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Trevor Magazine Winter 2022-23

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As American Documentary, Inc.'s Executive Producer, Chris White '82 (The Day School) produces three award-winning documentary series: POV (Point of View) and POV Shorts on PBS, and America ReFramed on WGBH's World Channel. Having worked in public television for more than two decades, he has presented over 400 films for national broadcast. And the awards stack up: Since Chris became Executive Producer in 2015, POV films have won nine Emmys, 11 George Foster Peabody Awards, eight duPont-Columbia Awards, and six Independent Spirit Awards—not to mention ten Academy Award nominations including the just announced A House Made of Splinters. His shows also recently received three IDA Documentary Awards: Best Curated Series, Best Short-Form Series, and Best TV Feature Documentary, for Fannie Lou Hamer's America. Chris acknowledges, "I am proud to bring films by the world's most gifted storytellers to the American public. I find it deeply fulfilling." With disproportionate modesty—he only admits having "achieved a modicum of success in my field," he quickly points out that "the real work is being done by the artists, the directors, and producers we support." How did he come to feel so passionately about his field? It's "my love of film. It's a medium that excites me, that makes me feel something, that makes my heart beat. Who doesn't love a good film? There's something about the synthesis of sound and image, and a well-told tale that's exhilarating. I actually believe my creative spirit was nurtured and developed at The Day School where kids were encouraged to explore, and a healthy introduction to visual arts was integral to the school's mission." Chris recalls, in Jim Zulakis' class, "creating stop-action claymation films about alien gunfights in space." And in high school, "I began scripting and shooting teenage love stories and thrillers;" in college he learned about the history of film and its craft. After graduating from Colgate University in 1991 with a degree in Philosophy, Chris' first job in the field was working as an intern on a Bill Moyers documentary. As part of a commencement speech Chris gave in the summer of 2021, he explains, "So, that was my start. It was the early 90s, when the indie film scene was starting to explode. Chris at the 2019 Academy Awards for the Oscar-nominated film Minding the Gap Alumni Profile Chris White '82 Executive Producer, American Documentary | POV TREVOR DAY SCHOOL / 39 TREVOR DAY SCHOOL / 39 INSIDE TREVOR TREVOR TRANSLATES FEATURE AR TICLES ALUMNI

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