Documentary Film Maker
Died at his home in Boston on Monday, April 15, 2019, at the age of 80, after a lengthy battle with cancer.
While completing a degree in history at Tufts College, he envisioned a future as a teacher in British Columbia. But the evening courses in film that he took at Boston University while a Tufts undergraduate steered him toward a career in documentary film. After receiving a M.S. degree in Film from BU and taking several brief jobs with local companies, he worked at WGBH as an editor on several National Educational Television series and occasionally as a cameraman on The French Chef.
In 1966 he and Holly Fisher founded Fisher-Slezas Films, an independent company which distinguished itself with award-winning films on environmental and social issues. The film Watermen (1968) portrays Chesapeake Bay’s oyster “skipjacks,” the last operating fleet of sailing workboats in the U.S. to be used to dredge oysters. It was funded in part by the National Geographic Society, which premiered the film in 1969 to a large Washington, D.C., audience. Slezas subscribed to the Direct Cinema style of the cinema verité movement, as pioneered in the 1960s by Robert Leacock, the father of modern documentary. In Slezas’s words, during the shooting of Watermen, he and Fisher “worked casually, very gradually winning the confidence of their subjects, never contriving action or pre-arranging interviews.”
Another of his films, Progress, Pork Barrel, and Pheasant Feathers, a Blue Ribbon winner at the American Film Festival (1967), took the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and local politicians to task for the environmental damage the proposed Cross Florida Barge Canal would cause. The film was used by groups in the fight to stop the project, which was ultimately cancelled.
During the 1970s, Slezas was associated with Blackside, a minority-owned film company, which produced the Emmy-award-winning series Eyes on the Prize on the American Civil Rights movement. Early attempts to sell the series were unsuccessful. Slezas, known at the company as “Mr. Fix-It,” reworked the material into a pilot program for the series, which then was picked up by PBS.
His work at Blackside also included such highly-acclaimed films as Code Blue, to recruit minorities to the medical professions, and Voices of a Divided City, a look at racial attitudes in the wake of school busing in Boston, which was one of ten documentaries in the PBS series Crisis to Crisis. A New York Times review noted “how much more enlightening it is to hear the unfiltered views of those actually involved in the conflict” versus getting the viewpoint of experts.
Later on, at Wang Laboratories, Slezas headed up video production for the sales and training organizations, on occasion accompanying An Wang, the founder, on travel overseas.
Slezas was born in Klaipeda, Lithuania, on December 31, 1938. Hitler’s invasion uprooted his family, and as a child he experienced many hardships before coming to the United States in 1949. Throughout his life, he was active in the Lithuanian community, both locally and globally. Noteworthy are his efforts to preserve and promote the legacy of the Lithuania Minor region, in whose political and cultural history his grandfather, Jonas Vanagaitis, is a prominent figure.
Whoever met him, no matter in what context, never forgot him. His piercing gaze, direct approach, dry humor, intellectual curiosity, sometimes offbeat opinions, and genuine concern left an impression. In all seasons he was a reader with wide-ranging interests, but when the weather turned warmer, he focused his attention on gardening, and marauding squirrels became the bane of his existence, where his ripening tomatoes were concerned. His vast knowledge of local history and his familiarity with the cityscape made him sought after as a tour guide. As a teenager, he hiked up Mt. Jefferson in the White Mountains for the first time and continued to do so almost every year until age 68. His offspring continue this annual tradition to this day. Time spent with family and friends brought him the greatest joy. His 70th birthday celebration at the Brattle Theater with 100 well-wishers is remembered by many.
He leaves his beloved wife and creative colleague, Birute (Vaicjurgis); daughter Danute (Donna) Burns; son Andrius and his wife Egle; son Saulius; grandchildren Katie, Ed, Vicky, and Livvy Burns; grandchildren Sofija, Amelija, Madison, and Zachary Slezas; cousins Maryte Kavaliauskas Murphy of New York and Algis Slezas of Klaipeda; as well as other relatives. He was preceded in death by his father, Albinas, his mother, Anita Ona, his brother, Tautvydas, his son-in-law Stephen Burns, and his first wife, Nijole (Makaitis).
The family will hold visiting hours from 4-8 pm, Monday, April 29, at Casper Funeral Home, South Boston. An ecumenical service will follow on Tuesday, April 30, at 10 am at St. Peter and St. Vincent DePaul Church, Flaherty Way, South Boston. In lieu of flowers, tax-deductible contributions may be made to Camp Neringa, 147 Neringa, Rd., Brattleboro VT 05301.