Viewing: November 11,2026
Join us Wednesday, November 11th at 7:00 p.m. to celebrate Veterans Day with a special event screening of two documentaries by Ohio University alumna Robin Smith!
Admission is FREE – Tickets are required
Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Robin Smith will introduce two powerful films chronicling her family’s search for answers about the fate of Colonel Robert N. Smith (USMC) whose plane was shot down over North Vietnam in 1969. After the screening, Robin will be on-hand for a post-show audience Q&A session.
A reception with Robin will take place at The Athena from 7:00-7:30 p.m., and the films will start at 7:30 p.m.
About the films
He’s Only Missing (1978, 30 min)
This film explores the “state of limbo” Robin and her family were experiencing not knowing if their loved one was dead or alive.
Letting Go (1995, 12 min)
Two decades later the first shred of information about what had happened emerged. Robin traveled with a CBS News crew to her father’s crash site in Vietnam and uncovered answers that had eluded the family for years.
About the Speaker
Robin Smith is an Emmy Award-winning filmmaker with 48 years of professional experience. A graduate of Ohio University (BFA ’72) and the School of Public Communication at Boston University (MS ’78), her first documentary was a personal story about her father, a fighter pilot declared Missing in Action in 1969 during the Vietnam war. CBS bought rights to the film, and in 1978 and she began a career in broadcast journalism on CBS News Sunday Morning with Charles Kuralt.
In 1990, she established a nonprofit production company to collaborate with educators, artists, and innovative program leaders in the creation of documentary shorts and public awareness videos. Examples of video|action’s award-winning work can be found at www.videoaction.org.
Robin Smith is currently a member of the Chaddock + Morrow College of Fine Arts Leadership Council and a Trustee on the Ohio University Foundation Board.
This event has been made possible through support from the Ohio University Veterans and Military Student Services (Veterans and Military Student Services Center | Ohio University) and a generous grant from the National Veterans Leadership Foundation (National Veterans Leadership Foundation)
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