On Assignment - From the duPont-Columbia Awards

2019 duPont-Columbia winner Alexandra Shiva talks navigating language and cultural barriers to make a humorous and important film about refugees that transcends party lines.

We catch up with 2019 duPont award winning director Alexandria Bombach about her latest film, “On Her Shoulders.” It’s an achingly beautiful 3-month snapshot of the life of activist and Yazidi genocide survivor, Nadia Murad. But it’s also a call to action for journalists and filmmakers, to think about the stories we tell, how we tell them and most importantly, why.

2019 duPont-winning Directors Trish Adlesic and Geeta Gandbhir interviewed 14 eloquent, emotional rape survivors for “I Am Evidence,” but only four women’s stories made it into the film. Tune in to this episode to hear about the painstaking choices they had to make as they navigated finding, selecting and telling these stories with honesty, integrity and care.

Director Bing Liu started making “Minding the Gap,” when he was 23-years-old. Now, six years later, he’s premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and snagged himself an Oscar nomination. As the countdown to the Academy Awards begins, get a behind the scenes look at how Liu made the film, plus hear about some of his ethical dilemmas while filming. But before you listen, be warned. There will be spoi...

NYT Magazine’s Nikole Hannah-Jones talks to NBC News anchor Lester Holt about reporting on race, the perils of making things personal, and takeaways from her 2018 John Chancellor Award-winning excellent reporting.

Roger Ailes founded Fox News, kicked off #MeToo, and helped elect Donald Trump. “It was about using Roger's story to try to make sense of where we were as a country...it gave us a point of entry to a difficult complicated national moment,” says Producer Will Cohen. In this episode of On Assignment, Cohen discusses navigating Fox News for access, the challenge of profiling a dead man, and how Ailes...

“RBG” Directors Julie Cohen and Betsy West plus Executive Producer Amy Entelis talk the power of optimism, the challenging rules for filming in the Supreme Court, and how RBG herself reacted to seeing the film for the first time in front of a sold out audience at Sundance.

When you spend 15 years on a story, you tend to get so close to your sources, they sometimes get jealous: “They felt as if I was in some ways cheating on them by talking with other people.” Lukas Prize winning author Isabel Wilkerson talks about how to navigate source relationships in her immersive book “The Warmth of Other Suns”. Isabel Wilkerson’s award winning epic tells the stories of three pe...

“So a kid did scribble on a sidewalk. Is that technically vandalism? Sure. But is the best way to handle it really for the officer to arrest that kid?“ As the new school year begins, a new On Assignment episode explores how schools across the country are disciplining students...by arresting them.

ABC15’s Dave Biscobing on his 2018 duPont-winning, relentless series that stopped a self-described “advocacy” group from exploiting the Americans with Disabilities Act for millions of dollars.

“Our stories in the end are (less) about sports - they're about power or culture or you know triumph over adversity or human rights. It is almost like a Trojan horse to get inside and then ask the human rights questions.”

“Going into Syria itself at the point where we started shooting was basically a suicide mission. Not so much the risks of combat, but the risk of being kidnapped, sold to ISIS and having your head cut off. So we were making a film about the Syrian civil war and we couldn't shoot in the Syrian civil war.”

Zoe Chace of This American Life and Michael Barbaro of The Daily speak about the rewards and challenges of making stories for audio, the "tyranny of the good talker," and the sense of intimacy that comes from the voice alone.

An open conversation with Natalia Antelava about her radio documentary “Russia’s New Scapegoat.” The 2018 duPont-Columbia Award winning radio documentary exposes the Russia’s growing anti-LGBT crisis.

A candid conversation with director James Bluemel and his fearless subject Hassan Akkad about their film Exodus. The 2018 duPont-Columbia Award winning documentary captures the extraordinary journeys of refugees fleeing to Europe, using their first hand stories and footage.

Zoe Chace has no problem walking up to strangers with headphones on and mike poised. It’s how she captured her duPont-Columbia winning story, “Ep 600 Will I Know Anyone at This Party?” which gives a firsthand account of the immigration push back taking place in America today. Chace is a producer at the radio program and podcast, This American Life. She reveals her tips for getting into the Republi...

Gawker went bankrupt after releasing the Hulk Hogan sex tape, but the scandal uncovered a far bigger threat to the press: billionaires angling to silence the media. In Nobody Speak: Trials of the Free Press, Director Brian Knappenberger explores how billionaires like Peter Thiel and Sheldon Adelson used their fortunes to censor journalists at Gawker and the Las Vegas Review Journal.

Washington Post Chief Correspondent Dan Balz knows politics. In conversation with Executive Editor Martin Baron, Balz shares with us the lessons he learned covering seven presidents--and how to report in the era of Trump.

'Obit' by Vanessa Gould offers viewers a glimpse into the world of the New York Times obituaries desk, examining the work of the small team tasked with writing profiles of the recently deceased.

Oscar-winning director John Ridley and veteran ABC News producer Jeanmarie Condon wove together intimate first person accounts and archival footage to create a stunning, cinematic portrait of the events preceding the 1992 Los Angeles riots in the new documentary 'Let It Fall.' Ridley and Condon visited the Columbia Journalism School to discuss the film with professor June Cross.

Filmmakers Dylan Bank, Daniel DiMauro, and Morgan Pehme followed lobbyist, political strategist, and self-identified "dirty trickster" Roger Stone for five years. In a recent conversation with Columbia Journalism School professor Betsy West, they discuss how their work resulted in the Netflix documentary "Get Me Roger Stone."

On Assignment speaks with Kate Howard, a veteran investigative reporter for WFPL’s Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting, who shares her essential tips for doing a 15-minute background check on your sources.

NBC Anchor and Correspondent Kate Snow, who won a 2017 duPont award for her Dateline NBC report, “The Cosby Accusers Speak,” talks with On Assignment about her experience reporting on 27 of the women who accused Bill Cosby of sexual harassment and assault.

Correspondent, investigative reporter, and J School graduate Mariana van Zeller speaks with On Assignment about covering the opioid epidemic in the U.S., as well as about balancing her personal and professional life.

Lindsey Smith of Michigan Radio was one of the first reporters to break the story of the water crisis in Flint, Michigan. She spoke to On Assignment about learning there were devastating lead levels in Flint's water and about covering the crisis, which has impacted her both professionally and personally. Her documentary, 'Not Safe to Drink,' won a duPont this past year for its outstanding storytel...