Several times last winter, a van filled with film equipment and members of Syracuse University’s Office of Electronic Media Communications climbed slowly up the hill to George Saunders’ home. About halfway up, the van would start to slide back down the hill.

Getting up the hill to Saunders’ house was one of the biggest issues the film crew ran into while filming “The Book of Saunders,” a documentary about author and SU professor George Saunders, said the film’s director Stu Lisson. And less than a year after Lisson and the crew made their snowy struggle, the documentary was nominated for a New York Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Emmy award.

The nomination was one of three that EMC received this year. EMC is the SU office that creates many of the university’s professional video productions. The team produces university recruitment videos and various pieces honoring alumni. Although it is not a student led group, EMC’s four-person team, consisting of Lisson, Robert Gerbin, Meg Lynch and Francis DiClemente, often involves students in projects around campus.

EMC has received nominations for two different documentaries. “The Book of Saunders” received a nomination in the Arts Program/Special category and “Frank Langella: An Actor’s Actor” received a nomination in the Arts Program Feature/Segment. This is the third consecutive year the organization has received nominations.

Lisson and the rest of the team will have their fingers crossed on May 2, award day. New York is one of the most competitive regions to be nominated in as it has a large amount of members and a lot of entries, Lisson said.

Lisson has previously judged films in other regions, so he’s familiar with the process of whittling down a huge amount of entries to a few lucky nominees. He said the judges are looking for good structure, excellent production value and a really good story.

Lynch, senior producer and manager for EMC, said the documentaries presented a different type of challenge to the short videos that EMC often creates for the university. She said working on these longer documentaries allows the crew members to show more specific insights into the details of the lives of people they are highlighting.

“The interesting part was being able to let them tell their own story in their own words in more of a long form vehicle,” Lynch said.

Lisson described Saunders as an incredible writer and a generous person. The EMC documentary on Saunders aired on WCNY TV on May 16, 2014.

“We had a feeling when we were working with Saunders we had something special,” Lisson said. “We were blessed because it doesn’t get any better than having George Saunders be the subject of your (documentary).”

“The Book of Saunders” shows a brief look at the life and writing of George Saunders. Lisson said the piece offers an up close and personal look at the life of a fascinating person.

“It was a lot of fun to participate in,” said Saunders in an email. “What they accomplished, I think, was to take a fairly narrow subject (me and my work) and skillfully examine it, and make it into a bigger subject — the place of writing and teaching in the modern world.”

The second EMC production that has received a nomination nod is “Frank Langella: An Actor’s Actor.” The documentary shows the three-time Tony Award winner reflecting on his career on the stage and screen. The SU alumnus participates in the documentary where “he credits the SU drama department for giving him a foundation that allowed him to be so successful,” Lisson said.

Said Lisson: “That’s the really fun part of doing what we do — we get to work with the faculty and we get to work with the alumni and we try to help to tell the story of the university through some of these videos.”

Published on February 25, 2015 at 12:01 am

Contact Rachel: rcgilber@syr.edu