Filmmaker Cheryl Eagan-Donovan was named 2019 Oxfordian of the Year today by the Shakespeare Oxford Fellowship, for her documentary Nothing Is Truer Than Truth. The award was presented at the conclusion of the SOF Annual Conference at the Mark Twain House and Museum in Hartford, Connecticut (here’s a video clip of the presentation).
The film follows Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, as he travels to Venice and throughout Italy in 1575–76, collecting knowledge and experiences reflected in the works published under the pseudonym “Shakespeare.” The film also explores the possible role of Oxford’s bisexuality as a reason for the pen name.
Eagan-Donovan discovered Edward de Vere in Donald Ostrowski’s history class at Harvard in 1997. This led her to J. Thomas Looney’s “Shakespeare” Identified and Joseph Sobran’s Alias Shakespeare. She later learned about Mark Anderson’s biography, “Shakespeare” By Another Name (published in 2005), upon which her film is based.
“As a writer and a filmmaker,” said Eagan-Donovan, “I knew that this story had all the elements for a great film: a complex protagonist, cinematic locations, and a true hero’s journey.” She soon met with Anderson and optioned his book.
Eagan-Donovan’s work on the film began with interviews of scholars and writers on de Vere. She then traveled to Italy to film the locations de Vere had visited in 1575–76. She went to the U.K. and interviewed Sir Derek Jacobi, Sir Mark Rylance, and Alexander Waugh, among others, and filmed at Burghley House, Castle Hedingham, and Westminster Abbey, documenting the connection between Shakespeare’s work and the author’s life.
The Boston Globe declared Nothing Is Truer Than Truth more “level-headed” than the 2011 film Anonymous on the subject of Oxford and the Shakespeare Authorship Question. Globe correspondent Peter Keogh said that Eagan-Donovan’s “investigation led her to Venice, Verona, Mantua, Padua, and Brenta, Italy, which are settings for The Merchant of Venice, Othello, Romeo and Juliet, and Two Gentlemen of Verona. They’re also cities visited by de Vere in his lifetime of louche pursuits. And could the name ‘Shake-spear’ be a ribald, punning allusion to de Vere’s bisexuality? Interviews with actors Derek Jacobi and Mark Rylance, and stage directors Diane Paulus and Tina Packer, add credibility to the theory.”
The final cut of Nothing Is Truer Than Truth was shown at the Shakespeare Oxford Fellowship’s Oakland conference in October 2018. In February 2019, the film was widely released by Gravitas Ventures on such platforms as Apple iTunes, Comcast, Verizon, and Dish Network in the U.S., Shaw and EastLink TV in Canada, as well as Google Play, YouTube, Microsoft, and Vimeo. In August 2019, it premiered on the subscription film and television service Hulu and became available on Amazon Prime, and for general sale in DVD and BD format. Nothing Is Truer Than Truth has been screened at libraries, universities, and conferences in the U.S. and Europe. (Update: It will also be released in an abridged version on TV as Shakespeare: The Man Behind the Name.)
You can view the original trailer for Nothing Is Truer Than Truth here:
Eagan-Donovan has said about her documentary: “While making the film, I found that the author’s sexuality remains as controversial as the idea that ‘Will’ was a pseudonym. It is my hope that the presentation of the evidence in my film Nothing Is Truer Than Truth will inspire others to discover the charismatic, tempestuous, witty, often misunderstood but truly brilliant writer also known as Shakespeare.”
Eagan-Donovan’s debut documentary, All Kindsa Girls, screened at film festivals and art house theaters in London, Toronto and throughout the U.S. She has served on the Board of Directors of Women in Film & Video New England, the Next Door Theater, and the Shakespeare Oxford Fellowship. She is a frequent lecturer at conferences and teaches writing, film, and literature at Lesley University, Northeastern University, Lasell University, and Grub Street Center for Creative Writing. She has published articles about screenwriting and film in journals and magazines, appeared on several podcast series, and is currently working on a book for screenwriters, Shakespeare Auteur: Creating Authentic Characters for the Screen.
Eagan-Donovan is the first Oxfordian of the Year to be selected by a special committee appointed by the SOF president and formed for the specific purpose of bestowing that honor, a selection that had previously been made by the committee that organizes the annual conference. All members of the Oxfordian of the Year Selection Committee are previous recipients of the award.
A complete list of all Oxfordians of the Year is available here.
[published Oct. 20, 2019, updated 2021]
