American Documentary

Minding the Gap, part of POV’s 31st Season, nominated for Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special at the Primetime Emmy Awards

New York, N.Y. — July 16, 2019 — Minding the Gap on POV, American television’s longest-running independent documentary series on PBS, has received a nomination in the category of Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special for the 2019 Primetime Emmy Awards, announced today by the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. Directed by Bing Liu, Minding the Gap is a feature length documentary that premiered in 2018 as part of POV’s 31st Season and was nominated for Best Documentary Feature in this year's 91st Academy Awards. The film is a co-production of ITVS, Kartemquin Films and American Documentary | POV and was a co-presentation with the Center for Asian American Media (CAAM).

Now in its 32nd Season, POV has won 38 Emmy Awards since its launch in 1988. Today’s announcement marks the first Primetime Emmy nomination for POV since 2011. In 2011, POV was nominated for the Craft award at the 64th Emmy Awards for feature documentary The Most Dangerous Man in America. The last Primetime Emmy Award won by POV took place in the 62nd Emmy Awards in 2010, when The Betrayal (Nerakhoon) won Exceptional Merit in Nonfiction Filmmaking.

“POV was an early supporter of Minding the Gap and it’s been incredibly rewarding to bring the film to audiences across the country on PBS and in community screenings.” said Justine Nagan, executive producer/executive director of POV/American Documentary. “Bing Liu’s film is not only a revelatory examination of youth in America, but a testament to the kind of stories that must be supported by public media. POV has always believed in the power of making independent, meaningful nonfiction stories available to all, and we are proud of the impact that Bing’s film has had on audiences everywhere.”

To date, POV films have won 38 Emmy Awards, 23 George Foster Peabody Awards, 12 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Awards, three Academy Awards®, the first-ever George Polk Documentary Film Award and the Prix Italia. The POV series has been honored with a Special News & Documentary Emmy Award for Excellence in Television Documentary Filmmaking, three IDA Awards for Best Curated Series and the National Association of Latino Independent Producers (NALIP) Award for Corporate Commitment to Diversity. Learn more at www.pbs.org/pov/ and follow @povdocs on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

For the full list of nominations for the 71st Primetime Emmy Awards, visit emmys.com.

About the Filmmakers:

Bing Liu, Director/Producer/Director of Photography/Editor

Bing Liu is a Chicago-based director and cinematographer listed by Variety as one of ten documentary filmmakers to watch in 2018. His critically acclaimed documentary, Minding the Gap, has earned over 35 award recognitions since its premiere at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival, where it took home the Special Jury Award for Breakthrough Filmmaking. He directed three storylines on America To Me, a 10-hour documentary series from Steve James that examines racial inequality in the U.S. educational system, produced by Participant Media and airing on Starz. He is a member of the Directors Guild of America and was a member of the International Cinematographers Guild for seven years. A 2017 Film Independent Fellow and Garrett Scott Documentary Development Grant recipient, he graduated magna cum laude with a B.A. in Literature from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 2011.

Diane Quon, Producer

Diane Quon lived in Los Angeles for more than 17 years before moving back to her hometown of Chicago. While in Los Angeles, she worked at NBC and at Paramount Pictures, where she was most recently the vice president of marketing. She is currently producing multiple documentaries with Kartemquin Films, including Minding the Gap, directed by Bing Liu; Left-Handed Pianist, co-directed by Gordon Quinn and Leslie Simmer; The Dilemma of Desire, directed by Peabody Award winner Maria Finitzo; and Finding Yingying, directed by Diverse Voices in Docs fellow Jiayan “Jenny” Shi. Quon is a 2017 and 2018 Film Independent Fellow and is currently developing a fiction film based on the New York Times best-seller Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet.

Credits:

Director: Bing Liu

Producers: Diane Quon, Bing Liu

Editors: Joshua Altman, Bing Liu

Original Music: Nathan Halpern, Chris Ruggiero

Executive Producers for POV: Justine Nagan, Chris White