| Helen Whitney | |
| Website: | https://www.helenwhitney.com |
| Alma Mater: | Sarah Lawrence College |
| Occupation: | Documentary Filmmaker, Producer and writer |
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.
Whitney grew up in New York City, where she attended the Chapin School.[1] 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.
| 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 |
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 |
| Trinity Playhouse | 1997 | |
| Every Day Heroes | 1990 | |
| Lethal Innocence | American Playhouse | 1991 |
| First Love. Fatal Love | HBO | 1991 |
| 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 |
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.
| 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 |
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,
As a 2009 Woodrow Wilson scholar, Whitney has taught at Flagler College, Roanoke College and St. Mary's College.