October 9, 2021

BLOOMINGTON, MN – Like the pair of golden zig-zag wings gracing the Emmy statuette, lightning struck twice for a pair of Midwestern documentary filmmakers who earned their second regional Emmy Award Saturday night at the 22^ndUpper Midwest Regional Emmy Awards Gala at the Radisson Blu Mall of America. Tim Jacobson and George Howe from the La Crosse, Wis. / La Crescent, Minn. area earned the coveted television award as producers of the nature documentary, Decoding the Driftless. The award also names fellow producer and previous regional Emmy winner Rob Nelson along with first-time winner Jonas Stenstrom for his directorial role.

Decoding the Driftless had its commercial television premiere in 2020 in La Crosse, Wis. Since then, PBS stations across much of the United States, including as far away as California, Texas, New York, Florida, and Alaska, have aired the film, and its broadcast reach continues to grow.

The regional Emmy Award is part of a long line of accolades for Decoding the Driftless and its earlier film festival version coming from international and national film competitions, including in London, UK; Florence, Italy; New York, NY; Las Vegas, NV; and Los Angeles, California.

The film festival version of the documentary has been honored as either “Best Picture” or “Best Documentary” by Los Angeles Independent Film Festival Awards in Hollywood, Gold Movie Awards in London, UK, Festigious International Film Festival in Los Angeles, Filmmakers Connect Awards, Los Angeles Cinematography AWARDS, Beloit International Film Festival, Iowa Independent Film Festival, and Red Cedar Film Festival. Both the Los Angeles Independent Film Festival Awards and the New York Film Awards selected it for “Best Cinematography.” IndieFEST Film Awards in La Jolla, California, conferred a “Humanitarian Award of Distinction,” and WorldFest-Houston International Film Festival issued a Silver Remi Award to Decoding the Driftless. Also, the film was honored for “Outstanding Excellence” by the Docs Without Borders Film Festival, received the Titletown Jury Award and Audience Choice in the Green Bay Film Festival, was named a Finalist by the Florence (Italy) Film Awards, reached the Final List of Semi-Finalists at the jellyFEST Film Festival (Los Angeles, CA), was an official selection in the Accolade Global Film Competition (La Jolla, CA), and was recognized at the 2019 Wisconsin Governor’s Conference on Tourism in Wisconsin Dells.

“Walking the red carpet in both Hollywood and London for our film, and now receiving a regional Emmy Award, have been tremendous opportunities to draw positive attention to critically important landscape conservation issues,” said film producer George Howe. He added, “This is what we only dreamed of accomplishing.”

“It’s not just the number of awards that’s significant,” said film producer, cinematographer and Sustainable Driftless, Inc. president Tim Jacobson. “It’s the varied types of awards, too. We’ve been recognized for top-notch content, an engaging story, the artistry of the cinematography, and for the positive humanitarian impact in promoting care for our precious earth.”

“The first time I traveled from Sweden to visit the Driftless Area, I knew it was a special, magical place,” said Untamed Science, Inc.’s Jonas Stenstrom, the film’s director. “Capturing the scenic beauty and mysteries of the landscape on film has been a true joy.” He added, “We’re thrilled that our cinematographic efforts to encourage conservation in the ruggedly beautiful and precious Driftless Region landscape are being recognized with an Emmy Award.”

In the feature-length documentary Decoding the Driftless, viewers are taken on a wild ride of adventure above, on, and below the Driftless Region through this film of exploration. Soar over ancient, rugged bluffs, skim the surface of primordial rivers, venture deep underground to secret worlds, marvel at sacred archeological treasures, hang perilously over massive rock cliffs, and travel across time itself to explore and decipher ancient clues of the unglaciated Driftless Region landscape, with its captivating scenic beauty.

“From day one I predicted that this film would blow people’s socks off,” said Rob Nelson, president of Untamed Science and another of the film’s producers. “Based upon the enthusiastic reception from thousands of audience members, the huge TV broadcast distribution, numerous film festival awards, and now an Emmy Award, that has proven to be true.”

This Emmy Award comes seven years after Rob Nelson, George Howe, and Tim Jacobson received a regional Emmy in Chicago in 2014 for the similarly-themed documentary short, Mysteries of the Driftless.

Decoding the Driftless was produced through collaboration between two nonprofit organizations, Sustainable Driftless, Inc. and Untamed Science, Inc., with an outpouring of community support and a wide range of sponsoring organizations.

DVDs and Blu-ray discs of the film along with other merchandise can be purchased online at SustainableDriftless.org/store/ and in various retail outlets around the Driftless Region. In 2021, Sustainable Driftless released a streaming version of the film for rent, which can be found at www.vimeo.com/ondemand/decodingthedriftless.