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Documentary on St. Francis priest sex-abuse scandal wins Peabody Award

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
April 2, 2014

http://www.jsonline.com/entertainment/tvradio/documentary-on-st-francis-priest-sex-abuse-scandal-wins-peabody-award-b99238820z1-253553061.html

Oscar-winning filmmaker Alex Gibney is shown on the set of his documentary “Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God.” The film, about the priest sex-abuse scandal at St. John’s School for the Deaf in St. Francis, was among the winners of the 2013 Peabody Awards announced Wednesday.

Alex Gibney's documentary about the priest sex-abuse scandal at St. John's School for the Deaf in St. Francis was among the winners of the 2013 Peabody Awards announced Wednesday morning.

"Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God" — which examines the actions of Father Lawrence Murphy, who abused more than 200 deaf students at the school from the 1950s to the 1970s, and the Catholic Church's efforts to keep the scandal quiet — was called "harrowing and infuriating" by the Peabody committee.

The film, which had its U.S. premiere at the 2012 Milwaukee Film Festival, aired on HBO in 2013. Much of the story is told in compelling fashion by some of Murphy's victims — including a home movie of the now-grown victims confronting the priest.

"It was such a powerful piece of footage, we had to find a place in the narrative to make room for it," Gibney told Journal Sentinel film critic Duane Dudek before the 2012 Milwaukee Film Festival.

Other winners of the 2013 Peabody Awards — given for excellence in broadcasting, but also including web-centric content — announced Wednesday included ABC's "Scandal"; Netflix's "House of Cards" and "Orange Is the New Black"; AMC's "Breaking Bad"; public radio's "This American Life's" broadcast focusing on Chicago's Harper High School; Comedy Central's "Key & Peele"; several European-based dramas, including "Borgen" from Denmark, "Broadchurch" and "Orphan Black" from Britain, and "The Returned" from France; and the PBS series "The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross With Henry Louis Gates Jr."

 




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