A High Note for a Highbrow Career: Sheila Nevins Celebrates Oscar Nom as She Ends 5-Year Run at MTV Documentary Films (EXCLUSIVE)
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Sheila Nevins has produced documentaries for most of her professional life. But at 84, she’s still notching career firsts.
Last month, Nevins added “Oscar-nominated director” to her résumé, having landed her first nod for co-directing the short “The ABCs of Book Banning” with Trish Adlesic and Nazenet Habtezghi.
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Nevins’ first Oscars as a nominee take place at the same time she is wrapping up her run as the head of MTV Documentary Films. Nevins joined the company in 2019 after 38 years at HBO.
“I went there to raise the bar for the intellectual quotient of what MTV could produce in the documentary arena,” Nevins says. “I did highbrow and lowbrow at HBO, but when I got to MTV, I just did highbrow.”
On Nevins’ watch, MTV produced 40 docs and landed five Oscar nominations, including a feature doc bid this year for “The Eternal Memory.”
“Sheila Nevins is an extraordinary storyteller, pioneer and mensch,” says Chris McCarthy, president and CEO of Showtime/ MTV Entertainment Studios. “She continues to give countless generations the gift of understanding, laughter and love through the stories she tells.”
The matchmaking between Nevins and MTV came through MTV Communications head Liza Burnett Fefferman, who worked with Nevins on the 2014 Oscar-winning feature doc “Citizenfour.” Nevins will continue to partner with MTV on selected projects.
“Anyone who knows Sheila, knows that she can’t sit still so the fact that we got five years with her all to ourselves is both a professional and personal career highlight,” says Fefferman, who oversees the documentary wing with Nina Diaz, chief content officer for MTV Entertainment Group. “No one is more fiercely committed, dogged and passionate.”
Nevins was inspired to pick up the camera on “The ABCs of Book Banning” after watching 100-year-old Grace Linn on MSNBC protesting book banning in Florida.
“I thought, this is the microcosm of the downfall of American democracy, which is taking away from children the right to read about different races, different sexual [orientations], the history of war and the history of racism,” says Nevins. “It’s about to be an election year,” she thought to herself, “and I have to make some contribution and not let the world fall apart.”
Nevins’ contributions have earned her 32 Emmy Awards — the most in Emmy history for an individual — and 42 Peabody Awards. She has helped shape the careers of such acclaimed filmmakers as Alex Gibney, Liz Garbus and Joe Berlinger.
“I didn’t know anything about docus when I first started,” Nevins says. “Then when I saw the Maysles brothers’ films and some of Barbara Kopple’s stuff, I thought, ‘Oh, documentaries can be about real people, and they can be dramatic. They don’t have to be intellectual and just appeal to the 1%.’”
Documentary helmer Sam Pollard credits Nevins with “changing the whole landscape in terms of embracing doc filmmakers with vision and great stories to tell.” He worked with Nevins and Spike Lee on HBO’s “4 Little Girls” (1997) and “When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts” (2006). “She was one of the best executive producers I ever worked with,” Pollard says. “I didn’t always agree with her, but she was always on the nose.”
Nevins will remain with MTV until the end of March, when her contract expires. In addition to writing a memoir, Nevins will serve as an executive producer on several independently made documentaries.
“I might be dying, but I’m not retiring,” Nevins says.
INDELIBLE STORIES
The veteran producer picks a few favorites from her long list of credits.
‘Saving Pelican 895’ (2011)
The 39-minute doc tracks the rehab of a single pelican rescued after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The moment of truth arrived when the pelican was returned to the wild. Producers “didn’t know if he would get up and fly or not, but then he lifted his little wings up and soared,” Nevins recalls.
‘Paradise Lost’ Trilogy (1996, 2000, 2011)
Nevins hired directors Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky to investigate the case of three Arkansas teens accused of murder. Two decades and three documentaries later, the men were released from prison thanks in part to questions raised by the HBO docs.
‘Wishful Drinking’ (2010) / ‘Bright Lights’ (2016)
Nevins worked with Carrie Fisher to adapt her Broadway show “Wishful Drinking.” Later she collaborated with Fisher and her mother, Debbie Reynolds. “‘Bright Lights’ was a love story,” says Nevins. “Carrie wanted to make it for Debbie, and Debbie wanted to make it for Carrie.”
‘When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts’ (2006)
Spike Lee’s four-part docuseries renders the verdict on Hurricane Katrina, the worst natural disaster in U.S. history. Lee “didn’t need to make a documentary, but he needed to make this documentary,” says Nevins.
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