New film will trace the ABC’s of AMC
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Joe Ligo is on a mission. He wants to create a 2-hour-long documentary about American Motors Corp. (AMC)—the automaker that evolved from the 1954 merger of Hudson and Nash. There are probably hundreds of AMC enthusiasts who would like to see such a movie made, but Ligo has some things in his favor.
The young Pennsylvanian formed an interest in independent automakers at the age of 14. Maybe that was because he also wanted to be an independent filmmaker. By the time he was 15, Ligo had completed his first documentary video about AMC president George Romney and the merger he orchestrated. That video—the first of several he took awards for—won in a school competition.
At 17, a video he did about the Packard Museum in Warren, Ohio, copped an award. Next came his third video "The Unfortunate History of the AMC Pacer." It placed third in the National College Emmy Awards and won "Excellence in Cinematography" honors from the Broadcast Education Assoc. The Pacer film ran on three PBS stations and has over half a million Web views.
At age 22, Ligo launched an online video series called "AutoMoments." In which he drove old cars and talked about their histories. The year after starting AutoMoments, Ligo was hired as a video producer and editor for “MotorWeek” television, which produces 52 shows and tests over 100 cars per year.
In 2015, Ligo hooked up with AMC expert Patrick Foster and filmmaker Jimm Needle and started thinking about making a video telling the whole AMC story. According to Ligo, this video will not be aimed at just gearheads. “The story of AMC is a story about technology, engineering, art, style, business, economics, people, personalities and politics,” he says. “We believe AMC is an important part of our nation's history and think this story needs to be preserved for future generations. Our goal is to produce a 2-hour film chronicling the history of AMC.”
“Interviews with historians, journalists, authors and former AMC employees,” will be woven into the film. “We're already working on plans to get the film on national television,” hints Ligo. “But we can't say a lot about that yet.”