A Night of Nobelity With the Pipkins

Twenty years ago, Christy and Turk Pipkin made a movie to send a message of hope for the future to their young children. Now the Austin filmmakers and founders of the Nobelity Project nonprofit mark two decades of spreading that optimism through film and hands-on engagement in building schools in Africa.

To celebrate Turk’s 73rd birthday, they’ll screen two of their feature-length documentaries on July 2 at the State Theatre. First will be 2006’s Nobelity, in which Turk interviews nine Nobel Prize winners on their hopes for the future. Then they’ll show its 2009 follow-up, One Peace at a Time, interweaving visits to humanitarian projects around the world with interviews with Austin notables like Willie Nelson and U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett on the value of individual and communal action. As Nelson told Turk, “Right and wrong is not that hard. It’s what you choose.” Both films premiered in Austin, Christy recalled, “so it’s fun to be screening them 20 years later back where their theatrical runs began.”

It’s also an opportunity to celebrate the Nobelity Project’s achievements, most especially its involvement with education in Kenya. Turk first visited the country when he interviewed Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangarĩ Maathai for Nobelity and immediately fell in love with the place. “I quickly learned that Kenyans value education above almost all else,” he added.

That trip solidified the future direction of their nonprofit. With the funds raised in the intervening years, they’ve worked with 67 schools in Kenya, providing finances and assistance to build 166 classrooms, 40 preschools, 38 libraries, 26 water systems, 22 science and computer labs, nine kitchens and dining halls, three dorms, and three athletic facilities. However, this wasn’t just about sending money from Austin fundraisers overseas. The Pipkins have remained hands-on: In total, Turk has made 54 trips to Kenya, “and now [I] have more friends in both education and conservation than I could have dreamed.”

Along with local agencies and international NGOs, they’ve been able to help the Kenyan government in its goals to expand education through high school and into the nation’s arid and semi-arid areas that have historically endured low enrollment and completion rates. “This has been made possible by great partners,” Christy explained, ”by dedicated supporters and an indefatigable Turk Pipkin.”

“Well, I might be fatigable after all,” Turk replied. 

After decades of ongoing activism, the night will allow them to launch the next stage of the Nobelity Project: establishing permanent endowments to support college students at University of Texas and Huston-Tillotson University in Austin and Dedan Kimathi University of Technology in Nyeri, Kenya. “There’s a time stamp on how long we can build schools,” Turk explained. “But long-term university endowments for top-scoring students with financial need can go on and on.”

Similarly, they hope the thoughts of the Nobel laureates they interviewed for Nobelity will continue to resonate with audiences. Many of them, such as 1984 Nobel Peace Prize winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu and 1999 Nobel Prize in Chemistry recipient Ahmed Zewail, have died since the film was made. Christy said, “We miss them terribly, but their words live on.”

Amidst all the achievements of the Nobelity Project, everything goes back to the Pipkins trying to instill optimism in their children. Christy proudly says, now that they are adults, their kids are the ones giving their parents hope: “I see the care they have for their family and friends, for the environment, for their work, the time they take to plant a garden, paint a picture. They remind me that everything moves the needle.”

This article appears in July 3 • 2026.