From Capstone to Debut Memoir: CDS Alum James Robinson Shares His Story

This week author and filmmaker James Robinson ’20 returns to Duke and the Center for Documentary Studies (CDS), carrying signed copies of Whale Eyes, his newly released illustrated memoir based on his CDS capstone project.

              Join CDS for an author talk with James Robinson on Wednesday, Mar. 26, at 6:30 p.m.                 

“It feels like a homecoming,” Robinson says. “Whale Eyes began in a classroom at CDS as a very amorphous idea. To see it become a video that travelled around the world, and now a book, is such a confirmation of the value of a CDS education.”

Robinson graduated from Duke in 2020 and earned a Certificate in Documentary Studies from CDS. “James is one of ours,” says Chris Sims, CDS director and a Duke professor. “I first met him when he was a junior in high school. He came here with his mom, and we sat on the CDS front porch and talked about his desire to create documentary work. He’s been fully committed to the discipline ever since.” 

During his time at Duke, Robinson immersed himself in the documentary process, exploring diverse mediums. His new book Whale Eyes, published by Penguin Workshop, shares his life-long experience with strabismus, a disabling eye condition that leads to misaligned eyes, and invites readers to see the world from his perspective through interactive visuals. 

Robinson first started telling this story in Sims’ Capstone Seminar in Documentary Studies, which focuses on different methods of documentary fieldwork. There, Robinson says, he found a safe, conducive space for personal risk. “It gave me the opportunity to explore this disability from all angles and in all of its emotions—playful, serious, jovial, somber, and most importantly—vulnerable.” He wove together archival footage with interviews he filmed with his parents and brothers about his eye condition. 

“We love looking at whales,” Robinson writes. “And yet none of us have ever questioned the fact that we can look into only one of their eyes at a time.”

In the book, he says that while planning his project, he came across clips of whales from the 1970s that see out of one eye at a time. “We love looking at whales,” he writes. “And yet none of us have ever questioned the fact that we can look into only one of their eyes at a time. It felt as if whales were afforded the acceptance I was seeking.”

At the end of the Spring 2020 semester, Robinson presented his capstone project, then a 23-minute film which earned Duke’s Robert E. Pristo Filmmaking Award. A year later he turned it into a 12-minute opinion video for the New York Times, showcasing his imaginative and personal storytelling style to evoke empathy and understanding.

Robinson says his experience at CDS helped shape the process of creating Whale Eyes. “The second half of my book is in many ways a sort of love letter to CDS, in that it is a sharing of many of the lessons I learned while studying both at CDS and later through the documentary process.” 

“The second half of my book is in many ways a sort of love letter to CDS,” says Robinson, “in that it is a sharing of many of the lessons I learned while studying both at CDS and later through the documentary process.” 

Robinson hopes his new book inspires more even more people to care. “My first-grade teacher said that this book would have changed how she taught me. I'd love to see it in the hands of students, teachers and parents, who encounter difference in the classroom.” 

Now a video producer for the New York Times, Robinson says he will continue developing its video product and finding exciting ways to engage with the next generation of viewers and readers. For CDS students and other aspiring documentarians, he offers two pieces of advice: “Persistence.” and “Spend your time with people who are really different from you, and the lessons abound!”