“So my message to you today is, may you never stop. May the likes of people like me continue to trust the likes of people like you so that you can continue to come in and you can shed light and dark places. So that we can be different. And we can be better.” — Principal Mauri Friestleben, accepting the 2020 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia Award for Love Them First

Directors of the duPont winning documentary Love them First, Lindsey Seavert and Ben Garvin, talk with Director of the duPont-Columbia Awards, Lisa Cohen (Serving Life) about their film. The documentary, built on unprecedented year-long access, is an intimate portrait of a North Minneapolis elementary school and its visionary principal. 

Seavert and Garvin describe the challenges of creating a feature length documentary while still fulfilling their obligations as reporters at a local, daily news outlet.

You can stream Love Them First: Lessons from Lucy Laney on Amazon Prime, YouTube, or go to www.lovethemfirst.com for clips, more information about the film’s main characters, and a schedule of theatrical screenings.
The 2020 duPont-Columbia Award ceremony took place on January 21st! Go to www.duPont.org to watch the full program. Check our FB page facebook.com/duPontColumbiaAwards