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The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences recently announced their honorees and nominees for the Webby Awards – kudos for achievement in websites, online film and video, mobile and apps, and interactive advertising.We highlighted a few honorees last week, but today’s focus is on the nominees – those projects still in the running for awards (to be announced on May 3). While we were glad to see the Old Spice guy get a nod, we wanted to look at the more Storyboard-oriented categories of Documentary: Single Episode and Documentary: Series.
“When the Water Ends: Africa’s Climate Conflicts,” by Evan Abramson for Yale Environment 360. Tribes pushed toward famine and armed conflict by the shifting shoreline of Lake Turkana on the Ethiopia-Kenya border tell their stories plainly but movingly. Water scarcity gives rise to violence, illustrating the vulnerability of people who already live at the mercy of climate change.
“Burning Desperation,” by Lynsey Addario of The New York Times. Before she was kidnapped in Libya, Addario created this disturbing, haunting portrait of Afghan women who set themselves on fire.
“Saying goodbye with my camera,” by Briony Campbell for The Guardian. A father and daughter approach his impending death from cancer through an extended meditation on reasons to fight the disease, the temptation to surrender to it, and how much of his thinking centers on those he’ll leave behind.
“Above the Law,” by Clifford Levy and Ellen Barry for The New York Times. A series of videos and articles looks at corruption in Russia two decades after the fall of the Soviet Union. From a human rights activist on trial for speaking out after a murder to strategic arrests and intimidation, it offers a dispiriting look at Russia today.
“Deadly Threats: Successors to the Paramilitaries in Colombia,” by Stephen Ferry (and Getty Images Grants for Good) from Human Rights Watch. Slide shows depict a military conflict in Colombia that continues despite the announced demobilization of paramilitary groups years ago.
We previously featured three of this year’s nominees on Storyboard. Read our Q&A with the creators of “Welcome to Pine Point,” which looks at memory and identity in a town that was wiped off the map. Hear from the makers of “Brèves de Trottoirs,” multimedia portraits from the streets of Paris. And see what Marie-Claude Dupont of Canada’s National Film Board has to say about “GDP,” a yearlong project documenting the Canadian economic recovery one person at a time.
While big names like Martha Stewart, Twitter’s Biz Stone and Arianna Huffington get to decide who will take home the official prizes in these categories,you, too, can make your voice heard by voting in the Webby People’s Voice Awards. (Voting closes April 28.)
Image detail from footage by Evan Abramson in the Yale Environmental 360 project “When the Water Ends.”