For the first time in over 50 years, filmmaker William Riead returned to Monmouth Monday evening.
A 1961 graduate of Monmouth High School, Riead’s journey has taken him from small-town life to a globe-hopping Hollywood lifestyle.
“I like Monmouth. At 12 years old, I was a paperboy for the Review Atlas,” Riead said. “You never know who might come back one day.”
Monmouth looks drastically different from when Riead lived here at 1003 E. Broadway.
“I was very impressed. Driving through town, I was shocked at how it has grown,” Riead said. “I grew up on a farm, and I was kind of lost living in this town. I didn’t make much of a mark here. I just kept to myself. I finally opened up and had a good time in my senior year.”
The first thing Riead did upon arriving in Monmouth was eat a quiet dinner at Petey’s. Sitting at a booth, catching up with high school friend Richard Uddin, Riead said that is the type of evening he prefers. He tends to shy away from red carpet events and celebrity-packed parties.
“Hollywood is a small town; high school with money my wife calls it. I have led a very complicated life and I want to simplify it,” said Riead.
Riead recounted the unlikely series of events that took him from college student to well-known feature film director. As most people’s stories from that time-period go, Riead was drafted into the Army. He opted to enlist in the Army Reserves, an action that he said “took the kid out of me. I didn’t want to be a burden to my father when I returned from active duty.”
He came home with a new-found sense of independence and soon began seeking a job to pay for his higher education.
“I was driving down Main Street in Quincy, Illinois, and saw a sign that said ‘KHQA-TV Channel 7’. I went in and knocked on the door, told them I needed a job,” said Riead.
His timing was impeccable, as the station was enduring a strike. Management feared the striking employees might sabotage some of the station’s equipment, and so Riead was brought on as a night watchman. This allowed him to continue his education, commuting to Western Illinois University during the day and guarding the station at night.
“When the strike was over, I went in to see the station’s general manager and asked him what my next job was,” said Riead.
The chief cameraman was soon to retire, and although Riead had no experience with a camera, he was none-the-less hired and groomed to fill the vacancy.
“This experienced newsreel cameraman took me under his wing and taught me all about the camera,” Riead said. “I felt like Eddie Van Halen must have felt when he picked up a guitar for the first time. It was magic. I soon found I was doing what I loved.
“Almost immediately Riead began winning awards for his work. He was picked up by CBS News in New York, which had been watching him through its Quincy affiliate.
“They had far more confidence in me than I did,” said Riead.
While working for “60 Minutes” in Europe out of the network’s London bureau, Riead was approached by Columbia Pictures who asked him to direct the making of “Midnight Express.” Upon returning from the Malta location, he started his own production company, CinemaWest Films, which has since had a hand in the creation of numerous films, commercials, documentaries and other videos.
“I have had a life of privilege, and I have never taken for granted how fortunate I am to do something I love,” Riead said. “I have an aptitude for this work and find it is the only area I am talented and experienced in. Everybody has their area of expertise, I found this is mine.”
Riead’s most recent film, “The Letters,” a feature film that has been gaining traction recently via streaming on Netflix, depicts the struggles Mother Teresa endured during a 40-year period after leaving the security of a convent in Calcutta, India, to provide aid to those living in the slums.
“Mother Teresa is someone I really admired. She is the polar opposite of wealth. She wanted to serve the poor; it was very important to her, a calling,” Riead said. “She didn’t really realize what she would be encountering when she entered the slums, however: people dying in the streets, incredible suffering. It was terribly distressing to her, and she began to have a spiritual crisis. A lot of people confuse this, think she lost faith. She never lost faith in God. She felt God had abandoned her. It’s called the ‘Dark Night of the Soul,’ and a lot of saints experience this.”
Mother Teresa’s struggles are captured firsthand through a prolific series of letters she wrote to Father Celeste van Exem, her appointed spiritual director. While writing the screenplay for the film, Riead was able to sift through and read the letters.
“I was shocked at how sad she was. It was a revelation to me. None of us knew who Mother Teresa really was,” Riead said. “The letters she wrote reveal she was not who we thought she was. She was a person constantly suffering along with the people she was serving, in near agony, wanting to help the people she referred to as ‘poorest of the poor.’”
With a budget of $30 million, the film is being released in the United States through 20th Century Fox and was shot on location in Goa, India, and London.
“It was a big production. The weather was horrible in India: 100 degrees and oftentimes 100 percent humidity,” Riead said. “The box office in December was a bit disappointing, ‘Star Wars’ killed us. It killed anyone that put a picture out in December,” said Riead. “When ‘The Letters’ hit Netflix last month it blew up. It has four and a quarter stars out of five.”
In September, Sony will release “The Letters” in 150 countries worldwide.
Reflecting on the path he has taken in his life, Riead said, “I would have been the last person you would have picked to be successful. I never dreamed I’d be directing major films. But at the end of the day I love to go home to my family. As a director, you are treated like a general in the studio system. At home, they will say, ‘Bill, get me a coffee while you’re up.’ I love that — to them nothing has changed.”
source:reviewatlas