Tom Jennings

Thomas Jennings started out as an obit writer for a small Ohio newspaper. He’s been been making films for FRONTLINE since 2009. His first film, Law and Disorder, a collaboration with A.C. Thompson and ProPublica on police shootings in New Orleans, won the prestigious George Polk Award and was nominated for an Emmy Award. Jennings then directed A Perfect Terrorist and its sequel, American Terrorist (2011, 2015), was a team producer on the landmark documentary series, Money, Power & Wall Street (2012), and wrote and directed Being Mortal (2015), with New Yorker writer Atul Gawande.

He directed Right to Fail (2019), about people with severe mental illness living independently, Opioids, Inc. (2020), and with June Cross and Jelani Cobb at Columbia University, he made Whose Vote Counts, which won the 2021 Peabody Award and NABJ Award. His next film, Boeing’s Fatal Flaw (2021), an investigation with The New York Times into the 737-MAX crashes, received an Emmy Award. Jennings spent 2022 reporting and filming in Ukraine as he directed Putin’s Attack on Ukraine: Documenting War Crimes, a 90-minute investigation detailing Russian military atrocities and holding accountable those most responsible. It has been the recipient of the RFK Journalism Award, The Overseas Press Club Award, the IRE Award and was nominated for a News & Documentary Emmy in the "Best Documentary" category.

In all, Jennings has received a Peabody Award; three News & Documentary Emmy Awards; an RFK Journalism Award; two Polk Awards; the duPont-Columbia Award; a National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) Award; two Overseas Press Club Awards; a Deadline Club Award; a Loeb Award; and six Writers Guild of America Awards.

Email:

FrontlineEditors@wgbh.org
54m
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The Discord Leaks
An investigation into how a young Air National Guardsman leaked classified documents on the Discord chat platform.
December 12, 2023
25m
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Crime Scene: Bucha
FRONTLINE, The Associated Press and SITU map the atrocities in Bucha, Ukraine, through eyewitness accounts, videos and exclusive 3D data.
December 6, 2022
1h 24m
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Putin's Attack on Ukraine: Documenting War Crimes
FRONTLINE and the Associated Press investigate evidence of Russian war crimes in Ukraine and the pursuit of justice.
October 25, 2022
54m
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Boeing’s Fatal Flaw
As new questions arise about Boeing’s troubled 737 Max jet, FRONTLINE and The New York Times update an award-winning investigation about the crashes that killed 346 people.
March 12, 2024
54m
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Whose Vote Counts
As America chooses its next president in the midst of a historic pandemic, FRONTLINE investigates whose vote counts — and whose might not.
October 20, 2020
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Opioids, Bribery And Wall Street: The Inside Story Of A Disgraced Drugmaker
Executives from Insys, the maker of Subsys, became the first pharmaceutical bosses to be handed prison time for their role in America’s opioid epidemic.
June 18, 2020
53m
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Opioids, Inc.
The story of a drug company that pushed opioids by bribing doctors and committing insurance fraud.
June 23, 2020
Insys Therapeutics Founder John N. Kapoor
Insys Executives Are Sentenced to Prison Time, Putting Opioid Makers On Notice
John Kapoor, the founder of the drugmaker Insys, was sentenced to five-and-a-half years in prison for masterminding a scheme to bribe doctors to prescribe a dangerous painkiller.
January 23, 2020
54m
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Right to Fail
FRONTLINE and ProPublica investigate New York's effort to let those with severe mental illnesses live on their own.
February 26, 2019
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'I Want to Live Like a Human Being': Where New York Fails Its Mentally Ill
FRONTLINE and ProPublica identified more than two dozen cases in which people with mental illness living in supported housing were not able to care for themselves, leaving them in unsafe or inhumane living conditions.
December 6, 2018
1h 23m
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American Terrorist
How secret electronic surveillance missed catching the Mumbai plotters -- and how American-born David Coleman Headley planned another Charlie Hebdo-like assault against a Danish newspaper.
April 21, 2015
54m
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Being Mortal
FRONTLINE follows renowned writer and surgeon Atul Gawande as he explores the relationships doctors have with patients who are nearing the end of life.
February 10, 2015