Our Annual Filmmakers’ Choice Award honors an outstanding documentarian nominated by previous filmmakers. For 2017 we celebrate Helen Whitney.

DIRECTOR: Helen Whitney
PRODUCERS: Helen Whitney, Katie Taber
EDITOR: Kris Liem
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Paul G. Sanderson III

We don’t know how. We don’t know when. But death comes for us all. To be human is to wrestle with this truth and ultimately, to confront this reality. Into The Night features fascinating, unexpected voices from old and young, believers and unbelievers, dying and healthy, well-known and obscure. And for each person we meet, for many different reasons, death is no longer an abstraction. An intimate and life affirming view of death.

Helen Whitney has worked as a producer, director and writer for documentaries and feature films since 1976. Her films have covered a wide variety of subjects, among them: youth gangs, presidential candidates, the mentally ill, Pope John Paul II, the class structure of Great Britain, Mormons, homosexuality, and the photographer Richard Avedon. Whitney maintains a passionate personal interest in the religious journey. Her 90-minute ABC News Closeup documentary, The Monastery, about the Cistercians in Spencer, Mass., left her searching for other projects about spiritual life. Whitney’s films have received many honors, including an Emmy Award, a Peabody Award, an Oscar nomination, the Humanitas Award and the prestigious duPont-Columbia University Award.