Celebrating Corporate / Organizational HistoryLandmark Center, St. Paul, MN

When a corporate or organizational milestone is reached, it is both a cause for celebration and an opportunity for public outreach, employee recognition and brand reinforcement.  At  Chris Jones & Associates, we help organizations celebrate everything from 100-year anniversaries, to product milestones, to CEO retirements and more.

Your history is unique and so is our approach.  As charter members of the “Anti-Cookie Cutter Club” (our apologies to August Thomsen Corp.) we believe that it is our responsibility to discover that which is unique about your past.  From these cultural nuggets, we build a film, DVD or streaming video that creatively celebrates the past while recognizing the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead.

Our award winning programs range from short videos designed for employees only, to feature length films designed for the general public, to live theatrical presentations for employees and their families.

Our anniversary programs include the following:

3M

  • 3M and the Environment: An Individual Effort
  • 15 minutes. Public image documentary program.
  • 3M and the Environment: An Individual Effort tells the story of 3M’s ongoing efforts to be an environmentally responsible company. The program emphasizes that a company policy alone does not result in a company that contributes to sustainable development. The individual effort of each employee is also needed.  This program profiles several people who made contributions to 3M’s environmentally responsible efforts.

Aviation Foundation of America

  • America Takes Flight
  • 58 minutes. Commemorative documentary program.
  • As seen on PBS, America Takes Flight tells the fascinating story of the 1925-1931 National Air Tours.  Also known as the Ford Air Tours, this annual cavalcade of aircraft introduced America to the potential of air travel.  Based on seldom seen footage of the original National Air Tours, this film highlights many of the wonderful personalities and aircraft of the Golden Age of Aviation.  Edsel B. Ford II and others provide commentary on this important part of America’s aviation heritage.  The program was produced to coincide with the 100-year anniversary of the Wright Brother’s first flight.
  • Winner of a Northern Lights Award of Merit.  Airing nationwide on PBS affiliates.

Honeywell

  • 100 Year Anniversary
  • 3-hour event. Business theater.
  • To celebrate its 100-year anniversary in 1985, Honeywell traveled back in time to an era of live performances in front of painted backdrops, vaudeville humor, musical styling and melodrama. Four stages circled the audience who were entertained with the history of Honeywell, engineering and inventions. This highly acclaimed business theater production lives only in the memory of those who were there.
  • The Sweatt Award
  • 12 minutes. History documentary.
  • The Minneapolis Heat Regulator Company was founded in 1885 and took the name of Honeywell after an early acquisition. The company grew leaps and bounds under CEO H.W. Sweatt and became well known for its excellence in engineering and control devices.  The Sweatt Award is a program that recognizes excellence in engineering achievements.

 Hotel Pattee

  • Hometown in the Heartland: Stories of the Hotel Pattee
  • 28:30. Celebratory documentary program.
  • Hometown in the Heartland: The Stories of the Hotel Pattee celebrates a unique hotel located in Perry Iowa.  This hotel, like the small town it is nestled within, is a reflection of its past.  The objective of the program was to provide a historical perspective for Hotel Pattee visitors and to celebrate Perry Iowa’s people, events and railroad / farming community.  Shot on film, Hometown in the Heartland is comprised of interviews, elaborate historic re-creations and rare film footage.
  • Hometown in the Heartland was sold in the Hotel Pattee gift shop.  Shown on PBS affiliates.  Winner of a Northern Lights Award of Excellence.

 IDS Financial Services [Ameriprise]

  • Century: The IDS History
  • 52 minutes.  Commemorative documentary program.
  • This program was produced in conjunction of a yearlong celebration of 100 years of IDS Financial Services that is now American Express Financial Services.  This program takes an unusual approach of combining fictional characters with actual events – beginning with the birth of a child.  Shot on 35mm film, real employees and actors were used to tell the 100 story.
  • CENTURY won an ITVA Golden Reel Special Achievement; three Tellys and a Silver award at the International Film & TV Festival of NY.  Although produced for an internal audience, it was so successful internally that a special version was created for external audiences.

International Television Association

  • The Road Taken
  • 48:00. Commemorative documentary program.
  • Produced in four parts, this documentary program was created to celebrate the International Television Association’s 25th anniversary. The Road Taken traces non-broadcast television production from its roots in silent films, through the birth of the magnetic recording industry, to the explosion of video recording and projecting into the digital future. The program features interviews with industry pioneers Charlie Anderson (AMPEX video recording machine invention), Mel Sater (3M inventor of the videotape) and media industry pioneers.
  • Winner of the ITVA Silver Reel. The documentary was transformed into a CDROM for the 30th anniversary of ITVA.

Landmark Center

  • Landmark Center: A Work of Art Serving People
  • 27:40. Commemorative documentary program.
  • Produced in conjunction with the 100-year celebration of the Landmark Center (former Federal Building in St. Paul Minnesota), this film documents the stunning architecture, notorious characters, near-ruin of eventual restoration of this Richardsonian Romanesque building.  Using interviews, rare film footage and archival photographs, this documentary is set against the remarkable background of the building itself.
  • Landmark Center: A Work of Art Serving People has been shown several times on public television and is currently being sold in the Landmark Center gift shop.

Lifetouch

  • Richard P. Erickson: A Tribute
  • 28:00 Commemorative documentary program.
  • Produced to commemorate the retirement and career of CEO and Lifetouch President Richard P. Erickson.  Interviews and historic re-creations were combined with interviews and documentary footage stretching back nearly 80 years.
  • Generations: Photography for a Lifetime
  • 40:00 Commemorative documentary program.
  • Produced to celebrate the 70 year anniversary of the Lifetouch company.

Lead Dog Productions

  • Poles Apart
  • Feature length documentary.
  • Antarctica. An eerily beautiful but dangerous land. A group of four women, led by Ann Bancroft, set out on a 1,500-mile trek to the South Pole and beyond – on skis.  Each team member is pulling a sled twice her own weight. Their story is paired with a simultaneous trek by a 2-man British team. Poles Apart lets viewers to experience the pain, the tragedy and the exhilaration as the teams battle unrelenting cold and test their inner strength. Poles Apart aired on Sundance channel, internationally with National Geographic and is currently airing on PBS affiliates nationwide.
  • Poles Apart received the Best Documentary award at the Lake Placid Film Forum, Best Documentary at the Breckenridge Festival of Film, a Silver at the Philadelphia Film Festival, the “Top 10 Best of Fest” at the Minneapolis/St. Paul International Film Festival, Honorable Mention at the Canyonlands Film Festival, the Moab Film Festival and the Houston International Film Festival. Poles Apart was screened at the Film Festival of Loule Portugal and at the Outfest 2000 Los Angeles and is airing on PBS in spring of 2004.

Patterson Companies

  • Patterson Companies: Looking Back, Looking Ahead
  • 14 minutes. Documentary DVD
  • In 1985, the management of Patterson Dental organized a successful management buyout of the company. Today, the Patterson Companies is one of the most highly successful companies in the United States – [include comment from the script here] This program celebrates twenty years of growth that occurred under the retiring President and CEO.

Minnesota Historical Society

  • Windows in Time
  • 14.5 minutes. Documentary film.
  • Windows in Time was created as a fund-raising film and helped to raise 14 million dollars for the MN History Society’s exhibits.  It was so well received that the local PBS affiliate (tpt2) aired it several times. Winner of a CINE Golden Eagle and ITVA Golden Reel.

Red Wing Shoe Company

  • Changing With the Times
  • 95-year anniversary business theater and multimedia program

Sons of Norway

  • 100 Years of Heritage
  • 100 Year anniversary video