Professor Brad Barber and TMA Alumni Receive Three Emmy Nominations For “21” Documentary Series
This summer, professor Brad Barber and several BYU alumni received three New York Emmy nominations for their work on the documentary series “21.” The team has been working on this project since June 2021, when Barber was approached by the New Jersey PBS station following the success of his previous PBS series, “States of America,” which features one person in each state, and “Beehive Stories,” which does the same on a county-by-county level in Utah. “21” follows the same pattern, spotlighting one person from each of New Jersey’s 21 counties.
“I had the same goals for ‘21’ as I did for ‘States of America’ and ‘Beehive Stories’ before that — to look at a selection of people from a certain place, see what their lives are like and try to learn from them,” Barber said.
After developing the new series with NJ PBS, Barber reached out to four different BYU media arts alumni: Sarah Rasmussen, Cameron Babcock, David Sant and Leesie Clegg, asking them to help craft the series just like they had in his ‘States of America’ and ‘Beehive Stories’ mentoring classes. They each collaborated with Barber over Zoom from their new homes across the country.
“Each of them stood out as being very savvy and quick with the many processes of production when they were students, and I knew they were very easy to work with. All around great collaborators,” Barber said. “The older I get, the more I just want to work with dependable people I really like!”
Cameron Babcock enjoyed working with Barber again and his experience editing the documentary. “It brought back a lot of great memories from being in Brad's classes. As an editor, it’s really nice when you have a director and producer that really values your input, skill and talent. A director who treats you like a true collaborator.”
Barber described that the support given to “21” allowed him to work with a variety of professionals from New Jersey and New York’s PBS stations who were all excited to work toward a common goal for the series. These connections prompted heavy promotion of the series, including an aired conversion about the documentary on their newscasts every time a new episode came out. as well as a robust website with community resources related to the subject of each county.
“I was fortunate to work with an incredible team of great people at NJ PBS, led by Senior Managing Editor Jamie Kraft,” Barber says. “They were all immensely supportive of me and the recent Media Arts grads I brought with me. They exuded a real love and affection for the people we featured in the films. By the end, we all felt like family — I’m not sure I’ve ever experienced anything quite like it, to be honest. There was a powerful dynamic in working with such good people on documentaries about such good people.”
For Babcock, editing the stories in “21” inspired him to contribute to his own community. “I was working on an episode and the next day was a record breaking hot day in LA. There's a homeless encampment pretty close to where I live in Hollywood. I remember I clocked out and I had the impression, ‘I know this is small, but let's just do what we can.’ I went out and got tons of water. I was able to hand out water that afternoon. This series really is inspiring. It moves me.” He described this as his way of fulfilling BYU’s invitation to “go forth to serve.”
Barber agrees that the stories shared in “21” are inspiring, an invitation to improve your own community. He expressed that each person featured in the series is “giving to their community in huge ways, enough to make most of us wonder if we're doing enough in our own communities when we watch their stories.”
For Barber, storytelling is about creating art and understanding. “Documentaries that inspire me are the ones that help me understand someone better, particularly if they come from a different place than me. I especially like the ones that elevate everyday life into something a little more lyrical. I think we all have moments in our lives, even the typical parts, where something comes together in a poetic or spiritual way that feels like beauty or even art. I love how documentary gives us the chance to communicate those moments.”
The New York Emmy Awards Ceremony will take place on October 28 in New York City.
Watch Brad Barber's "States of America" from Arts + Comms: Behind the Stories Season 2: