'PRESUMED GUILTY' and 'THE LONGORIA AFFAIR' Nominated for Emmy Awards!

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'THE LONGORIA AFFAIR' AND 'PRESUMED GUILTY' NOMINATED FOR EMMY AWARDS

Nominations for the 32nd Annual News and Documentary Emmy® Awards were announced on July 14, 2011 by the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS), including PRESUMED GUILTY, directed by Roberto Hernández and Geoffrey Smith, and award-winning filmmaker John J. Valadez's THE LONGORIA AFFAIR. The News & Documentary Emmy® Awards will be presented on Monday, September 26 at a ceremony at Frederick P. Rose Hall, Home of Jazz at Lincoln Center, located in the Time Warner Center in New York City. The event will be attended by more than 1,000 television and news media industry executives, news and documentary producers and journalists. Emmy® Awards will be presented in 42 categories, including Breaking News, Investigative Reporting, Outstanding Interview, and Best Documentary, among others.

 

PRESUMED GUILTY, nominated for Best Documentary, Outstanding Investigative Journalism (Long Form), and Outstanding Research, tells the haunting story of Toño Zúñiga who was picked up off the street, accused of a murder he knew nothing about and then found himself wrongfully imprisoned and sentenced to 20 years. The award-winning PRESUMED GUILTY is the story of two young lawyers and their struggle to free Zúñiga. With no background in film, Roberto Hernández and Layda Negrete set about recording the injustices they were witnessing, enlisting acclaimed director Geoffrey Smith to tell this dramatic story. PRESUMED GUILTY is co-presentation with P.O.V and Latino Public Broadcasting (LPB). 

 

THE LONGORIA AFFAIR, nominated for Outstanding Historical

Programming – (Long Form),  tells the story of Private Felix Longoria who was killed in battle fighting the Japanese during World War II. But when his body was sent home to Three Rivers, Texas, the town’s only funeral parlor refused to allow his family to use their chapel because “the whites wouldn’t like it.” The incident sparked national outrage and brought together two savvy political leaders, Senator Lyndon Johnson and Dr. Hector Garcia. Their complex, sometimes contentious relationship would help Latinos become a national political force for the first time in American history. The Longoria Affair would also propel John Kennedy to the White House, and lead President Johnson to sign the most important civil rights legislation of the twentieth century.

 

THE LONGORIA AFFAIR is a co-production of John J. Valadez, WGBH/Boston, and the Independent Television Service (ITVS) in association with Latino Public Broadcasting (LPB), with funding provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, PBS, and the Houston Endowment.