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Program Library of Congress Lavine/Ken Burns Prize for Film

Prize Winners

2024 PRIZE FINALISTS

  • Max Fleischer and Betty Boop, courtesy of Jeni Mahoney Sahl

    "Cartooning America" - WINNER

    Directed by Asaf Galay

    The Fleischer brothers were a family of New York Jewish immigrants whose inventions helped create America's animation industry. Their cartoons were hilarious and strange, reflecting the world they lived in. It's a rags to riches to rags again story, of a family whose influence on animators working today was profound.

    LOC Collection Connections:
  • Children’s Theater of John Donahue by D A Pennebaker, Courtesy of Pennebaker Hegedus Films, Inc.

    "Magic & Monsters" - RUNNER UP

    Directed by Norah Shapiro

    Founded in 1965, the Minnesota Children's Theatre Company gained worldwide acclaim. However, in the 1980s, its founder was convicted of child sexual abuse, revealing a dark history within the theater. Now, a group of former child actors seeks justice and healing, offering a blueprint for reckoning with institutional trauma post-#MeToo.

    LOC Collection Connections:
  • Former ‘Area 2’ Police Station on the South Side of Chicago

    "Area 2" - FINALIST

    Directed by James Sorrels

    City leaders tacitly permitted Chicago Police Commander Jon Burge and his “Midnight Crew” of detectives to torture dozens of Black detainees in his notorious “Area 2” police station between 1972 and 1991. "Area 2" chronicles the epic fight for justice through the journeys of three Midnight Crew torture survivors.

    LOC Collection Connections:
    • The NAACP records, held at the Library of Congress, include files pertaining to police brutality and the city of Chicago during the period covered by this film. View the finding aid and research guide for these records.
    • The Library maintains several digital archives of Websites so that they will be available for researchers today and in the future. Check out this collection of sites documenting protests and activism against racism:  Protests Against Racism Web Archive | Digital Collection
  • Lance Cpl. Aaron Cole Austin, died Monday, April 26, 2004, in Fallujah, Iraq. Courtesy of De'on Miller

    "Behind the Lines" - FINALIST

    Directed by John Benitz

    Based on The New York Times bestselling books, "Behind the Lines" is a documentary about a passionate historian who travels around the world to find and preserve letters written during times of war. The film becomes an examination of war itself as told by those who witnessed it firsthand.

    LOC Collection Connections:
  • Lyricist and singer-songwriter Dorothy Previn, photo by Bruce McBroom

    "Dory Previn: On My Way To Where" - FINALIST

    Directed by Julia Greenberg and Dianna Dilworth

    Dory Previn was a successful lyricist for Hollywood films in the 50s and 60s who in the 70s transformed into an influential cult singer-songwriter, and famously went public about her schizophrenic diagnosis, ultimately accepting her voices and anticipating a modern-day neurodiversity movement.

    LOC Collection Connections:
    • The Music Division holds music (M1508 series) for several shows Dorothy Previn collaborated on (under her pen name Dory Langdon), including "Inside Daisy Clover," "Last Tango in Paris," "Long and Short and the Tall," "One, Two, Three," "Pepe," "Sterile Cuckoo," "The Subterraneans," "Tall Story," "Two for the Seesaw," "Valley of the Dolls" and "Who Was That Lady." Her life and work are also represented in the André Previn Papers.
    • The Roger L. Stevens Papers include material from "Two for the Seesaw" (Box 100/1-2), with lyrics by Dory Langdon and music by André Previn.
  • Polly Cowan and Dorothy Height, Co-Founders of Wednesdays in Mississippi. Illustration by Sabina Kariat

    "Wednesdays in Mississippi" - FINALIST

    Directed by Marlene McCurtis

    Throughout Freedom Summer of 1964, teams of activist Black and White women from northern cities risked all to fly into deadly Mississippi, conducting undercover civil rights work to leave a lasting legacy for local empowerment and national progress. This was "Wednesdays in Mississippi," a landmark all-women achievement too long overlooked.

    LOC Collection Connections:
    • The NAACP records, held at the Library of Congress, include files pertaining to the civil rights movement in Mississippi. View the finding aid and research guide for these records.
    • The James Forman Papers contain information pertaining to the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee’s (SNCC) efforts to register Black citizens to vote in Mississippi during the 1960s (e.g., Freedom Summer, 1964).