San Francisco, CA - Media Factory's Marissa Aroy and Niall McKay garnered an Emmy award for their documentary, "Sikhs in America," on Saturday evening at the Northern California region of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. Produced by the PBS station, KVIE Channel 6 in Sacramento, the documentary looks at Sikhs in their daily lives in the US, looking inside Sikh temples and work, home and love lives. The Emmy was awarded to the filmmaking duo in the category of Best Historic/Cultural Program.
As Marissa Aroy and Niall McKay walked up to accept their award at the black-tie event at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco, California, the screen onstage played the opening of their documentary. During their acceptance speech, McKay stated, "We want to thank the Sikh community for everything they did to help us make this program." Aroy added, "And we want to thank KVIE for allowing us to produce this program with them, and to the Center for Asian American Media. Thank you for this honor."
Aroy and McKay also wished to express their gratitude to Dr. Jasbir Kang along with the organization, the Punjabi American Heritage Society for all their help, especially to the recently departed, Ted Sibia. "This award is dedicated to Ted Sibia, whose work was to educate and enlighten people about Sikh American history," says Aroy.
The program will be shown during the month of May in select PBS stations across the US. In the San Francisco Bay Area, the program will air on Monday, May 19th, at 7:30 pm on Channel 9 KQED.
Please go to the Mdia Factory website for more information on screening times, video and to contact the filmmakers.