2021 PRIZE FINALISTS
BONNIE BLUE:
JAMES COTTON'S LIFE
IN THE BLUES
Directed by Bestor Cram
Born in 1935 on Bonnie Blue plantation in Tunica, Mississippi, apprenticing with Sonny Boy Williamson II and Howlin’ Wolf, and schooled by Muddy Waters, James ‘Super Harp’ Cotton became a mentor to harp players around the globe as he brought the delta blues into mainstream rock ‘n roll. Cotton’s music made history; his musical voice was unique, and the blues were never the same.
DOUBLE EXPOSURE
(WORKING TITLE)
Directed by Phil Bertelsen
A million snaps of the shutter, six decades of history, Ernest Withers’ photos captured southern Black life and spread the news of civil rights. They also appeared in FBI files, provided by informant ME-338-R: Ernest Withers. DOUBLE EXPOSURE unravels his mystery and motives, raising questions about power and patriotism in very troubled times.
EXPOSING MUYBRIDGE
Directed by Marc Shaffer
Brilliant, ambitious and mischievous, the 19th-century photographer Eadweard Muybridge’s breakthrough photographs of running horses set the course for the development of cinema and transformed the camera into a machine of unmatched perception and persuasion. But hiding in Muybridge’s work are clues that provoke an enduring question: Can we believe what we see in a photograph?
FREE CHOL SOO LEE
Directed by Julie Ha and Eugene Yi
After a Korean immigrant is wrongly convicted of a 1973 San Francisco Chinatown gang murder, Asian Americans unite as never before to free Chol Soo Lee. A former street hustler becomes the symbol for a landmark movement. But once out, he self-destructs, threatening the movement’s legacy and the man himself.
GRADUALLY, THEN SUDDENLY: THE BANKRUPTCY OF DETROIT
Directed by Sam Katz and
James McGovern
Once heralded as the spirit of American manufacturing, music, and democracy, Detroit kicked its fiscal can down the road for decades plummeting into insolvency, culminating in the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history. GRADUALLY, THEN SUDDENLY is the inside story of how a state-appointed Emergency Manager and the people of this iconic American city– confronting financial ruin–followed a treacherous path towards a new beginning.
THE FIVE DEMANDS
Directed by Greta Schiller
THE FIVE DEMANDS tells the story of the 1969 student strike at the City College of New York that changed the face of higher education. While the late Sixties are known as an era of student activism, largely by white, middle-class students against the war in Vietnam, these Black and Puerto Rican students were at the vanguard of a little-known national Black student movement that transformed the culture, mission, and curriculum of higher education.
2020 PRIZE WINNERS
Hold Your Fire
WINNER
Directed by Stefan Forbes
In 1973, four young men stealing guns for self-defense were tragically mistaken by the NYPD for violent revolutionaries. A gunfight ensued and a police officer was killed. Despite the NYPD's policy of deadly force, Dr. Harvey Schlossberg managed to resolve the conflict peacefully and invent modern hostage negotiation.
Cured
RUNNER-UP
Directed by
Patrick Sammon & Bennett Singer
Until 1973, doctors automatically classified every gay man and lesbian as mentally ill. CURED tells the David-versus-Goliath story of the activists who challenged this diagnosis — and won.
Beethoven in Beijing
FINALIST
Directed by
Jennifer Lin & Sharon Mullally
Dispatched by President Nixon in 1973 to help open the “bamboo curtain” separating the Chinese and American people, the iconic Philadelphia Orchestra now turns to its past as a cultural ambassador to strengthen its precarious future at home.
After Antarctica
FINALIST
Directed by Tasha Van Zandt
After Antarctica follows polar explorer Will Steger’s journey as an eyewitness to the changes in the polar regions of our planet. Thirty years after his expedition across Earth's coldest continent, Steger is not only known for being the first in history to complete this feat - he is also the last.
Punch 9 for Harold Washington
FINALIST
Directed by Joe Winston
“Punch 9 for Harold Washington” will tell a national audience, for the first time, the story of how Washington became Chicago’s first African-American mayor, opened up government to everyone, and paved the way for future political leaders, including Barack Obama.
Storming Caesars Palace
FINALIST
Directed by Hazel Gurland-Pooler
STORMING CAESARS PALACE is an intimate portrait of Ruby Duncan who built a grassroots anti-poverty movement of low-income black mothers in Las Vegas. Championing a Universal Basic Income in 1969, they led their own War on Poverty — and almost won, challenging notions of the “Welfare Queen.”
2019 PRIZE WINNERS
Flannery
WINNER
Directed by Elizabeth Coffman
& Mark Bosco, S.J.
A gothic story fueled by televangelists and girls with wooden legs, “Flannery” covers the biography of writer Flannery O’Connor with archival footage and creative motion graphics. A devout Catholic who walked with crutches, O’Connor wrote about the enduring prejudices of the post-war south. Mystery and manners abound in this work.
Mae West: Dirty Blonde
RUNNER-UP
Directed by Sally Rosenthal
& Julia Marchesi.
MAE WEST: DIRTY BLONDE is a feature-length historical documentary film developed by Peeled Grape Productions LLC for PBS’ American Masters. The film explores the extraordinary career and legacy of this complex cultural figure, who left an indelible imprint on American entertainment as a writer, performer, and agitator for social change.
Mr. Soul!
FINALIST
Directed by
Melissa Haizlip
Before Oprah, before Arsenio, there was Mr. SOUL! An in-depth look at the late 1960s WNET public television series SOUL! and its producer Ellis Haizlip, who provided expanded images of African Americans on television, shifting the gaze from inner-city poverty and violence to the vibrancy of the Black Arts Movement.
The Adventures of
Saul Bellow
FINALIST
Directed by Asaf Galay
This is the first major documentary on one of America’s greatest writers, Saul Bellow. The film examines Bellow’s influence on American literature, explores Bellow as a public figure, and looks at how he dealt with key issues of his time, including race, gender, and the Jewish and immigrant experience.
The First Angry Man
FINALIST
Directed by Jason Cohn
& Camille Servan-Schreiber
The First Angry Man tells the story of political outsider Howard Jarvis and the California property tax revolt he led during Governor Jerry Brown’s first term in 1978. Historians credit Jarvis’ campaign for Proposition 13 with triggering a national anti-tax, anti-government movement with immeasurable and enduring consequences.
9 to 5: The Story of a Movement
FINALIST
Directed by Steven Bognar
& Julia Reichert
This historical documentary tells the story of a grassroots national movement of women clerical workers who endured low pay, disrespect and sexual harassment. By the early 1970s, they had had enough. They gathered their courage, rose up against their bosses and started fighting for a better life.