The documentary winners of the 2019 Peabody Awards have been revealed by Variety. Four of the eight titles are women-directed.
Directed by Liz Garbus (“What Happened, Miss Simone?”), “A Dangerous Son” follows parents struggling to find help and deal with the challenges of children with mental health issues.
Erika Cohn’s (“When the Voices Fade”) “Independent Lens: The Judge” is a portrait of the first woman judge to be appointed to the Middle East’s Shari’a courts. “I am fascinated with how law is interpreted — how power, economics, and/or status can influence implementation,” Cohn told us. “I am captivated by the intersection and tension between religion, culture, and identity. I am drawn to narratives about strong women. I fell in love with this story for so many reasons, yet meeting Judge Kholoud truly inspired the film.”
“Lorraine Hansberry: Sighted Eyes/Feeling Heart” sees Tracy Heather Strain (“Race: The Power of an Illusion”) exploring the life, work, and legacy of Hansberry, a civil rights activist and playwright. “I was introduced to Lorraine Hansberry when I was 17,” Strain explained to us, “because my grandmother took my sister and me to see a performance at the Harrisburg Community Theater of ‘To Be Young, Gifted and Black,’ the play about Hansberry’s life. It was quite a revelation to see and hear a young black woman who was really smart speaking about things that I had noticed, describing things that were similar to incidents that I’d experienced and yearning to translate it all in a way that other people could understand,” she recalled. “When and where does one hear and see stories that include the experiences of middle class black Americans?”
Tiffany Hsiung’s (“Within Every Woman”) “POV: The Apology” is a “story about the present-day lives of three grandmothers who are former ‘comfort women,’ a euphemism used to describe over 200,000 girls who were forced into sexual slavery by the Imperial Japanese Army during WWII in Asia,” the director told us. “The film documents their struggle with shame, silence, and memory loss, all the while showing the grandmothers’ resilience as they continue to fight for an official apology from the Japanese government.”
The doc winners will be celebrated at the Peabody Awards, set to be held May 18 in New York. Rita Moreno will receive the Peabody Career Achievement Award.
“Winners in the entertainment, children’s and youth, news, radio, podcast, web, and public service categories will be announced later this week,” the source notes. “Hannah Gadsby: Nanette” and “Killing Eve” are among the nominees.
