A documentary by JAZZ.FM91 has won gold at this year’s New York Festivals Radio Awards.
The Journey to Jazz and Human Rights, produced with funding from Maytree, has won the top prize in the category recognizing excellence among human rights-focused documentaries.
Hosted by Alana Bridgewater, The Journey to Jazz and Human Rights is a documentary look at how the music, and the men and women who made the music, laid claim to human rights around the world.
“It’s certainly great to see the doc recognized in great company in the category of human rights,” said Tom Jokinen, who researched, wrote, edited and produced the four-part documentary. “The African-American pioneers of jazz, from Duke Ellington to Sonny Rollins to Mary Lou Williams, knew they were risking careers and even their lives challenging Jim Crow laws and a racist America, but they also knew their that they had to speak out against injustice the best way they knew how: through music.”
The series was also accompanied by a supplementary research component, providing an online portal for further reading about the subjects of the documentary.
Funding for the series was provided by Maytree, which is committed to advancing systemic solutions to poverty and strengthening civic communities by taking a human rights approach.