Won’t You Be My Neighbor – 3 Cool Facts About Making a Mr. Rogers Documentary

When the filmmakers got together to create “Won’t You Be My Neighbor” they wanted the story to be all about Mr. Rogers. They spoke to Joanne Rogers and she had said that Fred had always said that his own story was the most boring story of all time. The filmmakers obviously disagreed. It was the research where they discovered many cool facts about making “Won’t You Be My Neighbor”.

Won’t You Be My Neighbor

**Facts found from Focus Features Production Notes.**

The creators discovered, with the Fred Rogers Company, that there were boxes upon boxes of un-digitized film reels, including lost interviews and never before seen footage that allowed the filmmakers to tell his story more richly.

Nearly seventy percent of the interviews filmed were left on the cutting room floor to allow Fred more space to speak directly to audiences as he had done for so many years.

The film team started from the inside out. They arranged interviews with a number Rogers’ confidantes who had never spoken publicly before—members of the cast and crew as well as his widow, sister, and two sons—and tried to really unpack the inside story of Fred Rogers and his Neighborhood.

Won’t You Be My Neighbor is playing in select theaters and will soon reach Kansas City!