American Documentary

Overview

Brooklyn, N.Y. — October 11, 2023 — As previously announced by DOC NYC, American Documentary (AmDoc) announced today that Erika Dilday, Executive Director of American Documentary and Executive Producer of POV on PBS and America ReFramed on WORLD will be presented with the Leading Light Award during the DOC NYC Visionaries Tribute. Since 2014, Leading Light Award awardees have been selected for exemplary documentary work in a role other than a filmmaker. In a season marked by industry accolades and acclaim for POV, Ms. Dilday will receive this honor in person during DOC NYC taking place November 8 at Gotham Hall in Manhattan.

Erika Dilday is an award-winning producer, filmmaker and journalist with over twenty years of deep and profound involvement in independent film and community media. Before joining AmDoc, she was the CEO of Futuro Media Group, a multimedia organization that gives a critical voice to the diversity of the American experience through award-winning journalistic content for and about BIPOC. Prior to Futuro Media, she was the Executive Director of Maysles Documentary Center where she oversaw community cinema, filmmaking programs and produced the acclaimed documentary, In Transit, winner of the Tribeca Film Festival Special Jury Prize for documentary. Dilday also held strategic planning and financial management roles at The New York Times, National Geographic Television and CBS. She is a graduate of Harvard College, the Columbia School of Journalism and Columbia Business School. In 2020 she was a Knight Nieman fellow at Harvard University where she authored a piece for the Nieman Reports on authentic journalism in communities of color. Erika is a 2016 recipient of the Columbia Journalism School Alumni Award and a 2017 National Arts Strategies Chief Executive Fellow. Awards include the 44th Annual News & Documentary Emmy® Award for The Last Out; 2022 IDA Documentary Awards, Best TV Feature Documentary for Fannie Lou Hamer’s America: An America ReFramed Special; 2022 George Foster Peabody Awards, Documentary for Mayor and 2018 Omega Institute - Omega Women's Leadership Fellow.

“I am very honored to be recognized by DOC NYC with this award. My career has been focused on making authentic and diverse narratives part of the current media landscape, to create an honest and accurate reflection of our country and the world we want to make. At American Documentary I continue this mission for public media – a space intended for all – by providing a wide spectrum of thoughtfully made and accessible content to a public that needs and demands it,” said Erika Dilday, executive director of American Documentary and executive producer of POV.

Ms. Dilday will receive the Leading Light Award during a ceremony that also honors filmmakers Michael Moore and Deborah Shaffer with Lifetime Achievement honors and Maite Alberdi, who will be presented with The Robert and Anne Drew Award for Documentary Excellence.

“We’re elated to celebrate the tenth anniversary of Visionaries Tribute with this stellar line-up,” said DOC NYC co-founder and Director of Special Projects Thom Powers, who oversees the event. “Michael Moore reinvigorated the documentary form with his provocative humor. Deborah Shaffer has been a pillar of the New York documentary scene for decades. Maite Alberdi has dazzled international audiences with her observational filmmaking. And Erika Dilday is upholding a crucial space for independent filmmakers at American Documentary and POV.”

DOC NYC Festival details here

About

About American Documentary, Inc.

American Documentary, Inc. (AmDoc) is a multimedia organization dedicated to creating, identifying and presenting contemporary stories that express opinions and perspectives rarely featured in mainstream media outlets. AmDoc is a catalyst for public culture, developing collaborative strategic engagement activities around socially relevant content on television, online and in community settings. These activities are designed to trigger action, from dialogue and feedback to educational opportunities and community participation.

Major funding for POV is provided by PBS, the Open Society Foundations, The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Wyncote Foundation, Reva & David Logan Foundation, Park Foundation, and Perspective Fund. Additional funding comes from the National Endowment for the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts, public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, Sage Foundation, Chris and Nancy Plaut, Ann Tenenbaum and Thomas H. Lee and public television viewers. POV is presented by a consortium of public television stations, including KQED San Francisco, WGBH Boston and THIRTEEN in association with WNET.ORG.