Three Columbia Documentaries Nominated at 2021 PGA Awards

By
Felix Van Kann
February 09, 2021
Still from Dick Johnson is Dead
Still from Time
Still from The Truffle Hunters

Three projects by Columbia filmmakers have been nominated for a Documentary Motion Picture Prize at this year’s PGA AwardsDick Jonson is Dead, co-produced by Associate Professor and Chair of the Creative Producing Concentration Maureen A. Ryan and Adjunct Assistant Professor Marilyn NessTime, produced by former staff member Lauren Domino; and The Truffle Hunters, co-directed by alumnus Gregory Kershaw '11, make up three of only seven projects nominated in the category. 

All three documentaries have celebrated great receptions over the last year with both Time and Dick Johnson is Dead recently also receiving nominations for an Independent Spirit Award in the Best Documentary selection. The Truffle Hunters was nominated for a Grand Jury Prize at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival and went on to be featured in the official selection of the Cannes Film Festival 2020. 

Dick Johnson is Dead is about staging clever ways for her 86-year-old psychiatrist father to die, as he falls ill with dementia, while hoping that the magic of cinema might help her turn back time, laugh at pain and keep her father alive forever. The darkly sardonic and whimsically imaginative story is a clandestine love letter from a daughter to a father, which toggles between fact and fiction to create a festive exploration of how film gives us the artistic tools to cope with life’s obstacles. 

In addition to Ryan and Ness, many Columbia filmmakers were involved in the project including Michael Toscano ’12, Assistant Director; John Wakayama Carey ’14, Director of Photography; Adjunct Assistant Professor Sarah Seulki Oh, Production Manager; Joshua Ryan Troxler ’18, Production Coordinator; Mahak Jiwani ’18, Production Coordinator; Kristy Richman ’19, Production Coordinator/Extras Casting; Markus Kirschner ’09, Production; Federica Gianni ’17, Media Manager; Ewing Luo 18, Production; Frank Liu ’19, Production Assistant; student Alex Yarber, Production Assistant; Jaclyn Noel 19, Production Assistant; and Christina Wood ’19, Production Assistant.

Time follows Fox Rich. The entrepreneur, abolitionist and mother of six boys has spent the last two decades campaigning for the release of her husband, Rob G. Rich, who is serving a 60-year sentence for a robbery they both committed in the early 90s in a moment of desperation. 

The Truffle Hunters, co-directed by Gregory Kershaw, is set deep in the forests of Northern Italy where the prized white Alba truffle resides. Desired by the wealthiest patrons in the world, it remains a pungent but rarified mystery. The only souls on Earth who know how to dig it up are a tiny circle of canines and their silver-haired human companions—Italian elders with walking sticks and devilish senses of humor—who only scour for the truffle at night so as not to leave any clues for others. 


The winner will be announced during the 32nd annual Producers Guild of America Awards Show, this year taking place virtually and by invitation only on March 24, 2021.