Cinema professor wins Emmy award for documentary

Professor of Communication & Cinema Jonathan Slade ’88 has taken home his seventh Emmy award for his two-hour 2019 documentary, “Made Possible By Viewers Like You: 50 Years of Maryland Public Television.” 

The program, which debuted on Maryland Public Television (MPT) in August 2019, won for outstanding arts/entertainment special during the 62nd National Capital Chesapeake Bay ceremony on Aug. 8 in Washington, D.C. The event was held virtually this year due to COVID-19. 

"This was just an immensely challenging project that kept growing exponentially even though we had a pretty short production window,” Slade explains. “In addition to scheduling almost three dozen on-camera interviews, we had to look through thousands of archival stills and hundreds of hours of stock footage. It was really a round-the-clock monster during the last few months before it aired.” 

In addition to writing and directing the documentary, Slade also produced and shared editing duties on the film, which explores the five-decade history and mission of Maryland’s state operated public broadcasting network. Conducting more than 30 interviews with producers, crew members and on-camera talent, Slade delved into behind-the-scenes stories from iconic MPT series like “Wall Street Week with Louis Rukeyser,” “MotorWeek,” and “Hodge Podge Lodge.” McDaniel Cinema graduates worked on the documentary as production assistants on location and in the edit suite, including Ana Salas '18, Luke Fisher '16, and Adelaide Fischer '19, Slade said. 

Slade, a 1988 alumnus of the College who earned an MFA in Cinema-Television from the University of Southern California, worked briefly in Hollywood before returning to Maryland to become an award-winning writer-producer with MPT. Since joining McDaniel’s full-time faculty in 2003, he has continued to produce documentaries for MPT, including “Electric Road Trip,” which earned him and his wife, Novia Campbell, an Emmy in 2015.

In 2016, Slade joined 24 other professors from colleges and universities nationwide selected for a prestigious fellowship to the Television Academy Foundation Faculty Seminar in Los Angeles. Television Academy members — the same industry insiders who host the national Emmy Awards — chose the finalists, offering them an expenses-paid opportunity to be immersed in the entertainment industry for an intensive, behind-the-scenes experience.

He was also recognized with Emmy awards for his documentaries “Eatin' Crabs: Chesapeake Style" in 2009 and “Vid Kid: Water, Water Everywhere” in 2003. Slade received the McDaniel Faculty Creativity Award for his “Historic Barns of Maryland” documentary and companion book in 2012.

Slade’s primary areas of research interest include American independent cinema, environmental film, and media literacy. He also serves as the faculty advisor to Terror TV, McDaniel's 24-hour campus cable station.