CityU professor produces award-winning documentary

A documentary line produced by Ms Nancy Tong, Assistant Professor and Industry Liaison with the School of Creative Media (SCM), has won a Peabody Award, the most renowned prize in broadcast journalism. HBO's Cancer: Evolution to Revolution won the award for the informative and positive way the programme deals with cancer.

The two-and-a-half hour documentary weaves together the stories of several individuals and their family's experience with cancer. It follows four cancer patients across the US as they navigate, with their physicians, the choices and decisions regarding treatment.

HBO's Cancer: Evolution to Revolution is designed to help viewers look at cancer in a new way—it is often preventable and treatable," said Ms Tong. She said the filmmakers realized that with so many breakthroughs in cancer research, information becomes easily outdated. Rather than offering information on the latest cancer treatment, they chose to inform viewers on how to access information with phone numbers and Web site addresses of government agencies and health organizations that provide up-to-date information on cancer treatment and research.

Ms Tong's role as line producer of the project means she was involved in all aspects of production, from finding patients to be interviewed, to hiring the crew and controlling both the scheduling and budget of the documentary. Cancer: Evolution to Revolution took three years to produce, including one year spent on research alone.

The Peabody Award winners were announced on 29 March and will be presented on 21 May.