Virtual TCA Summer 2022 Press Tour — Day 1 Highlights
Following the executive session, TCA critics were given a glimpse of the upcoming Ken Burns film, The U.S. and the Holocaust.
Ken Burns, Lynn Novick and Sarah Botstein joined Daniel Mendelsohn, author, The Lost, to shed light on the three-part series that tells the story of how the American people grappled with one of the greatest humanitarian crises of the 20th century, and how this struggle tested the ideals of our democracy.
By examining events leading up to and during the Holocaust with fresh eyes, this film dispels the competing myths that Americans either were ignorant of what was happening to Jews in Europe or that they merely looked on with callous indifference.
The truth is much more nuanced and complicated, and the challenges that the American people confronted raise questions that remain essential to our society today: What is America’s role as a land of immigrants? What are the responsibilities of a nation to intervene in humanitarian crises? What should our leaders and the press do to shape public opinion? What can individuals do when governments fail to act?
The film premieres Sunday through Tuesday, September 18–20.
Next, PBS introduced a new series with BBC Music, “Fight the Power: How Hip Hop Changed the World.”
Developed by Chuck D and his producing partner Lorrie Boula, this series tells the story of hip hop as a political tool for speaking truth to power. The series includes first-hand accounts from some of rap’s most integral players and deconstructs the origins of this bold and revolutionary art form through the voices of those who were there at the start, creating an anthology of how it became a cultural phenomenon against the backdrop of American history. Premieres January 31, 2023.
Chuck D, Lorrie Boula, Bill Gardner, and Todd Larkins Williams joined to discuss the new series.
The third press conference featured INDEPENDENT LENS and its upcoming film “Hazing.”
“Hazing” looks at the widespread, far-reaching practice fueled by tradition, secrecy, groupthink, power, and the desire to belong in fraternities and sororities on college campuses and throughout institutions across the U.S. Through the voices of hazing survivors, family members, perpetrators and scholars, “Hazing” reveals a variety of underground rituals that are abusive and sometimes deadly.
Reckoning with his own traumatic experiences as both a hazing survivor and perpetrator, filmmaker Byron Hurt embarks on a deeply personal journey beyond his fraternity Omega Psi Phi to understand the intersecting roles that power, gender, race, dominance and control play in the violent lengths college students and others will go to fit in.
Premieres Monday, September 12.
Lois Vossen, series executive producer, and Byron Hurt, director, were joined by film participants Brent McClaahan II, hazing survivor, Patricia Strong-Fargas, a mother who lost her daughter to hazing, and James Vivenzio, hazing survivor.
The Kennedy Center was fourth to present to TCA during Day 1 of PBS Press Tour to spotlight the new primetime series NEXT AT THE KENNEDY CENTER. The program spotlights cultural leaders from the worlds of hip hop, jazz, folk, comedy, modern dance, and more. Captured to match the unique style of the artists, each episode weaves together performances filmed live at the Center with intimate off-stage moments to contextualize their significance and impact.
Reflecting the diversity of today’s performing arts in America and featuring a dynamic mix of rising stars and renowned artists, the series explores the enduring influence of artistic changemakers such as The Roots, Charles Mingus, and Joni Mitchell, through the eyes of the artists they helped inspire. It premieres Friday, October 7.
Simone Eccleston, director, Hip-Hop Culture and Contemporary Music, The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and Robert van Leer, senior vice president, Artistic Planning, The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts joined Matthew L. Winer, series executive producer and Lalah Hathaway, Grammy-winning recording artist to discuss the series.
Next, AMERICAN EXPERIENCE presented “Taken Hostage,” a new two-part, four-hour documentary about the Iran hostage crisis, when 52 American diplomats, Marines and civilians were taken hostage at the American Embassy in Tehran on November 4, 1979.
For the next 444 days, the world watched as the United States received a daily barrage of humiliation, vitriol and hatred from a country most Americans knew little about. The crisis would transform the U.S. and Iran and forever upend the focus and direction of American foreign policy. “Taken Hostage” also explores the backstory of how America became mired in the Middle East and the nation’s role in igniting the firestorm that has consumed the most strategically important part of the world for the last 40 years. Premieres Monday and Tuesday, November 14 and 15.
Hilary Brown, covered the Iran hostage crisis for ABC News and was their first female foreign correspondent joined Cameo George, series executive producer, Gary Sick, a senior member of President Carter’s national security team and longtime Iran expert, and Robert Stone, writer, producer, and director (“Chasing the Moon”) to discuss the film.
FRONTLINE closed out PBS’s first day at Virtual TCA Press Tour. First, they announced Raney Aronson — Rath was promoted to editor-in-chief and series executive producer.
Lastly, FRONTLINE introduced two new films in partnership with the Associated Press, both of which examine Russia’s war on Ukraine.
“Putin’s Attack on Ukraine: Documenting War Crimes” — From award-winning director Tom Jennings, producer Annie Wong, Associated Press investigative reporter Erika Kinetz and colleagues at the AP, “Putin’s Attach on Ukraine: Documenting War Crimes” is part of a major reporting effort investigating the evidence of Russian war crimes in Ukraine and the ongoing pursuit of justice. The film draws on first-hand reporting inside Ukraine since the earliest days of the war, as well as on a multi-platform journalism initiative called “War Crimes Watch Ukraine” that has been gathering, verifying, and comprehensively cataloging potential war crimes. Against the backdrop of the Ukraine war, the film traces a pattern of Russian atrocities across previous conflicts and exposes the challenges of trying to hold Russia to account.
“20 Days in Mariupol” — An extraordinary, one-of-a-kind view of the Russian siege of Mariupol, as seen through the lens of Associated Press video journalist Mstyslav Chernov — who with two other AP colleagues were the last international journalists left in the city at the time. “20 Days in Mariupol” is a harrowing and visceral account of Russia’s invasion of the city, including the bombing of a maternity hospital, and of Chernov’s and his colleagues’ eventual escape.
Raney Aronson-Rath, series executive producer and editor-in-chief was joined by Mstyslav Chernov, filmmaker, “20 Days in Mariupol”; video journalist, Associated Press, Beatrice Dupuy, news verification journalist, AP, Tom Jennings, director, “Putin’s Attack on Ukraine: Documenting War Crimes” and Alison Kodjak, deputy global investigations editor, AP.
