Award-winning team behind 'Nibulaysir' talks about winning the Maeda Award

“GMA News TV's “Reel Time” wins the prestigious Maeda Award at the 2014 Japan Prize for its “Nibulaysir" episode.

 

The Japan Prize was established in 1965 by the NHK as a competition to encourage higher standards in audiovisual content for education and aid the development of educational broadcasting around the world. The Maeda Award is given to excellent work dealing with issues in a producer’s country or region, which enlightens and encourages people toward finding solutions. Winners get a trophy and a check for $2000.

 

The last time GMA Network brought home a Japan Prize Trophy was in 1998 for “Batibot,” a co-production with the Philippine Children’s Television Association.

 

“Nibulaysir” chronicles the story of Maribel, a 25-year old mother of three who decides to enroll in Grade 1 after being called ignorant by her 7-year old daughter. Through Maribel's point of view, the documentary highlights the value of basic literacy and how much it can change a person's life.

 

Award winning team

 

“Nibulaysir”, the award-winning Reel Time documentary happens to have been created by the same group who created the Peabody and UNICEF award winning documentary “Salat”, headed by Program Manager Nowell Cuanang and Executive Producer Sharon Masula. What do awards like this mean for a production team?

 

“Awards like this are a testament that we’re doing something right. We tell the story of our subjects, expose the issues and hope for change. Even if we don’t directly affect the lives of our subjects, at least we know our audiences are learning from our stories judging from their reactions on social media. It is an honor that we are being recognized for our work by other countries,” shares Sharon.

 

At the heart of it: a good story

 

Winning The Maeda Award was the farthest thing from Nowell’s mind when Sharon pitched the idea for “Nibulaysir”.

 

“Years of experience in producing documentaries have given us the ability to gauge whether we have a powerful story that would make an impact.  Maribel’s story was one of them. It reminded me of one of my favorite movies by Alejandro Innaritu called Biutiful. So I shared the movie to Shao so she can attack the story a certain way. And the team delivered on the powerful storytelling,” shares Nowell. “You just have a feeling that you will inspire people. That's the most important thing to us at ‘Reel Time.’”  

 

Raising the bar

 

With the Maeda award, the standards of “Reel Time” have to turn up a notch.

    

“Even if you win all the most prestigious awards, there's always room for improvement. You cannot be complacent. You have to keep learning something new. It's like film. You always have to innovate. You always have to create something different,” says Nowell. “Aside from informing and making people aware of the social injustices happening in our society, we challenge ourselves by finding ways we can help our audience. We always keep that in mind.”

 

“Reel Time” airs every Sunday night at 8 PM only on GMA News TV Channel 11.