#raney aronson

[tomorrowusa]

The Oscar for best documentary feature went to 20 Days in Mariupol. It documents the horrors of Russian war crimes in the early stages of Putin's illegal invasion of Ukraine.

Rather than have me tell you about it, you can watch the entire film right here.

If you live in a Congressional district represented by a Republican, contact him/her and describe the contents of the documentary. And ask: Why are you helping Putin commit war crimes?

Not sure who represents you? Use your ZIP+4 to find out here…

Find Your Representative

You'll find contact info at your Rep's site.

[bauerntanz]

Oscars: Hüller, Wenders und Çatak gehen leer aus

#Oscars: Hüller, Wenders und Çatak gehen leer aus.

“Oppenheimer”, „der biografische Historienfilm von Christopher Nolan“ (SZ),  ist der große Gewinner bei den 96. Oscarverleihungen in der Nacht in Los Angeles. Der Film gewann sieben Oscars, unter anderem die wichtigen Kategorien  “Bester Film”, “Bester Hauptdarsteller” (Cillian Murphy) und “Beste Regie”. Sandra Hüller, nominiert für ihre Rolle im Film “Anatomie eines Falls”, gewann in der…

[warningsine]

In one of the most competitive races in years, 20 Days in Mariupol won the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature tonight, earning director Mstyslav Chernov an Academy Award to go with a Pulitzer Prize.

The film from the Associated Press, PBS’ Frontline and GBH came into the night a slight favorite but faced a tough test from fellow nominees Bobi Wine: The People’s President, The Eternal Memory, Four Daughters, and To Kill a Tiger. The documentary, which premiered at last year’s Sundance Film Festival, centers on the harrowing siege of the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol in the early days of Russia’s full-scale invasion of the country. Thousands of civilians were killed in Russia’s assault.

On the Osar stage, Chernov, a native of the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, thanked his collaborators and said, “This is the first Oscar in the Ukrainian history. And I’m honored.” But with rising emotion, he quickly added, “I’m honored, but probably I will be the first director on the [Oscar] stage who will say, I wish I would never make this film. I wish to be able to exchange this [for] Russia never attacking Ukraine, never occupying our cities.”

The Oscar audience applauded as Chernov continued, “I wish to give all the recognition to Russia not killing tens of thousands of my fellow Ukrainians. I wish for them to release all the hostages, all the soldiers who are protecting their lands, all the civilians who are now in their jails. But I cannot change the history, cannot change the past. But we all together, among you, some of the most talented people in the world, we can make sure that the history record is set straight and that the truth will prevail and that the people of Mariupol and those who have given their lives will never be forgotten. Because cinema forms memories, and memories form history. So thank you all and thank you all. Thank you Ukraine, Slava Ukraini.“

The director shared the Oscar with producers Michelle Mizner and Raney Aronson-Rath. Chernov previously won the Pulitzer for his coverage of the war in Ukraine, an assignment in which he faced the risk of death on a daily basis. Documenting the war meant leaving behind his wife and two young daughters.

20 Days in Mariupol opens with a scene of a Russian tank swiveling its gun barrel toward a hospital, where Chernov and his team looked down from an upper floor.

“Exactly in that moment in the film, this moment of uncertainty, the moment when tanks are shooting at the residential areas, when the hospital is surrounded and we are trapped, I’m thinking about my family, about my daughters, the fact that I probably will not make it out alive,” Chernov told Deadline in an interview last month.

It was the second year in a row that the Oscar winner for Best Documentary Feature winner delivered an implicit rebuke of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The 2023 victor in the category was Navalny, Daniel Roher’s film about Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who died last month while being held in an Arctic prison.

Billions of dollars in aid for Ukraine’s war effort against Russia have been tied up for months in Congress. President Biden made another urgent plea for passage of the aid bill during his State of the Union address last week. “If anybody in this room thinks Putin will stop at Ukraine, I assure you, he will not,” the president said. “But Ukraine can stop Putin if we stand with Ukraine and provide the weapons it needs to defend itself. That is all Ukraine is asking.”

[dweemeister]

My Alternative 96th Academy Awards

This is an exercise that has not appeared on this blog since 2019 for the 91st ceremony. But I wanted to revive it. So what would tomorrow's Academy Awards ceremony looked like if I determined all the nominees and the winners? This is my ideal world, my alternative universe, if you will. Prepare for controversy, and my ambivalence towards Poor Things and The Zone of Interest (which doesn't get nominated at all here).

It's been a while since I've done this, so there might be some quirks newer followers are less familiar with. Most notably, if you see a three letter abbreviation anywhere, that indicates a movie not in the English language and indicates the country/countries of origin based on their three-letter FIFA code of all things.

Without further ado!

96th Academy Awards – March 10, 2024 Dolby Theatre – Hollywood, Los Angeles, California Host: Jimmy Kimmel Broadcaster: ABC

Best Picture: KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON

Anatomy of a Fall (FRA), Marie-Ange Luciani and David Thion (Neon/Le Pacte)

Barbie, David Heyman, Margot Robbie, Tom Ackerley,  and Robbie Brenner (Warner Bros.)

The Holdovers, Mark Johnson (Focus/Universal)

Killers of the Flower Moon, Dan Friedkin, Bradley Thomas, Martin Scorsese, and Daniel Lupi (Apple/Paramount)

Oppenheimer, Emma Thomas, Charles Roven, and Christopher Nolan (Universal)

Past Lives, David Hinojosa, Christina Vachon, and Pamela Koffler (A24)

Robot Dreams (ESP/FRA), Ibon Cormenzana, Ignasi Estapé, Sandra Tapia, Jérôme Vidal, and Pablo Berger (Neon/Bteam Pictures/Wild Bunch)

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Phil Lord, Christopher Miller, Amy Pascal, Avi Arad, and Christina Steinberg (Sony Pictures Animation/Columbia)

The Taste of Things (FRA), Olivier Delbosc (Gaumont)

20 Days in Mariupol (UKR), Raney Aronson-Rath, Mstyslav Chernov, Derl McCrudden, and Michelle Mizner (Associated Press/Public Broadcasting Service)

Am I nuts? A documentary (there's nothing in the rules that say they can't be nominated for Best Picture)? Why not? TWO animated features? Let alone a movie that almost nobody outside of Europe has seen? Well I've seen Robot Dreams, and it is one of the best 2023 release I saw all year.

My full thoughts on my favored film, Killers of the Flower Moon, can be found in my write-up here.

Six of the current Best Picture nominees keep their nomination. American Fiction, Maestro, Poor Things, and The Zone of Interest are dropped. In their place go Robot Dreams, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, The Taste of Things, and 20 Days in Mariupol. I strongly considered replacing Barbie, but decided against it. Yes, I believe there were more than ten movies better than Barbie this year. But I richly *enjoyed* Barbie, and appreciate its instant spot in film history. It stays in.

Best Director

Joaquin Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, and Justin K. Thompson, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

Christopher Nolan, Oppenheimer

Martin Scorsese, Killers of the Flower Moon

Trần Anh Hùng, The Taste of Things

Justine Triet, Anatomy of a Fall

Folks are saying Martin Scorsese is not nearly as innovative as he used to be. Au contraire, I say. Killers of the Flower Moon exemplifies tons of personal and artistic growth for him... and that extremely risky ending pays off dividends. As a Nolan skeptic, I am indeed impressed with his work on Oppenheimer, but it's not the "best" for me this year.

Those familiar with my affiliation with Viet Film Fest might detect some bias, but hell The Taste of Things was gorgeous, folks.

Best Actor

Bradley Cooper, Maestro

Colman Domingo, Rustin

Paul Giamatti, The Holdovers

Cillian Murphy, Oppenheimer

Jeffrey Wright, American Fiction

It's a toss-up to me. But, having to choose one, I'll go for a man who is probably overdue.

Best Actress

Lily Gladstone, Killers of the Flower Moon

Sandra Hüller, Anatomy of a Fall

Alma Pöysti, Fallen Leaves (FIN)

Margot Robbie, Barbie

Emma Stone, Poor Things

The first acting change from the actual Oscars appears here, with Finnish actress Alma Pöysti replacing Annette Bening in Nyad. But this should be Lily Gladstone's, who would justly be making a lot of history here.

And yes, Barbie fans... I relent. Margot Robbie makes my final cut.

Best Supporting Actor

Sterling K. Brown, American Fiction

Robert De Niro, Killers of the Flower Moon

Robert Downey Jr., Oppenheimer

Ryan Gosling, Barbie

Dominic Sessa, The Holdovers

I don't think RDJ should be sweeping the season as he has. I think it's a lot closer between all of these fellows than it actually has been. Disagree with me all you want, but I think De Niro was truly menacing in KOTFM. And he didn't need any deaging this time, either!

Best Supporting Actress

Juliette Binoche, The Taste of Things

Emily Blunt, Oppenheimer

Danielle Brooks, The Color Purple

Penélope Cruz, Ferrari

Da’Vine Joy Randolph, The Holdovers

Fine, I guess? I think Randolph's character gets cut out of The Holdovers far too soon. But I can't make the case for anyone else this year except for maybe Binoche (whom some people will complain about my placement in Supporting Actress instead of Lead Actress, but that's how the studio campaigned for her).

Best Adapted Screenplay

Pablo Berger, Robot Dreams

Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach, Barbie

Cord Jefferson, American Fiction

Christopher Nolan, Oppenheimer

Eric Roth and Martin Scorsese, Killers of the Flower Moon

I'm not going to second-guess the Academy on its placement of Barbie here. It's not winning in this category in any case. American Fiction is a solid, imperfect satire, and finds its due here.

Best Original Screenplay

İlker Çatak and Johannes Duncker, The Teachers’ Lounge (GER)

David Hemingson, The Holdovers

A.V. Rockwell, A Thousand and One

Celine Song, Past Lives

Justine Triet and Arthur Harari, Anatomy of a Fall

I was very, very tempted to give this to Past Lives. But in the end, my sneaking feeling that I don't quite buy the closeness - despite having not talked for so long - of the two lead characters wins out.

Anatomy of a Fall is a hell of a balancing act, domestically and legally, and wins here.

Best Animated Feature

The Boy and the Heron, Japan (GKIDS/Studio Ghibli/Toho Company)

Ernest & Celestine: A Trip to Gibberitia, France (GKIDS/StudioCanal)

Robot Dreams, Spain/France (Neon/Bteam Pictures/Wild Bunch)

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (Sony Pictures Animation/Columbia)

Suzume, Japan (GKIDS/Toho Company)

Stoking the flames, but here we are! I think ATSV is slightly better than Robot Dreams as a whole, but the film lacks a resolution and obviously had access to more resources. Spider-Man will return to this category. I'm not so sure about Pablo Berger. The heartfelt and dialogue-free Robot Dreams takes it, while the Ernest & Celestine sequel and Suzume make it in place of Elemental and Nimona.

Best Documentary Feature

Bobi Wine: The People’s President (National Geographic)

The Eternal Memory, Chile (MTV Documentary Films)

Four Daughters, Tunisia/France/Germany/Saudi Arabia (Kino Lorber/Jour2Fête)

To Kill a Tiger, Canada (National Film Board of Canada)

20 Days in Mariupol, Ukraine (Associated Press/Public Broadcasting Service)

Extraordinary filmmaking and, as you can imagine, brutal to watch. It's freely available online for any American readers out there, thanks to PBS.

Best International Feature

Fallen Leaves, Finland

Society of the Snow, Spain

The Taste of Things, France

The Teachers’ Lounge, Germany

20 Days in Mariupol, Ukraine

I follow Academy rules here in terms of one movie per country.

Best Cinematography

Edward Lachman, El Conde

Rodrigo Prieto, Killers of the Flower Moon

Mathtew Libatique, Maestro

Hoyte van Hoytema, Oppenheimer

Jonathan Ricquebourg, The Taste of Things

Best Film Editing

Laurent Sénéchal, Anatomy of a Fall

Kevin Tent, The Holdovers

Thelma Schoonmaker, Killers of the Flower Moon

Jennifer Lame, Oppenheimer

Michael Andrews, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

Best Original Score

Michael Giacchino, Society of the Snow

Laura Karpman, American Fiction

Robbie Robertson, Killers of the Flower Moon (posthumous nomination)

John Williams, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny

Hans Zimmer, The Creator

The folks who complained that Dial of Destiny was not original enough need to go 1) watch the movie and 2) listen to the score afterwards. There was a distinct lack of older Indiana Jones cues in there, and "Helena's Theme" is the best cue of 2023. Too many people online write about film scores but have little idea about what they're talking about (*cough* David Ehrlich at IndieWire *cough*).

That said, Williams doesn't win here. It's Giacchino, for a score that does a hell lot of the heavy emotional lifting in a grim movie that concludes with its real-life happy ending.

Best Original Song

“I’m Just Ken”, music and lyrics by Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt, Barbie

“It Never Went Away”, music and lyrics by Jon Batiste and Dan Wilson, American Symphony

“Wahzhazhe (A Song for My People)”, music and lyrics by Scott George, Killers of the Flower Moon

“What Was I Made For?” music and lyrics by Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell, Barbie

Four nominees rather than five, because I didn't like much else that was shortlisted. This category has been my personal hell in recent years.

Best Costume Design

Jacqueline Durran, Barbie

Jacqueline West, Killers of the Flower Moon

Janty Yates and Dave Crossman, Napoleon

Ellen Mirojnick, Oppenheimer

Holly Waddington, Poor Things

Best Makeup and Hairstyling

Karen Hartley Thomas, Suzi Battersby, and Ashra Kelly-Blue, Golda

Kazu Hiro, Kay Georgiou, and Lori McCoy-Bell, Maestro

Luisa Abel, Oppenheimer

Nadia Stacey, Mark Coulier, and Josh Weston, Poor Things

Ana López-Puigcerver, David Martí, and Montse Ribé, Society of the Snow

Best Production Design

Sarah Greenwood and Katie Spencer, Barbie

Jack Fisk and Adam Willis, Killers of the Flower Moon

Arthur Max and Elli Griff, Napoleon

Ruth De Jong and Claire Kaufman, Oppenheimer

James Price, Shona Heath, and Zsuzsa Mihalek, Poor Things

Best Sound

Ian Voigt, Erik Aadahl, Ethan Van der Ryn, Tom Ozanich, and Dean Zupancic, The Creator

Steven A. Morrow, Richard King, Jason Ruder, Tom Ozanich, and Dean Zupancic, Maestro

Chris Munro, James H. Mather, Chris Burdon, and Mark Taylor, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One

Willie Burton, Richard King, Gary A. Rizzo, and Kevin O'Connell, Oppenheimer

Steven Ghouti, Fabiola Ordoyo, and Laia Picón, Robot Dreams

Best Visual Effects

Jay Cooper, Ian Comley, Andrew Roberts, and Neil Corbould, The Creator

Sanjay Bakshi, Stephen Marshall, Jon Reisch, Junyi Ling, Elemental

Takashi Yamazaki, Kiyoko Shibuya, Masaki Takahashi, and Tatsuji Nojima, Godzilla Minus One

Alex Wuttke, Simone Coco, Jeff Sutherland, and Neil Corbould, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One

Michael Lasker, Alan Hawkins, Bret St. Clair, Pav Grochola, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

Best Animated Short

Letter to a Pig, Israel/France (The Hive Studio/Miyu Productions)

Ninety-Five Senses (MAST/V42 Venture Studio Fund)

Our Uniform, Iran

Pachyderme, France (Miyu Distribution)

War Is Over! Inspired by the Music of John and Yoko (ElectroLeague)

Full write-up on this category by yours truly here.

Best Documentary Short

The ABCs of Book Banning (MTV Documentary Films)

The Barber of Little Rock (The New Yorker)

The Island in Between, Taiwan (The New York Times)

The Last Repair Shop (Los Angeles Times/Searchlight)

Nǎi Nai & Wài Pó (Walt Disney)

Full write-up on this category by yours truly here. Please don't let The ABCs of Book Banning win, I s2g.

Best Live Action Short

The After (Neon/Netflix)

Invincible, Canada (H264 Distribution)

Knight of Fortune, Denmark (TV 2)

Red, White and Blue (Majic Ink Productions)

The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar (Netflix)

Full write-up on this category by yours truly here. But we all know Henry Sugar is gonna win it due to Wes Anderson name recognition.

Academy Honorary Awards: Angela Bassett, Mel Brooks, and Carol Littleton

Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award: Michelle Satter

MULTIPLE NOMINEES (18) Twelve: Oppenheimer Eleven: Killers of the Flower Moon Eight: Barbie Six: The Holdovers Five: Anatomy of a Fall, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, The Taste of Things Four: American Fiction, Poor Things, Robot Dreams Three: The Creator, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, Society of the Snow, 20 Days in Mariupol Two: Fallen Leaves, Napoleon, Past Lives, The Teachers’ Lounge

WINNERS 4 wins: Killers of the Flower Moon

2 wins: The Holdovers, Oppenheimer, Society of the Snow

1 win: American Fiction, Anatomy of a Fall, Barbie, Godzilla Minus One, Knight of Fortune, The Last Repair Shop, Letter to a Pig, Poor Things, Robot Dreams, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, The Taste of Things, 20 Days in Mariupol

16 winners from 23 categories. 34 feature-length films and 15 short films were represented.

[sataniccapitalist]

Two American Families: 1991-2024 (full documentary) | FRONTLINE

A chronicle of the lives and economic struggles of two families in Milwaukee, Wisconsin — one Black and one white — across more than three decades, this “knockout documentary” (The New York Times) raises unsettling questions about the changing nature of the American economy.

This journalism is made possible by viewers like you. Support your local PBS station here: https://www.pbs.org/donate​/

“Two American Families: 1991-2024” documents the saga of two families, the Stanleys and the Neumanns, who have spent the past 34 years battling to keep from sliding into poverty, and who refuse to give up despite upheaval in the U.S. economy. When the team first began documenting the families’ lives in 1991, the Neumanns and Stanleys were both struggling to adapt to a new, global economy and the trend towards part-time, lower-wage work.

With profound intimacy, the documentary follows the stories of the Stanleys and the Neumanns across six presidential administrations and offers a powerful window into how they and their now-grown children have fared while trying to stay afloat in an economy that has presented challenge after challenge for them.

“There are so many people struggling the same way with the cost of everything and not getting enough on your paycheck to cover your monthly expenses,” said Terry Neumann, who was a mom of young kids when the documentary’s producers began filming with her and is now in her early 60s. “It’s like we haven’t come very far.”

“I won’t give up,” said Jackie Stanley, who is working as a real estate agent while entering her 70s.

“Two American Families: 1991-2024” is a FRONTLINE production with Okapi Productions LLC and Public Affairs Television, Inc. in association with Left/Right Docs. The producers and directors are Tom Casciato and Kathleen Hughes. The co-producer is Andrew Fredericks. The senior producers are Frank Koughan and Nina Chaudry. The writer is Kathleen Hughes. The correspondent is Bill Moyers. The editor-in-chief and executive producer of FRONTLINE is Raney Aronson-Rath.

Explore reporting related to “Two American Families” on our website:

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/do...

[delectablywaywardbeard-blog]

L'Oscar per il miglior documentario a 20 giorni a Mariupol

L’Oscar per il miglior documentario è stato vinto da 20 giorni a Mariupol di Mstyslav Chernov con Michelle Mizner e Raney Aronson-Rath, reporter dell’Associated Press. Il film racconta i primi giorni dell’invasione russa in Ucraina e l’assedio e la distruzione della città di Mariupol due anni fa.     Riproduzione riservata © Copyright ANSA source

[diptanshukashyapofficial]

B-11 : Oscars 2024 - Predictions vs Reality

The 96th Academy Awards, a.k.a. The Oscars® took place today. The ceremony was filled with obvious wins. The best part was that this year’s Oscars telecast had zero incidents again (as the host Jimmy Kimmel points out in the end last year).

Amid all of this, here's a look at the predicted winners and the actual winners (in order of their presentations):-

Best Supporting Actress

Prediction: Da'Vine Joy Randolph (The Holdovers)

Reality: Da'Vine Joy Randolph (The Holdovers)

Best Animated Short Film

Prediction: War Is Over! Inspired by the Music of John and Yoko (Dave Mullins and Brad Booker)

Reality: War Is Over! Inspired by the Music of John and Yoko (Dave Mullins and Brad Booker)

Best Animated Feature Film

Prediction: Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (Kemp Powers, Justin K. Thompson, Phil Lord, Christopher Miller, and Amy Pascal)/The Boy and the Heron (Hayao Miyazaki and Toshio Suzuki)

Reality: The Boy and the Heron (Hayao Miyazaki and Toshio Suzuki)

Best Original Screenplay

Prediction: Anatomy of a Fall (Justine Triet and Arthur Harari)

Reality: Anatomy of a Fall (Justine Triet and Arthur Harari)

Best Adapted Screenplay

Prediction: American Fiction (Cord Jefferson; based on the novel Erasure by Percival Everett)

Reality: American Fiction (Cord Jefferson; based on the novel Erasure by Percival Everett)

Best Makeup & Hairstyling

Prediction: Maestro (Kazu Hiro, Kay Georgiou, and Lori McCoy-Bell)

Reality: Poor Things (Nadia Stacey, Mark Coulier, and Josh Weston)

Best Production Design

Prediction: Barbie (Production Design: Sarah Greenwood; Set Decoration: Katie Spencer)/Poor Things (Production Design: James Price and Shona Heath; Set Decoration: Zsuzsa Mihalek)

Reality: Poor Things (Production Design: James Price and Shona Heath; Set Decoration: Zsuzsa Mihalek)

Best Costume Designing

Prediction: Barbie (Jacqueline Durran)/Poor Things (Holly Waddington)

Reality: Poor Things (Holly Waddington)

Best International Feature Film

Prediction: The Zone of Interest (United Kingdom - Jonathan Glazer)

Reality: The Zone of Interest (United Kingdom - Jonathan Glazer)

Best Supporting Actor

Prediction: Robert Downey Jr. (Oppenheimer)

Reality: Robert Downey Jr. (Oppenheimer)

Best Visual Effects

Prediction: Godzilla Minus One (Takashi Yamazaki, Kiyoko Shibuya, Masaki Takahashi, and Tatsuji Nojima)

Reality: Godzilla Minus One (Takashi Yamazaki, Kiyoko Shibuya, Masaki Takahashi, and Tatsuji Nojima)

Best Film Editing

Prediction: Oppenheimer (Jennifer Lame)

Reality: Oppenheimer (Jennifer Lame)

Best Documentary Short Film

Prediction: The Last Repair Shop (Ben Proudfoot and Kris Bowers)

Reality: The Last Repair Shop (Ben Proudfoot and Kris Bowers)

Best Documentary Feature Film

Prediction: 20 Days in Mariupol (Mstyslav Chernov, Michelle Mizner, and Raney Aronson-Rath)

Reality:  20 Days in Mariupol (Mstyslav Chernov, Michelle Mizner, and Raney Aronson-Rath)

Best Cinematography

Prediction: Oppenheimer (Hoyte van Hoytema)

Reality: Oppenheimer (Hoyte van Hoytema)

Best Live Action Short Film

Prediction: The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar (Wes Anderson and Steven Rales)

Reality: The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar (Wes Anderson and Steven Rales)

Best Sound

Prediction: Oppenheimer (Willie Burton, Richard King, Gary A. Rizzo, and Kevin O'Connell)

Reality: The Zone of Interest (arn Willers and Johnnie Burn)

Best Original Score

Prediction: Oppenheimer (Ludwig Göransson)

Reality: Oppenheimer (Ludwig Göransson)

Best Original Song

Prediction: "What Was I Made For?" (Barbie – Music and lyrics by Billie Eilish and Finneas O'Connell)

Reality: "What Was I Made For?" (Barbie – Music and lyrics by Billie Eilish and Finneas O'Connell)

Best Actor

Prediction: Cillian Murphy (Oppenheimer)

Reality: Cillian Murphy (Oppenheimer)

Best Director

Prediction: Christopher Nolan (Oppenheimer)

Reality: Christopher Nolan (Oppenheimer)

Best Actress

Prediction: Emma Stone (Poor Things)/Lily Gladstone (Killers of The Flower Moon)/Sandra Hüller (Anatomy of A Fall)

Reality: Emma Stone (Poor Things)

Best Picture

Prediction: Oppenheimer (Emma Thomas, Charles Roven, and Christopher Nolan, producers)

Reality: Oppenheimer (Emma Thomas, Charles Roven, and Christopher Nolan, producers)

Which categories met your expectations? Don’t forget to share them in the comments below.

[cristalconnors]

NON-FICTION FILM

Shortlisted: Kokomo City / Occupied City

THE NOMINEES ARE:

20 DAYS IN MARIUPOL

Directed by Mstyslav Chernov, Produced by Raney Aronson-Rath, Mstyslav Chernov, Derl McCrudden, and Michelle Mizner

FOUR DAUGHTERS

Directed by Kaouther Ben Hania, produced by Nadim Cheikhrouha, Martin Hampel, and Thanassis Karanthanos

THE KIEV TRIAL

Directed and Produced by Sergei Loznitsa

ORLANDO, MY POLITICAL BIOGRAPHY

Directed by Paul B. Preciado, Produced by Yaël Fogiel and Laetitia Gonzalez

AND THE CRISTAL GOES TO...

DE HUMANI CORPORIS FABRICA

Directed and Produced by Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Verena Paravel

[chorusfm]

Oscars 2024 Nominations

The 2024 Oscar nominations have been announced. Best Picture American Fiction (Ben LeClair, Nikos Karamigios, Cord Jefferson and Jermaine Johnson, Producers) Anatomy of a Fall (Marie-Ange Luciani and David Thion, Producers Barbie (David Heyman, Margot Robbie, Tom Ackerley and Robbie Brenner, Producers) The Holdovers (Mark Johnson, Producer) Killers of the Flower Moon (Dan Friedkin, Bradley Thomas, Martin Scorsese and Daniel Lupi, Producers) Maestro (Bradley Cooper, Steven Spielberg, Fred Berner, Amy Durning and Kristie Macosko Krieger, Producers) Oppenheimer (Emma Thomas, Charles Roven and Christopher Nolan, Producers) Past Lives (David Hinojosa, Christine Vachon and Pamela Koffler, Producers) Poor Things (Ed Guiney, Andrew Lowe, Yorgos Lanthimos and Emma Stone, Producers) The Zone of Interest (James Wilson, Producer) Best Directing Justine Triet (Anatomy of a Fall) Martin Scorsese (Killers of the Flower Moon) Christopher Nolan (Oppenheimer) Yorgos Lanthimos (Poor Things) Jonathan Glazer (The Zone of Interest) Best Actor in a Leading Role Bradley Cooper (Maestro) Colman Domingo (Rustin) Paul Giamatti (The Holdovers) Cillian Murphy (Oppenheimer) Jeffrey Wright (American Fiction) Best Actress in a Leading Role Annette Bening (Nyad) Lily Gladstone (Killers of the Flower Moon) Sandra Hüller (Anatomy of a Fall) Carey Mulligan (Maestro) Emma Stone (Poor Things) Best Actor in a Supporting Role Sterling K. Brown (American Fiction) Robert De Niro (Killers of the Flower Moon) Robert Downey Jr. (Oppenheimer) Ryan Gosling (Barbie) Mark Ruffalo (Poor Things) Best Actress in a Supporting Role Emily Blunt (Oppenheimer) Danielle Brooks (The Color Purple) America Ferrera (Barbie) Jodie Foster (Nyad) Da’Vine Joy Randolph (The Holdovers) Best Writing (Adapted Screenplay) American Fiction (Written for the screen by Cord Jefferson) Barbie (Written by Greta Gerwig & Noah Baumbach) Oppenheimer (Written for the screen by Christopher Nolan) Poor Things (Screenplay by Tony McNamara) The Zone of Interest (Written by Jonathan Glazer) Best Writing (Original Screenplay) Anatomy of a Fall (Screenplay by Justine Triet and Arthur Harari The Holdovers (Written by David Hemingson) Maestro (Written by Bradley Cooper & Josh Singer) May December (Screenplay by Samy Burch; Story by Samy Burch & Alex Mechanik) Past Lives (Written by Celine Song) Best Animated Feature The Boy and the Heron (Hayao Miyazaki and Toshio Suzuki) Elemental (Peter Sohn and Denise Ream) Nimona (Nick Bruno, Troy Quane, Karen Ryan and Julie Zackary) Robot Dreams (Pablo Berger, Ibon Cormenzana, Ignasi Estapé and Sandra Tapia Díaz) Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (Kemp Powers, Justin K. Thompson, Phil Lord, Christopher Miller and Amy Pascal) Best Documentary Feature Film Bobi Wine: The People’s President (Moses Bwayo, Christopher Sharp and John Battsek) The Eternal Memory (Nominees to be determined) Four Daughters (Kaouther Ben Hania and Nadim Cheikhrouha) To Kill a Tiger (Nisha Pahuja, Cornelia Principe and David Oppenheim) 20 Days in Mariupol (Mstyslav Chernov, Michelle Mizner and Raney Aronson-Rath) Best International Feature Film Io Capitano (Italy) Perfect Days (Japan) Society of the Snow (Spain) The Teacher’s Lounge (Germany) The Zone of Interest (United Kingdom) Best Animated Short Film Letter to a Pig (Tal Kantor and Amit R. Gicelter) Ninety-Five Senses (Jerusha Hess and Jared Hess) Our Uniform (Yegane Moghaddam) Pachyderme (Stéphanie Clément and Marc Rius) War Is Over! Inspired by the Music of John & Yoko (Dave Mullins and Brad Booker Best Live-Action Short Film The After (Misan Harriman and Nicky Bentham) Invincible (Vincent René-Lortie and Samuel Caron Knight of Fortune (Lasse Lyskjær Noer and Christian Norlyk) Red, White and Blue (Nazrin Choudhury and Sara McFarlane The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar (Wes Anderson and Steven Rales) Best Documentary Short Film The ABCs of Book Banning (Sheila Nevins and Trish… https://chorus.fm/news/oscars-2024-nominations/

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Denise Jackson Ford attends Emmy Awards ceremony following nomination of ‘American Reckoning' -- the film about her father’s unsolved murder

Denise Jackson Ford, daughter of slain civil rights leader, Wharlest Jackson Sr., attended the 44th Annual News & Documentary Emmy Awards ceremony for documentaries that included PBS Frontline’s “American Reckoning.” From left are Raney Aronson, Frontline’s executive producer and editor-in-chief; Yoruba Richen and Brad Lichtenstein, directors; and Ford.

By ROSCOE BARNES III

NATCHEZ, Miss. -- Denise Jackson Ford, daughter of slain civil rights leader, Wharlest Jackson Sr., recently travelled to New York to participate in the 44th Annual News & Documentary Emmy Awards ceremony for documentaries that included PBS Frontline’s “American Reckoning.”

The PBS program, which featured the story of Wharlest Jackson’s murder, aired on Tuesday, Feb. 15, 2022. It did not win an Emmy, but Ford said she was happy that it was nominated, and her participation was a good experience.

“Back in July of 2023, notifications were received from Brad Lichtenstein, president and producer of 371 Productions that our documentary film, ‘American Reckoning’ had been nominated for a News and Documentary Emmy in the category of ‘Outstanding Historical Documentary,’ Ford said.

“I had the privilege to accompany the team in New York on September 28 to be amongst the crowd of highly performed documentarians, finalists, and writers as well as producers.”

The awards ceremony was held at the Palladium Times Square in New York City. HBO Max’s “Hostages” won the Emmy in the “Outstanding Historical Documentary” category. Others in the running were CNN’s “Watergate: Blueprint for a Scandal,” Netflix’s “Meltdown: Three Mile Island,” and PBS’ “Waterman – Duke: Ambassador of Aloha.”

Ford said it was an honor to know that they made it to the nomination list for “such a great, prestigious award.” “I commend Brad Lichtenstein and Yoruba Richen, Stanley Nelson, along with the PBS Production team for the work, time and efforts put into this documentary to make history for our family,” Ford said.

“American Reckoning” was directed by Lichtenstein and Richen. The film is a feature-length documentary that tells the story of Wharlest Jackson Sr. and his murder in the Feb. 27, 1967, bombing of his truck by the Ku Klux Klan on Minor Street in Natchez. Jackson was the treasurer for the Natchez Branch of the NAACP. The Klan killed him, reportedly, because of his promotion to a job at Armstrong Tire and Rubber Company that had traditionally gone to white employees.

After multiple investigations, no one was ever held accountable for Jackson’s murder. The film presents new research as it chronicles the lives of Jackson’s family in their search for justice and for answers.

As noted by Frontline, “American Reckoning” presents “an extraordinary look at the civil rights era – the violence and resistance – through rare footage filmed more than 50-years ago in Natchez, Mississippi, and the still-unresolved killing of local NAACP leader Wharlest Jackson.”

The film, Frontline notes, “examines Black opposition to racist violence in Mississippi, spotlighting a little-known armed resistance group called the Deacons for Defense and Justice, woven alongside the Jackson family’s decades-long search for justice amid the ongoing federal effort to investigate civil rights era cold cases.”

In addition to Ford and her brother, Wharlest Jackson Jr., the film features Ser Seshsh Ab Heter-Clifford M. Boxley, and Stanley Nelson, author of two books on the Klan. “American Reckoning” can be viewed for free online.

The Emmy awards program honors programming content from over 2,300 submissions that originally premiered in calendar-year 2022, according to the program’s website. It noted the submissions are “judged by a pool of over 1,000 peer professionals from across the television and streaming/digital media news and documentary industry.”

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A documentary about Russian war crimes committed early in Putin's invasion of Ukraine is up for an Oscar.

A documentary made by three of the last journalists to escape Mariupol as Russian forces destroyed the city in spring 2022 has been nominated for an Academy Award.

The documentary “20 Days In Mariupol,” made by Mstyslav Chernov, Evgeniy Maloletka and Vasilisa Stepanenko and co-produced by Michelle Mizner and Raney Aronson-Rath of the Associated Press, was nominated in the Best Documentary Feature Film category at this year’s upcoming Oscars. The documentary tells the story of the first days of the Russian invasion of Mariupol, which is now fully controlled by Kremlin forces after a merciless assault that left tens of thousands of people dead. While Russia has blamed Ukraine for the city’s destruction, “20 Days In Mariupol” is a unique chronicle of what actually happened in the early days of Moscow’s full-scale invasion. Ukrainian citizens survived in basements, their food and water supplies cut off, while Kremlin troops bombed hospitals, theaters, and other civilian infrastructure. The 96th Academy Awards ceremony will be held on March 10 in Los Angeles. Last year, a film about imprisoned Russian dissident Alexei Navalny won in the documentary category.

Unlike "Barbie", "Oppenheimer", and "Maestro", the film “20 Days In Mariupol" can currently be viewed free online at YouTube.

After watching that, I feel Vladimir Putin should spend the rest of his days in a sealed room with a Ramsay Bolton wannabe.

Today is Day 700 of Putin's 3-day "special operation".

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Cell Tower Deaths (full documentary) | FRONTLINE

FRONTLINE and ProPublica explored the hazardous work of independent contractors who built and serviced America’s cellular infrastructure as it expanded. (Aired 2012) 

The smartphone revolution came with a hidden cost. Tower climbers install and service cell phone antennas, ascending hundreds, sometimes more than a thousand feet. Nearly 100 climbers were killed on radio, TV and cell towers in the decade before the documentary was released — a rate that at the time was about 10 times the average for construction workers. Reporters at FRONTLINE and ProPublica investigated 50 cell-related deaths in this 2012 documentary. While some cell phone tower climbers said they were under pressure to cut corners, layers of subcontracting made it difficult for safety inspectors to determine fault when a tower worker was killed or injured. “Cell Tower Deaths” was a FRONTLINE production with RAIN Media, Inc., in partnership with ProPublica. The documentary was written and produced by Travis Fox. Martin Smith was senior producer and correspondent. Reporting was by FRONTLINE’s Ryan Knutson and ProPublica’s Liz Day. The series senior producer for FRONTLINE in 2012 was Raney Aronson-Rath. The executive producer of FRONTLINE was David Fanning.

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Age of Easy Money (full documentary) | FRONTLINE

“High inflation. Fear of recession. Disruptions, like the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank. How did the U.S. economy get here? A two-hour documentary special traces the road to this moment, and the role of the Federal Reserve, the country’s central bank.

This journalism is made possible by viewers like you. Support your local PBS station here: http://www.pbs.org/donate​.

FRONTLINE investigates the Fed’s epic economic experiment to revive the U.S. economy with what has been called an “easy money” policy and the far-reaching and sometimes unintended consequences.

“If we hadn't been driving our economy for 14 years with easy money and then tried to really quickly undo that now, we wouldn't be having these problems,” former top banking regulator Sheila Bair said in the documentary.

From the 2008 recession, to the COVID pandemic, to the rise in inflation, to the current economic uncertainty, “Age of Easy Money” charts the American economy’s tumultuous course, the fragility of the financial system and the widening gap between Wall Street and Main Street.

The documentary examines what led to the Fed’s recent decisions to hike interest rates at a historic pace and probes the ongoing effects, offering a comprehensive and timely examination of the role of the institution at the heart of America’s economy.

The documentary is supported by The WNET Group’s Chasing the Dream, a public media initiative that examines poverty, justice and economic opportunity in America.

The director, producer and correspondent of “Age of Easy Money” is James Jacoby. The producer is Anya Bourg. The senior producer is Frank Koughan. The editor-in-chief and executive producer of FRONTLINE is Raney Aronson-Rath.

For more reporting in connection with this investigation, visit FRONTLINE’s website:

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/do...

#Documentary #FederalReserve #Inflation #Economy

Subscribe on YouTube: http://bit.ly/1BycsJW​

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/frontlinepbs​

Twitter: https://twitter.com/frontlinepbs​

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/frontline

FRONTLINE is produced at GBH in Boston and airs nationwide on PBS.

Funding for FRONTLINE is provided through the support of PBS viewers and by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

Additional support for FRONTLINE is provided by the Abrams Foundation; the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation; Park Foundation; the Heising-Simons Foundation; and the FRONTLINE Journalism Fund with major support from Jon and Jo Ann Hagler on behalf of the Jon L. Hagler Foundation, and additional support from Koo and Patricia Yuen.”

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A note from FRONTLINE’s Executive Producer Raney Aronson-Rath:

“Credible, clear-eyed, unflinching reporting combined with a powerful narrative — that is at the heart of what we do and part of a public media mission that you’ve come to rely on and trust. And of course, at FRONTLINE, we answer to no one but you.

And yet, critical funding that makes FRONTLINE possible is in jeopardy.”

Here’s how you can make your voice heard.

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Poisoned: Tampa’s Lead Problem

— March 25, 2021 | Frontline

For years, hundreds of workers at the Gopher Resource lead smelting plant in Florida were exposed to dangerous levels of lead in the air.

“Poisoned,” a new investigative series from the Tampa Bay Times, in collaboration with FRONTLINE’s Local Journalism Initiative, uncovers the details and consequences of what happened.

Times reporters Corey G. Johnson, Rebecca Woolington and Eli Murray gained access to thousands of pages of regulatory reports, company documents and employee medical records. Johnson joins FRONTLINE’s executive producer, Raney Aronson-Rath, on The FRONTLINE Dispatch podcast to discuss the project and what the reporters found after months of investigating.

"The workers are dealing with death," Johnson tells Aronson-Rath in today's episode. "They're dealing with a lot of hospitalizations, where all of a sudden, sometimes in the middle of the day, in the middle of the night, they can't breathe."

For years, hundreds of workers at the Gopher Resource lead smelting plant in Florida were exposed to dangerous levels of lead in the air.

“Poisoned,” a new investigative series from the Tampa Bay Times, in collaboration with FRONTLINE’s Local Journalism Initiative, uncovers the details and consequences of what happened.

Times reporters Corey G. Johnson, Rebecca Woolington and Eli Murray gained access to thousands of pages of regulatory reports, company documents and employee medical records. Johnson joins FRONTLINE’s executive producer, Raney Aronson-Rath, on The FRONTLINE Dispatch podcast to discuss the project and what the reporters found after months of investigating.

"The workers are dealing with death," Johnson tells Aronson-Rath in today's episode. "They're dealing with a lot of hospitalizations, where all of a sudden, sometimes in the middle of the day, in the middle of the night, they can't breathe."

"No one had ever told them that their lead levels were dangerous and could cause them harm," he says. "We, the journalists, were some of the first people to tell them about their lab reports and what they specifically meant."

For the full story, listen to "Poisoned: Tampa's Lead Problem" wherever you get your podcasts and read part one of this major investigation now.

"No one had ever told them that their lead levels were dangerous and could cause them harm," he says. "We, the journalists, were some of the first people to tell them about their lab reports and what they specifically meant."

For the full story, listen to "Poisoned: Tampa's Lead Problem" wherever you get your podcasts and read part one of this major investigation now.

COREY JOHNSON: The workers are dealing with death. They're dealing with a lot of hospitalizations, where all of a sudden, sometimes in the middle of the day, in the middle of the night, they can't breathe.

RANEY ARONSON: At Gopher Resource, a smelting plant in Tampa, hundreds of workers were exposed for years to dangerously high levels of lead.

JOHNSON: No one had ever told them that their lead levels were dangerous and could cause them harm.

ARONSON: Tampa Bay Times reporters Corey Johnson, Rebecca Woolington, and Eli Murray pored through thousands of pages of documents, regulatory reports and employee medical records.

JOHNSON: We, the journalists, were some of the first people to tell them about their lab reports and what they specifically meant.

ARONSON: Johnson joins me to discuss the findings of “Poisoned,” the new investigative series from the Tampa Bay Times in collaboration with FRONTLINE’s Local Journalism Initiative. I'm Raney Aronson and this is The FRONTLINE Dispatch.

ARONSON: Corey. It's great to be connected again about this really important story that you and your team have been working on for so long.

JOHNSON: Well, thank you. Thank you for having us and thank you for all the support you've given to us over the last year and a half, two years now. It's been great.

ARONSON: Oh, absolutely. I mean, it's been our pleasure. I know that this has been, you know, more than 18 months in the making. And I just want to go back to a meeting that you and I had with Eli and Rebecca, sitting in Tampa, you guys were pouring over documents with me, but you also showed me this incredible video, that you had been given by a worker from this plant. And I hope we could just talk about that right away. Like what kind of images were you starting to see in documents that led you to think that this was a really big story.

JOHNSON: We started to get a video of this one guy who worked in the furnace had this incredible video of how dusty the area was. And so one of the first things that we learned that was striking was that when you go into this plant, there's all this brown dust everywhere.

And it looks like dirt. And the worker explained that it wasn't dirt, it was lead. And he had this video to show how bad the ventilation problems that the workers were dealing with. They have these really sophisticated vents that are supposed to suck this brown lead dust out of the workspace, but it wasn't working.

And what we were finding in our reporting is that it hadn't worked properly for years. And so the video shows in this one area of the plant, there was so much lead dust that had accumulated on various parts of the room that one worker threw a pebble at the dust, and then all of it just cascaded down, almost looking like a lead avalanche and when we saw that we immediately were blown away, but we also knew that we were on the cusp of something really, really big, something really, really important.

ARONSON: Yeah, I can just remember us huddled over this table together and looking at that video with you and just stunned at the worker conditions there. Tell me about this plant and where it's located and then of course, what kind of work happens inside that plant?

JOHNSON: So this plant is the last lead smelter in Florida. It takes your everyday car battery, so when you drive your car and your battery runs out, most people end up having to take that back to where they bought it so it can be recycled. Those companies then sell those batteries to companies like Gopher Resource here in Tampa, who then take the batteries, crush them and extract the lead out of it. The lead never goes away. It's still present in the battery. And so they repurpose this lead. They burn it, they put it in fiery furnaces and they put it in refinery kettles to create new products. So the, your battery, your crushed battery goes to Gopher Resource and it ends up becoming lead that the military could use or gun manufacturers could use, or, uh, other battery manufacturers can use. And once upon a time in America, these businesses were everywhere. There were hundreds.

ARCHIVE: The industry consuming the largest tonnage of American lead is the automotive industry. Almost every car uses lead in storage batteries, saw there and bearing metals, and even brake lining. In addition, lead is used in gasoline for better performance. Lead storage batteries are also widely used in airplanes…

JOHNSON: Over time as regulation and science began to kick in and people began to understand more about pollution and the dangers and the harms. A lot of these businesses faded away. Well in Tampa, in our own backyard, the last one standing is here. We took a like a roundabout way to even learn of the plant. Uh, the interest was personal for me because, um, I was born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia. But some of my earliest childhood memories in the ’80s was going to visit my grandparents and cousins and aunts and uncles in Flint, Michigan. Fast forward, 30 years later. And I like everyone else are looking at the images out of Flint.

NEWSREEL: It's not safe to drink the water in Flint, Michigan, a city of nearly 100,000 north of Detroit… After the city began drawing from the highly corrosive Flint river, brown water started flowing from taps…. The water was improperly treated and lead leaked from city pipes right into people's homes, exposing thousands of people to the toxic metal… Thousands of people have been told to not drink the water, to not even touch the water coming from their taps after test showed elevated levels…

JOHNSON: And the images of that brown water coming out the faucet and people talking about lead and what it does to people. And I was curious, ’cause I had never known its dangers or what it could do in the body. And so when I moved to Tampa, one of the things that was on my mind was, ‘I wonder what lead could be doing here in Tampa.’ And I was given a report from the health department, one of those obscure, but important reports that most people just kind of ignore. And there was a section on lead poisoning and the section identified that the counties in Tampa Bay had the highest rates of adult lead poisoning, and the report also identified battery recyclers as one of the main causes. And so that started the odyssey, that started the journey of wanting to find out what is the cause of so many people having lead poisoning. And what does that actually look like in a human being's life?

ARONSON: I mean, so I'm curious, were the adults who were, you know, carrying these high levels of lead, were they aware of it in Tampa? Is this something that there's an awareness about or were you just discovering it yourself?

JOHNSON: Well, the sense I got as I started to talk to people in the community was that there wasn't really much sense of lead and what it was doing. That being said, the report ultimately caused us to do more research and that's how we discovered Gopher Resource as a plant. Myself, Rebecca and Eli kind of came together, looking at records and anything that was public that we can get our hands on. And over time, we begin to see these reports from workers, talking about injuries, talking about burns, lead burns, talking about how hot it was, talking about dust.

And it was through that process of beginning to reach out to those workers is when we began to hear more and more that the workers were getting regularly tested for lead. Uh, some of their lead levels were incredibly high and many of them were beginning to have some real dramatic health effects, heart attacks, strokes, kidney damage. That kind of floored us.

ARONSON: Are they sharing this with you transparently? I'm just curious, like how transparent are these employees being at this point?

JOHNSON: Some of the current workers were very, very fearful of, uh, saying, saying anything that could cause them to lose their job. You know, a lot of the workforce at this plant is Black, African-American, uh, they're immigrants. Some people, you know, have been imprisoned. And so a lot of these workers came to feel like this, this money that they were making at this plant was the best money that they had ever seen. And they were able to feed their families and do things that they wouldn't otherwise. And so that's been an ongoing concern about retaliation, concern about being surveilled on.

And so we gave the workers all the space and confidence and publicly, if they chose, to share their experiences. And they did some incredibly important things. They obtained records, their own personal medical records, as well as the records that federal law requires companies like this to frequently test the air in the plant, uh, to make sure that the poisons are within safe levels. And what we, what we began to see was as the workers were getting these records and sharing with us, that the levels at the Tampa plant was sometimes hundreds of times higher than what the federal limit was.

ARONSON: We’ll be right back.

ARONSON: Corey, there was one person in your story that just struck me as an extraordinary story. Tell me about Prospere Dumeus.

Corey Johnson: So Prospere Dumeus was an immigrant who, from Haiti, who came in the early ‘80s on the boat to America looking for a better life. Um, he didn't have much education. 1985 he came to this plant and became somewhat of a go-to expert, particularly in the furnace area. But over time he, his exposure and his exposure levels to lead was so high. And we were able to get records going all the way back to the ‘80s, and we did this analysis that, we talked with some experts in lead who calculate the cumulative exposure that a person can have to lead versus just a one single test.

And what we found there was shocking. What we found was that this poison had built and built and built in his body to such high levels. As early as the ‘90s, as early as early 2000s, which coincidentally was when he started to first have some of his heart problems. Over the course of his life this man had either two or three major heart surgeries. But yet, he just continued to work, continued to work. Finally, in 2017, when he has one of his last surgeries, the doctor tells him and the plant that this man can't, he can't lift anything heavier than 30 pounds. At that point, the company decides to fire him. And within a few months he ends up having this massive heart attack at church. And two years later, he dies. The final causes of death is heart disease, kidney disease and a brain injury. Um, he had all the signs of what you would see for someone who was around lead.

ARONSON: Hmm. Wow… So, of course I know you went to Gopher multiple times for an interview. I know that they didn't, they didn't actually sit down with you, but they did issue a statement. What did they say about all this?

JOHNSON: Well, what was striking there was that, uh, they sidestepped all of the detailed questions that we asked and basically said that they care about their workers, that safety is very important to them and that they've invested hundreds or over 140 or so million dollars on safety improvements and that they have done a fantastic job at bringing lead levels down in their workforce.

And so that was their response. They didn't refute this story directly, nor did they answer any of the detailed questions.

ARONSON: So I want to talk just going forward, what are you hoping to do as the series goes on from here?

JOHNSON: Well, we feel like we're still very much just scratching the surface about what, how workers may have been overexposed and what that ultimately meant. So there's a lot still to do a lot of questions still to answer around, you know, who all got affected, who knew what and when and why.

So there's still a lot to do. And I think in the days ahead, we'll learn more about all of those matters.

ARONSON: Well, there'll be on this one and we'll keep following it. So, um, and look forward to future reporting. Thanks again.

JOHNSON: Well, thank you so much Raney and thank you FRONTLINE for all the support you've given us and the interest and the love, we really appreciate it.

ARONSON: Corey Johnson is a reporter with the Tampa Bay Times, he and his team have been collaborating with FRONTLINE on their new investigative series POISONED. You can read part one now at TAMPA BAY DOT COM and FRONTLINE DOT ORG.

Our podcast producers are Max Green and James Edwards.

Our production assistant is Lucie Sullivan. Production help from Cassie McGrath.

Katherine Griwert is our editorial coordinating producer.

Sarah Childress is our series senior editor.

Our special projects editor is Phil Bennett.

Andrew Metz is our managing editor.

I’m Raney Aronson, executive producer of FRONTLINE.

Original music in this episode by Stellwagen Symphonette.

The FRONTLINE Dispatch is produced at GBH and powered by PRX.