R. Michael Givens

Robert Michael Givens (born March 19, 1958 in Anderson, South Carolina) is an American film director, cinematographer, and former commander of the Sons of Confederate Veterans.

Biography

Michael Givens is a Director/Cinematographer with extensive feature film and commercial production experience at both national and international levels. He was an internationally respected Director of Photography for nine years before beginning his directorial career in 1989. A graduate of Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara, California, Michael began his career as a still photographer. Subsequently, he moved into film, becoming a Director of Photography for such noted directors as Ridley Scott, Steven Friers, Philip Borsos and Peter Smilie. After guiding his career in the camera department of numerous feature films and hundreds of commercials he moved to the field of directing.

Recognizing the need for different visual styles to reflect and speak to different cultures, Michael has created successful campaigns for audiences in Asia, Europe, Africa, North and South America. While filming in nearly every corner of the globe, Michael's reputation as a director-cameraman easily adaptable to difficult and hostile locations, earned him the distinction of being the first western director to film in Vietnam since the end of the war.

Givens' feature film credits include directing and photographing the second unit for Coyote Ugly and cinematographer on Rebel Private and The Celestine Prophecy. He also directed and photographed Opposite Day, a feature film starring French Stewart, Pauly Shore and Dick van Patton.

Confederate sympathy

Givens is a former commander of the Sons of Confederate Veterans.[1][2][3][4] He has described the American Civil War as being "not about slavery",[5] and suggested that black Southerners wilfully allied with whites to resist the United States.[3] In 1998, Givens was promoting his concept for a film in which Abraham Lincoln is tried as a war criminal at The Hague.[6]

References
  1. Sprouse, Jennifer (January 9, 2014). "Sons of Confederate Veterans chief to speak at Lee-Jackson Day dinner". Johnson City Press. Retrieved September 1, 2023. Michael Givens may have never met Gen. Robert E. Lee, but the historic Confederate Army leader is a hero in his eyes. Givens, a director and cinematographer by trade as well as an East Tennessee State University alumni, is also the commander in chief of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, a group that's been in existence since 1896.
  2. Black, Olivia Williams (2016). "The 150-Year War: The Struggle to Create and Control Civil War Memory at Fort Sumter National Monument". The Public Historian. 38 (4): 149–166. doi:10.1525/tph.2016.38.4.149. ISSN 0272-3433. JSTOR 26420937.
  3. Levin, Kevin M. (9 August 2019). Searching for Black Confederates: The Civil War's Most Persistent Myth. UNC Press Books. p. 169. ISBN 978-1-4696-5327-3.
  4. "Life and Arts Announcements, Jan. 13". Knoxville News Sentinel. January 11, 2013. Retrieved September 1, 2023. Longstreet/Zollicoffer Camp of the Sons of Confederate Veterans: Robert E. Lee/Stonewall Jackson birthday dinner, 7 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 19, Foundry Restaurant, World's Fair Park. Director/cinematographer/ SCV Commander in Chief R. Michael Givens will speak.
  5. Eichler, Alex (November 30, 2010). "150 Years After the Civil War, Should We Be Swearing In Jefferson Davis?". The Atlantic. Retrieved September 1, 2023. No, It's Just a Celebration of Independence The [New York] Times also quotes Michael Givens, commander-in-chief of the group Sons of Confederate Veterans, who says, 'We in the South, who have been kicked around for an awfully long time and are accused of being racist, we would just like the truth to be known... Our people were only fighting to protect themselves from an invasion and for their independence.'
  6. Feinstein, Howard (1998). "The independent film & video monthly". New York, NY : Foundation for Independent Video and Film : Association of Independent Video and Filmmakers. p. 22.
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