This award is given for the best use of news footage as an nintegral component in a documentary.
The Pruitt-Igoe Myth (*Winner)
Director/Writer: Chad Freidrichs
Producers: Chad Freidrichs, Jaime Freidrichs, Paul Fehler, Brian Woodman
Unicorn Stencil Documentary Films
Destroyed in a dramatic and highly publicized implosion, the Pruitt-Igoe public housing complex has become a widespread symbol of failure among architects, politicians and policy-makers. The Pruitt-Igoe Myth explores the social, economic and legislative issues that led to the decline of conventional public housing in America, and the city centers in which they resided, while tracing the personal and poignant narratives of several of the project's residents. In the post-World War II years, the American city changed in ways that made it unrecognizable from a generation earlier, privileging some and leaving others in its wake. The next time the city changes, remember Pruitt-Igoe.
The Green Wave
Director/Writer: Ali Samadi Ahadi
Producers: Jan Krueger, Oliver Stoltz
Dreamer Joint Venture Filmproduktion, Red Flag Releasing
The Green Wave is a powerful film documenting the populist protests in Iran following the suspicious victory of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad over progressive candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi in the Iranian presidential elections on June 12, 2009. Cell phone videos posted on the Internet, Twitter messages and Facebook reports, as well as animation and interviews with prominent human rights advocates and exiled Iranians bear witness to the brutal attacks by government militia in their efforts to squelch the protests that followed. Ali Samadi Ahadi's documentary is a highly contemporary chronicle of the Green Revolution, and a memorial for all of those who believed in freedom and lost their lives for it.
Michael Feinstein's American Songbook-Episode 2: "Best Band in the Land"
Director/Producer/Writer: Amber Edwards
Producer: Dave Davidson
Executive Producer: Ken Bloom
Hudson West Productions, PBS
This three-part documentary series follows Michael Feinstein--performer, historian and passionate collector--on a journey across the country and through time in a celebration and exploration of the classic American popular music of the 20th century. Episode 2, "Best Band in the Land," examines how popular songs provided emotional solace and patriotic inspiration during World War II. While preparing an original patriotic song, Feinstein weaves in the history of 1940s big bands, USO shows, V-disks, war bond rallies and the powerful role popular music played in boosting morale.
The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers
Directors/Producers/Writers: Judith Ehrlich, Rick Goldsmith
Executive Producer: Judith Ehrlich, Rick Goldsmith, Jodie Evans, Simon Kilmurry/POV, Sally Jo Fifer/ITVS
Co-Executive Producer: Cynthia López/POV
Vice President, Programming
and Production: Chris White/POV
Series Producer: Yance Ford/POV
Coordinating Producer: Andrew Catauro/POV
First Run Features, ITVS, American Documentary/POV, PBS
In 1971, Daniel Ellsberg, a leading Vietnam War strategist, concludes that America's role in the war is based on decades of lies. He leaks 7,000 pages of top-secret documents to The New York Times, a daring act of conscience that leads directly to Watergate, President Nixon's resignation and the end of the Vietnam War. Ellsberg and a who's-who of Vietnam-era movers and shakers give a riveting account of those world-changing events in this Academy Award-nominated documentary.
Reagan
Director/Writer: Eugene Jarecki
Producers: Eugene Jarecki, Kathleen Fournier
Co-Producers: Melinda Shopsin, Christopher St. John
Executive Producers: Nick Fraser, Sheila Nevins/HBO
Co-Executive Producer: Roy Ackerman
Senior Producer: Lisa Heller/HBO
Charlotte Street Films in association with HBO Documentary Films
A glamorous leading man with the common touch, a dedicated "Cold Warrior" who helped to negotiate the most sweeping accords in history with the Soviet Union, and a staunch proponent of smaller government, Ronald Reagan remains an enigma even to many of his closest advisors. A fresh examination of the fascinating paradoxes surrounding the man, the myth and his legacy, Eugene Jarecki's insightful documentary Reagan follows the 40th president's rise from small-town lifeguard to revered architect of the modern world. This textured study investigates how Reagan's homespun political vision fueled a seismic career, one whose reverberations still shape American life.