Helen Whitney

Helen Whitney is an American producer, director and writer of documentaries and feature films that have aired on PBS, HBO, ABC and NBC.

Whitney's subjects have included youth gangs, the 1996 American presidential candidates, a Trappist monastery in Massachusetts, the McCarthy Era in the United States, Pope John Paul II, and the late photographer Richard Avedon.

Faith and Doubt at Ground Zero was a PBS two-hour television special on the 9/11 attacks, which explored the spiritual aftershocks of this event. Whitney's film, The Mormons, was a four-hour PBS series and the first collaboration between the PBS programs American Experience and Frontline.

Whitney's film Forgiveness: A Time to Love & A Time to Hate examines the power, limitations—and in rare cases—the dangers of forgiveness through stories ranging from personal betrayal to international truth and reconciliation commissions. This three-hour series aired on PBS in April 2011.

Whitney's 1982 ABC News Closeup documentary about the McCarthy Era, American Inquisition, provoked a libel suit brought by journalist Victor Lasky. Whitney and ABC News were defended by First Amendment lawyer Floyd Abrams. The court ruled in favor of Whitney and ABC News. Abrams remarked, "we won and the broadcast was totally vindicated."

In her feature film work, Whitney has directed actors such as Lindsay Crouse, Austin Pendleton, Blair Brown, Brenda Fricker, and David Strathairn.

Her films have received an Oscar nomination, the Alfred I. duPont–Columbia University Award, an Emmy Award and the George Foster Peabody Award.

Education

Whitney grew up in New York City, where she attended the Chapin School. She received a BA in English literature from Sarah Lawrence College in 1965 and a master's degree in Victorian literature from the University of Chicago in 1967.

Documentary films (producer, director, writer)

Title Airing Network Duration Year released First Edition PBS 30 minutes 1975 Youth Terror: The View From Behind The Gun ABC 60 minutes 1978 The Monastery ABC 90 minutes 1980 Homosexuals ABC 60 minutes 1982 American Inquisition ABC 60 minutes 1983 They Have Souls Too ABC 60 minutes 1992 Society Class In Great Britain Turner Network 60 minutes 1992 Richard Avedon: Darkness and Light PBS: American Masters 90 minutes 1994 The Choice '96 PBS: Frontline 2 hours 1996 John Paul II: The Millennial Pope PBS Frontline 3 hours 1998 Faith and Doubt At Ground Zero PBS: Frontline 2 hours 2002 The Mormons PBS: Frontline and American Experience 4 hours 2007 Forgiveness: A Time To Love And A Time To Hate PBS 3 hours 2011

Dramatic feature films (director) Beginning in 1982, following her acceptance by the Sundance Institute, Whitney wrote and directed several dramatic features for television.

Title Airing Network Year released A Town's Revenge ABC 1997 In The Gloaming Trinity Playhouse 1997 Every Day Heroes 1990 Lethal Innocence American Playhouse 1991 First Love. Fatal Love HBO 1991

Scripts (writer and co-writer)

Title Role Airing Station/Location The Siege Co-writer Commissioned by Trinity Playhouse Change of Heart Co-writer Commissioned by American Playhouse Kale Messenger Co-writer Commissioned by Warner Brothers K.589 Co-writer Selected by The Sundance Film Festival Prejudice: Take One Writer Commissioned by Highgate Productions Willa Cather: The Road Home Co-writer PBS American Masters The Rise and Fall of Mark Twain Co-writer PBS American Masters Deliverance Co-writer Commissioned for PBS for the 50th anniversary of WW2 Black, White and Blue Co-writer HBO The Song of the Lark Co-writer Lifetime Television

Book In 2011, following the release of her two-part PBS documentary Forgiveness: A Time To Love & A Time To Hate, Whitney wrote a companion book to the film with the same title and a foreword by the Dalai Lama.

Abbreviated list of awards and nominations

Year Body of Work Award Received 1977 First Edition Academy Award Nomination: Best Documentary Short 1978 Youth Terror: The View From Behind The Gun The San Francisco International Film Festival Award 1978 First Edition The Robert Flaherty Film Seminar Award 1985 American Inquisition The Edward R. Murrow Award 1988 They Have Souls Too The Humanitas Prize 1990 A Town's Revenge The Humanitas Prize 1995 Richard Avedon: Darkness and Light The Directors Guild of America: Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentary Film 1995 Richard Avedon: Darkness and Light The Hamptons International Film Festival Award for most popular film 1996 The Choice '96 The Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award 1996 The Choice '96 George Foster Peabody Award 1996 The Choice '96 Emmy Award for Outstanding Analysis of a Single Current Story 1996 The Choice '96 The Writers Guild of America Award for Outstanding Script for Television Documentary 2002 Faith and Doubt At Ground Zero The Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award 2002 Faith and Doubt At Ground Zero The Christopher Award 1999 John Paul II: The Millennial Pope The Writers Guild of America Award for Outstanding Script for Television Documentary

Film and lecture presentations

Whitney has delivered keynote addresses and lectures at Yale University, the University of California Berkeley, Pomona College, the Harvard Divinity School, the Iliff School of Theology in Denver, Bellarmine University, the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, Syracuse University, the Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary and Roanoke College. In 2012, she presented the William Belden Noble Lectures at Harvard University.

She has also spoken at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the Minneapolis Institute of Art, the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, the Cathedral of the Assumption in Louisville, KY, and the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C,

Endowed Lectures William Belden Noble Lectures at Memorial Church, Harvard University, 2012 Flagler College Convocation Address for the class of 2012, St. Augustine, Florida The Luce Lecture at Boston University, 2007 The Smith-Pettit Lecture on Mormonism, Salt Lake City, Utah, 2007

Artist In Residence Dixie State University Brigham Young University University of Utah Utah Valley University Utah State University The Studios of Key West Stanford University

Teaching As a 2009 Woodrow Wilson scholar, Whitney has taught at Flagler College, Roanoke College and St. Mary's College.

Associations Film Forum, board member and chairman of the board, 1986–1991 New York Women in Film and Television, board member City Church of New York, founding member