Academy Award Winner Announces Launch of FREE Documentary HelpLine For Aspiring Directors & Shares Her Filmmaking Journey to Success
Just in time for this year’s upcoming Academy Awards 🎥 we had a front-row seat hosting Maryann De Leo, the award-winning documentary filmmaker and director as our featured guest on my recent Ladies Who Lunch Conversations videocast.
I’ll be perfectly honest and the first to admit that I was completely gobsmacked to learn how many awards Maryann has earned over the 20-some years she’s been making films. (More on those accolades and recognition in a bit.)
Suffice to say that one would need more than a mantle; rather an entire wall to feature the numerous accolades for her incredible achievements, including two Emmy Awards, being one of the key producers and directors working on HBO’s 1997 win of the Alfred I. duPont -Columbia University Award, and a CableACE Award. Maryann’s work has premiered at the American Museum of the Moving Image and has been shown at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
But of course, The Academy Award of MeritⓇ gold knight, Oscar, would have to take center stage!
And speaking of gold, Maryann broke the news about a golden opportunity 😉 for up- and-coming documentarians to help them pursue their dreams. She’s launched a phone-based coaching service!
Please allow me to have a brag on our Ladies Who Lunch Conversations (LWLC) videocast a wee bit here. We’ve had the distinct honor and serendipity to bring our viewers “you heard it here first” news in the past, notably: Mariah Humbert the charming etiquette expert and author when she demurely announced news of her then-upcoming book, What Do I Do?: Every Wedding Question Answered when I enthusiastically suggested she should write a book!
Likewise Janet Mavec, shared with us that her garden not only inspired her jewelry designs but she had been working on a book that was slated to be published later in that year, BIrd Haven Farm, The Story of an Original American Garden. And yet another guest, Ngoc Minh Ngo, did the incredible garden photography for the Bird Haven book. So cool, right? ~ After all, good interview shows pride themselves on the opportunity to provide “breaking” news. 🤩
Here, Maryann announced her Documentary HelpLine service where she will offer professional guidance, support, and encouragement to budding film directors and producers. How great is that? Well, funny you should ask, because it gets better. If that’s possible. The HelpLine is FREE. That’s right. Gratis, Frei, Muryou. No matter how you say it, you’ll get to talk to Maryann and explore your ideas for creating your dream documentary. That number to call is: 347-449-4855. Go ahead, put it on your speed dial, er, Favorites.
Maryann explained how she sincerely seeks to champion emerging film artists; to help them find their way; to “sherpa” and assist folks to expand and develop their story to produce a quality documentary film they can be proud of.
Documentary HelpLine
When I asked what was a driving force behind her new enterprise, she replied, “It’s so rewarding.” The Academy-Award winner will generously provide her experience and her time to aid others interested but not sure about the process. I asked her to describe what the service would entail and she explained that she’d be helping artists work through their ideas. Help them to get started. (Getting started is always so hard, right?)
And perhaps most important, Maryann will guide you aspiring filmmakers on how to tell a story: how to interview and construct a narrative, determine the structure, the style. Perhaps there will be a discussion on Production and Post-production, depending on the skill set and content of the student.
Maryann’s HelpLine is so much better than a master class because it’s personal. It’s one-on-one. Students can leverage her vast and successful experience to ask and explore their project. To learn the artful craft of documentary filmmaking.
As a useful tip, Maryann admonished would-be filmmakers: “Don’t be afraid.” You have to just put yourself out there and try. She described what she means with several examples of getting started in her career. One in particular is at the intersection of the sweet spot of luck, talent, networking, and ya’ just never know…
In an early concept story idea meeting with Sheila Nevins at HBO, Maryann had gone through pitching more than a dozen ideas when she prefaced her last one, saying, "You're probably not gonna go for this one but, what do you think about Chernobyl?” As in the reactor…
No pregnant pause, but rather a hearty, “Go for it!” It was a wrap, as they say in the biz. (Do they really say that? Or have I seen too many Hollywood movies about making movies?!)
And then, just like that, Maryann packed her bags, including that 20-pound camera ~ so heavy but I know from my Sony working days, it was one of the first portable cameras for use “in the field.” Maryann was headed to the Ukraine and Belarus, constituent republics of the Soviet Union (USSR) known as the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (Ukrainian SSR). (It was under centralized control from Moscow until declaring independence in 1991.)
Maryann shows us the behemoth of a camera during our Conversation! For a petite woman, carrying and balancing this piece of hardware was, in itself, a feat of determination and courage.
But in the end, that 25-pounder yielded her an 8-pounder: The Oscar!
Maryann De Leo, Oscar winning Filmmaker, Photo: Getty
Our Conversation sparkles with Maryann’s “sizzle reel” replaying her inspiring path to success. She describes how she got into the business and what inspired her across the decades. She found her way on a kind of magical journey that could almost be a Hollywood story of its own. From a dream to the red carpet, but one punctuated by lots of hard work and doing what it takes. From volunteering as an intern ~ (she Loved it!) ~ to learning from some of her mentors, especially John Alpert and Keiko Tsuno at Downtown Community TV Center, to lugging her own equipment 😬. And perhaps most important, the importance of travel and cultivating curiosity, Maryann knows what it takes.
Award-Winning De Leo Films
As noted, Maryann won the Best Documentary Short Subject award at The 76th Academy Awards. Maryann earned the Oscar for her 2003 work, Chernobyl Heart. The film reveals the devastating effects of radiation on the children born after the 1986 nuclear accident at Chernobyl who suffered from a deteriorated heart condition due the fallout.
“The film begins with the journey into the exclusion zone, driving to the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, and follows the invisible trail of radiation to the country's hospitals, cancer centers, orphanages, and mental asylums, where the children live, or were being treated for their disease.”
Maryann & team filming in Chernobyl, Photo: De Leo website
In the film, Maryann traveled through Ukraine and Belarus with Adi Roche, the Irish founder of the Chernobyl Children's Project International, observing the effects of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster on the health of children in the area. Many children suffered from a previously unknown cardiac degradation condition known in the area as Chernobyl heart, in addition to other severe radiation poisoning effects.
Maryann speaks at UN, Photo De Leo website
Dr. Novick at the UN for Chernobyl Heart
It was a privilege and an honor for me and my family to attend a screening of Chernobyl Heart at the time of its release, at the United Nations. There, we were able to meet Adi.
From Maryann’s website, you can read more about others present at the UN event, including Sheila Nevins (from HBO), Mark Malloch Brown (who headed The United Nations Office on Chernobyl), as well as the Belorussian, Ukrainian, and Russian Ambassadors who also gave speeches to the UN. Dr. Novick, who is featured in the film, gave the following speech. "Today, the United Nations recognizes and calls the world's attention to the greatest nuclear disaster in the history of our world. Hopefully this will be the last nuclear disaster we as a people will ever be forced to face. As you have seen in Chernobyl Heart, the people of this region are still faced with the effects of this horrific catastrophe."
Whew! I still get chills.
As a kind of follow-on piece, there is White Horse, a short documentary Maryann collaborated with filmmaker Christophe Bisson on that features a man (Maxym Surkov) returning to his Ukraine home for the first time in twenty years. Evacuated from the city of Pripyat, Ukraine in 1986 due to the Chernobyl disaster, he hadn’t returned since then. White Horse was nominated for a Golden Bear in the 2008 Berlinale.
In addition, she published an article about Chernobyl in Discover magazine.
After Maryann screened her Chernobyl films in Japan, and spoke to citizens there after the disaster at Fukushima, she was invited to publish a book of her essays on Chernobyl in Japanese.
In our Conversation, we talk about how Maryann was compelled or “called” to pursue a passion and life as an artful filmmaker. It’s a kind of Cinderella fairy tale unto itself. Maryann describes how she ”had a moment” after watching a documentary with her mother, and, then, without hesitation, doggedly set out on a journey to learn the craft and make her own documentaries!
As you will hear in our Conversation, since her “scrappy” start, Maryann has gone on to earn numerous awards and continues to tell stories. I asked her about AI and the future of nuclear energy. You’ll be interested to learn her take on these hot button subjects…
At the same time, I encourage you to look for and watch the powerful Chernobyl Heart. It is unforgettably moving… And its message continues to resonate.
WIth her work spanning decades, she continued to address timely issues under the umbrella of social justice, such as gender-based violence (Rape: Cries from the Heartland, 1991 and Terror at Home, 2005), mental illness (Bellevue: Inside Out, 2001) about America’s most notorious mental institution, and urban blight (High on Crack Street: Lost Lives in Lowell, 1995).
But wait, there’s more!
In 1985, after De Leo was awarded an artist’s grant for her work in video by the New York State Council on the Arts, she began producing reports for NBC’s Today Show. In 1986 she was awarded an Emmy® for a series of reports she produced for NBC about the corruption of the Marcos regime and the civil war the NPA guerrillas were fighting to bring down the Marcos government in the Philippines.
Maryann has reported internationally for the Today Show from Vietnam, Cambodia, El Salvador, Cuba, Guatemala, the former Soviet Union, China, Afghanistan, Angola, Korea, Baghdad, and from the mountains of Mexico during the Zapatista rebel uprising in Chiapas. During the Gulf War, Maryann was one of a few reporters who got out of Iraq with uncensored footage. A series of reports from Korea during the Olympics earned Maryann many accolades.
She continued to produce stories nationally for NBC’s Today Show about the homeless, housing problems, Native Americans, health care for veterans, pesticides and farming and the environment. One series of reports called American Survival earned Maryann a second Emmy® nomination.
HBO aired Maryann’s documentary Six Months To Live: Alternative Medicine and the Fight for Life in 1997. Following the lives of four people who were diagnosed with terminal cancer, the documentary received a Bronze Award at the Tokyo Video Festival in 1998.
During the 1996-97 basketball season Maryann trailed the University of Tennessee Lady Vols basketball team and produced and directed A Cinderella Season: The Lady Vols Fight Back. After airing on HBO in 1998 the film was awarded a national sports Emmy®.
A Cinderella Season, Photo De Leo website
As if all the filmmaking doesn’t keep her busy enough, Maryann is also a photographer with the Sipa Agency. Her photos have appeared in national and international publications including Time, Newsweek, U.S. News and World Report and various European publications. Her latest series of photographs is on exhibition at the Pound Ridge Library in New York State.
In 1994 Maryann started her own production company, Downtown TV Documentaries, and has been independently producing and directing documentary films.
Her latest film, The People Will Decide is in production.
Documentary HelpLine
If you too have a story that you’re obsessed to tell, a narrative that you’re burning to produce, please call Maryann and take her up on her incredible offer to talk about making your documentary.
You can learn from a true, recognized talent, advance your career or hobby, gain confidence, explore how to cultivate your curiosity and tell good stories.
That number again for the Documentary Helpline is 347-449-4855
And now you can also follow along and contribute to the just-launched Documentary Helpline on Instagram!
At the conclusion of our lively, fun, and behind-the-scenes stories and anecdotes, I had a reveal of my own. Tune in to learn what that’s all about! 😉
Please enjoy our informative, spirited, uplifting, and fun Conversation.
Thank you, Maryann. You are so generous. And oh-so-inspiring. Wishing you and your students continued success telling stories in film.
We’ll see you at the popcorn counter 🍿🎬
And how did I design the tablescape from which to host and honor this special Academy Award winning film artist? With some director accessories, of course. Can’t have too much glamorous tinseltown gold…
