November Requiem wins two Emmy awards
by Angie Asam, Staff Writer
November Requiem, a local documentary on the tragedy of the sinking of the Carl D. Bradley and how the community recovered from it, won two Emmy awards. The documentary won Emmy?s for best historical documentary and best original music score. The Michigan Chapter of the National Association of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) gave out Emmy awards Saturday at the Royal Oak Music Theater. A small crew of people, including Anne Belanger and her brother Brian, produced the documentary through the Presque Isle District Library.
Anne, Brian, their mother, Brian?s wife, Jan and Bill Stevenson and Carolyn Chrzan and her daughter were in attendance at the awards ceremony Saturday. The Marquee at the theater welcomed guests to the 32nd Annual Michigan Emmy Awards as they walked down a red carpet complete with a photographer into the lobby of the theater where a larger than life Emmy Award stood. ?When we walked in it was almost like a Golden Globe setup. There were four levels and all these cabaret tables with little lights on them,? said Anne who thought there were about 500 people in attendance.
The music category came early in the program and the score for the documentary was up against ?Disney Small World? by Brian Yessian and ?Breaking New Ground: Women of the Saginaw Valley? by Pat Cronley. Yessian music has offices in New York, Detroit and Los Angeles and is a global collective of producers, composers, music supervisors, research creatives and recording artists. Yessian has created music for Coke, Ikea, Volkswagen, Match.com, Navy, Disney, Versus, Mr. Peanut, Heat and Shoulders, Toyota Venza 2009 Super Bowl, Djarum, GMC, Toyota, White Castle, Pampers and XM.
Pat Cronley is the founder of Jazz on Wheels, jazz musicians who travel to do mobile concerts. Cronley is a well-known jazz musician from the Flint area. After being announced the winner and hearing his table of PIDL people flip out with joy, Brian Belanger approached the stage. ?I remember walking up to the two presenters and saying hi guys how are you? I remember looking out and seeing all the lights and people. What all I said in my speech I don?t remember. It?s coming back to me somewhat as I have been told what I said. I hope to see a video of my speech so I can know what I said,? said Brian.
Between him and his sister Anne in a phone interview Monday, they were able to remember that he thanked the Rogers City community, PIDL, all the sponsors, his family and the granting agencies that made the documentary possible. ?I feel great. It is a good feeling. It is a little bit of a shock that doesn?t hit you right away. It didn?t hit me that much on Saturday but on Sunday it was almost a sense of relief that it was over. I had won something and I didn?t have to be wondering about it anymore. This has been going on for months now. I felt enormous joy, satisfaction. I kept thinking about the people we interviewed and what it was going to mean to them,? said Brian.
After hearing that her brother was recognized for his accomplishments with the musical score for the documentary, Anne was ready to leave feeling accomplished. Little did she know that she would later be recognized and receive an Emmy award. IN THE BEST historical documentary category November Requiem was up against ?Detroit: Our Greatest Generation? by Keith Famie (Visionalist Entertainment Productions/WDIV) and ?Detroit Remember When: The Jewish Community? by Sue Marx and Allyson Rockwell (Sue Marx Films/WTVS).
Famie was a contestant on Survivor: The Australian Outback. He is an accomplished chef and hosted his own show on Food Network for some time. Marx is an academy award-winning filmmaker and president of Sue Marx Films, Inc. She received a 1987 Academy Award for the documentary ?Young at Heart?. ?When we arrived we noticed that veterans were sitting in the front row just below the stage. When they showed a little clip from Famie?s film, featuring Veterans, I remember saying to Brian, well they got it,? said Anne. When noticing the veterans up front, she felt Famie?s film was a shoe in to win the Emmy. The thing about November Requiem that Brian felt made it really amazing is it is far away from any main stream media and promotion. However, as panelists away from Michigan reviewed, it they found it to have enough merit to win the award over the Academy Award-winning Marx.
When Anne received her award she first corrected the presenter on his pronunciation of Presque Isle. What Anne and Brian realized in receiving these awards was that they haven?t lost an award they entered to win with the documentary. With only four key people on the team and a small budget, November Requiem won two Emmy awards. According to PIDL director Jan Stevenson, a lot of volunteer time came into play with making the films. All of the interviews were done in local places, the Presque Isle County Historical Museum, the Great Lakes Lore Maritime Museum and the studio at J & L Camera. Anne believes that had the group wanted to go to a professional studio elsewhere, it would have cost much more to get the documentary put together. ?This award is shared by Rogers City, by the community. It is not an award for one person. It is a community award,? said Anne.
?Anne thought of this original idea. It started out that we just wanted to do something for the community. We knew the anniversary of the Carl D. Bradley was coming up and we started out with programming. Then we learned of a grant for video productions,? said Stevenson.
?It was serendipitous. Dave Erickson was working with the divers to recover the bell. They tried to dive three times and had problems each time and couldn?t get down there. That year they successfully recovered the bell. If it had been the next year, it wouldn?t have
The Emmy will be on display somewhere in the Rogers City branch of the PIDL for some time for people to enjoy as the Belangers have said it is a community award. The one thing they could not get over was the discovery that the Emmy does indeed have a head of hair. It is not the smooth looking piece of metal it appears to be on television.