TV-R Professor Wins Documentary Emmy

"Winning the Emmy was so unexpected," says associate professor of television-radio Ben Crane (right), "that I had nothing prepared for an acceptance speech, and neither did my partner, [former IC faculty member] Slawomir Grünberg."

Despite their unpreparedness at the Emmy Awards ceremony, it’s obvious from watching Crane and Grünberg’s "School Prayer: A Community at War," which aired on the PBS series Point of View in July 1999, that the two writers/producers/directors put a lot of thought, preparation, and sweat into making the documentary. They took five years to put together this look at how a town was polarized by the issue of organized prayer in public schools. "School Prayer" deals with the clash between the constitutional rights of an individual and the deep-rooted tradition of a community.

When Lisa Herdahl and her family moved to Pontotoc County, Mississippi, from Wisconsin, they discovered that — 36 years after the Supreme Court outlawed school-sanctioned prayer — religious messages were broadcast over the intercom every morning at her son’s high school. Herdahl protested to the school board and eventually sued, setting set off a protracted and painful battle that pitted her family against the overwhelming majority of Pontotoc residents.

"Pontotoc is torn between the law of man as set down by the Supreme Court and the law of God as they understand it from the Bible," says Crane. "The majority of people in Pontotoc believe that to respect the law of man in this case means to risk losing the moral backbone of their community."

Crane’s documentary profiles the Herdahl family as its members cope with isolation, economic hardship, and death threats. It also takes viewers inside the homes, churches, and schools of Pontotoc County, where people credit prayer for their prosperity and happiness and blame Herdahl for unnecessarily shattering it.

"School Prayer" was one of only eight films selected from over 900 submissions to air on the P.O.V. series this year. It was made by Log In Productions, an Ithaca-area company that Grünberg (left) founded, for the Independent Television Service, with funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the Soros Documentary Fund, and the New York State Council on the Arts.

"I was happy just to be nominated for a national Emmy Award, because independent producers rarely get to compete in the major leagues. We don’t have the resources and multimillion-dollar budgets that 60 Minutes or Dateline NBC or Frontline enjoy. Working on the documentary consumed five years of my life, and the film’s success has kept me traveling and speaking through this year."

What was it like to make this film? For starters, Crane and Grünberg worked for 14 months to earn Herdahl’s trust, after which they still had to win the confidence of the community. "Imagine teaching four classes here on Monday and Wednesday, and scrambling for interviews in the backwoods of Mississippi on the intervening Tuesday," says Crane. "Imagine having to repeat that pattern, with little advance notice, no outside financing, tenuous access to sources who were often suspicious of us, and little confidence that the film could even be completed. Looking back, it’s miraculous that we achieved so much."

Crane teaches courses in journalism, documentary research, scriptwriting, and critical thinking. He has written and produced works for radio, television, stage, and film. The "School Prayer" crew included editor/sound recordist Jason Longo ’94, who has worked on more than 20 documentaries for PBS programs such as Frontline and Nova.

"The documentary has led a charmed life," says Crane. "There were many memorable moments, but the highlights were probably the week-long screening on Broadway through the Film Society of Lincoln Center, an embassy dinner in my honor in Washington, D.C., after winning the Documentaries International prize, and of course, the Emmy. As to the future, new professional opportunities are beckoning, says Crane. "I’m nursing a couple of documentary ideas, as well as trying to develop a dramatic series for television. Teaching is my real calling, and now that School Prayer is finished, I’m very grateful for the chance to spend more time in the classroom."