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National Telly Award Honors American Indian Homelands: Matters of Truth, Honor and Dignity - Immemorial

Thu, 22 Jun 2006, 01:37:00 EDT

Edited by Carly M. Zander

MINNEAPOLIS, MN - June 21 (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) -- Vanbar Productions, a Minneapolis-based documentary production company, has won a 2005/2006 Telly Award, one of the electronic media's most prestigious, for outstanding production achievement for its production of American Indian Homelands: Matters Of Truth, Honor And Dignity - Immemorial.

Notification of the award was received via mail last Friday, June 16, by Barry ZeVan, Vanbar Productions owner, and popular Twin Cities and nationally-syndicated television and radio personality, who was also the documentary's Executive Producer / Co-Producer / Writer / Director / Production Designer. The announcement was made and sent to ZeVan by and from the Telly Awards headquarters offices in New York City.

Hosted and narrated by ABC-TV's Sam Donaldson, the 78-minute documentary, which had its world television premiere November 27, 2005, on Twin Cities Public Television, with repeat broadcasts this past May, and features interviews with Senator John McCain (R) AZ, and former Senator and House Majority Leader, Tom Daschle (D) SD, addressing American Indian land and legal issues in a very direct manner. The documentary had its non-television debut May 19, 2005, at the Minnesota History Center in St. Paul, MN, with host/narrator Donaldson in attendance.

ZeVan will formally receive the award...a statuette produced by the same company that produces Oscar and EMMY statuettes...as well as a certificate of award verification, as part of a July 21st golfing event and dinner at The Refuge in Oak Grove, MN, 40 miles north of the Twin Cities, and hosted by the Minnesota-based Indian Land Tenure Foundation. The non-advocacy, but factually-intense, production was produced for television, but with subsequent home-video, museum, higher-learning curriculum, library, quality commercial bookstore and DVD venue distribution all now available.

"To state it's an honor to receive this award would be an all-time understatement. This award does not compete with other documentary productions, but rather is awarded based on quality and message-delivery by industry leaders who judge the work, which makes winning it all the more gratifying. The pre-award reviews have called it one of the most powerful documentaries ever produced about what American Indians have faced for hundreds of years, and continue to face. Thankfully, there's hope on the horizon for them, and that's addressed at the conclusion of the documentary."

ZeVan said. "This is my 14th documentary. Three of them were nominated for Emmys, but this is our first "win" and it couldn't have been for a more important subject," ZeVan concluded. Other Vanbar Productions have included historical, promotional and travel-related films for governments and airlines globally, and seen on HBO, PBS and Bravo.

In addition to its growing presence on PBS and ABC television stations around the country, the documentary is also now part of the curriculum and/or in reference libraries of The University of Minnesota (Minneapolis and Duluth campuses), Augsburg College, Dartmouth College (Hanover, NH) and Ball State University (Muncie, IN), with other colleges, universities and school districts pending carriage beginning in September, 2006.

The home video version, with comprehensive timeline study guide, is also now offered at the Smithsonian's new National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C.; The Minnesota History Center, St. Paul; The Mille Lacs Indian Museum, Onamia, MN; The Journey Museum, Rapid City, SD; The South Dakota Historical Society, Pierre; The Akta Lakota Museum, Chamberlain, SD; Crazy Horse Monument (Library), Crazy Horse, SD; and Borders, Barnes & Noble and other selected bookstores in the Upper Midwest. Beginning in July, it will be available nationwide at most bookstores and other retail outlets with DVD sections.

Founded in 1978, the Telly Awards are the premiere awards annually honoring and showcasing the best work of the most respected production companies, television stations, advertising agencies and corporate video departments in the world. The widely respected national and international competition receives entries from all 50 states and many foreign countries. Among past production company winners have been Oprah Winfrey's Harpo Productions, The Walt Disney Company, ESPN, HBO, A&E, The History Channel and ABC.

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