"The Pulitzer at 100" is part of the festival’s new “DOCtoberFest” series, which will feature six award-winning documentaries premiering over seven days.
For a century, the Pulitzer Prizes have remained the gold standard of excellence for a nation. The Pulitzers focus attention on what is best in journalism and the arts.
“The Pulitzer at 100” explores the importance of words and language in a free democracy. Behind the honors are extraordinary people. Their stories are riveting: power, immigration, race and identity are all central themes. The Pulitzer celebrates storytelling at its best, and this film reveals the courage and struggles to get at truth. Vietnam, Katrina, 9/11; newspapers are indeed the first draft of history.
When Joseph Pulitzer started the School of Journalism at Columbia University 100 years ago and awarded prizes to writers exhibiting the “highest moral and intellectual training,” no one dreamed of how important the prizes would become. If you win a Pulitzer, it will most likely become the first words on your obituary!
Highlights of the film include Nick Kristof, a columnist for The New York Times, who has lived on four continents, reported on six, and traveled to more than 150 countries to help us understand deeply our fragile world. His reporting on Tiananmen Square won a Pulitzer. Carl Bernstein remembers the night of threats when it was revealed he was about to break the story that would bring down a Presidency. Bernstein’s reporting along with Bob Woodward showed how even two young reporters in their twenties could change the course of a nation.
Nick Ut never dreamed his photo of a nine-year-old girl running down Highway 1 in Vietnam as her body burned from Napalm would change the course of the Vietnam War. Remarkably, the little girl, now in her fifties tells her story in the film.
Pulitzer-winning work is read by an impressive list of Hollywood A-listers: Martin Scorsese, Natalie Portman, Helen Mirren, Liev Schieber, Jonathan Lithgow and Yara Shahidi.
The many first person stories, as told by the artists and journalist themselves, without narration are riveting. We discover the intense stories behind some of the century’s best artistic creations.