On March 14, the South by Southwest Conference & Festivals (SXSW) named FRONTLINE and partners’ Un(re)solved interactive the winner of the 2022 Innovation Award in the Visual Media Experience category. 

In the award-winning web interactive, audiences enter a forest of quilted memories to learn about four people whose untimely deaths were re-examined as part of a federal effort to grapple with America’s legacy of racist killings through the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act. From there, audiences can explore all of the more than 150 names associated with the Till Act, collected in an accessible public forum for the first time: voting rights advocates, veterans, Louisville’s first female prosecutor, business owners, mothers, fathers and children.

To bring Un(re)solved to life, FRONTLINE partnered with Ado Ato Pictures, a premier mixed-reality studio founded by artist, filmmaker and technologist Tamara Shogaolu. The project is executive produced by award-winning filmmakers Dawn Porter (John Lewis: Good Trouble; Gideon’s Army) and Raney Aronson-Rath (executive producer, FRONTLINE).

“It means so much to have our work recognized, in particular, at a place like SXSW, known for pushing boundaries and leading the charge for innovators and innovation,” says Shogaolu. “So proud of all the work by our team at Ado Ato Pictures and FRONTLINE. I hope this recognition can bring attention to the unsolved cases and stories that make up Un(re)solved and lead to more collaborations between journalism, art and tech. Thank you to all our partners and supporters. So fortunate for all the incredible support we’ve received.”

“We’re so pleased to see Un(re)solved be recognized at SXSW with this Innovation Award,” says Aronson-Rath. “Congratulations to the inspiring creative director at the helm of this project, Tamara Shogaolu, and the team at Ado Ato Pictures, as well as the entire FRONTLINE (PBS) team for this honor. It’s remarkable to see this fusion between art and investigative journalism emerge as a powerful vehicle to shine a light on these victims of racial violence, their families and their ongoing quests for justice.”

Other collaborators include StoryCorps, whose mission is to record, preserve and share the stories of Americans from all backgrounds and beliefs; Northeastern University’s Civil Rights and Restorative Justice Project, founded by Distinguished Professor of Law Margaret Burnham; and Black Public Media, which develops, produces, funds and distributes media content about the African American and global Black experience.

The Un(re)solved interactive previously won the IDFA Award for Digital Storytelling, and the project was recognized earlier this year with the SIMA Journalistic Achievement & Creative Advocacy Award.

The larger, multiplatform Un(re)solved initiative also includes a podcast mini-series; an augmented-reality installation that tours schools, libraries and museums; the February 2022 documentary American Reckoning; companion educational curriculum and events.

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About FRONTLINE
FRONTLINE, U.S. television’s longest running investigative documentary series, explores the issues of our times through powerful storytelling. FRONTLINE has won every major journalism and broadcasting award, including 100 Emmy Awards and 26 Peabody Awards. Visit pbs.org/frontline and follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube to learn more. FRONTLINE is produced at GBH in Boston and is broadcast nationwide on PBS. Funding for FRONTLINE is provided through the support of PBS viewers and by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Additional support for FRONTLINE is provided by the Abrams Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Park Foundation, and the FRONTLINE Journalism Fund with major support from Jon and Jo Ann Hagler on behalf of the Jon L. Hagler Foundation, and additional support from Laura DeBonis.

FRONTLINE Press Contact: frontlinemedia@wgbh.org, 617.300.5312