FRONTLINE Earns Three Peabody Award Nominations

Three FRONTLINE documentaries — For Sama, Flint’s Deadly Water and Coal’s Deadly Dust — were named 2020 George Foster Peabody Award finalists on Wednesday.

• For Sama — the epic, Academy Award® -nominated feature documentary directed by filmmaker Waad al-Kateab and Edward Watts — offers a gripping, first-person account of one woman’s experience of the Syrian conflict. Documenting her life over five years of the uprising in rebel-held Aleppo, al-Kateab falls in love, marries one of the last practicing doctors in the city, gives birth to Sama, and says goodbye to her beloved — and besieged — home, all on camera. For Sama aired on FRONTLINE in November 2019 following a decorated theatrical release in the summer of 2019 by PBS Distribution. The feature documentary is produced by Channel 4 News and ITN Productions for Channel 4 and FRONTLINE (PBS).
• Flint’s Deadly Water, FRONTLINE’s September 2019 investigation produced and directed by Abby Ellis and her reporting team — Kayla Ruble, Jacob Carah and Sarah Childress — exclusively revealed the unreported toll of Flint, Michigan’s water crisis. Drawing from a two-year long investigation, Flint’s Deadly Water documents an outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease during the water crisis that has continued to claim lives in the city five years after the crisis began. The documentary exposes how the outbreak happened, why it continued for more than a year before state officials alerted the public — and the consequences of that delay for the people of Flint. The documentary was honored with a Scripps Howard Award earlier this year.
• Coal’s Deadly Dust, a January 2019 FRONTLINE and NPR collaborative investigation examines the rise of severe black lung disease among coal miners, and the failure to respond. From Academy-Award nominated filmmaker Elaine McMillion Sheldon and NPR correspondent Howard Berkes, Coal’s Deadly Dust revealed the biggest disease clusters ever documented, and how the industry and the government failed to protect miners.

“We’re grateful to have three documentaries nominated for this year’s Peabody Awards,” says FRONTLINE Executive Producer Raney Aronson-Rath. “It’s an honor to see our deeply-reported investigations, shining a light on critical issues both at home and abroad, acknowledged in this way. Thank you to our dedicated, truth-seeking reporters, our loyal viewers and to WGBH, PBS and CPB for supporting our journalism.”

Of the 60 nominees selected by the Peabody Awards Board of Jurors, PBS led with 11 nominations. As noted in their official nominations announcement, Peabody Award nominees “represent the most compelling and empowering stories released in broadcasting and digital media during 2019.”

Since 1940, the prestigious George Foster Peabody Awards have honored excellence in broadcasting. According to an announcement on their site, the 2020 award’s ceremony has been postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and Peabody is monitoring the situation to determine a more appropriate time to host the ceremony. The awards now recognize excellence in digital storytelling as well. Read the full list of Peabody Award nominees here.

You can watch this year’s Peabody Award-nominated FRONTLINE documentaries below:

For Sama:

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Flint’s Deadly Water:

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Coal’s Deadly Dust:

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