up giving the material so much more intimacy. I think that really allowed me to edit something that felt natural and authentic.”

Episodes of “American Portrait” air nationally on PBS and individual submissions can be viewed online. Full episodes and individual submissions sharing the stories from people across the state and the country can be found online. More than 13,500 stories have been collected across the nation so far and anyone can share their story on the PBS “American Portrait” website