POV Wins 2014 News & Documentary Emmy® Award for 'Herman's House'

NEW YORK, Oct. 1, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The POV (Point of View) film "Herman's House" won the 2014 News & Documentary Emmy® Award for Outstanding Arts and Culture Programming, it was announced on Sept. 30 by the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. "Herman's House" aired on PBS in 2013 as part of POV, American television's longest-running independent documentary series. The 35th Annual News & Documentary Emmy Awards were presented at a ceremony in New York City. PBS won a total of 11 awards, more than any other media outlet.

About the film:
Herman Wallace may have been the longest-serving prisoner in solitary confinement in the United States—he spent 41 years in a 6-by-9-foot cell in Louisiana. He was sentenced to life in prison in 1972 for the murder of a prison guard, a charge he vehemently denied. "Herman's House," by Angad Singh Bhalla, is a moving account of the expression his struggle found in an unusual project proposed by artist Jackie Sumell. Imagining Wallace's "dream home" began as a game and became an interrogation of justice and punishment in America. The film takes us inside the duo's unlikely 12-year friendship, revealing the transformative power of art.

Wallace, a Black Panther, was one of the "Angola 3" prisoners whose long-term solitary confinement in the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola drew international attention. "Herman's House" aired on POV in July 2013. On Oct. 1, 2013, a federal judge freed Wallace, ruling that his original indictment was unconstitutional. Three days later, Wallace died of cancer in New Orleans at the age of 71, unaware that a newly convened grand jury re-indicted him on the murder charge the day before.

"This award underscores the importance of documentary film and the creativity and passion that filmmakers like Angad Bhalla bring to their endeavors," said Simon Kilmurry, executive producer of POV. "While it's bittersweet in the light of Herman's passing, it's also tremendously gratifying to know that Angad's first feature documentary has made such an impact."

"It is a great honor and tribute to Herman Wallace to receive this award," said Bhalla. "Today is the one-year anniversary of his release from prison. I hope this will bring more attention to the plight of political prisoners and the overuse of solitary confinement in the United States."

"Herman's House" won the Inspiration Award from Cinema on the Bayou in 2013 and the Magnus Isacsson Award from RIDM and Best Documentary Award from the Harlem International Film Festival, both in 2012. The film is a production of Storyline Entertainment and Time of Day Productions in association with Ford Foundation/JustFilms. It is co-presentation with the Center for Asian American Media. Director/Producer: Angad Singh Bhalla; Executive Producers: Simon Kilmurry, Ed Barreveld, Loring McAlpin; Co-Executive Producer: Cynthia López; Producer: Lisa Valencia-Svensson; Vice President of Production and Programming: Chris White; Coordinating Producer: Andrew Catauro.

POV has now won a total of 33 Emmy Awards, including a 2007 Special News & Documentary Emmy for Excellence in Television Documentary Filmmaking. POV is the winner of 17 George Foster Peabody Awards, 12 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia Broadcast Journalism Awards, three Academy Awards®, the Prix Italia, the Webby, two IDA Awards for Best Continuing Series and the National Association of Latino Independent Producers' Corporate Commitment to Diversity Award. In 2013, POV received a MacArthur Award for Creative and Effective Institutions.

Visit www.pbs.org/pov/hermanshouse/ for more information on "Herman's House." The full list of winners in the 35th Annual News and Documentary Emmy® Awards is available at www.emmyonline.tv.

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130320/DC80188LOGO

SOURCE POV/American Documentary, Inc.