American Documentary

Overview

Brooklyn, N.Y. — April 23, 2024 — The Peabody Awards Board of Jurors announced the first round of nominees for its 84th annual ceremony. POV, America’s longest-running non-fiction series, has received a Documentary nomination for the award-winning film While We Watched, directed by Vinay Shukla (An Insignificant Man).

While We Watched, a stunning portrayal of a newsroom in crisis, underscores what is at stake for independent journalist around the world in time of rising authoritarianism, waning public trust in news and rippling effects of disinformation tactics. The film was among 41 nominees in the Documentary, News, Public Service, and Radio/Podcast categories selected to represent compelling stories released in broadcasting and streaming media during 2023. This is the eleventh year in a row a POV film has been nominated for a Peabody.

Erika Dilday, Executive Director of American Documentary and Executive Producer for POV and America ReFramed states “on behalf of our organization, we are incredibly proud of director Vinay Shukla and the entire While We Watched film team on their accomplishments. It has been our honor to work in collaboration with them on this national broadcast and to help reach a wider audience across public media. Their film, both poignant, intimate and urgent, is not only a regional story, but has international implications as it highlights the fragility of free press and democracy in our time.”

While We Watched follows high-profile Indian journalist, Ravish Kumar, known for questioning those in power, over the course of two years as he confronts the rise of misinformation, bombastic attacks and a ratings driven editorial news environment. Personal, intimate and told with a sense of urgency, this story resonates with independent journalists and newsrooms struggling to maintain a free press and fact-based analysis and audiences seeking truth and trust in contemporary media.

Aryan Vyas of Asian Movie Pulse wrote “Watching the NDTV journalists in While We Watched and knowing how it turned out makes the dreary reality somehow even more harrowing. It's a reality where every dissent is treated as treason [...] But what makes Shukla's documentary great, is that it never gets overly didactic by placing its antagonist in the foreground. The emphasis primarily remains on [Ravish] Kumar, and it's his perseverance against the normalization of authoritarianism which forms the heartbeat of the story.” In her review, Wendy Ide of the The Guardian offered that "This is tense, essential film-making that argues for the importance of serious, balanced journalism in today’s world of factional infotainment, while also showing the cost to those who stand against the tide.”

While We Watched made its national broadcast premiere on September 4, 2023 as part of POV’s landmark 36th season. With several key film festival screenings around the globe, the film has garnered industry awards most notably the World Premiere at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival where it won its Amplify Voices Award, its Asian premiere at the 27th Busan International Film Festival where it received the Cinephile Award as well as the International Competition at DocPoint Helsinki.

While We Watched is a Lono Studio, Britdoc Films, and American Documentary | POV co-production. Vinay Shukla is the director. The producers are Luke W. Moody and Khushboo Ranka. Executive Producers are Erika Dilday and Chris White for American Documentary | POV.

The winners of the 84th annual Peabody Awards will be announced on May 9 and then celebrated on Sunday, June 9 at a ceremony at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Los Angeles. This marks Peabody’s first in-person ceremony since 2019, as well as the first time ever in its history that the Awards will take place in Los Angeles.

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.

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, Chris and Nancy Plaut, Ann Tenenbaum and Thomas H. Lee, Acton Family Giving, 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.

About POV

Produced by American Documentary, POV is the longest-running independent documentary showcase on American television. Since 1988, POV has presented films on PBS that capture the full spectrum of the human experience, with a long commitment to centering women and people of color in front of, and behind, the camera. The series is known for introducing generations of viewers to groundbreaking works like Tongues Untied (1989), Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse (1992), Rabbit in the Room (1999), Of Civil Wrongs & Rights: The Fred Korematsu Story (2001), Made in L.A. (2007), American Promise (2013), Not Going Quietly (2021), While We Watched (2022), A House Made of Splinters (2022) and the mini-series And She Could be Next (2020). Throughout its history POV has featured the work of award-winning, innovative filmmakers including Jonathan Demme, Laura Poitras, Nanfu Wang, Frederick Wiseman, Emiko Omori, Janus Metz Pedersen and Ava DuVernay. In 2018, POV Shorts launched as one of the first PBS series dedicated to bold and timely short-form documentaries. In 2024, Indiewire named seven POV films in its roundup of “The 50 Best Documentaries of the 21st Century”: Faya Dayi (2021), The Mole Agent (2020), Minding The Gap (2018), Cameraperson (2016), The Look of Silence (2015), The Act of Killing (2013) and After Tiller (2013). All POV programs are available for streaming concurrent with broadcast on all station-branded PBS platforms, including PBS.org and the PBS App, available on iOS, Android, Roku streaming devices, Apple TV, Android TV, Amazon Fire TV, Samsung Smart TV, Chromecast and VIZIO. For more information about PBS Passport, visit the PBS Passport FAQ website.

POV goes “beyond the broadcast” to bring powerful nonfiction storytelling to viewers wherever they are. Free educational resources accompany every film and a community network of thousands of partners nationwide work with POV to spark dialogue around today’s most pressing issues. POV continues to explore the future of documentary through innovative productions with partners such as The New York Times and The National Film Board of Canada and on platforms including Snapchat and Instagram.

POV films and projects have won 47 Emmy Awards, 27 George Foster Peabody Awards, 15 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Awards, three Academy Awards® and the first-ever George Polk Documentary Film Award. Learn more at pbs.org/pov and follow @povdocs on social media.

About PBS

PBS, with more than 330 member stations, offers all Americans the opportunity to explore new ideas and new worlds through television and digital content. Each month, PBS reaches over 120 million people through television and 26 million people online, inviting them to experience the worlds of science, history, nature and public affairs; to hear diverse viewpoints; and to take front row seats to world-class drama and performances. PBS’s broad array of programs has been consistently honored by the industry’s most coveted award competitions. Teachers of children from pre-K through 12th grade turn to PBS for digital content and services that help bring classroom lessons to life. Decades of research confirm that PBS’s premier children’s media service, PBS KIDS, helps children build critical literacy, math and social-emotional skills, enabling them to find success in school and life. Delivered through member stations, PBS KIDS offers high-quality educational content on TV – including a 24/7 channel, online at pbskids.org, via an array of mobile apps and in communities across America. More information about PBS is available at www.pbs.org, one of the leading dot-org websites on the internet, or by following PBS on Twitter, Facebook or through our apps for mobile and connected devices. Specific program information and updates for press are available at pbs.org/pressroom or by following PBS Communications on Twitter.