Westchester Producer Honored For Coronavirus Documentary

NEW ROCHELLE, NY — A New Rochelle-based producer who brought attention to the difficulty of reporting the news during a pandemic is earning recognition of his own, winning a Telly award for his documentary “Essential Journalists: How Coronavirus Changed TV News.”

Marcus Harun’s documentary was honored in the Online News category in the 42nd Annual Telly Awards. He took home the bronze prize in the General-News/News Feature category. The independent film takes a behind-the-scenes look at 34 news reporters from around the country, exploring the challenges they had to overcome to deliver the news during a worldwide pandemic.

“This is a year for the history books,” Harun said receiving the honor. “Journalists have been working harder than ever to provide lifesaving news, while risking their life to go to work. I’m thankful that this effort has been recognized and I’m glad even more audiences will get to see this important story.”

The visually stunning documentary shows mask-clad reporters “armed with 6-foot microphone poles” filming interviews through windows to tell the stories of their communities - all while worrying what illness they may bring back to their families.

Harun remotely interviewed dozens of journalists about how the coronavirus impacted their jobs and the new frightening reality of heading toward danger to report vital information to the public. Harun noted that many of the country’s most-watched news programs were, at the time, being broadcast out of the anchor’s basements as the industry struggled to adopt work-from-home plans for the first time.

“It’s mind-blowing to me that this film I created remotely, by myself in my New York apartment, during quarantine was honored in the same category as the hilarious Stephen Colbert, and well-known, national news organizations,” Harun said. “I’m grateful to the Telly Awards, my family, and the reporters who took time to talk to me for the documentary.”

Other bronze prize winners selected along with Harun’s documentary in the same category included works from Stephen Colbert, PBS NewsHour, Comcast, and CBS News.

“In the face of a year like no other, the visual storytelling community has continued to defy the limitations of our new world,” Telly Awards Executive Director Sabrina Dridje said at the awards ceremony recognizing Harun’s film. “This year’s submissions doubled down on what we already know about the industry. Creativity cannot be stopped. Collaboration will always prevail. New ideas and stories will always find a way to break through to an audience.”

The film debuted to the public on EssentialJournalists.com in Oct. 2020. Quintus Studios subsequently licensed the 18-minute film from Harun. It is now available for streaming on the Quintus Studios “Free Documentary” YouTube channel.

The trailer for Essential is available here. The 18-minute film can be seen in its entirety here.