(July 17, 2014 – Atlanta, Georgia) – “GREAT MUSEUMS: ELEVATED THINKING: THE HIGH LINE IN NEW YORK CITY,” the hour-long documentary narrated by Susan Sarandon which had its public television debut in June, has been awarded a prestigious 2014 CINE Golden Eagle Award for Documentary Excellence in Arts & Entertainment. Since its debut in 1998, Great Museums Television has won twelve Golden Eagle awards.
The CINE Golden Eagle awards are recognized internationally as symbols of the highest production standards in film and television production. Among the great talents whose major awards include the CINE Golden Eagle are Steven Spielberg and Ron Howard, and such great documentarians as Ken Burns, Charles Guggenheim, Albert Maysles and Frederick Wiseman.
“Since 1998, Great Museums’ call to action has been find the museum in your own backyard. The High Line is a perfect example: it is like a gallery in a museum where the city itself is on display,” says Great Museums’ co-executive producer Marc Doyle, explaining why the elevated public space caught his attention as a potential documentary project.
“It was a thrill and an honor to work with the Great Museums team to create Elevated Thinking,” says Friends of the High Line co-founder Joshua David. “I am humbled that a documentary about the High Line has received the prestigious CINE Golden Eagle award. “
“Elevated Thinking” is the story of a grassroots effort, led by Joshua David and co-founder Robert Hammond, to buck city hall and save a massive, derelict, mile-and-half-long, freight railway from demolition.
The mile-and-a half-long High Line offers its nearly 5 million annual visitors a carefully curated world of woodlands, thickets, prairies and meadows – floating 30 feet in the air – through 22 blocks of Manhattan’s West Side. It is like a living museum of plants – a tour de force of public landscaping – atop an abandoned elevated railroad.
“We filmed the High Line over the course of two years to capture its year-round glory,” says Chesney Doyle, co-executive producer of Great Museums. “Our patience and tenacity paid off as we read comments from viewers who say they see the High Line in ‘a whole new light’ and will ‘make it a point to revisit it in all four seasons.’ That’s tremendously gratifying as a filmmaker.”
“Great Museums’ Elevated Thinking captures the magic and wonder of the High Line, giving instant access to those who can’t visit it in person, and at the same time, inspiring others to return again and again,” says Michael McCarthy, Chairman & CEO of the Eureka Foundation, which underwrites the Great Museums series.
For more information, please visit the Great Museums Television Media Room.
ABOUT GREAT MUSEUMS & THE EUREKA FOUNDATION
Great Museums® is an award-winning television series celebrating America’s museum world, airing coast to coast on over 200 public television stations representing more than 85% of US households. The compelling, educational series has won more than three-dozen television awards, including Telly Awards, Aurora Excellence Awards and twelve Cine Golden Eagles. Great Museums® opens the doors of museums to millions of viewers through public television, new media and community outreach with the goal of “curating a community of learners.” Great Museums® is underwritten by the Eureka Foundation, a private 501(c)(3) foundation established to promote the educational power of television and new media.
