Colette (Neirouz) Hanna ’04 Coordinating Producer Kirk Documentary Group

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Colette Hanna (Neirouz) ’04 has helped produce more than 25 films for FRONTLINE, the national news documentary series on PBS. She is the Coordinating Producer for Kirk Documentary Group based in Boston, a company that has made hundreds of films on behalf of the PBS series. She has spent nearly a decade working closely with Producer and mentor, Michael Kirk, who served as Senior Producer when FRONTLINE was created in 1983 and later created his own production company.

Neirouz Hanna influences a documentary film at every stage of the process — from negotiating project budgets and organizing production schedules to researching archival footage and photography to helping with final edits before broadcast. Of the 25 films she’s worked on, six were recognized with Emmy awards and one with a Peabody award. The BGSU Department of Journalism & Public Relations honored Neirouz Hanna with the 2009 Currier Young Professionals Award.

“My satisfaction comes simply from continuing to be here, continuing to learn, and continuing to be challenged by the stories,” Neirouz Hanna said. “I care greatly about the PBS mission and what we’re doing. I feel great pride to be a part of this type of work.”

Journalism appealed to her since high school, and during her early years as a BGSU student, she worked at the BG News and interned at a newspaper and TV station in her hometown of Cincinnati. But Neirouz Hanna’s vision of her journalism career changed as a student employee of WBGU-TV, the PBS affiliate on campus. She was a junior working on a live local news program when a FRONTLINE documentary called “The Taking of Logan Marr” happened to be airing on WBGU control room monitors. The detailed, thoughtful account of a child who died in foster care inspired her interest in long-form broadcast journalism.

“I did not realize until I worked at WBGU that journalism could be so much more than I had thought and that we can dig so much deeper,” she said. “I grew up with the local news and didn’t realize journalism could be bigger and better.”

Broadcast journalism faculty Dr. Katherine Bradshaw was a huge supporter who encouraged her to apply for a FRONTLINE internship (which later turned into a position with Kirk Documentary Group). Meanwhile, telecommunications faculty Dr. Tom Mascaro answered her frequent questions about documentary filmmaking.  She keeps in touch with both who, she said, “write and keep in touch with me about our films they watch on FRONTLINE.  It’s great to still be connected with them.”