Above: Watch the trailer for KCET’s Emmy Award-winning series The Migrant Kitchen.
– by Katie Dunham
CalArts School of Film/Video alumni Juan Devis (MFA 96) and Kelly Parker (MFA 07) took home multiple trophies from the 69th Los Angeles Area Emmy Awards at North Hollywood’s Saban Media Center on Saturday, July 22.
Representing Southern California independent public television station KCET – which, “crushed the competition,” as reported by Variety – Devis, Parker, and their team took home trophies in 10 total categories.
Both Parker, an independent documentary filmmaker, and Devis, KCET’s Chief Creative Officer, won awards alongside colleagues in the “Arts” category for producing Third L.A. with Architecture Critic Christopher Hawthorne and the “L.A. Local Color” category for producing The Migrant Kitchen. Devis was also part of the winning team in the “Entertainment Programming” category for Fallujah Opera: Arts, Healing, and PTSD.
“Third L.A. with Architecture Critic Christopher Hawthorne” examines the city’s urban reinvention through its architecture, transportation, planning and changing demographics.
Also nominated for both the 2017 James Beard Awards and The Webby Awards, The Migrant Kitchen explores the exciting Los Angeles food scene through the eyes of those transforming it, a new generation of chefs inspired by the immigrant experience.
Fallujah Opera: Art, Healing, and PTSD chronicles the process of transforming USMC Sergeant Christian Ellis’ story into the first opera about the Iraq war, produced by the Long Beach Opera.
Having joined the station 10 years ago as a freelance producer, Devis has helped expand KCET’s programming into its current digital web platform. Launched in 1964, KCET, channel 28, is the most-watched public television station in Southern California and the second most-watched public television station in the nation.
The Los Angeles Area Emmy Awards are a symbol of peer recognition celebrating outstanding content in the Los Angeles Area. These awards—as well as the Primetime Emmy Awards—are presented by the Television Academy, a professional organization based in Los Angeles with over 22,000 members representing all areas of television production and administration. Winners are chosen by active Television Academy members within the Los Angeles Area Peer Group and nationally.
A full list of winners can be found on the Emmys website, as well as an archived webcast of the ceremony.