The Peabody Awards Board of Jurors has selected nine winners in the Documentary category for programs released in 2017. The honorees, part of the annual Peabody 30, include stories that give insight to the lingering grief of communities after mass shootings, the impact of climate change on Earth’s oceans, and young activists fighting for a path to citizenship. The Peabody Awards are based at the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia.
Peabody Award winners, including Carol Burnett, recipient of the first-ever Peabody Career Achievement Award presented by Mercedes-Benz, will be celebrated on Saturday, May 19 at Cipriani Wall Street in New York. Hasan Minhaj, comedian, writer and senior correspondent on Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show with Trevor Noah,” will serve as host. The presenting sponsor is Mercedes-Benz, the official automobile of the 77th Annual Peabody Awards Ceremony. Supporting sponsor is The Coca-Cola Co. Variety is the exclusive media partner.
2017 Documentary Winners
America ReFramed: Deej
A bold step forward in inclusive filmmaking that allows David James (Deej) Savarese, a nonspeaking young man with autism, to tell his own story, focusing on accomplishment and possibility, not limits and barriers.
Chasing Coral
This surprisingly emotional film expertly documents, through time-lapse underwater photographs, the effects of climate change on the rapid decimation of the world’s coral reefs, events known as coral bleaching that affected 29 percent of the shallow-water coral in the Great Barrier Reef in 2016 alone.
Indivisible
An urgent, intimate portrait of heartbreak and determination, disappointment and victory as three young Dreamers navigate confusing immigration policy, bad faith on the part of politicians, and the emotional trauma of family separation.
Last Men in Aleppo
Masterful storytelling by civilian filmmakers at the heart of the Syrian crisis as they follow the volunteer group the White Helmets, who provide emergency services to traumatized residents in the rebel-occupied areas of the city of Aleppo.
Maya Angelou: And Still I Rise
A vivid portrait of Maya Angelou, who, while best known as one of America’s leading writers, also blazed a brave and original life as a performer, actress, and activist integral to the civil rights movement and the celebration of African-American experience.
Newtown
Testimonials from survivors of the deadliest mass shooting of schoolchildren in American history document a traumatized community fractured by grief but driven toward a sense of purpose.
Oklahoma City
Essential viewing that draws a line from armed standoffs at Ruby Ridge and Waco to the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995, to tell the story of both the worst act of domestic terrorism in U.S. history and the rise of anti-government hatred and white militancy.
The Islands and the Whales
An exquisitely photographed documentary that explores the inextricable links between oceans poisoned by coal burning power plants and the direct impact they have on people of the remote Faroe Islands in the North Atlantic Ocean, who struggle between maintaining their traditional way of life and the long-term health repercussions of mercury poisoning.
TIME: The Kalief Browder Story
Powerful miniseries illuminating the greatest flaws of our criminal justice system through the tragic events and death of a young African-American who spent three years on Rikers Island without being convicted of a crime.