Frontline’s “Isis In Afghanistan” won two News and Documentary Emmys for newsmagazine coverage. (Photo: Frontline)
Frontline led national news programs honored at Wednesday night’s Emmy presentation in New York City, winning seven statuettes — half of the 14 News and Documentary Emmys credited to PBS.
My Brother’s Bomber, a three-part Frontline series looking into unresolved questions about the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, won two News and Documentary Emmys. Another went to “Inheritance,” a related interactive story that was produced for Frontline’s website; it won for new approaches to documentaries.
Ken Dornstein, producer and director of My Brother’s Bomber, won an Emmy for his research on the three-part documentary. (Photo: Frontline)
Filmmaker Ken Dornstein, whose older brother died in the terror plot, directed and produced the TV series with co-producers by Timothy Grucza and Brian Funck. Dornstein also received an Emmy for outstanding research and contributed to “Inheritance” as a storyteller. Michelle Mizner was producer, writer and creative director of the interactive presentation.
Another two Emmys went to “ISIS in Afghanistan,” directed and filmed by Najibullah Quraishi with producers Jaime Doran and Dan Edge. It won for continuing coverage in a newsmagazine and best report in a newsmagazine. The documentary, which won Peabody and Overseas Press Club awards earlier this year, took viewers to a remote Afghan village and revealed how ISIS fighters were filling roles once taken by the Taliban.
Frontline also won an Emmy for “Outbreak,” produced and directed by Dan Edge with Sasha Joelle Achilli and Andrew Metz as senior editor and honored for coverage of a current news story; and “Gunned Down: The Power of the NRA,” by Michael Kirk, Jim Gilmore and Mike Wiser, won for long-form informational programming.
Cutie and the Boxer, a POV nominated for an Oscar this year, won the Emmy for best documentary. (Photo: RADius-TWC)
POV, one of two series showcasing independent film on PBS, was cited for best documentary for Cutie and the Boxer, an Oscar-nominated film by Zachary Heinzerling. In a second Emmy win, POV and StoryCorps shared Emmy credit for “Traffic Stop,” an animated short that topped the category for new approaches in arts, lifestyle and culture. The animation was produced by Rachel Hartman and Jud Esty-Kendall and directed by Gina Kamentsky and Julie Zammarchi.
The National Television Academy awarded Emmys for business and economic reporting to two PBS series. Independent Lens won for long-form coverage for “The Home Stretch,” and PBS NewsHour and the Center for Investigative Reporting were honored for coverage in a regularly scheduled newscast for “Deadly Oil Fields.”
“The Home Stretch” was produced and directed by Anne de Mare and Kirsten Kelly with Richard O’Connell and Katie Tabe. The team credited for producing and reporting “Deadly Oil Fields” included Amanda Pike, David Ritsher, Rachel de Leon, Adithya Sambamurthy and Jennifer Gollan.
A CIR online documentary series, The Dead Unknown, won the Emmy for new approaches in current news coverage. The videos were part of the multimedia investigation “Left for Dead,” about unsolved cases of missing people and the unidentified dead. The production, which involved a team of 24 journalists, included a podcast, app and text-based story. Executive producers were Amanda Pike and Kevin Sullivan.
News and Documentary Emmys went to three additional documentaries presented on PBS:
Twice Born: Stories From The Special Delivery Unit, a miniseries on fetal surgery, topped the category for science and technology programming. Credit went to Monica Lange, Bonnie Cutler-Shear, Beth Hoppe and Bill Gardner.
Nature: “The Last Orangutan” won for music and sound by Nimmida Pontecorvo, Len Delorey, Ed Campbell, David Mitcham and Scot B. Charles.
And The Mystery of Matter: Search for the Elements, a three-part series, won for lighting direction and scenic design, by Katha Seidman and Gary Henoch.
In the competition among television networks to win credit for the most Emmys, PBS outpaced both commercial and cable news. Its 14 Emmys awarded were double those awarded to CBS, the second-ranked network.