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Norma Percy is an American-born,
and the Discovery Channel in 1994. Narrated by
accessed 22 May 2011
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Norma Percy is an American-born, documentary film
A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in te ...
maker and producer. The documentaries she has produced in collaboration with Brian Lapping have covered many of the crises of the 20th Century. In 2010, she was awarded the Orwell Prize
The Orwell Prize, based at University College London, is a British prize for political writing. The Prize is awarded by The Orwell Foundation, an independent charity (Registered Charity No 1161563, formerly "The Orwell Prize") governed by a boa ...
Special Prize for Lifetime Achievement.
Early life
Percy was born and raised inNew York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
. She studied politics at Oberlin College in Ohio, later studying for a master's degree at the London School of Economics
The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) is a public university, public research university located in London, England and a constituent college of the federal University of London. Founded in 1895 by Fabian Society members Sidn ...
. She then became a researcher at the House of Commons
The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. T ...
where she spent six years; in her time there, she worked as a researcher for the MP John Mackintosh, who recommended her to the Granada Television producer Brian Lapping when he was looking for a researcher for a documentary on the workings of Parliament called ''The State of the Nation''.
Career
Percy produced the Granada series ''End of Empire'' (1985), which explored the effects of the end of theBritish Empire
The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts e ...
in various former colonies, and worked with Lapping on the 1987 drama-documentary
Docudrama (or documentary drama) is a genre of television and film, which features dramatized re-enactments of actual events. It is described as a hybrid of documentary and drama and "a fact-based representation of real event".
Docudramas typi ...
''Breakthrough at Reykjavik'', a reconstruction of the Reykjavík Summit
The Reykjavík Summit was a summit meeting between U.S. President Ronald Reagan and General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev, held in Reykjavík, Iceland, on 11–12 October 1986. The talks collapsed at the l ...
between Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev in 1986.
After fifteen years at Granada, Percy joined the newly formed production company Brian Lapping Associates in 1988. (When that company later merged with Brook Associates in 1997, she was a founding director of the new company Brook Lapping.)
The Percy-produced documentary series '' Watergate'' aired on the BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...Daniel Schorr
Daniel Louis Schorr (August 31, 1916 – July 23, 2010) was an American journalist who covered world news for more than 60 years. He was most recently a Senior News Analyst for National Public Radio (NPR). Schorr won three Emmy Awards for his te ...
and directed by Mick Gold
Mick Gold (born Michael Gold, London, 7 August 1947) is a British documentary film maker, photographer and journalist, who has written for publications such as ''Creem'', '' Melody Maker'', and '' Let It Rock''.
He has produced and directed six e ...
, this five-part series chronicled the Watergate scandal
The Watergate scandal was a major political scandal in the United States involving the administration of President Richard Nixon from 1972 to 1974 that led to Nixon's resignation. The scandal stemmed from the Nixon administration's contin ...
and featured exclusive interviews with many of the key participants in the events, including H. R. Haldeman
Harry Robbins Haldeman (October 27, 1926 – November 12, 1993) was an American political aide and businessman, best known for his service as White House Chief of Staff to President Richard Nixon and his consequent involvement in the Watergate s ...
, John Ehrlichman
John Daniel Ehrlichman (; March 20, 1925 – February 14, 1999) was an American political aide who served as the White House Counsel and Assistant to the President for Domestic Affairs under President Richard Nixon. Ehrlichman was an important i ...
, John Dean
John Wesley Dean III (born October 14, 1938) is an American former attorney who served as White House Counsel for U.S. President Richard Nixon from July 1970 until April 1973. Dean is known for his role in the cover-up of the Watergate scandal ...
and G. Gordon Liddy as well as former President Gerald Ford. The series won an Emmy Award.
'' The Death of Yugoslavia'' (1995), with Lapping as co-producer, covered the events that led to the collapse of the former Yugoslavia and the aftermath. The series again contained interviews with many of the major participants, including Slobodan Milošević and Radovan Karadžić
Radovan Karadžić ( sr-cyr, Радован Караџић, ; born 19 June 1945) is a Bosnian Serb politician, psychiatrist and poet. He was convicted of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes by the International Criminal Tr ...
. The series won a BAFTA Award as Best Factual Series for 1995. ''The Balkans'' were revisited in the 2001 series ''The Fall of Milošević'' which dealt with the fall from power of the Serbian leader.
Awards and recognition
Percy, along with Brian Lapping, was awarded the Alan Clarke Award (for outstanding contribution to Television) at the 2002 BAFTA awards. Percy was made a Fellow of the Royal Television Society in 1999 and was awarded the Judges Prize by that society at the 2010 RTS Awards. In 2009, at theGrierson Awards
The Grierson Awards are awards set up by The Grierson Trust to recognise innovative and exciting documentary films, created to commemorate the life and work of the pioneering Scottish documentary filmmaker John Grierson.
The inaugural Awards w ...
, she, along with colleagues from the Brook Lapping production company, won the ''Best Documentary Series'' award for ''Iran and the West''; Percy also given the Trustee's Prize by the Grierson Trust for her contributions to documentary film over the previous 30 years. The ''Special Prize for Lifetime Achievement'' was given to her at the Orwell Prize
The Orwell Prize, based at University College London, is a British prize for political writing. The Prize is awarded by The Orwell Foundation, an independent charity (Registered Charity No 1161563, formerly "The Orwell Prize") governed by a boa ...
ceremony in 2010.
In 2009, ''The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' wrote of Percy: "Her documentaries stand out for their seriousness, but most of all for the extraordinary range of people who agree to appear on them. These programmes do not depend on one celebrity autobiography, or a handful of journalistic talking heads; they interrogate players from all sides with a respect for complexities that demands concentration".
Personal life
In 2004, she married the geneticist Steve Jones; the couple had lived together since 1977.'JONES, Prof. (John) Stephen', Who's Who 2011, A & C Black, 2011; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 2010 ; online edn, Oct 201accessed 22 May 2011
/ref>
Filmography
*'' Inside Europe: Ten Years of Turmoil'' (2019) *''Inside Obama's White House'' (2016) *''The Iraq War'' (2013) *'' Putin, Russia and the West'' (2012) *'' Iran and the West'' (2009) *'' Israel and the Arabs: Elusive Peace'' (2005) *''Endgame in Ireland'' (2001) *''The Fall of Milošević (2001) *'' The American Experience'' - ''Nixon's China Game'' episode producer (2001) *'' The Death of Yugoslavia'' (1995) *'' Watergate'' (1994) *''Timewatch
''Timewatch'' is a long-running British television series showing documentaries on historical subjects, spanning all human history. It was first broadcast on 29 September 1982 and is produced by the BBC.
The ''Timewatch'' brandname is used as a ...
''
*''Countdown to War
''Countdown to War'' is a television film made in 1989 as a co-production by Granada Television and PBS. It recounts the events that occurred between 15 March 1939, when the German army commanded by Adolf Hitler invaded Czechoslovakia and created ...
'' (1989)
*''End of Empire'' (1985)
References
External links
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Percy, Norma Year of birth missing (living people) Living people American documentary film producers Businesspeople from New York City Oberlin College alumni BAFTA winners (people) Film producers from New York (state) American women documentary filmmakers 21st-century American women