Iowan produces 'Bueno Gang', a Christian version of 'Little Rascals'

CLEAR LAKE, Iowa - Gregory Schmidt, who has an extensive film background, produces a children's movie series that endorses moral values and offers learning opportunities.

P>"It's like a Christian version of 'The Little Rascals' -- the 'Our Gang' comedy kids," he explained in a telephone interview with The Witness, the official publication of the Archdiocese of Dubuque. "People from all faiths can see there's something of value for their kids." Schmidt, 55, is a native of Garner, where he was a member of St. Boniface Parish. He is head of Teacher Productions, a Clear Lake company that produces a children's movie series that endorses moral values and offers learning opportunities. He directs a group of children ages 6-10, known as the Bueno Gang. "Our Gang," or "The Little Rascals," to which Schmidt referred was the long-lived series of short comedy films in the 1920s and '30s about a troupe of neighborhood children and the adventures they had together. As for the Bueno Gang, it recently completed its second movie, "The Good Dentist," which relates to fear issues and helps young viewers overcome any apprehension about going to the dentist. The first video, "All God's Children," dealt with ethnic diversity. The next project will be a compact disc featuring a variety of praise and worship songs. "The Bueno Gang came from me being around a lot of kids in church," Schmidt explained. "I met a lot of cute, fun kids from a lot of churches in northern Iowa. I put them through a two-year training session." The company's name comes from the concept of Jesus as teacher. "I always felt that I was going to be involved in religious media or educational media," Schmidt said. "But we've come into the secular realm with a lot of our projects." In the early 1970s, Schmidt studied film and television in Los Angeles, receiving training in writing and directing. His first movie that was well-distributed was "Michael My Brother," a pro-life film about his brother with Down syndrome, which was picked up by both public and commercial television. It helped land him a job as film editor with Paulist Productions, a film company founded in 1960 by the late Paulist Father Ellwood "Bud" Kieser. Schmidt worked for Father Kieser on "Insight," the highly acclaimed syndicated series that consisted of half-hour comedies or dramas with social or religious themes. In addition to screening actors, reading scripts and producing sound effects, he edited "After School Specials" that the company began shooting for ABC-TV in 1980. He also helped with eight episodes of "Insight." Schmidt then ran the Foundation for Alternative Religious Broadcasting in Washington beginning in 1981. While there, he earned a national grant to produce "Religion or Politics," a documentary on political TV preachers. After completing degree requirements in theater direction at St. Thomas University in Miami, he re-established residence in Iowa in the late 1980s, taking up freelance writing and theater work, including the revival of the Clear Lake Summer Theater and the Chautauqua shows around the lake. Schmidt is also involved in building Iowa's newest theme park - Festival Park - which will be a permanent old-style English village that will host the new Des Moines Renaissance fair and three other large events each year. For several years, he organized the Irish fests for St. Patrick Parish in Clear Lake until that tradition was discontinued, and he was hired to run various ethnic and Renaissance festivals in Texas, Illinois and Indiana. Today, he concentrates mainly on operating productions in the upper Midwest by Festivals International, which he heads. Between festivals, he has kept busy with photography, publishing his own magazine, The Regional Renaissance Reporter,and various movie and documentary projects, including "The History of an American Celebration," documenting of the National Hobo Convention in Britt, and "Revival," a musical he wrote on the life of Billy Sunday, one of the 20th century's best-known evangelists. "I have a lot of theater production background, which has been good training, but my real interest is moviemaking and video production," Schmidt said. "That's where I'm at now with the Bueno Gang project. The future for me is more music and movies."

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