Documentary
While my primary career focus has been short form production for broadcast and digital media, I have also worked in more expansive formats. I was the creator and Executive Producer of the documentary “Africa’s Maryland,” a project I for which I won awards including an Emmy Award and National Edward R. Murrow Award for the finished product.
In 2006 I approached the news director at WBAL-TV with the thought of a documentary about Maryland County, Liberia. The remote region of West Africa has deep historic ties to Maryland, USA, but the connection was largely forgotten.
It was a bold idea that would require a local TV station to send a documentary crew to Africa. Ambitious, expensive and not without risk. Management was interested in the idea but understandably wary, so I arranged for member of Liberia’s national legislature to visit WBAL-TV while on a trip to Washington DC. He eased concerns and I was soon cleared to book flights to Liberia and arrange a two-week visit for myself and a small team.
Video
Videos are also available on my YouTube page.
In addition to my responsibilities as Senior Promotions Producer/Editor and on-air technology reporter, I took on the role of executive producer of this documentary. By the time we departed for Africa, I had booked an interview with Liberian president Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, convinced the United Nations to helicopter us into the nearly inaccessible Maryland County and outlined a schedule for our team’s two weeks in the country.
While on the ground, I worked with our correspondent and videographer to capture everything we would need during our short visit. I planned our daily schedules with the help of our Liberian contacts, wrote copy for reporter standups, produced my own stories in which I would appear on-camera in the documentary and refined the outline of the broader story we would tell. In my favorite moment of the project, I interviewed Liberian president Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, the world’s first black female national president.
Once safely home, I wrote the bulk of the documentary and worked closely with the editor as the program came together. I selected music and voiceover announcers and oversaw the creation of the documentary’s graphic look, including opens, lower thirds and full screen animations.
Africa’s Maryland premiered in primetime to a television rating second only to American Idol. The program won an Emmy Award, a National Edward R. Murrow Award, a National Headliner Award and an Associated Press award among others for excellence in documentary production. Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley cited the documentary as having contributed to Maryland’s adoption of Maryland County, Liberia as a sister state.