The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences announced Thursday that three ProPublica video projects have been nominated for six News & Documentary Emmy Awards.
The short video “Unlivable Oasis: A Family’s Housing Struggle on the Front Lines of the Climate Crisis,” a collaboration with Time, Truly CA and Univision Noticias, was nominated for three Emmys in the categories of Outstanding Science, Technology or Environmental Coverage; Outstanding Video Journalism: News; and Outstanding Editing: News.
Directed by visual journalist Mauricio Rodríguez Pons and reporter Elizabeth Weil, the film provides a case study of how the growing climate crisis magnifies inequality in housing, the first line of defense against an increasingly inhospitable environment. The film is a dystopian portrait of Thermal, a Southern California town that’s both a playground for the rich and home to farmworkers who live in uninsulated, sun-baked trailers in some of the hottest farmland in the world.
“The Secret IRS Files” video series was nominated for Outstanding Graphic Design and Art Direction: News. The three videos by Nadia Sussman, Mauricio Rodríguez Pons, Almudena Toral, Sherene Strausberg, Kristyn Hume, Maya Eliahou, Chris Morran and Joe Singer ran with a larger series that revealed a series of systemic inequities that allow America’s wealthiest citizens to pay little or nothing in federal taxes. To make complex financial concepts easy to understand — and the inequalities exacerbated by current tax policy impossible to ignore — the team created humorous but gut-punching videos that unpack some of the most outrageous techniques used by the ultrawealthy to avoid taxes. They took viewers to “Planet Tax Avoidance,” a metaphor for the world of the ultrawealthy who sidestep the rules that govern the rest of society. They explained the buy-borrow-die strategy and how amortization allows sports team owners to dramatically reduce their tax bills.
“American Insurrection,” a documentary by ProPublica, PBS Frontline and Berkeley Journalism’s PBS Investigative Reporting Program, was nominated for two Emmys for Best Documentary and Outstanding Current Affairs Documentary. ProPublica reporter A.C. Thompson, who was a producer and correspondent for the film, along with Midnight Films' producer Karim Hajj, editor/producer Jacquie Soohen and director Rick Rowley, explored the threat posed by violent far-right groups that see themselves as defending the Constitution but are tied to anti-government, white supremacist ideologies and criminality.
You can see the full list of all Emmy Award nominees here.
