MDC-TV Wins Six Honors From The Telly And Communicator Awards

Four MDC-TV productions recently won six honors—three Telly awards and three Communicator awards—for work generated last year.

The Communicator Awards were announced on May 10; the Telly Awards were announced on May 24.

Here are the awards:

• Gold Telly and Silver Communicator Awards for From Dreams to Reality.
• Bronze Telly and Silver Communicator Award for United We Stand.
• Gold Communicator Award for a video featuring Rising Black Scholars.
• Bronze Telly for CIRCA/MIA, a live performance produced by Live Arts Miami.

“When we get [an award], we really appreciate it and we really celebrate it,” said Ariel Rubalcava, the executive director and senior producer of MDC-TV. “I can’t help thinking that we’ve been lucky and that we have focused the efforts of this department to get this kind of recognition.”

CIRCA/MIA

CIRCA/MIA was a 28-minute episode that featured a live performance highlighting the effects of climate change from the perspective of children.

The CIRCA video features the voices and animated artwork of what kids think Miami will look like in 2050. The children’s parents performed the MIA dance as a reflection and response to their children.

Both performances were conducted outside of the Pérez Art Museum Miami last year on May 14 and 15. The dancers moved rhythmically around the statue of a head—Looking Into My Dreams, Awilda—created by Jaume Plensa. Parts of the film were projected onto the statue. 

“This work is definitely inspired by my children but I wanted it to be a postcard from children, from their generation to other communities beyond, about what Miami children are thinking and feeling,” said Sandra Portal-Andreu, the choreographer and director of the performances.

From Dreams to Reality, The Ruston Academy Story

The hour-long documentary focuses on the history of The Ruston Academy, an American school in Cuba. Founded in 1920, the bilingual school was recognized in 1959 as one of the best American schools outside the United States.

From Dreams to Reality was created by MDC-TV producer Jose Leal. He conducted interviews with former students from Mexico, California, Maryland, and Pennsylvania, among others. After gathering more than 20 interviews, he edited the documentary and wrote the script. 

The finished film was shown at the Ritz Carlton in Coconut Grove in November 2021 to more than 100 Ruston Academy alumni and family. 

“They were ahead of their time,” Leal said. “They had bilingual education. It was one of the first private schools to have boys and girls together and they had people from all over the world.” 

Rising Black Scholars 

The video featured the Rising Black Scholars program at MDC, which gives Black students an early start on their college education by providing free tuition for up to 30 credits, paying for other fees and providing resources. 

The four-minute video features students who are part of the program, their families and the speakers that were at the program’s induction ceremony. 

“It was extremely important to showcase our story to show our community how important it is to understand what resources there [are] for you and to help you stay in school,” said James Pierre, who was the producer and videographer for the project.

United We Stand

United We Stand, a 27-minute musical performance, is a sequel to Musically United and took place during the COVID-19 pandemic. It spotlights musicians from the Miami Dade College orchestra and across the world including places like Honduras, Panama and Romania. The musical was recorded separately and later synched to create the concert.

The first piece was River of the Last Valley, which won a Suncoast Regional Emmy in 2021, by Italian composer Michele Josia. The second piece was Ave Maria and the final performance was The Firebird by Igor Stravinsky.

The video includes commentary by Alberto Bade, MDC’s orchestra director, who served as producer and conductor. Barry Gordon, the chair of the School of Entertainment & Design Technology, was the host and producer. 

“Not being able to connect to audiences, not being able to connect with other musicians, that’s a huge loss for a musician during the pandemic,” Bade said. “The need to connect, the need to make music with other musicians, is what motivated me to come up with this project.” 

MDC-TV is broadcast on Comcast channel 78, Atlantic Broadband channel 78, AT&T U-Verse channel 99 and on Youtube.

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