Letters From Baghdad is a beautiful documentary that uncovers the story of British adventurer, diplomat and Arabist, Gertrude Bell. (Republished December 11, 2018 to mark the PBS premiere. Original publication: 6/6/2017) Filmmakers Zeva Oelbaum and Sabine Krayenbühl reveal the struggles of a brilliant, lone woman in an all-male world. Their research uncovered a largely forgotten but mesmerizing film …
NATIVE AMERICA is a premium PBS series that explores the world created by America’s first peoples. It describes their foundational belief systems that synthesize science and spirituality. The 4-part series captures the incredible diversity of the expressions of these beliefs across North, Central and South America. Providence Pictures’ President and Executive Producer/Director, Gary Glassman was preparing …
by Hilary Sparrow. Sometimes serendipity opens doors you never even knew were there. I met Noel Kok at the Jackson, WY airport last September. I was eavesdropping on a phone conversation between Noel, his wife and kids. He let them know he’d safely landed after a long journey and would now find a taxi to …
Une co-production à 1,5 million d’Euros entre la NHK, le diffuseur publique japonais et le français Gédéon Programmes a été un grand succès au MIPDoc 2018. La série : LE JAPON VU DU CIEL. Les producteurs exécutifs Shin Yasuda et Nicolas Deschamps ont partagé leur processus de co-production lors de mon panel juste après l’avant-première mondiale. …
A 1.5 million Euros co-production between Japan’s public broadcaster NHK and France’s Gedeon Programmes was a highlight of MIPDoc 2018. The series: JAPAN FROM ABOVE. Executive Producers Shin Yasuda and Nicolas Deschamps shared their co-production process in my panel after the World-premiere screening. We expanded the key points into an informative Case Study covering a …
‘The Vietnam War’ from Ken Burns & Lynn Novick earned a hit-level PBS audience. This post on the 18-hour, $30 million ‘Vietnam’ series wraps up my coverage of PBS’s impressive factual ratings. (Read below my personal take on ‘Vietnam’ that is based on my eyewitness experience in wartime Laos as a 22 year old researcher / reporter …
NOVA is PBS’s signature Science strand. It is presented by WGBH Boston and carried on almost all of PBS’s 350+ stations. Viewers: Despite generally shrinking audiences for broadcasters, NOVA’s 3-Season rating trend is positive: 1.95 HH (2014-15) 1.89 HH (2015-16) 1.99 HH (2016-17). The Median Age of NOVA viewers is 63. This year’s quick turnaround …
I Am Not Your Negro would have earned my vote for the Feature Documentary Oscar for 2017. ITVS was a key funder of Raoul Peck’s marvelous film which envisions the book James Baldwin never finished, a radical narration about race in America. ITVS’s contribution to independent documentaries deserves a big cheer at this moment when publicly …