{"id":25857,"date":"2016-09-27T14:25:49","date_gmt":"2016-09-27T18:25:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.adorama.com\/alc\/?p=25857"},"modified":"2016-09-27T14:25:49","modified_gmt":"2016-09-27T18:25:49","slug":"adorama-contributor-wins-emmy-mini-doc-athlete-born-without-legs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.adorama.com\/alc\/adorama-contributor-wins-emmy-mini-doc-athlete-born-without-legs\/","title":{"rendered":"Adorama Contributor Wins Emmy for Mini-Doc About Athlete Born Without Legs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week, Washington D.C. based video journalist and documentary filmmaker, Sahar Sarshar<\/a>, and the Full Frame<\/em> team were honored with a national Emmy award for Outstanding Feature Story in a News Magazine. Sarshar, who is also a contributor to the Adorama Learning Center, produced the winning 19-minute video story, \u201cJen Bricker: When Can\u2019t Is a Four-Letter Word,\u201d<\/a> \u00a0for CCTV America\u2019s Full Frame<\/em><\/a>.\u00a0 The story follows accomplished aerialist and acrobat, Jen Bricker, who was born without legs and eventually discovers she\u2019s related to an Olympic gymnast who was her childhood idol.<\/p>\n

Bricker\u2019s story is unique and full of fateful twists and turns, and Sarshar\u2019s expert story-telling allows the viewers to see inside the hearts of those we meet on screen.\u00a0 We recently had a chance to speak with Sarshar and here\u2019s what she shared with us about creating this amazing story.<\/p>\n

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\"Documentary
Documentary Filmmaker Sahar Sarshar at the 37th Annual News and Documentary Em my Awards<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Q: How did you first discover the story of Jen Bricker?<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

A:\u00a0<\/strong>I work on a show called Full Frame<\/em> for CCTV America.\u00a0 It is a culture and human-interest talk show with feature stories.\u00a0 My primary job is to produce the feature stories we call \u201cClose Up\u2019s<\/a>.\u201d\u00a0 Our Executive Producer, Monna Kashfi, had a meeting with me and sent me links of prior interviews and feature stories on Jen Bricker.\u00a0 The story idea had been pitched to her by our colleague, Laleh Tavakoli.\u00a0\u00a0 After I had seen that it had been covered before, I felt a slight apprehension.\u00a0 How could we tell this story differently and\/or better than others had before?\u00a0 I couldn\u2019t say no, and I\u2019m always up for a challenge.\u00a0 I also felt a strong draw towards Jen, Jen\u2019s parents and Dominique Moceanu (who I had also idolized growing up).<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Q: How much time did you spend with the family, and what kind of preparation goes into delving into such a personal story, essentially peering into the heart of this family\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

A: \u00a0<\/strong>We spent 2 days with Jen, a day with Dominique, and a day with Jen\u2019s adoptive parents. I wish it had been longer, but I thoroughly enjoyed spending time with all of them and I was sad to say goodbye.\u00a0 So far, this is the longest time we\u2019ve spent on a finished feature story.\u00a0 The preparation that went into this wasn\u2019t any different than any other story we work on.\u00a0 My focus was making sure that they all felt safe and excited to share their story.\u00a0 The only difference was I felt more pressure this time after knowing that they could probably be worn out from having to tell it so many times before.<\/p>\n

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Q: This is your first Emmy win, but you have been producing feature stories \/ documentaries for 8 years. Was there something about creating this documentary that stood out to you from your other work?<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

A:<\/strong> Sometimes I work on a story and it hits home and inspires just me.\u00a0 But this story inspired everyone who worked on it.\u00a0 Our collective goal was to make this the best version of a story that had been told to date. To me, that was the most beautiful aspect of it.\u00a0 Our editor Janne Syrjanen really weaved this story in a way that kept the audience watching and interested.\u00a0 And photographer Don Stanke made it his personal goal to visually tell this story in a way that hadn\u2019t been done before.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Q: What is in your gear bag?\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

A: <\/em><\/strong>I\u2019m a producer so I\u2019m not required to carry anything!\u00a0 But I do always bring a DSLR camera with me \u2013 my Canon 7D.\u00a0\u00a0 I started out as a video editor and photographer.\u00a0 So the visual aspect of storytelling is very important to me. \u00a0And I like to get my photography fix every once in a while \u2013 it\u2019s really an addiction.\u00a0 Our photographer, Don Stanke, was kind enough to let me film some of the shots in the Jen Bricker piece.\u00a0 There aren\u2019t many, but there were some shots I took that made the final piece.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Q: What\u2019s next for you in terms of your goals as a documentary filmmaker?<\/em><\/p>\n

A:\u00a0<\/strong>My goals are to remain focused on telling stories in a beautiful, truthful and inspiring way.\u00a0 There are so many people whose stories need to be told or retold.\u00a0 I would love to do more long-form docs, and I\u2019d also love to one day be able to tell a story in a more interactive way.\u00a0 But as long as I can connect people and work on stories that change me as a person, I\u2019ll be happy.<\/p>\n

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When 'Can\u2019t' is a four-letter word<\/div><\/div>
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