Two years after the documentary she produced was released, Anjanette Levert received an unusual number of calls from the film’s main subject.
Perhaps because she was preparing for finals at Spelman University, where she is a film professor or because she’d just returned from a film festival and was exhausted, Levert said she didn’t immediately register this might be in regard to the Peabody Awards the film crew had been nominated for in April.
“It was the end of the school year, the end of the semester and we were trying to plan for next year,” she said.
That’s exactly what all the fuss was about, though.
Credit: Courtesy of Anjanette Levert
Credit: Courtesy of Anjanette Levert
Earlier this week, Levert traveled to Los Angeles with Dr. Karen Kinsell, the sole physician in Clay County for more than a decade, and director Matthew Hashiguchi to accept a Peabody for their film “The Only Doctor” in the public svvervice category.
The award, for excellence in impactful storytelling in electronic media, is a career highlight for the Atlanta native who has dedicated her career to fact-based storytelling about underserved communities in the South.
Raised in Audubon Forest, near Cascade Heights in southwest Atlanta, Levert said she was inspired to become a journalist after seeing the negative news coverage the area received.
“I was one of those nerdy kids who actually watched the news, and I was just like why is it that every time they (showed) southwest Atlanta it was just some gangbanging (or) something happening,” she said.
There was one positive impact local news had on her, though. “I was inspired by Monica Kaufman, and she was also quite gracious. We would see her at different places and she took time (to talk to us),” Levert said of the first woman and Black person to anchor the evening news in Atlanta.
While studying at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, Levert said she discovered documentary filmmaking and developed an interest in the format. In 1997, she began production on her first documentary. Released in 2000, “Shake It Up, Shake It Down” sought to tell a more nuanced story of the origins and controversy surrounding Freaknik, a boisterous spring break festival in Atlanta primarily attended by Black college students.
In 2006, Levert released the 23-minute documentary, “The Marriage Proposal,” during which she reflects on being a 35-year-old single Black woman through conversations with relationship experts, family and friends.
By the time Hashiguchi, director of “The Only Doctor,” suggested she join the film’s production team, Levert not only had experience as a documentarian, she’d also been working at Spelman since 2017. She’d lived elsewhere, including the Dominican Republic and New York, but said her time away had only renewed her interest in telling stories at home.
“I haven’t really been quiet about returning to turning to the South specifically to tell our stories and to build up a community of storytellers here because I am sick of people parachuting in with all of our money, telling our stories, maybe hiring one (production assistant) and then leaving,” she said.
Kinsell’s experiences as the sole doctor caring for residents in an impoverished, rural area felt important and timely. “The Only Doctor” not only examined health care disparities and the ways in which for-profit health care systems fail to serve marginalized communities, it also did so just as the COVID pandemic was beginning. Because of this, Levert said, the production faced challenges, including finding patients of Kinsell’s who were willing to be filmed outside of her clinic, but also adhering to social distancing guidelines while making a health documentary.
At the Peabody Awards, Hashiguchi delivered a speech on behalf of the group. As she stood on stage, though, Levert noticed a single tear fall from Kinsell’s eye. This was the highlight of the ceremony, she said.
The experience has proved beneficial to Levert’s students at Spelman, too. Levert said she often brings the lessons she learns on a production to students taking her Intro to Documentary Film, Black Cinema and Proposal Writing courses. The professor said she’s hoping to launch a virtual organization that will provide a communal space for documentarians, too. Tentatively titled Counter-narrative, the organization is poised to also include in-person events.
Levert said she could benefit from the space just as much as other documentarians who are constantly navigating a lack of funding and opportunities. “Documentary film is not having a moment,” she said “Two months ago, there was no Peabody happening. And I still had to think, is this what I should be doing with my life? I honestly just came to a point where I’m like, ‘I’m still going to make films; I’m obviously just going to make them with my money.’”
“The Only Doctor” is streaming online via PBS through the documentary series Reel South.
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