Sunday, July 23, 2023

Barack Obama defends his Emmy against Hollywood all-stars narrating nature and science documentaries


I had a change of plans for today's Sunday entertainment feature since I wrote "All of the nominees in this and the previous category have other nominations, so I'll examine their chances in the next two installments" yesterday. I'm postponing those posts and writing this year's version of Barack Obama nominated for Outstanding Narrator of 'Our Great National Parks' at the 2022 Emmy Awards instead.

Obama won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Narrator last year, so when he's defending it now that he's been nominated again for this category. Like last year, he's contending against stiff competition in Mahershala Ali for "Chimp Empire," Angela Bassett for "Good Night Oppy," Morgan Freeman for "Our Universe," and Pedro Pascal for "Patagonia." That's a field of Hollywood all-stars. Ali has two Oscars and an Emmy, Bassett an honorary Oscar along with two Oscar nominations and eight Emmy nominations and a Critics' Choice Documentary Award win for Best Narration of "Good Night Oppy", and Freeman an Oscar and four Emmy nominations, including a previous one for Outstanding Narrator, while Pascal earned three Emmy nominations just this year. Wow!

That written, the experts at Gold Derby currently have Obama as the favorite, followed by Bassett, Freeman, Ali, and Pascal. That's about the order I see and the order in which I'd root for the nominees. Besides, who am I to argue against the experts?

Follow over the jump for the nominated shows' trailers other than "Good Night, Oppy," which I included in 'Good Night Oppy' wins five Critics Choice Documentary Awards. Watch it there.

First, Working: What We Do All Day | Official Trailer | Netflix.

For some, it's a paycheck. For others, it's a calling. This docuseries explores the meaning of work for modern Americans in a time of rapid change.
Factual America hosted director Caroline Suh in Working: What We Do All Day (2023) | Featuring Barack Obama | How do we find meaning at work?

Working: What We Do All Day is a docu-series that explores both what it means to work and the ways in which the meaning of work is changing...

Presented by former US President Barack Obama, the docu-series focuses on people working in three different industries: technology, hospitality, and home care. Through him, we hear of their dreams, and their reality; their hopes, and their fears.

Joining Matthew Sherwood to discuss Working: What We Do All Day is its director, Caroline Suh. Among other things, she reveals how President Obama became involved in the docu-series, the discoveries that she made in the making of it, and the rationale behind choosing the featured companies.

Working: What We Do All Day is a multi-layered film. As Caroline tells Matthew, it enters the lives of people up and down the corporate ladder and seeks to find points of connection between them. In doing so, the docu-series challenges our tendency to do what Caroline admits she once did; that is, only think about the work she is doing now rather than the deeper meaning of it.

To quote Barack Obama, ‘our work is one of the forces that connects us’ to each other. Working: What We Do All Day helps demystify that force. In doing so, it brings us closer to one another. Find out what he means, learn about some of Matthew’s dirtier jobs (!), and even Richard Scarry on this episode of Factual America!

“... when someone does something incredibly well, no matter what it is, there’s a beauty to it, and it reaffirms your faith in humanity.” – Caroline Suh
Considering that Actors joining writers on picket lines was the subject of last week's feature and this trailer mentions AI, I think this is a timely nomination.

Next, Our Universe | Official Trailer | Netflix.

Narrated by Academy Award-winner Morgan Freeman, comes an epic tale 13.8 billion years in the making. Blending stunning wildlife footage with eye-popping cosmic special effects, this six-part series takes viewers on a fascinating adventure to explore the connections that drive our natural world. From the birth of the Sun to the birth of a sea turtle, Our Universe uses groundbreaking animation to dramatize the spectacular celestial forces that generated our solar system, while modern camera and CGI technology bring the audience up close and personal with some of the most iconic, charismatic animals on Earth.
...
Witness the remarkable story of our universe over billions of years and its inextricable link to life on Earth in this sweeping documentary series.
That's a series I can suggest to three classes, biology, environmental science, and geology.

Now the third Netflix documentary series nominated in this category, Chimp Empire | Mahershala Ali | Official Trailer | Netflix.

The largest group of chimpanzees ever discovered have built a complex society deep in the forest of Ngogo, Uganda — but ambition and neighboring rivals threaten to destabilize their empire. Narrated by Academy Award® Winner Mahershala Ali and directed by Academy Award® winner James Reed, Co-Director of My Octopus Teacher. Chimp Empire is only on Netflix April 19th.
...
A vast community of chimpanzees thrives in a forest in Uganda, navigating complex social politics, family dynamics and dangerous territory disputes.
First, this series fits with what I already know about chimps; they are aggressive social animals, which shows where humans get those traits. Second, this trailer puts its award-winning bona fides right up front. That's probably what puts it ahead of the last series whose trailer I'm embedding today, CNN | 'Patagonia: Life on the Edge of the World' - Promo (2022).


Unfortunately, the video description is in Portuguese and the video itself does not feature Pascal's narration. Also, CNN does not seem to have an upload of it on their YouTube channel. Darn. That written, I can recommend this to my biology and environmental science students as well. Add in "Good Night Oppy," which I can suggest to my geology students, and that's four new recommendations. If I stretch to include "Working" because it examines the intersection between economy and society, which are aspects of sustainability, so I can refer my environmental science students, that's five recommendations. Welcome to blogging as professional development.

Previous posts about the 2023 Primetime and Creative Arts Emmy Awards

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