Production Also Honored By Aegis & Videographer Awards

October 8, 2001 - The Zinzendorf documentary series has received the national Aurora Award in the category of Biographical Documentary. The Aurora Awards, based in Salt Lake City, Utah, is a national peer-judged awards program for video and television productions that have not been broadcast by one of the “Big Four” networks. Only about 250 gold Aurora Awards are granted in 150 categories each year.

Previous Aurora Award recipients include A&E Television Network, Children’s Television Workshop, Discovery Channel, ESPN, The History Channel, The Learning Channel, Lifetime Television, Lutheran Hour Ministries, Pacific Media Ministries, PBS, Smithsonian Institution, TNT, Touchstone Pictures, The Travel Channel, Turner Broadcasting, Walt Disney Pictures, and Warner Bros.

Zinzendorf also received the 2001 Aegis Award in the biography/documentary category. The Aegis Awards, based in Rhode Island, are held twice each year to honor exceptional work in film and video production. Judges grade the various elements of the production (such as shooting, editing, use of music, etc.) and then a composite score is calculated based on an average of all the judges' opinions. Judges are professional film and video producers that have previously won the Aegis or other national industry awards.

Only 170 Aegis trophies were awarded this year from the thousands of entries nationwide.

In June, the series was recognized with the Award of Excellence from the Videographer Awards.

“We’re very excited about these awards,” said the Rev. John Jackman, executive director of the Foundation. “It’s very gratifying to receive this sort of national attention for our work.” The documentary series was shot in Germany, Canada, Surinam, St Thomas, South Africa, Bethlehem, PA, and Winston-Salem, NC. The entire production took over two years to accomplish, and includes over one hundred paintings and original documents related to the life of the controversial Count and the 18th century Moravians.

Zinzendorf is distributed on video in the US and Canada by Vision Video in Worcester, PA. The program has also been released on video in Germany and Australia, with several other markets pending. The program is scheduled for initial broadcast in November on PBS affiliate WTJX-TV on St. Thomas, and will also be broadcast on The Total Living Network (date TBA). Other broadcast arrangements in the US and abroad are in negotiation.