Filmmakers Amit Madheshiya and Shirley Abraham have won the 2023 Rory Peck Award in the News Features category for their powerful Guardian Documentary The Great Abandonment, which follows the exodus of India’s migrant labourers during the 2020 covid lockdown.
Multimedia journalist Ahmer Khan, who is based in India and has worked extensively with the Guardian video news team, has also won the Rory Peck Trust Martin Adler Prize, which honours a local freelance journalist or field producer whose work with international media outlets has made a significant contribution to newsgathering. Ahmer’s recent video The Hunt for India’s Stolen Children investigated the rise in human trafficking in cyclone-hit east India.
The Rory Peck Awards highlight the significant contribution of freelance journalists to the international media industry and celebrate the most outstanding work produced each year. The News Features category recognises films that take an in-depth look at a story, beyond the immediacy of the news.
Filmed in Mumbai, The Great Abandonment reveals what life was like for 200m migrant labourers during the 2020 covid lockdowns. Many were stranded in India without wages, food and housing, some undertook long journeys to return to their home villages, while others, caught in limbo with their families, were forced to wait, living on the street or under flyovers they had once laboured to build.
The Rory Peck jury commented: “The Great Abandonment is an immersive and revealing insight into how devastating the covid lockdowns were for labourers and their families in India. The journalists showed bravery and resilience in giving a voice to the millions who found themselves on the fringes of society with nowhere else to turn.”
Amit Madheshiya and Shirley Abraham, co-directors The Great Abandonment, said:
“Winning the Rory Peck Award is an incredible honour for us. It is gratifying for our independent voice to be recognised and celebrated, even as dissenting voices are in peril all over the world. We feel encouraged to continue to tell critical stories of our time. And even as we know a poem cannot stop a war, it can still bear witness to this descent into the abyss for the present and the future. We are grateful to our fellow travellers at the Guardian, the Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting and Field of Vision, for their support in bringing this film to life.”
Lindsay Poulton, head of documentaries, Guardian News & Media, said:
“It is a privilege to work with independent filmmakers from around the world, they are our eyes and ears on a changing world. Shirley and Amit are brave film-makers, working the interaction of art and journalism. Their film, The Great Abandonment, is an important historical document.”
The Great Abandonment is available to watch for free on Guardian Documentaries.
The Judges said of Ahmer’s work, “It’s fearless reporting at its best.”
Ahmer Khan, multimedia journalist, said:
“I’d like to thank the Guardian, my editors and colleagues who have worked with me over the years. Without their support and guidance this win wouldn’t be possible. My deepest gratitude to the Rory Peck Trust and judges for honouring me with this award. I would like to dedicate this win to the brave journalists working in Gaza and who in the line of duty sacrificed their lives. Their unwavering commitment to journalism and reporting while trying to save themselves and their families is unmatched. This award is a tribute to them.”
Katie Lamborn, head of video, Guardian News & Media said:
“It is a real privilege to collaborate with a filmmaker and journalist as talented as Ahmer. He has an extraordinary eye for visual storytelling, combined with a fierce commitment to telling untold stories with compassion, insight and creativity.”
Ahmer Khan’s work and other news videos are available to watch for free on theguardian.com/video.
The full list of the 2023 Rory Peck award winners can be found here.
