Last night, the News & Documentary Emmy® Awards ceremony was held at Geffen Hall in New York City, and we were excited to learn that two Independent Lens films came away with Emmys. Congratulations to not only the winning filmmakers and all the Independent Lens films that were nominated, but to the full group of outstanding documentaries and series honored by the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. All told, PBS had 57 nominations and 17 winners last night, the most of any network!

The Independent Lens films receiving News & Documentary Emmys were [drumroll]:

The Trials of Muhammad Ali
Director: Bill Siegel
Outstanding Historical Programming-Long-Form

Medora
Directors: Davy Rothbart and Andrew Cohn
Outstanding Business and Economic Reporting-Long Form

Congratulations are in order, too, for the ITVS-funded documentary that aired on POV, When I Walk by Jason DaSilva, for Outstanding Informational Programming-Long-Form. Here’s Jason’s moving speech as he accepts the Emmy:

“We’re extremely proud of all the films and filmmakers who were nominated,” said Lois Vossen, Independent Lens Executive Producer. “It’s been a pleasure working with Bill Siegel and the team at Kartemquin on The Trials of Muhammad Ali these past five years, and we couldn’t be more proud of first time filmmakers Davy and Andrew on the spirit they showed in getting Medora made, and in the empathetic way they portrayed the very human face of small towns struggling economically.”

During the ceremony, the Medora filmmakers were tweeting from the @IndependentLens Twitter account, and as you can see, it all wore them out at the end, but in a good way:

Craig Phillips

Craig is the digital content producer for Independent Lens, based in San Francisco. He is a film nerd, cartoonist, classic film poster collector, wannabe screenwriter, and owner of/owned by cats.