Deadline Hollywood - Sponsored Issue - National Geographic - 05/11/21

PROMOTIONAL ISSUE PRESENTED BY

MORE THAN A VOICE CYNTHIA ERIVO PLAYS THE QUEEN OF SOUL IN GENIUS: ARETHA, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC’S LATEST ENTRY IN ITS ANTHOLOGY SERIES HONORING ARETHA FRANKLIN’S TRAILBLAZING LIFE

ALL THINGS

REVEALING Go behind the scenes of all of National Geographic’s awards contenders with the podcast THE MAKING OF, available now on your favorite podcasting app.

HOSTED BY

STACEY WILSON HUNT

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CONTENTS FEATURES

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RESPECTING ARETHA How the team behind anthology series Genius: Aretha bring the Soul Queen to screen

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WINDY CITY LIFE Chicago residents and politicians are put in the spotlight for City So Real, Steve James' five-part docuseries

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GENTLE GIANTS The team behind Secrets of the Whales talk complexity of whale culture and evoking emotion through sound

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SMALL-TOWN HEROES Ron Howard on making harrowing wildfire documentary Rebuilding Paradise

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LEADING LADIES Gal Gadot & Vanessa Roth talk about the trailblazing women in their series IMPACT

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FROZEN GROUND Life Below Zero EP Joseph Litzinger explains key to the series' longevity

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AROUND THE WORLD Producing duo Bertram van Munster & Elise Doganieri on elevating reality adventure competitions

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TO THE STARS VFX supervisor Mark Stetson talks evoking spaceflight realism for The Right Stuff D E A D L I N E .C O M / AWA R D S L I N E

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BECOMING

ARETHA

CYNTHIA ERIVO TALKS ABOUT THE RESPONSIBILITY THAT COMES WITH PORTRAYING THE QUEEN OF SOUL IN GENIUS: ARETHA What does Aretha Franklin and her music mean to you?

She taught me what it means to tell a story and communicate emotion through song.

For me, music is like a second language, so I rely on that often to communicate a feeling— especially when it comes to making my own music. The songs she wrote are totally inspiring so having the opportunity to play her and portray all she had gone through was so exciting. She taught me that finding a sound takes time, but also that it takes time to find oneself. As she was working from this young age, she was also being a mother. She really put into perspective for me what it means to be determined and persevere.

What kind of responsibility comes with playing an icon like Aretha?

I felt an overwhelming sense of responsibility because Aretha was a very special person and there will never be another person exactly like her. As an actor, your job is to really find the essence of the person you are portraying. I felt a responsibility to make sure that I was telling her story as truthfully, honestly and gracefully as I possibly could. I hope that when people watch the show they fall in love with Aretha and her music all over again.

What parts of her life would you say surprised you the most?

I didn’t know she could play the piano by ear.

People could play something to her and she could play it back because it was imprinted

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on her brain. She couldn’t read music but she learned how to compose. I also didn’t know how involved she was in the civil rights movement and that she had this friendship with Martin Luther King. I didn’t know how much of a chameleon she was and how beautifully she shifted through the times.

Makeup artist Terrell Mullin and hairstylist Coree Moreno do an exceptional job re-creating Aretha’s iconic beauty moments. How did the collaborators approach the transformation?

I've been watching Coree and Terrell’s growth for four or five years and they’re like brothers to me. I knew there was no way I could do this without them because they have an innate love for the history of hair and makeup and the way it changes through time. Terrell is an avid fan of Aretha so he knew all of the looks and how they changed through different eras. Coree loves research so he did a deep dive into all things Aretha, the way her hair changed colors and the shapes she would use. He created all of these wigs from scratch and hand-dyed them. The hair and makeup trailer was covered with Aretha’s pictures in chronological order from the late 1950s to the early 1990s and they were really able to use her hair and makeup to indicate those time shifts from the inky black eyebrows of the 1960s to the Farrah Fawcett red hair of the 1970s to the black, choppy, short hair of the early 1980s. I think they just really enjoyed playing with the styles that she went through over the years. ★

NATURAL WOMAN (Clockwise from top left) Aretha (Cynthia Erivo) playing piano in her home; crowned 'The Queen of Soul'; putting on makeup while husband Ted White (Malcolm Barrett) looks on; in fur coat.

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“A POWERHOUSE SHOWCASE FOR

A POWERHOUSE PERFORMANCE” -THE NEW YORKER

“INCANDESCENT” “SPELLBINDING” “CRACKLING” -THE NEW YORK TIMES

-VOGUE

-NPR

“DAZZLING” “SOARING” “PHENOMENAL” -TIME

-SALON

-PASTE

ALL THINGS

SOULFUL F O R YO U R C O N S I D E R AT I O N

OUTSTANDING LIMITED OR ANTHOLOGY SERIES OUTSTANDING LEAD ACTRESS IN A LIMITED OR ANTHOLOGY SERIES OR MOVIE – CYNTHIA ERIVO OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A LIMITED OR ANTHOLOGY SERIES OR MOVIE – COURTNEY B. VANCE OUTSTANDING WRITING FOR A LIMITED OR ANTHOLOGY SERIES OR MOVIE – SUZAN-LORI PARKS OUTSTANDING DIRECTING FOR A LIMITED OR ANTHOLOGY SERIES OR MOVIE – ANTHONY HEMINGWAY OUTSTANDING PERIOD COSTUMES – JENNIFER BRYAN AND ALL OTHER ELIGIBLE CATEGORIES

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QUEEN OF SOUL SHOWRUNNER & EXECUTIVE PRODUCER SUZAN-LORI PARKS DETAILS BRINGING ARETHA FRANKLIN’S GENIUS TO SCREEN

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ulitzer Prize-winning playwright Suzan-Lori Parks is a woman of many talents, but it’s her work on anthology series Genius: Aretha that adds the showrunner feather to her cap. The multihyphenate had just premiered Native Son, which she adapted from Richard Wright’s novel, at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival when Imagine Entertainment’s Brian Grazer called her up to work on the third installment of the Emmy Award-winning series, produced with 20th Television, which would this time focus on “The Queen of Soul” herself, Aretha Franklin. ″I was just over the moon at the possibility of including Aretha in the Genius family,” says Parks. “And to work with Brian Grazer? It was such a beautiful opportunity.”

On some levels, it feels that Parks was almost destined to tell Franklin’s tale, notably because the legendary songstress

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once asked Parks to write a stage musical about her life.

“The first time she called, I was running to get to the phone and didn’t pick up in time so she left a message,” recalls Parks. “So her voice was on my answering machine and for many years I kept her voice.”

Indeed it was this voice, a voice beloved by so many, a voice that gracefully commanded the respect of her contemporaries at a time when inequality was rampant, that led Franklin to become one of the most dynamic African American women in history.

Led by the title Genius, Parks spent months researching every aspect of Franklin’s life, looking for a way to embrace her “genius moments.”

“A genius is someone who shifts the paradigm and who can say, after they have presented their work to the world, that the world is forever shifted,” says Parks. “I know

ARETHA THE ACTIVIST (Clockwise from top) Aretha and husband Ted with Martin Luther King Jr. (Ethan Henry); Anthony Hemingway & Suzan-Lori Parks discuss a scene; Aretha in recording studio; fans await as she exits show.

there are a lot of singers and performers of all kinds of genres who will say that after they heard an Aretha Franklin record, their approach to singing was very different. She really has shaped the way we appreciate and also understand what a singer might do.”

She adds: “Genius is also someone who has their own flame, their own fire, but also lights the fire of others, which is exactly what Aretha did.”

When producers, including Anthony Hemingway, found their Ms. Franklin in Cynthia Erivo, the wheels towards propelling this icon to screen began to move fast.

“Cynthia has such a quiet strength,” says Parks. “She understands this woman and the gravitas, and the humor. She understands how important Aretha is as a cultural figure as well as the humanity of Aretha, which was something really important in our series. We really endeavored to show the humanity of

this icon.”

The series explores Franklin’s personal life starting with her complicated relationship with her preacher father C.L. Franklin to her having a baby at the age of 12. There’s exploration into troubled relationships she endured as well as her consistent fight to make herself heard in a business dominated mainly by white men.

And there is, of course, Aretha’s cultural impact: at the height of her career she made time to promote the Southern Christian Leadership Conference as well as championing the civil rights movement alongside her friend, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. “I want people to see Aretha’s humanity,” says Parks. “I want them to see her tenacity, how resilient she was, how funny she was, her sorrows and her triumphs. I want people to get to know her as much as we can know someone who is the Queen of Soul.” ★ D E A D L I N E .C O M / AWA R D S L I N E

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FAMILY DYNAMICS Preacher C.L. Franklin (Courtney B. Vance) gives a sermon.

THE MAN BEHIND THE LEGEND COURTNEY B. VANCE ON PLAYING THE COMPLEX ROLE OF ARETHA FRANKLIN’S PREACHER FATHER IN GENIUS: ARETHA How much did you know about Aretha’s father C.L. Franklin before coming to this process?

I didn't know anything about him. I did a lot of research about 20 years ago on Martin Luther King Jr. when I was going to play him for a role, and I knew MLK had dalliances in nearly every city he went. When I found out about C.L.’s life and that he was friends with the Reverend, it made me realize that I just simply need to hold the mirror up to him. I left the judgement out because he was a man of his time and he was not alone.

How did you balance his womanizing ways with his role as a loving father?

Father-daughter relationships can be difficult, but you add the fact that Aretha’s mom was ripped out of her life, the mother who taught her how to sing and play piano, and that makes it even harder. C.L. would bring

Aretha downstairs at his house to entertain at all hours of the night, and the fact that he introduced Ted White to his daughter—the dynamics are so complex. At every turn he thought he would be able to keep the situation in check, but Aretha is so much like him, if not stronger.

They’re both epic people with towering egos and emotions but at the end of the day that girl loved her father very much.

Do you think Aretha would have become the icon she was without her father?

No. She would have given up. Her mother was gone and that could have derailed her or C.L. could have shielded her and kept her at home. But he kept her at the church and around the church because somehow he needed her to be a star for himself and to be able to say, ‘that’s my daughter.’ He knew she was the ‘Anointed One’ who had the voice from God and he was her muse. ★

DRESSING AN ICON COSTUME DESIGNER JENNIFER BRYAN TALKS TRANSFORMING CYNTHIA ERIVO INTO A LEGENDARY ICON ACROSS ALL AGES

FASHION FORWARD (From top) Aretha in peach chiffon gown; Jennifer Bryan; creating a dress; an early costume sketch.

J

ennifer Bryan was on set in Albuquerque when she heard that the third season of the Genius anthology series was going to be based on Aretha Franklin.

“A light bulb went off in my head and I remember saying, 'Oh my God, I want to do this,’” recalls the costume designer. “It was very weird because it was almost like I said it and that was it, even though I had no control over whether I was going to be honored with the project or not.” Bryan even began sketching a navy velvet and silk gown, with iridescent feathers around the bust before she got the job (her personal favorite, which she found a home for in the show).

“I had grown up with her music in Jamaica and had followed her style, which was just way beyond anyone else’s, in terms of what entertainers did back then,” says Bryan.

After hitting it off with showrunner Suzan-Lori Parks and director/executive producer Anthony Hemingway, Bryan began mapping out how to transform Cynthia Erivo into the iconic singer, and felt that the best place to start was at the beginning.

Bryan looked to “Little Re,” played by Shaian Jordan and added little flares to her outfits to foreshadow the independence in style Aretha would have as an adult.

When transforming Erivo, Bryan sourced “a treasure trove of 1960s and 1970s foundation”—Maidenform bras, girdles and longline bras from the time. “You have to use that foundation to make the design or source dresses of the period,” says Bryan.

Replicating the green paisley kaftan that Franklin so famously wore at the New Temple Missionary Baptist church performance was the biggest challenge: “I searched every nook and cranny, turned every rock and stone in the fabric world but I couldn’t find anything that even came close.”

In the end, she was able to find a printer to make the fabric, which resulted in the beautiful, swishy number Cynthia wears on the second day of the performance.

Dressing someone as iconic as Franklin comes with a unique set of pressures, says Bryan. “You are charged with a standard that already exists, as opposed to making or creating your own standard.” ★ D E A D L I N E .C O M / AWA R D S L I N E

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“BREATHTAKING” -THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

“EXHILARATING AND ABSOLUTELY VITAL” -ROLLING STONE

“PULSING WITH LIFE” -THE NEW YORK TIMES

“UTTERLY GRIPPING” -INDIEWIRE

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POWERFUL F O R YO U R C O N S I D E R AT I O N

OUTSTANDING DOCUMENTARY OR NONFICTION SERIES OUTSTANDING DIRECTING FOR A DOCUMENTARY/NONFICTION PROGRAM – STEVE JAMES AND ALL OTHER ELIGIBLE CATEGORIES

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CHICAGO STATE OF MIND HOW STEVE JAMES & ZAK PIPER PUT THEIR BELOVED HOMETOWN IN FOCUS AGAINST THE BACKDROP OF VIBRANT POLITICS IN CITY SO REAL

S

teve James has called Chicago his home for more than three decades and its people have long been the subjects of his documentaries. But it’s his latest effort, five-part series City So Real, that puts the third-largest U.S. city in the lead role.

Reuniting with frequent collaborator and producer Zak Piper, the duo set to create a vast portrait of the city they adore, highlighting its diversity and racial inequality.

“It’s such a remarkable place, full of passionate people and a million problems but a lot of virtues,” says James, who had wanted to make a film about Chicago for the last 15 years. “I thought it would be great to do a portrait of the city but at a time when it found itself facing significant moments.”

The moment presented itself in 2018 as embattled Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who was involved in accusations of a cover-up related to the police shooting of African American

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teenager Laquan McDonald, shocked the city by announcing he would not seek re-election.

An unprecedented 21 candidates submitted petitions, all of them diverse candidates who brought vibrancy to the political situation.

“We didn’t want to do a traditional documentary where we confined ourselves to one or two candidates,” recalls James. “What made this such a unique situation was there were so many people who thought they could be mayor of Chicago and they came from so many different walks of life. The candidates were almost like a cross-section of the city and so we wanted to get our arms around the whole political animal process of what it takes to try and become the Mayor of Chicago.”

They focused on several candidates, such as underdog Lori Lightfoot, the first openly lesbian candidate in the election (who went on to win) in addition to talking to Chicago

SECOND CITY (Clockwise from left) Steve James & Zak Piper outside City Hall; aerial view of BLM protests; mayoral candidate Amara Enyia; Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot.

residents, traveling to barbershop debates, filming bar owners fighting gentrification in their area and political dinners. An impromptu scene with a Lyft driver offered one of the series’ more poignant insights into the state of racism in the city.

“We went to great lengths on this project to go back and show folks who have significant scenes in the series the scenes,” says Piper.

“We wanted to get input on whether or not it was an accurate representation of who they are and how they felt when they said what they said.”

It was important that subjects felt they were portrayed fairly and with empathy.

“If they feel this, then the story will be empathetic and understanding,” says James.

In March 2020, when the city went into lockdown due to the global pandemic, James and Piper mulled a postscript with characters, but it quickly became evident

that a fifth episode was needed as the city began to grapple with Covid-19 and unrest after George Floyd’s death.

“This afforded us an opportunity to come in a year later and hear from the people who were unhappy with Lightfoot’s leadership," Piper says, "and try to find that balance, as well as deal with the pandemic and all of the protests.”

James believes Chicago is a microcosm of the obstacles facing all of America—another flawed city facing moments of societal tumult. “But it’s a city of truly passionate and engaged people who are not going to give up,” he says. “I get inspired by their energy and passion.”

Piper agrees. “In the face of all of these huge issues that seemingly don’t have a quick, or even clear solution, there are still people who have so much hope and such a bright view of the future. It’s pretty inspiring.” ★

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MAKING MUSIC A Mariachi band featured in City So Real.

SOUNDS OF THE CITY DAWN SUTTER MADELL & ZAK PIPER EXPLORE THE RICH & DIVERSE HISTORY OF CHICAGO’S ICONIC MUSIC SCENE FOR CITY SO REAL When Steve James had the idea to score City So Real with existing tracks from Chicago artists, music supervisor Dawn Sutter Madell and producer Zak Piper were up for the challenge. Chicago is a diverse, vibrant and multifaceted city, with a music scene to match, so the brief to pay homage to the city’s musical roots was an appealing task to both.

“It was exciting because I’ve been really obsessed with the city’s music for a long time,” says Piper. “Chicago music has been at the forefront of so many different genres, especially 1960s soul, so it was fun for me personally to try and think of some songs we could use.”

Madell, who had worked previously with James on America To Me, was keen to open up Chicago’s musical offerings across the film.

“The idea was to encompass how culturally rich Chicago is not only in the film but in the music too,” she says. “The film shows obviously what’s happening right now but we wanted to bring in this backstory of what happened musically there.”

After being sent a few scenes, Madell sent a first batch through to James and Piper of 150 Chicago-recorded songs, spanning across all genres and time periods. This, along with Piper’s list of personal favorites, formed a solid foundation for them to work from.

“A lot of people think of Chicago as Chance [The Rapper] and we’ve definitely delved into that but it’s also super culturally diverse—there’s Makaya McCraven, there’s jazz, there’s just so much happening there at any given moment,” she says. “We really tried to reflect that.”

Music ranges from a 1965 live recording of Gene Chandler’s “Rainbow” to present-day tunes from Will Miller and his band Resavoir. The latter wrote original compositions for the series which were used during the climatic Election Day footage.

“This is a series where music plays a supporting role,” says Madell. “You might not even pay attention to it the first time you listen to it, but it’s there, and it’s affecting everything. It’s important that we found the right places and right sound to support what was happening, without overpowering, and that subtlety is really an art.” ★

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WHALE SONGS

FRENCH COMPOSER RAPHAELLE THIBAUT DIVES INTO MAKING MUSIC TO COMPLIMENT NATURAL SOUNDS IN SECRETS OF THE WHALES

SINGING SEA Brian Skerry dives with sperm whales in Secrets of the Whales.

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC/STEVE DE NEEF

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hen Raphaelle Thibaut came aboard to score Secrets of the Whales, the natural sounds featured in the series were proof to her that music is not just a man-made construct.

“The show was basically the ultimate original music,” says the French composer. “The sound of the waves, the sound of the singing of the whales, it’s just magnificent.”

After she was born, Thibaut suffered from a series of severe ear issues that led to single-sided deafness. At age four, following a doctor’s recommendation, she started an intense piano practice.

Music became her path to recovery. It wasn’t until 2015, after a detour in the tech world, that she quit her marketing job at Google to pursue her lifelong passion for film scoring. Secrets of the Whales is her first full television score.

Drawing inspiration from Éric Serra’s score from the 1988 film Le Grand Bleu, Thibaut played with her own whale sounds and used cymbal rolls to reflect the sounds of crashing waves, which she incorporated into the music. She uses large strings to support the slow-motion scenes and big movements of the whales, as well as vocals during the show’s many spiritual moments.

The challenge, says Thibaut, was keeping the balance right between the large amount of epic music that was needed, while leaving room for Sigourney Weaver’s narration and the sound effects.

“The nature of the sounds in the series and the whale singing meant I had to find a way to have the music be grand and majestic to illustrate the animals but not to overpower them,” she says. For example, in scenes where whales use clicking noises to communicate, Thibaut was restricted from using any highpitched instruments that would create conflict with the sound design.

Thibault had only recently become a new mother when she began composing music for this series, so the frequent subject of motherhood in the program, and particularly the focus on a mother orca mourning her child, really touched her.

“It moved me to the core,” says Thibault. “I think this really helped me relate to the animals more and convey emotions through my music.” ★ D E A D L I N E .C O M / AWA R D S L I N E

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“IT TAKES JUST A SINGLE GLANCE AT THE OPENING SEQUENCE ... TO FEEL YOU’VE BEEN TRANSPORTED TO

PARADISE” -THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

ALL THINGS

MAJESTIC F O R YO U R C O N S I D E R AT I O N

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OUTSTANDING DOCUMENTARY OR NONFICTION SERIES OUTSTANDING NARRATOR – SIGOURNEY WEAVER AND ALL OTHER ELIGIBLE CATEGORIES

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WHALE CULTURE IN AMBITIOUS DOCUMENTARY SERIES SECRETS OF THE WHALES, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC EXPLORER BRIAN SKERRY DISCOVERS WHALES ARE MORE COMPLEX THAN EVER IMAGINED

N

ational Geographic Explorer and marine wildlife photographer Brian Skerry knows a thing or two about the wonderment that lies beneath the ocean’s surface. He’s been a contributor to National Geographic Magazine since 1998 and his work has had significant influence on how the world understands underwater ecosystems.

But it wasn’t until 2015, after doing a cover story for the magazine about dolphin intelligence cognition, that the genesis of what was to become Secrets of the Whales, an epic four-part Disney+ original series on whale culture, began to take shape.

“We knew then that dolphins are very smart and, according to biologists, they’re smart because they do certain things; for example, develop unique feeding strategies, depending on where in the world they live, much like humans,” says Skerry. Looking at it from that perspective, he spent the next

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two years researching and developing this concept in relation to whales.

“I began to think about this notion of culture,” he recalls. “I was reading a lot of scientific papers and talking to researchers and this idea of ‘whale culture’ began to emerge. It was sort of the latest stuff in science that saw that within genetically identical species—whether it’s sperm whales, or humpbacks or belugas or orcas—they are doing things differently depending on where in the world they are.”

Skerry and his crew spent three years in the field across 24 locations for the ambitious project from National Geographic and soon acclaimed director, conservationist and National Geographic Explorer at Large James Cameron boarded as an executive producer.

What resulted is stunning footage, narrated

by Sigourney Weaver, that proves whales are far more complex than ever imagined.

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC/BRIAN SKERRY

SOCIAL ANIMALS (From left) A family of sperm whales swim together; an orca whale feeding on a stingray off the coast of New Zealand.

Viewers are taken on an emotional journey where they see orcas mourn the loss of a calf, humpbacks using song to communicate, belugas adopting a narwhal into their pod and never-before-seen footage of a sperm whale calf feeding.

Filming underwater has a unique set of a challenges. “You can’t use a 600mm lens, like you do on land,” says Skerry. “We have to get very close to our subjects even in the clearest of waters, usually within two to three meters. The sun has to be out, the whales have to be there, the weather has to be good—all of those things have to wind up in the Venn diagram of whale photography.”

The latest video technologies had to be deployed to get the shots. Red Digital cameras that could shoot in low light with dynamic range were used in addition to remote cameras and drone cameras, the latter of which helped capture sweeping

aerial views, such as humpback whales bubble-net feeding in Alaska.

“The exposure level in some of these situations can be tricky three or four meters below the surface where it’s darker than the exposure at the top above them,” says Skerry. “Having these cameras with dynamic range, where you might have 30 stops of dynamic range in post, was great as we could make it all blend nicely.”

Additionally, gyrostabilizing systems were erected on the boats with 1000mm lens cameras to enable intimate portraits of whales breaching.

“We tend to see ourselves apart from nature where we are examining creatures from a viewpoint,” says Skerry. “But with Secrets of the Whales, it was really about the science that is showing that these animals are far more like us than we ever could have imagined.”★ D E A D L I N E .C O M / AWA R D S L I N E

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RISING FROM THE ASHES Why did you want to make this film?

I’ve only discovered documentary filmmaking in the last six or seven years and was interested in being more ambitious in terms of the kinds of projects I get involved in. We have a documentary division at Imagine Entertainment and after Pavarotti came out, I wanted to find a different kind of story to tell. We talked about various subjects and as we were having these conversations within the company the Carr Fire broke out in Redding. I had relatives who lived there and had to evacuate. Fortunately they were ok, but Redding was hit very hard and I was acutely aware of that. Suddenly Paradise was devastated overnight and it was shocking to see it hit in an even more catastrophic way. I had been to Paradise many times because my mother-in-law had lived there. To see that these determined, self-reliant people were devastated in this way was personally kind of heartbreaking for me and just piqued my curiosity.

Did you have a sense of the narrative at the beginning or did you just go in and follow the story?

The question in my mind was, what is going

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to happen with Paradise? 90-95% of the town was gone and we wondered if there was a story in whether or not this would be about rebuilding Paradise. That became a working title but with a question mark. We began interviewing people, going to the Red Cross center and various camps, shooting the devastation when we were allowed to go in and began collecting interviews to see where it led us. We let people know we were coming to stay and that we were trying to understand what it had been like to live through the event and the aftermath. It was all very fresh and people wanted to talk, I think it was cathartic for them.

The opening footage you use of people filming themselves trying to escape the fire is very powerful. How did you compile that sequence?

In our first trip there, people wanted to show us the footage on their cell phones and the police and fire department wanted to share bodycam footage to help us understand.

I immediately realized that this was going to be an important tool for us. It became a sequence that’s much more intense or harrowing than anything I’ve ever been

ACCLAIMED DIRECTOR RON HOWARD CREATES AN INTIMATE PORTRAIT OF A CALIFORNIAN TOWN DEVASTATED BY THE 2018 CAMP FIRE IN REBUILDING PARADISE

involved in and as soon as we looked at that assembly, we recognized that that was how we should open our film.

You finish the film with poignant footage of various natural disasters around the world. Do you feel like you have a sense of responsibility to tell these stories about climate change?

I wanted to make this story both very personal and intimate but as broadly relatable as possible. Very late in our shoot we saw these Paradise high school kids raising money for relief for a hurricane that hit Alabama. That had occurred to them because they said, “Now we understand it.” While they were still in the wake of the early stages of recovery themselves, they recognized they wanted to give because they understand it better.

So that ultimately led us to driving that point home at the end—that feeling that so much more of this is happening around the world, and what would it be like if it hits close to home and your family? ★

AFTER THE FIRE (Above, left to right) Men clearing out rubble; director Ron Howard.

(Below, clockwise from top left) Paradise Schools Superintendent Michelle John; Paradise resident rehomed in trailer; Paradise devastation.

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“A STIRRING P ORTRAIT...

HARROWING & HEARTRENDING” -LOS ANGELES TIMES

“THIS PARTICULAR MOVIE HAS A SPECIAL TIMELINESS .. . ‘REBUILDING PARADISE’ RESONATES WITH THE MOMENT” -THE NEW YORK TIMES

“INSPIRING” -VARIETY

“POWERFUL” -INDIEWIRE

“MOVING”

-CHICAGO TRIBUNE

ALL THINGS

INSPIRATIONAL F O R YO U R C O N S I D E R AT I O N

OUTSTANDING DOCUMENTARY OR NONFICTION SPECIAL OUTSTANDING DIRECTING FOR A DOCUMENTARY/NONFICTION PROGR A M RON HOWARD AND ALL OTHER ELIGIBLE CATEGORIES

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EMPOWERING F O R YO U R C O N S I D E R AT I O N

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC PRESENTS:

OUTSTANDING SHORT FOR M NONFICTION OR REALIT Y SERIE S AND ALL OTHER ELIGIBLE CATEGORIES

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WONDER WOMEN

GAL GADOT & VANESSA ROTH SHINE THE SPOTLIGHT ON WOMEN MAKING A DIFFERENCE TO THEIR LOCAL COMMUNITIES IN IMPACT

What can you tell us about the inspiration behind this series?

Vanessa Roth: Ryan Pallota, who is an executive producer on the series, had an idea to make a short film on Tuany, a young ballerina in Rio de Janeiro who had set up a dance company in one of the city’s most dangerous areas. We saw this as an opportunity to expand the idea about these aspects of people who are inspired by their own love and devotion and passion for something that is important to them and that connects them to the community. We began to look at stories of women all around the world whose stories go unheard of in the larger world, but that are so impactful to local communities.

Gal Gadot: I wanted to take the reach that I have to fans and do something good with it.

I wanted to share inspiring stories made by

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amazing women that would maybe ignite the will in other people to continue this. When we first saw Ryan’s short film, I was in awe of these women in difficult areas with different backgrounds that still had the ability and the power to change.

What was the research process like?

Roth: We wanted to make sure that the women we were following were making an extraordinary impact on their communities in a way that wasn’t unrelatable to people.

The word “impact” has been important to us because we were looking for women who were impacted by socioeconomic, cultural, environmental or life challenges but in return were positively impacting those around them. We really have the opportunity as documentary storytellers to make connections and to humanize people and amplify their stories with dignity.

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC/SEBASTIAN GIL MIRANDA

FEMALE LEADERSHIP (Clockwise from left) Tuany Nascimento and students practice ballet in Rio de Janeiro; Gal Gadot; Chief Shirell; Kelsey Ellis leading surf therapy.

Gadot: Three years ago we found all of these amazing stories around the world and then when the pandemic hit, we had to shift our focus domestically. The volume of different and inspiring stories really put everything into perspective. Despite living in areas that are filled with violence and trauma and discrimination and poverty, oppression— whatever it might be—these amazing women dare to dream and they speak up and lead.

Why is now the perfect time for audiences to be watching a show like IMPACT? Roth: These women have become beacons of hope to their communities at a time when we can all really use that kind of hope and connectedness. Even though the lines of division are really clear around the world right now, we wanted to find stories that connected us so that we can all understand

each other a little bit better. The stories take us to places that we might not think of and we wanted to make sure that we presented these locations with dignity and beauty. I hope viewers are inspired by these women and, like Kelsey says in the "Half Moon Bay" episode, realize that “we’re all in this together.”

Gadot: I would love for people to be inspired by these stories and feel that they can impact other people with small actions that bring huge change. It was important to us that we brought awareness to some of the issues—whether it’s Chief Shirell and the impact climate change has had on her tribe or Kayla and her struggle for acceptance in society as a transgender woman. I hope the lives of these women will make people more compassionate. To me, they are the real heroes—they’re my Wonder Women. ★ D E A D L I N E .C O M / AWA R D S L I N E

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AFTER EIGHT YEARS, THE CAST & CREW OF LIFE BELOW ZERO CONTINUE TO RISE TO THE CHALLENGES OF SHOOTING IN THE ALASKAN WILDERNESS

THE LAST FRONTIER I

t’s been eight years since showrunner and executive producer Joseph Litzinger set foot on the unforgiving Alaskan terrain to document the extreme lifestyles of residents living off of the land and off the grid. Life Below Zero is still going strong, with five Primetime Emmy Awards, 160 episodes, a huge fanbase and a spinoff series—Life Below Zero: Next Generation—in its bag.

Litzinger says the key to this longevity is the combination of a dedicated crew and cast who not only continue to push the envelope, but who have forged a collaborative bond that keeps getting stronger.

“After eight years we all know what makes a good story and what makes good television and it’s this collaboration that has really kept us going,” says Litzinger.

In one of the more poignant moments in the latest season, regular cast member Ricko DeWilde endures a heartbreaking moment where he burns down an old cabin that his late brother passed away in, raw moments that aren’t always easy to capture.

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“We’re lucky we have the ability where people in the cast trust us and that they are open and vulnerable and willing to share intimate parts of their lives in order to tell their story,” says Litzinger. “Viewers really see the human condition in a way that transcends traditional reality TV.” And it isn’t just time that fuses these relationships, it’s also the shared experience of battling life on Alaska’s rugged landscape.

“It takes a special breed of person to go out and live this lifestyle,” he says. “And then it takes another kind of person to go out and to be able to film someone living this lifestyle.”

Crew members range from wilderness survival experts to Mount Everest climbers to urbanites who have to be some of the toughest in the industry.

“Our crew sometimes literally have to strap batteries to their bodies to keep warm,” says Litzinger. “And sometimes the LCD screens freeze because it’s too cold. This job really takes someone who can go with the flow as well as have a disciplined mind.” ★

GLOBAL ENDURANCE THE AMAZING RACE PRODUCING PARTNERS BERTRAM VAN MUNSTER AND ELISE DOGANIERI TAKE GLOBAL REALITY ADVENTURE TO THE NEXT LEVEL

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roducing partners Bertram van Munster and Elise Doganieri are no strangers to intrepid global adventures, having been the masterminds behind beloved American reality adventure The Amazing Race for 20 years.

So when National Geographic approached the multi-Emmy-winning duo to produce and develop its firstever global competition series Race to the Center of the Earth, with four teams racing from four remote corners of the planet to one final destination for a chance to win $1M, they were up for the challenge.

“It just made sense that we would do something like this,” says Doganieri. “We certainly know the globe like the back of our hands.”

The two assembled their very best crew from cameramen, casting pros, adventure race experts and topnotch safety teams to meticulously plot the adrenaline-packed journeys. Four groups of three people—nonprofessional adventure-seekers—would each start their race from different points: South America, Russia, Canada and Southeast Asia.

“Initially, we laid out a different race,” recalls Van Munster. “But it became too urban—you run into urbanity pretty quickly on the globe. So we decided to go down the more primitive routes.” This, he says, takes viewers on a “spectacularly beautiful” journey through wildly different environments in each episode.

He adds that months of research and recces—“my team did all the routes three times to make sure everything was kosher and workable”—could not prepare for every eventuality. Amidst the jungle treks, the snowstorms and unforgiving ranges, there are injuries, car troubles, and even times of civil unrest that throw unexpected wrenches in the journeys.

But through it all, teams pull together.

“They all came to the table with some things in their past that maybe they were working through or something they were afraid of that they wanted to push through,” recalls Doganieri. “We threw them all into some really big challenges and they stepped up to it. Some struggled more than others, but they wanted a life experience that they could talk about for years to come.” ★

AROUND THE WORLD Contestants trek through the Siberian outback; (inset) producing team Elise Doganieri & Bertram van Munster.

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-40 DEGREE DAYS 55 STRAIGHT DAYS IN THE FIELD 7,200 LBS OF PRODUCTION AND SURVIVAL GEAR 100 LB BACKPACKS 5 EMMY® AWARDS

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FROM THE CREATORS OF T HE A MA Z I NG R ACE COMES A NEW GLOBAL ADVENTURE 14,000 MILES. 100 CAMERAS. 90 LOCATIONS. 4 TEAMS. 1 PRIZE.

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RACE TO SPACE VFX SUPERVISOR MARK STETSON TALKS THE CHALLENGE OF BRINGING REALISM & HISTORICAL ACCURACY TO FIRST U.S.-MANNED SPACEFLIGHT What was the brief from creatives on The Right Stuff about what they wanted to achieve with the VFX, specifically on the last episode?

I started in post-production, with a brief to keep the project on course for the filmmakers’ expectations. Not surprisingly, the main goal for everyone involved was to make the events look as real as the original footage of the Mercury-Redstone launch, and also, I found, as real as events filmed much later, when cameras were able to provide objective views of spacecraft filmed in space. That sense of realism can be highly subjective, so my approach was to draw from the reference material that the filmmakers found most evocative.

How much research did you have to do and what resources were you able to tap into?

I grew up in the 1960s immersed in the

space program. I read about Chuck Yeager breaking the sound barrier in third grade. My Dad worked on radiotelescope installations around the world which were used to track the spaceflights. Then I worked as the model shop supervisor on Philip Kaufman’s 1983 film, The Right Stuff—a project that I loved—and all that I learned from that experience still remains fresh in my mind. VFX Supervisor Matthew Bramante had put together a huge store of research, and thousands of photos of the locations, the rockets and technology of the era, which he shot during production at Cape Canaveral. Also, NASA spaceflight consultant Robert Yowell was very generous with his historical expertise and his access to archives.

What challenges did you face in bringing the series to life?

For Episode 8, VFX Supervisor Dan Charbit and his team at DNEG were well along in developing the sequence of shots for Alan Shepard’s first U.S.-manned spaceflight.

On first review, I suggested that the flight path be altered from the initial VFX shot development toward a more historically accurate flight trajectory. This was a challenge because Dan’s team were well along in creating backgrounds for the Mercury capsule in space. But once all the parties understood the problem, the teams’ commitment to historical accuracy outweighed everything else. ★

MISSION TO SPACE Alan Shepard (Jake McDorman) prepares for first U.S.-manned journey to space.

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