News & Documentary Emmys: 'I Am Evidence' Wins Top Doc Prize; 'I Am Not Your Negro,' 'Crime + Punishment,' 'King in the Wilderness' and More Earn Trophies

Science Fair, directed by Cristina Costantini and Darren Foster, wins Outstanding Science and Technology Documentary

Two documentaries about alarming issues in law enforcement took major prizes as the 40th New and Documentary Emmy Awards were presented in New York.

​I Am Evidence, the HBO film about the shocking backlog of rape kits that remain untested in jurisdictions across the United States, earned Best Documentary at the ceremony Tuesday night at Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall. An emotional Mariska Hargitay, star of Law & Order: SVU, who produced the documentary, accepted the award.
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You are all evidence of courage and strength and perseverance and the possibility of reclaiming a life.

--Producer Mariska Hargitay thanking sexual assault survivors who told their stories in the documentary I Am Evidence

"I have often said that the backlog of untested rape kits in this country says to survivors that you don’t matter and what happened to you doesn’t matter," Hargitay said while fighting through tears. "And I want to say to you - and we all made this movie to say - you matter deeply and what happened to you matters. So, you are all evidence of courage and strength and perseverance and the possibility of reclaiming a life, and you have my deep gratitude and admiration."

Trish Adlesic and Geeta Gandbhir, directors of the film, joined Hargitay on stage. When I spoke with the filmmakers two years ago, they gave me a sense of the scale of the problem documented in I Am Evidence.

"Right now we have about over 200,000 [untested] rape kits that have been counted so far from the [communities] that have reported," Adlesic told me in 2017. "So it appears this problem is just about everywhere."

Mariska Hargitay, producer of "I Am Evidence," accepts Best Documentary at the News and Documentary Emmy Awards in New York Tuesday night. Image courtesy ATAS

Another law enforcement-centered film, Hulu's Crime + Punishment, won the Emmy for Outstanding Social Issue Documentary. The film directed by Stephen Maing explores the case of the "NYPD 12," a group of New York police officers who filed a class action lawsuit to oppose an alleged quota system that forces cops to arrest, or issue court summons to, a sufficient tally of people to pour revenue into the city's coffers.

The result of the alleged policy -- which the NYPD denies exists -- is to harass, tax and incarcerate a disproportionate number of young people of color, who serve as easy targets for officers in need of keeping up their arrest and summons totals.

"These men and women of law enforcement continue to walk a dangerous path by standing up for their beliefs," Maing said as he accepted the award, joined by some of the subjects of his film, including Lt. Edwin Raymond and Officer Richie Baez. "They need our attention and support as they continue to fight discrimination and corruption in law enforcement."

Lt. Raymond invited the parents of Trayvon Martin, the African-American teenager killed by George Zimmerman in Sanford, Florida in 2012, to come to the stage. That act alone suggests the degree to which Raymond and his fellow NYPD 12 are willing to go against a conservative "law and order" culture that so often regards young black and brown people as inherently suspect.

"Crime + Punishment" director Stephen Maing with his daughter Rosie outside IFC Center in New York, where his documentary played. New York, August 26, 2018. Photo by Matt Carey

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Related:
>I Am Evidence directors on urgent need to process shocking backlog of untested rape kits: 'When you don't test kits perpetrators remain free to assault other victims'
​>Crime + Punishment director Stephen Maing on impact of NYPD's alleged arrest quota system: 'An incredibly draconian and Orwellian nightmare'

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The Emmy for Outstanding Arts and Culture Documentary went to I Am Not Your Negro, Raoul Peck's exceptional film on the late James Baldwin. The film based on an uncompleted memoir by Baldwin earned an Oscar nomination in 2017. IANYN made over $7 million during its theatrical release in North America and later aired on television as part of the PBS series Independent Lens.

Science Fair, from National Geographic, won the Emmy for Outstanding Science and Technology Documentary. The delightful film directed by Cristina Costantini and Darren Foster tells the story of high school competitors - bursting with intelligence, imaginination and, yes, hormones - taking part in the annual International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF).

"We... want to thank the children in our documentary. We live during a time when the adults in our world are acting like children. And we had the great privilege of following all of these children who are acting like adults and showing us the way forward," Costantini said as she accepted the award. "Science matters. The truth matters."

Cristina Costantini accepts the Emmy for Outstanding Science and Technology Documentary for "Science Fair," directed with Darren Foster. New York, September 24, 2019. Image courtesy ATAS

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Peter Kunhardt's profound King in the Wilderness won the Emmy for Outstanding Historical Documentary. The HBO film tells the story of the turbulent final years in the life of Martin Luther King Jr. as he struggled to keep the Civil Rights movement unified under its founding ethos of non-violent resistance to racial oppression.

As King contended with philosophical challenges to his strategy of non-violence from Malcolm X and Stokely Carmichael, he also sought to expand the frame of the movement to address economic inequality. And he wrestled with taking a public stance on the Vietnam War (he eventually spoke eloquently against the tragic misadventure in Southeast Asia).

Andrew Young, a close associate of MLK, who appears in "King in the Wilderness," at the world premiere of the documentary at the Sundance Film Festival. Park City, Utah, January 22, 2018. Photo by Matt Carey

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Related: 
>King in the Wilderness director Peter Kunhardt on MLK's last three years: 'He was lost. He was making rules up.' 
>Science Fair directors on their Sundance hit: 'We wanted to capture the joy and the spirit of the International High School Science Fair'

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Outstanding Nature Documentary went to Trophy, from CNN Films. The doc directed by Shaul Schwarz and Christina Clusiau delves into the fight to save endangered "big game" species in Africa, asking whether hunters may actually have a role to play in making sure elephants, rhinos and other magnificent animals survive.

"Trophy" directors Shaul Schwarz and Christina Clusiau discuss their film at an IDA screening in Los Angeles. September 14, 2017. Photo by Matt Carey

Below is a list of the winning documentary films from Tuesday night (a complete list, including winners in the news categories, can be found here). 
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NATIONAL TELEVISION ACADEMY
40th ANNUAL NEWS AND DOCUMENTARY EMMY® AWARDS - WINNERS

OUTSTANDING CURRENT AFFAIRS DOCUMENTARY
HBO Documentary Films
It Will Be Chaos
Executive Producer
Nancy Abraham
Director / Producers
Lorena Luciano, Filippo Piscopo
_________________________________________________________________________________

OUTSTANDING POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT DOCUMENTARY
Doc World
Armed With Faith
Director/Producers
Asad Faruqi, Geeta Gandbhir
Co-Producer
Flavia DeSouza
Producers
Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy
Executive Producers
Sally Jo Fifer (ITVS), Lois Vossen (ITVS), Christopher Hastings (World Channel), Perri Peltz
Supervising Producer
Amy Shatsky-Gambrill
Consulting Producer
Noland Walker
_________________________________________________________________________________

OUTSTANDING SOCIAL ISSUE DOCUMENTARY
Crime + Punishment
Executive Producer
Laura Poitras
Producers
Stephen Maing, Eric Daniel Metzgar, Ross Tuttle
Co-Producer
Anne Zeczypor
Consulting Producers
Trina Rodriguez, David Felix Sutcliffe
Contributing Producer
Jane Teeling
_________________________________________________________________________________

OUTSTANDING INVESTIGATIVE DOCUMENTARY
FRONTLINE
Documenting Hate
Executive Producer
Raney Aronson
Managing Editor
Andrew Metz
Director
Richard Rowley
Producer / Reporter / Correspondent
A.C. Thompson
Senior Producer
Frank Koughan
Producers
Karim Hajj, Jacqueline Soohen
Co-Producer
Nick Verbitsky
Editor-in-Chief, ProPublica
Stephen Engelberg
Managing Editor, ProPublica
Robin Fields
President, ProPublica
Richard Tofel
Senior Editor, ProPublica
Joseph Sexton
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OUTSTANDING HISTORICAL DOCUMENTARY
HBO Documentary Films
King in the Wilderness
Executive Producers
Taylor Branch, Trey Ellis, Jacqueline Glover
Producers
George Kunhardt, Teddy Kunhardt
Director
Peter Kunhardt
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OUTSTANDING ARTS AND CULTURE DOCUMENTARY
Independent Lens
I Am Not Your Negro
Director/Producer
Raoul Peck
Executive Producers
Sally Jo Fifer, Lois Vossen
Supervising Producer
Amy Shatsky-Gambrill
Producers
Rémi Grellety, Hébert Peck
_________________________________________________________________________________

OUTSTANDING SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY DOCUMENTARY
Science Fair
Executive Producers
Daniel Eilemberg, George Lansbury, Isaac Lee, Keith Summa
Producer
Jeffrey Plunkett
Producer / Directors
Cristina Costantini, Darren Foster
Line Producers
Gayle Lynn Fields, Jennifer Wood
_________________________________________________________________________________

OUTSTANDING NATURE DOCUMENTARY
CNN Films CNN
Trophy
Directors
Shaul Schwarz, Cristina Clusiau
Producers
Lauren Haber, Julia Nottingham
Executive Producers
Sharon Chang, Lilly Hartley, Jeffrey Tarrant, Maxyne Franklin, Kate Townsend, Victoria Steventon Lars Knudsen, Tom Hardy, Dean Baker, Dan Cogan, Thomas Benski, Lucas Ochoa
Co-Executive Producers
Jenny Raskin, Steve Cohen, Paula Froehle, Cristina Ljungberg, Blaine Vess
_________________________________________________________________________________

OUTSTANDING BUSINESS AND ECONOMIC DOCUMENTARY
VICE Special Report HBO
Panic: The Untold Story of the 2008 Financial Crisis
Executive Producers
Shane Smith, Josh Tyrangiel, John Maggio
Producers
Aaron Ernst, John Maggio
Line Producer
Veronique Huyghebaert
Archival Producers
Elaina Demeyere, Svetlana Didorenko, Nicole Machrone, Bob Oltra
Consulting Producer
Michael Grunwald
_________________________________________________________________________________
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OUTSTANDING SHORT DOCUMENTARY
Trans in America: Texas Strong
Director
Daresha Kyi
Executive Producers
Molly Kaplan, Chase Strangio - ACLU
Producers
Lindsey Dryden, Shaleece Haas
Coordinating Producer
Nora Wilkinson – ACLU
Contributing Producer
Christopher Klimovski