ACKC pays tribute to Robert Todd, who died unexpectedly at age 54 on August 17, 2018.

Rob was the Associate Director of Visual & Media Arts at Emerson College in Boston where he taught for 18 years. But first and foremost, he was a prolific and award-winning filmmaker, having created over 200 films, many of them shown at film festivals throughout the world. He took time to serve as ACKC’s videographer, traveling to Washington, DC to shoot one of our advocacy campaigns. See two of Rob’s videos on our ACKC in Action page, including one featuring the research update of Dr. Marston Linehan, Chief of Urologic Oncology at the National Cancer Institute (NCI).

View Rob Todd’s videos for ACKC.

Over the past 14 years Rob also brought his films to the Madison (CT) Art Cinema for fundraising events to benefit Action to Cure Kidney Cancer — Robert Todd Film Night — showing both his 16-millimeter art films and his documentaries. Finally, Rob was instrumental in the creation of the AgX Film Collective, an artist run film lab in Waltham, MA, created for moving image artists in the Boston Area.

Rob was an accomplished musician and visual artist as well as a life-long mentor to many of his film students. His courses were highly sought after. He was always willing to spend time helping other filmmakers with their projects. Former students would call him from all over the world to get film-making advice.

A memorial for Rob, held on September 22 in Ashby, MA, was attended by over 400 friends, relatives and former students, some of whom traveled from China, Spain, Germany and throughout the United States to pay tribute. He is survived by his wife, Tessa Day, an artist and writer, his mother Patricia, two sisters, Deb Todd Wheeler and Mary Todd Bergman, and his brother John Todd. We will sadly miss him.