The Homestretch Brings Home Emmy!

The Homestretch took the stage on September 21st at the 37th Annual News & Documentary Emmy Awards as it won for Outstanding Business and Economic Reporting: Long Form.  You can watch the award presentation by Jane Pauley and hear Kirsten's acceptance speech here.  

From left to right: Leslie Simmer (editor), Katie Taber (Co-Producer), Anne de Mare & Kirsten Kelly (Directors/Producers), Justine Nagan (Executive Producer), Andrew Schwertfeger (Executive Producer), and Elizabeth Hemmerdinger (Associate Producer)

We wish there had been time to thank everyone at the event, because this award belongs to so many people and institutions who championed the film since we first began our journey with some of Chicago's most at-risk youth seven years ago.  

Huge thanks to our earliest supporters - the Sundance Institute Documentary Fund and MacArthur Foundation - without whose vision, faith and dedication this film simply could not have happened, and to our funders Chicken & Egg Pictures, The Chicago Community Trust, Pierce Family Foundation, Polk Bros. Foundation, Baskin Family Foundation, Denny & Sandy Cummings, Nathan Cummings Foundation, Vicki & Bruce Heyman Fund, Roger & Chaz Ebert Foundation, David & Sandy Kollmorgen, Michael Reese Health Trust, Mullen Family Foundation, and The Woods Fund.  And to our Impact Campaign funders, Bertha Foundation, BRITDOC, Lefkofsky Family Foundation, Fledgling Fund, National Institute for Health Care Management, and the David Nathan Meyerson Foundation.  Not to mention our amazing village of Kickstarter supporters.  

We are thankful to our co-producers Kartemquin Films and ITVS for helping us tell the story, and to everyone at Independent Lens and CPB's American Graduate Initiative for helping us get it out into the world.  Also to our distributors Bullfrog Films, The Orchard, and Java Films, to our advocacy partners NAEHCY, the National Network for Youth, and True Colors Fund, to the wonderful women at Picture Motion and especially to the extremely awesome Erin Sorenson of Third Stage Consulting, whose tireless dedication and powerful strategic thinking around impact helped us shatter negative stereotypes and make real change for youth experiencing homelessness all across America.  Thanks also to Chicago's Teen Living Programs, The Night Ministry, Year Up, and The National Runaway Safeline; to the community of filmmakers around Kartemquin Films; and to everyone at Chicago Shakespeare Theater.

And most of all, we are deeply grateful to Kasey, Roque, Anthony, and Maria for sharing their complex, inspiring, and often challenging journeys with us.  Without them there would be no film.  And finally, our thanks to the dozens of astounding, resilient youth, rockstar teachers, and dedicated social workers we met along the way whose stories we couldn't tell but whose contributions are all woven deeply into the fabric of The Homestretch. Thank you!

LESLIE SIMMER, ANNE DE MARE, and KIRSTEN KELLY IN THE AUDIENCE BEFORE THE WIN!

THE WHOLE TEAM ON STAGE WITH AS KIRSTEN ACCEPTS THE EMMY

Surprise!

KIRSTEN & ANNE BACKSTAGE

LESLIE AND THE GOLDEN LADY...

KARTEMQUIN FILM'S TWO EMMYs OF THE NIGHT!