Chip Duncan - Stand Together as One: We are the World Story

After more than three decades of documentary filmmaking and still photography, Chip Duncan has given up trying to wear a single hat. "I prefer a camera, a laptop, and an edit system," he says, "and not necessarily in that order." From an office near Lake Michigan, The Duncan Group has built an international reputation for television production and still photography with an emphasis on culture, music, history, and political biography. The team also creates books; documents global conflict, humanitarian crisis, climate change; and conducts oral histories while maintaining one of the largest independent film archives in North America.

Chip Duncan returns to the College Endowment to share the story behind the making of STAND TOGETHER AS ONE — The Famine, The Music, The Impact. The film, which will be airing nationwide on public television throughout 2026, was created for global release to coincide with the 40th anniversary of the historic famine in Ethiopia. The epic disaster left more than one million people dead from civil war and starvation. Yet despite all odds and with no support from governments or the United Nations, musicians from the US and UK used their art form and reputations to build two of the greatest philanthropic campaigns in human history. The hit song WE ARE THE WORLD raised more than sixty million dollars in its first year of release, and 100% of the proceeds went to USA FOR AFRICA – a not-for-profit organization that still exists today. LIVE AID raised more than one hundred million dollars in its first year.

The documentary includes interviews with numerous celebrities, but humanitarian and musician Harry Belafonte is the focus of Duncan's documentary. Belafonte sat for his final on-camera interview for this production. The film also includes humanitarian nurse Claire Bertschinger who served as the lone field nurse for the International Red Cross during the famine. Claire's selfless work caught the attention of the British crown, and she is now "Dame Claire Bertschinger" – the first nurse to ever hold the title of "Dame." During his talk, Duncan will share clips from the film and weave in stories of ongoing humanitarian projects around the globe including Ukraine, Sudan, and ongoing current conflicts in Ethiopia.

Duncan and fellow producer Salim Amin have traveled extensively across northern Ethiopia to document areas where the 1984 famine occurred. "My colleagues and I engage in social entrepreneurship while putting humanity, history, and storytelling at the forefront of our decisions. With the help of investors, philanthropists, and a variety of distribution partners and collectors, we've managed to be sustainable while also building an infrastructure that supports a variety of global collaborations."

https://www.duncanentertainment.com, chip@duncanentertainment.com