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What We're Listening To:
Here you'll find a new documentary or feature presented every two weeks, along with a "Behind the Scenes" interview with its producer, and other bits of information about the piece.
You'll also find a wealth of audio to listen to in the archives of our past features. And in case you're wondering what else might be out there awaiting your ears, we also compile an ever-growing list of links to some of our favorite audio-related sites, which are filled with sound, stories and useful information.
If you'd like to broadcast or podcast any of the documentaries on this site, you must obtain rights from the producer. Contact us for more information.
Podcast! Want documentary audio action delivered automatically to your computer? Find out more and subscribe to the regular Third Coast Festival Podcast. |
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DRUM ROLL PLEASE....
(L to R: Mary Beth Kirchner, Rebecca Weiker, Erik Bauersfeld, April Dembosky, Linda Lutton, Michael May, Aziza Sindhu, Soren Wheeler, Charles Maynes, Hamish Sewell)
Photo (and winner pix) by Shauna Bittle. |
It's our distinct pleasure to announce...the winners of the 2009 TC / Richard H. Driehaus Foundation Competition!
This year's top nine docs were selected from 240 entries, came from ten different countries, and range in topic from tales of love, betrayal, and identity, to the strange science of coincidence...and that's just to name a few.
Listen to the nine remarkable winning stories below and get to know the producers behind the work. Plus meet the 2009 Third Coast Audio Luminary Award recipient - one of the most accomplished radio dramatists in broadcast history, Erik Bauersfeld.
And keep your ears open for the 2009 Third Coast Broadcast, coming to a station near you this fall, and featuring even longer excerpts, interviews with producers, and audio glimpses from the 2009 Awards Ceremony.
Ready? Here we go.
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Best Documentary: Gold Award
My Way or the FBI Way (USA)
By Michael May with editor Nancy Updike
A year ago, a swat team broke down the door of a home in downtown St. Paul and found eight Molotov cocktails inside. Two young activists from Texas were charged with making the firebombs, and word spread quickly among their group that there was an informant in their midst. But who and why? My Way or the FBI Way first aired on This American Life in May, 2009.
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My Way or the FBI Way (37:08)
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Best Documentary: Silver Award
Tom Girls (USA)
By Mary Beth Kirchner and Rebecca Weiker with editors Nancy Updike and Ira Glass
Tom Girls is the story of two 8 year old girls who meet at a conference for families with transgender children. This was the first time either girl had ever met someone so much like herself, and they instantly became best friends...at least for the weekend. Tom Girls first aired on This American Life in February, 2009.
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Tom Girls (17:30)
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Best Documentary: Bronze Award
Battle Flagging Father (Australia)
By Hamish Sewell with sound technician Judy Rapley and advisor Tony MacGregor
Earlier this year, Brisbane-based writer and documentarian Hamish Sewell traveled to Alabama to meet his estranged father for the first time in nearly 30 years. Hamish hoped this tentative reconciliation would bridge not only a lifetime of separation, but also a profound gulf of understanding between father and son, as symbolized by the giant Confederate flag on Jim Sewell’s front porch. Battle Flagging Father first aired on Radio Eye, Radio National, ABC Australia in October, 2008.
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Battle Flagging Father (46:55)
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Read more about producer Hamish Sewell. |
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Right click to open "Battle Flagging Son," an essay written by Hamish about his experience re-connecting with his father and producing this piece. (PDF) |
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Directors' Choice
Three Records from Sundown (Russia)
By Charles Maynes
Nick Drake died in 1974, an unknown songwriter with three failed folk albums to his name. But fast forward to the present, and Drake is considered among the most important musicians of his time. In Three Records from Sundown, Charles Maynes retraces the roots of the Nick Drake legend through interviews with Drake’s producer Joe Boyd. Three Records from Sundown was first presented on the Podstansiya podcast in September, 2008.
(Photo Courtesy of the estate of Victoria Waymouth)
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Three Records from Sundown (27:02)
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Best Documentary: Honorable Mention
A Lucky Wind (USA)
By Soren Wheeler and Jad Abumrad with co-host and consulting editor Robert Krulwich
Do we live in a world where there is magic and meaning, or is it all just chance? RadioLab hosts Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich explore this question by meeting two young women who share a nearly unbelievable story of coincidence and fate. Then they consult with statisticians to get a very different take on the same story. A Lucky Wind first aired on Radiolab in June, 2009.
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A Lucky Wind (19:26)
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Best Documentary: Honorable Mention
Gone (USA)
By Linda Lutton with editor Sally Eisele
About 12,000 students drop out of Chicago Public Schools each year despite efforts by administrators and teachers to keep them on track. At Robeson High School on Chicago’s south side, even an ambitious program couldn’t stop students from slipping away. Reporter Linda Lutton tracked down a few absent Robeson students and discovered that they’d left school for very different reasons. Gone first aired on WBEZ, Chicago, in June, 2009.
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Gone (13:43)
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Best New Artist
Death Comes Home (USA)
By April Dembosky with advisors Claire Schoen and Cynthia Gorney
Death Comes Home is a portrait of three families who have chosen to forego the funeral director and prescribed memorial to instead care for their dead at home. Part of a growing national "home funeral" movement, these families are redefining America’s death rituals. Death Comes Home was first presented as part of the University of California at Berkeley’s annual masters project showcase in May, 2008.
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Death Comes Home (51:10)
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Radio Impact
Forbidden Love: Genetic Sexual Attraction (Canada)
By Aziza Sindhu and Aaron Brindle with executive producer Pam Bertrand and host Bob McKeown
Ontario is the most recent province in Canada to open up adoption files in order to help birth families and adoptees find one another. But there is a disconcerting, though rare, consequence of adoptive reunions. The phenomenon known as genetic sexual attraction occurs when family members who have never met until adulthood, find themselves attracted to one another. Aziza Sindhu talks with people who have experienced GSA firsthand and brings voice to this taboo subject. Forbidden Love: Genetic Sexual Attraction first aired on CBC’s The Current in May, 2009.
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Forbidden Love: Genetic Sexual Attraction ( 33:57)
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Best News Feature
Fidele Musafiri, Miner (USA)
By Gregory Warner with editor John Haas and engineer Ben Shapiro
Cell phones and laptops rely on a particular mineral called colombite tantalum – coltan for short - and the growing demand for the material in the west has had ramifications in some pretty distant corners of the world. Reporter Gregory Warner visited the Democratic Republic of Congo, where most of the world’s coltan is found, and where military factions are vying for control of an industry worth millions of dollars. There he met miner Fidele Musafiri who is just barely scraping by. Fidele Musafiri, Miner, part of Homelands Productions’ Working series, first aired on Marketplace in November, 2008.
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Fidele Musafiri, Miner (7:50)
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2009 Third Coast Audio Luminary Award recipient -
Erik Bauersfeld
The Third Coast Audio Luminary Award is presented to an individual who is greatly admired for his or her significant and ongoing contributions to the field of radio and/or documentary audio. Not only has this person left a profound mark on the audio field, he or she continues to be a source of inspiration to others.
For the past five decades, Erik Bauersfeld has been a leading figure in radio drama as a producer, writer, director, editor and performer. Bauersfeld has been a mentor to generations of producers and sound designers. In support of Bauersfeld’s nomination for this award, sound designer James McKee writes, “As an educator and producer, Erik opened the doors to everyone he taught and worked with. Many of today’s most acknowledged sound designers for radio and film began in apprentice and as engineers for Erik’s early radio works.”
At the age of 87, Bauersfeld is working on his next radio production, a series of works on the life and people surrounding D. H. Lawrence during his stay in Taos, New Mexico, in the 1960’s.
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Hear Erik Bauersfeld accept his award at the 2009 Third Coast Awards Ceremony, along with some excerpts of his work.
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