Fannie Lou Hamer’s America Wins NAMIC Vision Award for Best Documentary
JUNE 16, 2023 – On May 23, The National Association for Multi-ethnicity in Communications (NAMIC) named Fannie Lou Hamer’s America as the Best Documentary for their 2023 Vision Awards.
NAMIC, a non-profit organization, advocates for equity and inclusion in the media and entertainment industry. For nearly three decades, NAMIC’s annual Vision Awards have brought recognition and honor to distinguished programming that reflects the diversity of the global viewing audience. Organizers said submissions for the 2023 NAMIC Vision Awards were meticulously reviewed by an esteemed panel of judges comprised of media and entertainment industry executives.
Fannie Lou Hamer’s America was one of four nominees in the Best Documentary Category.
"What an incredible honor to be recognized by NAMIC,” said the film’s executive producer Selena Lauterer. “When an esteemed organization like NAMIC awards the documentary or a school kid watches the film or someone who needs a light to lead their journey discovers the show, that act gives Mrs Hamer the credit she so richly deserves. Thank you for this beautiful award and thank you for making Fannie Lou Hamer’s life a part of yours."
Other 2023 category award winners include: Lifestyle - Delicious Miss Brown on the Food Network; Sports – After Jackie on The History Channel and Comedy – The Neighborhood on CBS.
Fannie Lou Hamer’s America, a film about the Mississippi-sharecropper-turned-civil rights activist, aired nationally on PBS and WORLD Channel in February 2022. The film is told entirely in Hamer’s voice – both spoken and sung through rare archival footage.
Known for her powerful speeches and impassioned pleas for equal rights, Hamer helped thousands to register to vote in Mississippi and was a humanitarian, providing clothing, shelter, and food to the impoverished residents of the Mississippi Delta.
On June 9, 1963, Hamer and several others were arrested in Winona, MS after returning from a voter registration workshop in North Carolina. Hamer and a few others were savagely beaten and remained in jail until June 12, the day another civil rights activist, Medgar Evers, was assassinated in front of his home.
From that point on, Hamer used every opportunity to talk about her experience at the hands of law enforcement agents in Winona, including at the Democratic National Convention in August 1964. After her powerful testimony, Hamer became one of the most sought-after speakers of her time, which is reflected in the film through her numerous television interviews.
Fannie Lou Hamer died at the age of 59 on March 14, 1977, from breast cancer and the after-effects of that vicious jailhouse beating.
Fannie Lou Hamer’s America was directed by Joy Elaine Davenport and produced by Hamer’s niece, Monica Land. The lead researchers were Fannie Lou Hamer historians and authors Drs. Maegan Parker Brooks and Davis W. Houck. The film was edited by Davenport, Chris Hastings of America ReFramed and Cecilia Préstamo. Hastings, Land and Lauterer were executive producers.
Fannie Lou Hamer’s America is streaming on PBS, iTunes, Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, and Chromecast.