Story by Kimberly Marselas

It’s just after 3 p.m., and the sun is already sinking into the willowy trees behind the grave of university founder Charles Benedict Calvert.

On March 8, 2006, You can see Keeping the Promise on Maryland Public Television. Broadcast channels include channel 67 in Baltimore, channel 22 in Annapolis, and channel 62 in Montgomery and Frederick Counties. Check local listings for other MPT stations.

A film crew hustles to move an overhead camera into the cemetery and adjust metallic light boards to capture the right mix of shadows and detail—all of them knowing these scenes should have been in the can hours ago.

But a morning re-enactment at historic Riversdale Mansion took longer than expected, and when the crew moved down the road to the family plot, they found the lock on the gates rusted closed. Their keys were no good, and even with permission to break the lock, they had no bolt cutters to do the trick.

So the crew, composed of the university’s video production unit and local freelancers, finally broke in by bashing it off with a plain old hammer. As rush hour traffic kicked up on nearby East-West Highway a few minutes later, a writer was off to buy a new lock and the camera was rolling on “Keeping the Promise: The Rise of the University of Maryland.”

Director and Producer Mac Nelson (standing right) and Video Editor Chris Abolt (kneeling on right) pose with other members of the cast and crew while filming a historical re-enactment at Charles Calvert’s grave.

In the works for more than a year, “Keeping the Promise” documents the history of the university from its infancy to its current status as a Top-20 research institution—all in 60 minutes. The brainchild of several current students and alumni, the movie includes a mix of live-action scenes; historical images; interviews with historians and prominent university officials like University Archivist Anne Turkos and Distinguished University Professor of History Ira Berlin; and video taken on campus over the last few decades.

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