A documentary presented by the University of Georgia Libraries has earned a regional Emmy Award.
INSIDE The Warren Commission, a project that has aired on public broadcasting across the United States throughout the past year as part of the 60th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, was selected as a Southeast Emmy Award recipient.
The documentary delves into the inner workings of the Warren Commission, the blue-ribbon Congressional body charged to investigate Kennedy’s assassination.
“The UGA Russell Library’s mission includes documenting and educating the public on the history of Congress. This project advances that aim, illuminating one of the most scrutinized government investigations of the 20th century,” University Librarian Toby Graham said. “We are proud to partner with Bill VanDerKloot to bring this documentary to the public airwaves, and we congratulate him on this well-deserved Emmy.”
VanDerKloot is a Peabody Award and previous Emmy Award winning filmmaker, as well as a longstanding member of the UGA Libraries Board of Visitors. Charles Campbell, a former top aide to U.S. Sen. Richard Russell, served as co-executive producer of the film, along with Graham. Atlanta broadcast journalist Monica Pearson narrated the film, which also includes interviews with former CBS news anchor Roger Mudd, former Russell Press secretary and business executive Earl Leonard, and former President Johnson special assistant and former CNN president Tom Johnson, among others. The UGA Special Collections Libraries will archive the full interviews.
The film includes extensive research from original documents and footage preserved within the Russell Library for Political Research and Studies and the Brown Media Archives and Peabody Awards Collection, two of UGA’s Special Collections Libraries.
The UGA Libraries was awarded a Southeast Emmy in 2010 as a producing partner for the project Andrew Young: How We Got Over. Footage from Brown Media Archives has been included in numerous award-winning documentaries, including Summer of Soul (2021), which received Academy and Peabody awards, as well as Peabody-winners Crip Camp (2020), Mr. SOUL (2021), and My Name is Pauli Murray (2021).
“The Libraries appreciates the support of the Russell Foundation and numerous individual donors who made the film possible,” said Graham.