The new project is a collaboration between the Gordon Parks Museum and Michael Cheers, a photojournalist and filmmaker. Cheers is directing a documentary and has shot a photo essay for the project, which are both titled “Fort Scott Stories.” According to Cheers, the stories are those of “individuals who make up the fabric and the character of Fort Scott.”
“I sort of put on the cloak of Gordon Parks,” he says. “What would Gordon do if he was driving down Highway 69, and getting off at that exit and driving down Main Street and into the neighborhoods? What would he be looking for? Who would he be contacting? And what kinds of stories would he be telling?”
Cheers has spent approximately four years working on the project, beginning with the photo essay. It consists of photos from Fort Scott, as well as a trip to Paris that students from the Gordon Parks Academy took in 2024. It will be published as a two-volume book set. Half of the documentary was filmed this summer and the second half is currently being filmed. It will be released in the spring of 2026.
In the time Cheers has worked on “Fort Scott Stories,” he’s worked closely with Kirk Sharp, executive director of the museum, who’s given him the names of potential subjects to research. What he’s found are stories that he says show character and empathy. For example, he interviewed an elementary school teacher who recently adopted her niece and nephew, and a woman who lost her leg in an accident and has since forgiven the person who caused it.
“To have that type of character, it's rare,” Cheers says. “When we live in a society now full of people who don't show a lot of character and empathy for other people, that says a lot.”
According to Sharp, it’s been the goal to produce a project similar to Parks’ photo essay for about 10 years. Parks’ work from 1950 originally went unpublished, most likely due to the more trending news of the Korean War. The photos were then discovered in 2014, and in 2015 made public at an exhibition in Boston and published in the book “Gordon Parks: Back to Fort Scott.”
“We couldn't really keep it on the shelf when it came out,” Sharp says of the book. “It's a very sought after book and story, that ties in Fort Scott, ties in Kansas, ties in nationwide and, of course, worldwide.”
Now, “Fort Scott Stories” is not only a tribute to Parks, but also a way to capture a moment in time, just like he did 75 years ago.
“Hopefully 75 years from now, people can look back and say, okay, this is what life was like in 2025,” Sharp says.
Cheers took on the project to pay tribute to Parks as well, and as a way to continue the photographer’s legacy. He shared a connection with Parks, starting when the two met in 1971 at the premiere of Parks’ movie “Shaft.” Cheers was 17, and Parks became a mentor and friend to him as his career grew.
“If not now, when?” Cheers says. “It doesn't take a genius to figure out, you know. I look at myself in the mirror and say, well, if I don't do it, who will?”
Parks’ mentorship has guided Cheers as he works on the project, especially as Cheers shot a scene for the documentary, observing a woman visiting her husband’s grave.
“Yards away, over a little hill and down a little valley, is where Gordon and his family –his mother and father, and other relatives, his daughter– are buried,” Cheers says. “I've been there before, but I also draw strength all the time from feeling the power of Gordon's spirit as I do this project. I know that it's not just me. I know that Gordon is right there helping me every step of the way.”
The two-volume set of books containing Cheers’ photos will be available for purchase at the annual Gordon Parks Celebration from Oct. 2 to Oct. 4. Cheers will also be showing a trailer for the documentary and speaking about the project.
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