BYU documentary filmmakers could bring home Emmy

BYU film professor Brad Barber will be in the audience tonight at the Lincoln Center in New York for the 30th Annual News and Documentary Emmy Awards ceremony hoping to hear his name called.

Barber and his colleagues have been nominated for their work on the HBO documentary "Resolved," which examines the highly competitive world of high-school debate.

Barber is nominated for his editing work, along with fellow BYU alumnus Greg Whiteley, the editor and director of the film. The movie also is nominated for outstanding long-form documentary.

"Being nominated for an Emmy is not something I ever really thought would happen to me," says Barber, who did his graduate work at the University of Southern California's School of Cinematic Arts. "It feels sort of like a validating nudge to keep working and trying."

Barber served as an editor, cinematographer and associate producer on the documentary project that follows two high-school debate teams — one from an upper-class Texas school and one from an inner-city school in Southern California — through two years of competition.

BYU's campus is featured in a part of the film when one of the debate teams visits for a competition.

News and Documentary Emmys will be presented in 33 categories, including Outstanding Individual Achievement in a Craft: Editing, the one Barber and his colleagues are nominated in.

They will compete against two documentaries from the National Geographic Channel — "The Devil Came on Horseback" and "National Geographic Explorer: Gorilla Murders" — as well as the Travel Channel's "Wild China: Shangri-La" and PBS's "P.O.V.: Soldiers of Conscience."

Barber and Whitley, who directed the 2005 documentary "New York Doll," are both alumni of BYU's Theatre and Media Arts Department.

"Ironically, though, that common ground had nothing to do with our working together — we had never met at a church or a BYU alumni function before," Barber said. "Having said that, it was really rewarding to work closely with someone who shares your same convictions."

In addition to his work for HBO, Barber has credits on ESPN, Discovery Channel, Showtime, PBS, HGTV, Current TV and the Documentary Channel. He joined the faculty at BYU in 2007 and teaches documentary and new-media production.