CREATOR’S STATEMENT

This tale was woven into the fabric of my family just over 60 years ago. I've lived with it for as long as I've understood myself to be a filmmaker. Though I may be two generations removed from the events of the 1950's, their effects still cling to my soul and that of my family. Albert E. Kahn was my grandfather; I grew up with this tale as lore. He was a hero of historical note. He was a crusader of singular vision. He was gifted with a unique warmth. He was devastatingly funny. He was incorrigible and unsufferable. He was manic and manipulative. He was three different fathers to three different boys, all under the same roof.

Thanks to this complex portrait of Albert, largely formed during the events of FOOL THEM ONCE, I am eternally fascinated with the ways in which waging battle can blind us as much as it can gift us sight, no matter the cause or side. So much is true for each individual connected to this story, as it is true for all of us who proceed them. Indeed, the scars and badges my family still bear from these trials have shaped our individual senses of righteousness and duty. The Kahns are not special this way; the same divergent reverberations from conflict have been felt by families and generations across the country and beyond. We are all proof that few futures are free of the past. Though Albert passed away many years ago, as a family we still openly contemplate the importance of those times and their searing relevance to today's changing world.

It is my hope that FOOL THEM ONCE will offer us all the same chance for reflection and inform the ways we choose to step into the next era. Oh -- and be good tv.

- Executive Producer Ben Kahn

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