IDA Announces 2001 Distinguished Achievement Award Winners

LOS ANGELES, November 27— Children Underground,Startup.com, On Tiptoe: Gentle Steps to Freedom, Abraham and MaryLincoln: A House Divided and Hitler’s Lost Sub willreceive 2001 Distinguished Achievement Awards from the InternationalDocumentary Association (IDA). The presentations will be made onDecember 7 during the 17th Annual IDA Distinguished Achievement Awardsat the Directors Guild of America Theatre in Los Angeles.

“Our juries were impressed by the diversity and quality of thehundreds of documentaries they viewed from around the world,”says IDA President Michael Donaldson. “That makes theaccomplishments of the Distinguished Achievement Award winners all themore impressive. Each has told a compelling story about a slice of ourhistory in a memorable way.”

Documentary filmmakers and fans will be able to see the winningentries at DocuFest™ in the screening room at the Kodak Hollywoodcomplex on Saturday, December 8. Each winning entry will be screenedfollowed by a discussion with the filmmaker.

“The IDA Distinguished Achievement Awards is a celebrationwhere our members recognize extraordinary accomplishments by theirpeers,” says IDA Executive Director Sandra Ruch. “It isalso a source of hope and inspiration for other documentarians who havestories to tell.”

Children Underground and Startup.com shared top honorsin the feature length competition. Children Underground wasdirected and produced by Edet Belzberg and distributed by Home BoxOffice (HBO). It chronicles the lives of several abandoned Romanianchildren who live below the streets in Bucharest's Piata Victorieitrain station. The youngsters sleep in cardboard boxes, beg, steal andbounce from shelter to shelter. Startup.com was co-directed byChris Hegedus and Jehane Noujam, produced by D.A. Pennebaker anddistributed by Artisan Entertainment. It explores the recent dot comphenomenon with a voyeuristic behind the scenes look at the experienceof two childhood friends who organize govWorks.com, raise 60 milliondollars, hire hundreds of employees and resolve conflicts that threatentheir friendship.

On Tiptoe: Gentle Steps to Freedom won the short category fornon-fiction films under 40-minutes in length. It was directed by EricSimonson, co-produced by Simonson and Leelai Demoz, and distributed byHBO. The documentary tells the story of Joseph Shabala and his passionfor creating a new kind of music. Shabala, the leader of the SouthAfrican singing group Ladysmith Black Mambazo, started with nothing buta dream and ascended to fame and fortune.

Abraham and Mary Lincoln: A House Divided won the limitedseries competition for segments of a series with a specific continuingtheme or subject. The documentary was part of the American Experienceseries distributed by WGBH International/PBS. It was directed, producedand written by David Grubin. The film reveals that Abe and Mary Lincolnwere an unlikely couple. He was a dirt farmer's son and she was thedaughter of wealthy Southern aristocrats. He was the great emancipatorand she was the daughter of slave-owners.

Hitler’s Lost Sub won the continuing series competitionfor documentaries that are part of an ongoing series. The nonfictionfilm was directed by Kirk Wolfinger, produced and written by RushmoreNeNooyer, and executive produced by Paula Aspell. The film wasdistributed by WGBH International. The story follows diver JohnChatterton’s discovery of a sunken German U-boat from World WarII, which was at the bottom of the ocean 60 miles off the New Jerseyshore. The endeavor took Chatterton and his crew six years and costthree lives.

Director/producer Monteith McCollum received an honorable mention inthe feature category for Hybrid. The film focuses on a100-year-old farmer, his troubled relationship with his family and hislife-long obsession with hybrid seed corn. It was distributed by LatentFilms.

Producer Joe Lavine and executive producer Ross Greenburg willreceive the 2001 IDA/ABC NEWS VideoSource Award for Ali-Frazier 1:One Nation...Divisible. The award is presented annually to adocumentarian who makes the best use of historic news stock footage totell a non-fiction story. Their film focuses on the 1971 worldchampionship boxing match between Mohammed Ali and Joe Frazier. Bothfighters entered the historic match undefeated. Frazier was thereigning heavyweight champ. Ali was fighting for the first time inthree and a half years since his World Boxing Association crown wastaken from him because he was a conscientious objector during theVietnam War. It was billed as “The Fight of theCentury.”

IDA will also present the 2001 Pare Lorentz Award towriter/producer/director Hugh Drescher for his documentary IslandOut of Time. The award is presented by the Pare Lorentz Foundationto an individual whose work best represents the democratic sensibility,activist spirit and lyrical vision of the legendary documentarian. Thefilm profiles 400 people who live in an isolated Chesapeake Baycommunity that is one the oldest settlements in the United States.

Eastman Kodak Company has sponsored the IDA DistinguishedAchievement Awards since their inception in 1984. “Documentariansrarely get the recognition they deserve for their dedication andimportant contributions to our society and to our industry,” saysKodak Entertainment Imaging Division Vice President Brian Spruill.“We believe they deserve our support.”