Last week, POV received six nominations in the 29th Annual News and Documentary Emmy® Awards. The nominees were announced by the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS). Michael Apted’s 49 Up was nominated for Outstanding Interview; Ralph Arlyck’s Following Sean received two nominations, for Best Documentary and for Outstanding Individual Achievement in a Craft: Writing; and three POV films were nominated for Outstanding Continuing Coverage of a News Story — Long Form: Libby, Montana; Made in L.A.; and Rain in a Dry Land.

PBS led the pack this year with 38 nominations, more than any other broadcast or cable network. The News and Documentary Emmy Awards will be presented on Monday, Sept. 22.

“POV celebrated its 20th season on PBS last year with a diverse slate of films by established and emerging filmmakers,” said Simon Kilmurry, POV’s Executive Director. “From the struggles of refugees, immigrants and working Americans to stories of personal transformations, the nominated films introduce us to people whose lives, we hope, will enrich our own.”


About the nominated films:

49 Up by Michael Apted
Category:
Outstanding Interview
In one of documentary cinema’s more remarkable enterprises, 49 Up made its U.S. broadcast premiere on POV in 2007 as the seventh in a series of films that has profiled a group of English children every seven years, beginning in 1964. Renowned director Michael Apted (Coal Miner’s Daughter, Gorky Park, Gorillas in the Mist, Amazing Grace) has doggedly pursued the series as the children have grown into adults, navigating the divide between childhood dreams and adult realities. 49 Up revisits questions of love, marriage, career, class and prejudice — discovering unexpected turns in individual lives and surprising views of the Up film series itself.

Following Sean by Ralph Arlyck
Categories:
Best Documentary and Outstanding Individual Achievement in a Craft: Writing
Thirty years after making a celebrated student short about a four-year-old child of free spirits living in San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury district at the height of the 1960s, Ralph Arlyck attempts the kind of revelation only documentary film can provide. In Following Sean, he goes in search of the impish, barefoot kid who delighted or horrified audiences, reflecting the hopes and fears of a turbulent, utopian era. In discovering what has become of Sean, Arlyck finds a complex reality — and experiences pure cinematic surprise. As the filmmaker comes to grips with his own midlife conflicts, Following Sean may reveal as much about Arlyck and his generation as it does his subject.

Libby, Montana by Drury Gunn Carr and Doug Hawes Davis
Category:
Outstanding Continuing Coverage of a News Story — Long Form
Nestled below the rugged peaks of the Northern Rockies in Montana — as iconic a representation of America’s “purple mountain majesties” as one can find — lies the worst case of community-wide exposure to a toxic substance in U.S. history. In the small town of Libby, many hundreds of people are sick or have already died from asbestos exposure. Libby, Montana takes a long working day’s journey into a blue-collar community and finds a different reality — one where the American Dream exacts a terrible price.

Made in L.A. by Almudena Carracedo and Robert Bahar
Category:
Outstanding Continuing Coverage of a News Story — Long Form
Los Angeles is now the country’s center for apparel manufacturing, but many of its factories bear an eerie resemblance to New York’s early 20th-century sweatshops. Made in L.A. follows the remarkable journey of three Latina immigrants working in L.A.’s garment factories and their struggle for self-empowerment as they wage a three-year battle to bring a major clothing retailer to the negotiating table. This intimate film offers a rare and poignant glimpse into this “other” California, where immigrants in many industries toil long hours for sub-minimum wages, fighting for an opportunity in a new country. A co-production with the Independent Television Service (ITVS).A Diverse Voices Project co-production. A co-presentation with Latino Public Broadcasting.

Rain in a Dry Land by Anne Makepeace
Category:
Outstanding Continuing Coverage of a News Story — Long Form
How do you measure the distance from an African village to an American city? What does it mean to be a refugee in today’s “global village?” Rain in a Dry Land provides eye-opening answers as it chronicles the fortunes of two Somali Bantu families, transported by relief agencies from years of civil war and refugee life to Atlanta and Springfield, Massachusetts. As the newcomers confront racism, poverty and 21st-century culture shock, filmmaker Anne Makepeace (POV’s Baby, It’s You) captures their efforts to survive in America and create a safe haven for their war-torn families. Their poetry, humor and amazing resilience show us our own world through new eyes. A co-production of the Independent Television Service (ITVS).

Congratulations to all the nominated filmmakers!

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