NORTHWEST
East Oregonian
A2
Thursday, April 8, 2021
Academy Award nominee credits Eastern for success
By DICK MASON
La Grande Observer
LA GR A N DE —
Awa rd-w i n n i ng docu-
mentary filmmaker Skye
Fitzgerald, a 1993 graduate of
Eastern Oregon University,
is a risk taker. The premium
Fitzgerald paid for kidnap
insurance in 2020 is harrow-
ing proof.
Fitzgerald purchased the
insurance policy prior to film-
ing “Hunger
Wa r d ,” a
4 0 -m i nut e
work that
documents
the effects
the war and
famine in
Fitzgerald
Ye me n is
having on
children, families and health
care workers. He shot the film
over 30 days in January and
February 2020 in northern
and southern Yemen, a west
Asian nation devastated by
war between Saudi-backed
pro-government forces and
the rebel Houthi movement.
Fitzgerald, a two-time
Academy Award nominee,
said he never forgot he was in
peril throughout his time in
Yemen.
“I was on guard at all
times. The fear was real,” he
said.
The EOU graduate and
members of his party took
numerous precautions. For
Contributed Photo, File
Skye Fitzgerald, an Eastern Oregon University graduate, films a search and rescue operation
in the southern Mediterranean in October 2016.
example, they kept their
cellphones and laptops in
a bag made of material that
blocked signals from the
devices, helping prevent
potential abductors from
detecting their location. Fitz-
gerald’s party also avoided
traveling at night and made
sure someone outside Yemen
knew their exact location at
all times.
Fitzgerald, whose party
was detained during its
Yemen visit for a frighten-
ing seven hours before being
released, emerged from the
war-torn nation with footage
that has caught the world’s
attention. “Hunger Ward” is
one of nine films to receive a
2021 Academy Award nomi-
nation in the short documen-
tary category.
This is Fitzgerald’s second
Academy Award nomina-
tion. His 2018 documentary
“Lifeboat,” about North Afri-
can migrants trying to make
it across the Mediterranean
Sea, also made the academy’s
list.
Fitzgerald said he believes
he owes his success to the
support he received at East-
ern, where he earned a degree
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in theater.
“I have a deep sense of
gratitude (for Eastern),” said
Fitzgerald, who now lives in
Happy Valley in Clackamas
County.
Fitzgerald said if he had
attended a larger school he
might not have done as well
because he would have been
in larger classes with less
access to his professors.
He credited people such as
former EOU theater profes-
sor Mark Kuntz and Mark
Shadle, a former writing
and English professor, with
providing guidance at a criti-
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however, chance led him to
take a film class to fulfill a
credit requirement.
“I was literally just flip-
ping through the graduate
catalog and I stumbled upon
this television directing class
at the graduate level,” he said.
Once he took that class,
Fitzgerald said, he knew that
filmmaking was what he
wanted to do.
“Hunger Ward,” much
of which takes place in two
therapeutic feeding centers
in Yemen for children suffer-
ing from malnutrition, is the
third in a humanitarian tril-
ogy that Fitzgerald is direct-
ing. The first was “50 Feet
from Syria” (2015), which
focuses on doctors working
on the Syrian border, and then
came “Lifeboat.”
Fitzgerald said “Hunger
Ward” is a film he was
compelled to make because
of the magnitude of the crisis
in Yemen, where many chil-
dren are starving.
“I did not want to make
this film, but I believed I
needed to,” he said.
Fitzgerald, who directed
and produced the documen-
tary, said he was elated when
“Hunger Ward” was nomi-
nated for an Academy Award
because this will draw greater
attention to what is happen-
ing in Yemen.
“It will place it on an
elevated stage,” Fitzgerald
said.
Idaho man backs into gas pump, punches
police officer and hospital security guard
By JAYSON JACOBY
Baker City Herald
Winds subsiding
and cooler
cal time of his life.
“They took me under their
wing when I was a young
man trying to find my way,”
said Fitzgerald, who gradu-
ated with a minor in creative
writing.
The documentary film-
maker said he fears he might
have lost his way had he
attended a larger university,
especially after growing up
in Monument, a town of less
than 200 people in Grant
County. His high school
graduating class had seven
members.
Fitzgerald said he received
an excellent education in
Monument, but its small size
did not prepare him for a
large university experience,
a major reason he enrolled
at Eastern. Fitzgerald said
his interest in theater was
piqued in Monument when
he appeared in a high school
production of the “Wizard of
Oz.”
“It sparked my interest,
it primed me for theater,” he
said.
Fitzgerald later appeared
in many play productions at
Eastern.
“I loved theater,” he said.
Fitzgerald said he didn’t
switch his focus to film until
graduate school at the Univer-
sity of Oregon. He originally
applied to the theater director
master’s program at Oregon
because an EOU professor
encouraged him. At Oregon,
BAK ER CITY — A
Boise, Idaho, man is in
the Baker County Jail on
multiple charges, includ-
ing assaulting a peace offi-
cer, after he twice hit a
Baker City police officer
in the face during an alter-
cation on Tuesday, April 6,
at Saint Alphonsus Medical
Center-Baker City.
Andrew Lane Peter-
man, 36, is also charged
with fourth-degree assault,
second-degree criminal
mischief and second-degree
disorderly conduct. He was
arraigned April 6, partici-
pating in the proceeding by
phone from jail. Peterman’s
bail was set at $100,000.
Peterman is accused of
hitting Officer Mark Powell
and a security guard at
the hospital, according to
Baker City Police Depart-
ment Sgt. Wayne Chastain.
Both Powell and the
security guard were eval-
uated at the hospital and
released, Chastain said.
C h a s t a i n , who h a s
worked for the Baker City
police for 20 years, said it’s
quite rare for a local officer
to be assaulted by a suspect.
“We really don’t see
this a lot,” he said. “It’s an
anomaly. The community
overall respects what we’re
trying to do here.”
The incident star ted
when police received a call
about a vehicle backing into
a gas pump at a Baker City
convenience store.
Chastain said Powell
ar r ived f irst, followed
almost immediately by
Officer Rand Weaver.
Peterman, the suspected
driver of the 2005 Honda
Element that struck the gas
pump, initially agreed to
undergo field sobriety tests,
as Powell suspected that
Peterman might be intoxi-
cated, Chastain said.
But before Powell could
administer the tests, Peter-
man said he wanted to be
taken to the hospital.
A Baker City ambu-
lance took Peterman to
Saint Alphonsus, where he
was evaluated and released,
Chastain said.
But Peterman refused
to leave the hospital after
multiple requests, and in
the ensuing altercation he
punched the security guard,
Chastain said.
Powell used his Taser
to try to subdue Peterman,
who continued to fight,
punching Powell twice
in the face before Powell
arrested him.
Peterman was evaluated
again before being taken to
the jail, Chastain said.
Chastain said he didn’t
have any information about
the extent of the damage to
the gas pump. He said the
f ire depar tment wasn’t
called to the scene.
According to Idaho court
records, Peterman pleaded
guilty on Nov. 13, 2019,
to aggravated assault and
use of a deadly weapon in
commission of a felony. He
was sentenced to prison in
January 2020, and released
from prison, on probation,
less than a week ago, on
April 1.
According to an online
story from a Boise TV
station, Peterman, then 33,
was arrested in September
2018 after police responded
to reports of shots fired in
a Boise neighborhood. No
one was hurt in the inci-
dent.
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IN BRIEF
NATIONAL WEATHER TODAY
OSP still seeking leads for
missing woman
MEACHAM — Oregon State Police
are reminding people in
the area of the Interstate 84
work zone near Meacham to
keep an eye out for anything
that could lead to finding a
woman who has been miss-
ing almost three months.
Deborah
“Deb”
Hendrichs of Ada County,
Hendrichs
Idaho, has been missing
since Jan. 11. OSP Lt. Daniel D. Conner, of
the La Grande Area Command, in a bulletin
reported an Oregon Department of Trans-
portation worker was the last person to see
Hendrichs, whose 2012 black Toyota Rav 4
ran out of fuel on eastbound Interstate 84
near milepost 238.5 near Meacham.
“Members of the Oregon State Police
responded to the scene within 20 minutes
to find the vehicle unoccupied,” according
to state police.
Hendrichs is 56, stands 5-feet-6 and
weighs 145 pounds. Multiple search efforts
have not led to finding Hendrichs. Conner
urged anyone who sees anything suspi-
cious in the area to contact the Oregon
State Police La Grande Area Command at
541-963-7175 and refer to case No. SP21-
014895.
— EO Media Group
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