Winners for the International Documentary Association’s 2009 IDA Documentary Awards competition were announced today in several major categories, including Limited Series, Continuing Series, Music, and Student, leaving Feature and Short for the night of the program.
The 2009 IDA Documentary Awards will take place on Friday, Dec. 4 at 8 pm at the Directors Guild of America, 7920 Sunset Blvd. Los Angeles, CA.
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This year’s Continuing Series Award recognizes the long-running PBS series POV. Produced by American Documentary Inc., and beginning its 22nd season on PBS this year, the award-winning POV series is the longest-running showcase on American television to feature the work of today's best independent documentary filmmakers. In the Limited Series category, the prize goes to the Sundance Channel’s Architecture School, a six-part series from creators Michael Selditch and Stan Bertheaud following a group of students at Tulane University's prestigious School of Architecture as they submit competing designs for an affordable home in Katrina-battered New Orleans.
The IDA Music Documentary Award honors Sacha Gervasi’s Anvil! The Story Of Anvil, which also competes against Afghan Star, Diary Of A Times Square Thief, Food, Inc. and Mugabe And The White African for IDA's top feature prize. Director Gervasi as well as Anvil's Steve "Lips" Kudlow and Robb Reiner will be accepting the Music Award.
The IDA/Humanitas Award, a new prize established this year and recognizing a film that strives to unify the human family, goes to Mai Iskander’s Garbage Dreams, which follows three teenage boys born into the trash trade and growing up in the world’s largest garbage village, on the outskirts of Cairo. Here, the Zaballeen, Arabic for ‘garbage people,’ are suddenly faced with the globalization of its trade.
The IDA/Pare Lorentz Award, in homage to the pioneering filmmaker’s legacy, goes to Irene Taylor Brodsky’s Oscar nominated short The Final Inch, about a vast army of health workers who go door-to-door in some of India’s poorest neighborhoods, ensuring every child is vaccinated for polio. The IDA/ABCNEWS VideoSource Award, for best use of archival news footage, goes to Wounded Knee, an episode in the “We Shall Remain” series produced by WGBH with Native American Public Television, and produced and directed by Stanley Nelson.
IDA continues to recognize the next generation of documentary filmmakers with its prestigious David L. Wolper Student Documentary Achievement Award. This year’s prize has been awarded to Stanford University’s Peter Jordan for his short documentary The First Kid To Learn English From Mexico, the story of 9-year-old Pedro's reluctant journey through elementary school in pursuit of the American Dream.
Presenters for this year’s Awards include composer Philip Glass, The Office’s Rainn Wilson, Food Inc. director Robert Kenner and the Sundance Institute’s Cara Mertes. Current Media’s Laura Ling and Euna Lee will introduce a special tribute to filmmakers and journalists who displayed conspicuous bravery in the pursuit of truth.
This year’s IDA Documentary Awards, hosted by This American Life’s Ira Glass and honoring the legendary Errol Morris, are sponsored by HBO Documentary Films, Current Media, Planet Green, Sony Pictures Classics, Sundance Channel, ABCNews Videosource, Moxie Pictures, Participant Media, POV, Skywalker Sound, SnagFilms, Kodak, the Directors Guild of America, The Standard, Derby Wine Estates, The Spot Gourmet and Monster Energy.
Tickets for the 2009 IDA Documentary Awards are available at www.documentary.org/awards2009.
ABOUT IDA
The IDA is a nonprofit, membership organization based in Los Angeles. The organization was founded in 1982 to promote and celebrate nonfiction filmmakers and is dedicated to increasing public awareness and appreciation of the documentary genre. For more information about IDA visit www.documentary.org or call 213-534-3600.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
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Dish Communications
Phone: 818-508-1000
amyg@dishcommunicatons.com / ashleym@dishcommunications.com
2009 IDA DOCUMENTARY AWARDS WINNERS
CONTINUING SERIES – WINNER
POV
Executive Director: Simon Kilmurry
Vice President: Cynthia López
American Documentary, Inc.; PBS
Episodes Submitted:
Inheritance (Dir./Prod.: James Moll; Prod.: Christopher Pavlick; Exec. Prods.: Chris Malachowsky, Ryan Malachowsky)
Campaign (Dir./Prod.: Kazuhiro Soda)
Up the Yangtse (Dir.: Yung Chang; Prods.: Mila Aung-Thwin, Germaine Ying-Gee Wong, John Christou; Exec. Prods.: Daniel Cross, Mila Aung-Thwin, Ravida Din, Sally Bochner)
LIMTED SERIES – WINNER
Architecture School
Director/Executive Producer/Original Concept: Michael Selditch
Original Concept: Stan Bertheaud
Senior Producer: Rob Tate
Producer: Rachel Clift
Executive Producers: Lynne Kirby, Laura Michalchyshyn
Sundance Channel
IDA MUSIC DOCUMENTARY AWARD – WINNER
Anvil! The Story of Anvil
Director: Sacha Gervasi
Producer: Rebecca Yeldham
Little Dean’s Yard; Ahimsa Films; Abramorama; VH1
IDA/HUMANITAS AWARD
Garbage Dreams
Director/Producer/Cinematographer/Writer: Mai Iskander
Executive Producer: Tiffany Schauer
Editor/Co-Producer: Kate Hirson
Iskander Films in co-production with MotiveArt in association with Chicken &
Egg Pictures/Films Transit International
IDA/PARE LORENTZ AWARD - WINNER
The Final Inch
Director/Producer: Irene Taylor Brodsky
Producer: Tom Grant
Vermilion Pictures; Google.org; HBO Documentary Films
IDA/ABCNEWS VIDEOSOURCE AWARD – WINNER
Wounded Knee
Director/Producer: Stanley Nelson
Executive Producers: Sharon Grimberg, Mark Samels
Writer: Marcia Smith
Firelight Media; American Experience; WGBH; Native American Public Television
IDA/DAVID L. WOLPER STUDENT DOCUMENTARY ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
The First Kid to Learn English from Mexico
Director/Producer: Peter Jordan
Localfilms; Stanford University