Filmmakers Benjamin Bryant and Tommy Zamberlan have expressed gratitude on their first-ever Emmy nomination. #Powerjournalist Markos Papadatos has the recap.
They were nominated at the National Capital Chesapeake Bay Chapter Emmy Awards for “Welcome Home! Honoring Your Legacy,” which is a tribute to Vietnam veterans and their families.
On garnering this Emmy nomination, the filmmakers reflected, “The best part about getting a first Emmy nomination in your late 40s? The perspective that comes with life experience already gained. For so many of us in the creative and storytelling arts, our view of awards changes with time. In the beginning, things like personal validation, attention, and career benefits dominate—boy is that a roller coaster. But then something magical happens.”
They continued, “Enough years of near misses and disappointments means you stop worrying about that stuff and just get on with the work. You find validation in the personal joy and professional satisfaction in just doing good work—for yourself and everyone else involved in each new project. And that’s the one thing that makes “losing” harder: While you want the honors for yourself less, you find yourself wanting it even MORE for everyone else. Theatrical producer Sonia Friedman recently noted she finds awards ‘really important [but also] quite stressful…because there are always thousands of people who’ve worked so hard, and they are not recognized.’ This. Is. True. There are so many more who contribute to every successful project, without whom there would be no nomination.”
“In our case, it was the dozens of our fellow team members from the United States Vietnam War Commemoration; Servicemembers and civilians from multiple agencies, contractors, partners, and volunteers, and the thousands of Vietnam veterans whose stories, photographs, videos, and other shared experience informed and shaped our project; and, of course, the millions of Vietnam veterans and family members to whom we paid tribute with our program,” they elaborated.
“We would really have liked to bring home the award for them, and not being able to do so stings way more than not having statuettes on our mantle this morning. It’s heartening to know, however, that the nomination itself is a tremendous honor, recognized around the world…and that will always be,” they said.
“It’s traditional to say ‘it wasn’t our year,’ with these things (I’ve certainly said it enough times in the past 18 hours), but in writing this, I realize how deep and abundant my blessings have been and the depth of support and the network we’ve benefitted from. Thank you, all,” they said, effusively.
Once again, they deserve a sincere round of applause and a parade of adulations for shedding a spotlight on an ever-increasing and important group of people that doesn’t always get the proper amount of respect that they are due: the veterans!
For more information on Emmy-nominated filmmaker Benjamin Bryant, follow him on Instagram.
