Critics are praising the documentary film "Won't You Be My Neighbor?" as a comfort in dark and divisive times.
Filmmaker Morgan Neville's nostaglic tribute to Mr. Rogers, the cardigan-clad, gentle-voiced, kind grownup who befriended generations of kids, premeires in theaters Friday.
Paul Siefken, president and CEO of Fred Rogers Productions, the company that carries on Rogers' legacy through children's television programming, says Rogers was a kind and gentle soul but his work was bold and courageous.
"While other people might have seen it as fairly milquetoast, if you will, what he was doing was actually pretty radical. It was very different for television at the time. He came at it from a place of respect for children."
Siefken says the film gives viewers a three dimensional view of Fred Rogers and the humanity that was involved in every part of his life and his work.
Click on the LISTEN link above to hear an interview with Paul Siefken.
Tonight's advance screening of "Won't You Be My Neighbor?" at The Little Theatre is sold out, but it starts a regular runthere on Friday.
