St. Pete College Film Wins Regional Emmy

Submitted by St. Pete College

St. Petersburg College and local PBS station WEDU were honored Saturday night by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences with a Suncoast Regional Emmy Award for Away: A Story of Trash.

Away, the third collaborative project involving SPC Digital Media Production students, is a 30-minute television documentary about what happens to garbage after it has been discarded. It takes an in-depth look at the history of waste management, current practices and problems, and even the perception of what “throwing away” garbage means.

College videographer and Digital Media instructor Jeremy Peplow was in Hollywood, Fla., when the decision was announced. “I was really shocked,” he said. “I wasn’t expecting it, but I am really happy for the students who were part of this.”

In the U.S., about 4-5 pounds of garbage are produced on average per person each day. In 2010, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection reported that more than 32 million tons of municipal solid waste is produced by Florida residents in one year. The documentary looks at the impact of these processes on the environment and how citizens can help be more conscientious about waste habits.

“I hope that the viewers will be educated enough to be influenced to take action and reduce the amount of waste that we create, so we can preserve the earth for our future generations” said Executive Producer Katie Bishop, who was a student in the Digital Media Program. Bishop was one of 11 students in the Advanced Videography class who worked on the production.

Away is the second collaborative project with WEDU to receive a Suncoast Regional Emmy Award nomination. Tony Jannus: American Aviator, a 30-minute documentary that educated viewers about American aviation history, advances in technology and industry pioneers, was nominated in 2011.