Erik Barnouw Award Winners

2022

Look Away, Look Away, Scenic Films, Patrick O'Connor, director/producer, Margaret McMullan, producer

2021

The People vs. Agent Orange. Directors: Alan Adelson, Kate Taverna; Producers: Alan Adelson, Kate Taverna, Véronique Bernard; Editor: Kate Taverna; Executive Producers: Abigail E. Disney, Maxyne Franklin, Sally Jo Fifer, Gini Reticker, Lois Vossen; Supervising Producer: David Eisenberg; Commissioning Editor: Mark Edwards; a Films for Humanity co-production with Independent Television Services (ITVS) for Independent Lens, and ARTE, France

2020

Chasing the Moon, A Robert Stone Production for American Experience: Robert Stone, Writer, Producer and Director; Susan Bellows, Senior Producer; Mark Samels, Executive Producer.

2019

The Chinese Exclusion Act, a co-production of Steeplechase Films and the Center for Asian American Media. Directed by Ric Burns and Li-Shin Yu. Produced and written by Ric Burns, Robin Espinola, and Li-Shin Yu. Executive Producers: Stephen Gong and Donald Young, Center for Asian American Media; Mark Samels, American Experience.

2018

The Vietnam War, a co-production of Florentine Films and WETA, Washington, D.C.; Directors: Ken Burns and Lynn Novick; Producers: Sarah Botstein, Lynn Novick, and Ken Burns; written by Geoffrey C. Ward

2017

The Mine Wars, A Film Posse, Inc. production for American Experience: Randall MacLowry, Producer and Director; Mark Zwonitzer, Writer; James E. Dunford, Managing Director; Susan Bellows, Senior Producer; Mark Samels, Executive Producer

2016

No Más Bebés, Moon Canyon Films; Renee Tajima-Peña and Virginia Espino, Producers; Renee Tajima-Peña, Director

2015

The Roosevelts: An Intimate History, a co-production of Florentine Films and WETA Washington D.C. Director: Ken Burns; Producers: Paul Barnes, Pam Tubridy Baucom, and Ken Burns

Honorable Mention: 1971, Director and Producer: Johanna Hamilton; Producers: Marilyn Ness and Katy Chevigny; Associate Producer: Danielle Varga. Maximum Pictures and Fork Films in a co-production with the Independent Television Service (ITVS), in association with Big Mouth Productions, Motto Pictures, Candescent Films, and the Ford Foundation JustFilms.

2014

Honor & Sacrifice: The Roy Matsumoto Story, Lucy Ostrander and Don Sellers, Producers, Stourwater Pictures

Honorable Mention: Rebel, María Agui Carter, Writer, Director, Producer and Calvin Lindsay, Producer, PBS. Co-produced by Iguana Films with The Independent Television Services (ITVS), Latino Public Broadcasting and WPBT, major funding provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Sally Jo Fifer, executive producer for ITVS.

2013

American Experience: Death and the Civil War, Ric Burns, Director/Writer/Producer, Steeplechase Films

2012

The Pruitt-Igoe Myth: An Urban History, directed by Chad Freidrichs, Director and Assistant Professor, Digital Filmmaking Department, Stephens College ANPO: Art x War, Linda Hoaglund, Director and Producer

2011

The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers, directed by Judith Ehrlich and Rick Goldsmith, Kovno Communications

2010

Passage, directed by John Walker, distributed by Bullfrog Films, Inc.

Honorable Mention: Herskovits at the Heart of Blackness, California Newsreel

Honorable Mention: We Shall Remain, PBS series American Experience. Executive Producers: Sharon Grimberg and Mark Samels. Producers: Ric Burns, Sarah Colt, Dustinn Craig, Stanley Nelson, Cathleen O'Connell, Rob Rapley, and Mark Zwonitzer.

2009

Wings of Defeat, Edgewood Pictures, Inc., Risa Morimoto and Linda Hoaglund, filmmakers.

Banished, a film produced and directed by Marco Williams and a coproduction of Two Tone Productions, the Center for Investigative Reporting, the Independent Television Service (ITVS), and the National Black Programming Consortium, with major funding provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Sally Jo Fifer, executive producer for ITVS.

Honorable Mention: The Lobotomist, produced and directed by Barak Goodman and John Maggio for the PBS series American Experience.

2008

Through Deaf Eyes a film by Lawrence Hott and Diane Garey, a production of WETA Washington, DC, and Florentine Films/Hott Productions, in association with Gallaudet University

Honorable Mention: Revolution ’67, Marylou and Jerome Bongiorno, Bongiorno Productions Inc., Independent Television Service (ITVS), and P.O.V./American Documentary Inc., in association with WSKG, with funding provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB). (California Newsreel, distributor)

2007

Randall MacLowry, The Gold Rush a Yellow Jersey Films, Inc. production for American Experience, produced in association with KQED television; Randall MacLowry and Laura Longsworth producers; directed by Randall MacLowry

Honorable Mention: Sacco and Vanzetti, Peter Miller, producer/director (Willow Pond Films)

Honorable Mention: July '64: The Roots of Urban Unrest in America, Carvin Eison, director; Chris Christopher, producer (California Newsreel)

Honorable Mention: The Boy in the Bubble, an Ark Media film for American Experience, produced and directed by Barak Goodman and John Maggio

2006

The Documentary Institute, College of Journalism and Communications, the University of Florida, Negroes with Guns: Rob Williams and Black Power (Sandra Dickson & Churchill Roberts, co-directors; Cindy Hill & Cara Pilson, associate directors; California Newsreel, distributor)

Honorable Mention: American Experience, Guerrilla: The Taking of Patty Hearst (Robert Stone, producer; New Video, distributor)

Honorable Mention: American Experience, Two Days in October (Mark Samels, executive producer; Robert Kenner, producer; PBS, distributor)

2005

American Experience, Reconstruction, the Second Civil War (episode one: Llewellyn M. Smith, producer and director; episode two: Elizabeth Deane, producer and director, Patricia Garcia Rios, co-producer and co-director; series producer: Elizabeth Deane).

Honorable Mention: California Newsreel, February One (Rebecca Cerese, producer, Video Dialog; Stephen Channing, executive producer, Video Dialog).

Honorable Mention: American Experience, Patriots Day (written, directed, and produced by Marian Marzynski).

2004

Partners of the Heart, Andrea Kalin, Spark Media, Inc.

Honorable Mention: David Appleby, University of Memphis, Hoxie: The First Stand

2003

Judith Ehrlich and Rick Tejada-Flores, produced by Paradigm Productions Inc. in association with Independent Television Service, The Good War and Those Who Refused to Fight It

Honorable Mention: Strange Fruit produced/directed by Joel Katz, Oniera Films LLC

2002

Daniel Anker and Barak Goodman, Scottsboro: An American Tragedy, Social Media Productions

2001

The Documentary Institute at the College of Journalism and Communications of the University of Florida, ”Freedom Never Dies: The Legacy of Harry T. Moore,” Sandra Dickson and Churchill Roberts, producer-directors.

2000

Henry Hampton, “I’ll Make Me a World: A Century of African-American Art,” Blackside, Inc.

1999

Nina Gilden Seavey, “A Paralyzing Fear: The Story of Polio in America,” directed by Nina Gilden Seavey, George Washington University, and produced by Paul Wagner, Paul Wagner Productions, Inc., and Nina Gilden Seavey.

1998

Austin Hoyt, “The Richest Man in the World: Andrew Carnegie,” American Experience.

Honorable Mention: Vivian Ducat, ”Hawaii’s Last Queen,” Ducat Segal Productions, Inc.

1997

Stephen Ives, Insignia Films, “The West”

1996

Blackside, Inc., “America’s War ”

1995

Connie Field and Marilyn Mulford, “Freedom on My Mind,” Clarity Films.

1994

David Appleby, Allison Graham, and Steven Ross, “At the River I Stand,” California Newsreel.

1993

Christine M. Lesiak and Matthew L. Jones, “In the White Man’s Image,” Nebraska ETV Network

1992

Ric Burns and Buddy Squires, “Coney Island,” Steeplechase Films

Vivian Kleiman and Marlon T. Riggs, “Color Adjustment,” Signifyin' Works 

1991

Henry Hampton, “Eyes on the Prize II: America at the Racial Crossroads, 1965–1985,” Blackside, Inc.

Honorable Mention: “Ulysses S. Grant” Part I written, produced, and directed by Adriana Bosch: Part II written, produced, and directed by Elizabeth Deane, for American Experience

1990

Richard Kilberg and Yvonne Smith, “Adam Clayton Powell,” a program from the PBS series ”The American Experience” a production of WGBH/WNET/KCET

1989

Martha Sandlin and Barbara Abrash, “Indians, Outlaws and Angie Debo,” Institute for Research in History

1988

Robert Stone (Director and Producer) “Radio Bikini,” Crossroads Production Company

Alvin H. Perlmutter (Executive Producer), Joan Konner (Co-executive Producer), and Bill Moyers (Executive Editor), “The Secret Government: The Constitution in Crisis,” Public Affairs Television

1987

No award given.

1986

Ken Burns, “Huey Long,” distributed by Corinth Films, New York

1985

Past America, Inc., “Solomon Northup’s Odyssey”

CBS News, Joel Heller, producer, ”The Legacy of Harry Truman”

1984

WGBH-Boston, 13-part series, “Vietnam: A Television History”

1983

Ken Burns, “Brooklyn Bridge”