An Oscar for Journalism
I’m writing this message as I travel home from Los Angeles in the wake of 20 Days in Mariupol’s Oscar win — the first-ever for both FRONTLINE and our partner on the documentary, The Associated Press.
20 Days is a chronicle of journalists risking their lives to document the atrocities and share the reality of the Ukraine war with the world.
It is my hope that this high-profile recognition of 20 Days marks a new era of appreciation and support for the type of vetted, fact-based journalism that is on display in the film — and that will be more crucial than ever as this election year unfolds and conflicts rage in Ukraine, Gaza and around the world.
I want to illustrate that point with an example from within 20 Days itself.
The film’s Academy Award win came nearly two years to the day after director Mstyslav Chernov and his AP colleagues, Evgeniy Maloletka and Vasilisa Stepanenko, documented what has become a defining episode of Russia’s war on Ukraine: the March 9, 2022, bombing of a Mariupol maternity hospital.
The video and images they captured and sent out to their editors — panicked and distraught mothers and children; a grievously wounded pregnant woman on a stretcher — would stun the world. As we see in the documentary, though, the team’s reporting also sparked a wave of false claims from Russian officials and news outlets: that the attack was actually “a fully staged provocation,” featuring crisis actors; that the hospital had previously been seized by Ukrainian “radicals.” “All the pregnant women, all the nurses, all the service personnel were already expelled from there,” Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov said at the time.
What Mstyslav and the team captured that day showed otherwise, but the journalists didn’t stop there. We see the AP reporters race to confirm and report further details — including what happened to the pregnant woman on the stretcher. Following a dogged, boots-on-the-ground process, Mstyslav tracks down a doctor who tried to save her and learns that the woman, Iryna, died.
“We did everything we could. But we were unable to save her,” the doctor tells him. “The woman died. The baby also died in the womb.”
Mstyslav and his colleagues also tracked down other survivors, including one woman who lost part of her foot in the bombing, and had just given birth when they found her. This reporting shows the remarkable value of journalists being in the field, in communication with skilled editors, able to methodically verify facts and counter mis- and disinformation.
Journalism like this married with powerful narrative storytelling brings us closer to ensuring, as Mstyslav said while accepting the Best Documentary Feature Oscar, that “we can make sure that the history record is set straight, that the truth will prevail.”
Rigorous journalism like this — whether in conflict zones abroad or reporting stories here at home — requires deep resources. I hope that 20 Days’ Oscar win helps bolster our industry’s commitment to sustaining this kind of journalism at local, national and global levels.
The need is so great right now, and in the meantime, our work goes on — including tonight, with an updated version of Boeing’s Fatal Flaw, our documentary with The New York Times probing the design, oversight and production of Boeing’s troubled 737 Max jet. Next month, our coverage of the Ukraine war will continue with a documentary examining how thousands of Ukrainian children were taken and held in Russia. And in the months to come, we will continue to bring you stories that hold power to account and try to make sense of these turbulent and complex times.
I am inspired by Mstyslav, Evgeniy and Vasilisa’s courageous on-the-ground reporting. I am so grateful to the Academy and all who have supported this film, and to have produced 20 Days with director and producer Mstyslav, producer and editor Michelle Mizner, and producer Derl McCrudden of AP. I want to thank all those who have been behind the documentary every step of the way — including Mstyslav, Derl, Julie Pace and everyone at AP, who have been such terrific partners. And I want to share special appreciation to all my remarkable colleagues at FRONTLINE and PBS, GBH, CPB, PBS Distribution and all the stations across the PBS system that support our work at FRONTLINE year in and year out.
I am so grateful to you, our viewers, for your belief in our journalism.
We share this Academy Award with you.
