Documentary featuring CCU lecturer wins Emmy

The documentary film “Manhunt: The Inside Story of the Hunt for Bin Laden,” featuring extensive interviews with Cindy Storer, CCU lecturer of politics and geography, won a Primetime Emmy Award for “Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special” at the 65th Annual Creative Arts Emmy Awards.

The main event was held at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles on Sunday, Sept. 15, but the Emmy win for “Manhunt” took place a week prior in a non-televised ceremony, where the film was also nominated for “Outstanding Cinematography for Nonfiction Programming.”

 “The director [Greg Barker] sent us an email about the nomination,” says Storer, who did not attend the ceremony in California. “I found out about the award on Google after the ceremony.”

The documentary is based on the nonfiction book by Peter Bergen, “Manhunt: The Ten-Year Search for Bin Laden From 9/11 to Abbottabad” and documents the CIA’s search for Osama bin Laden, starting in 1995 until his death in 2011. Storer worked as a CIA analyst from 1986 until 2007 and was integral in designing a model for connecting and ranking levels of radicalization in political and militant groups like al-Qaida. Interviews with Storer and three other CIA officers are used as a narrative for the film.

Emmy awards are given to the director and the producers. But Storer has been involved in promoting the film, including traveling to the Sundance Film Festival for its premiere in January 2013. Since then, it has been shown on HBO, CNN, and was released on video in October. After the film aired, Storer was interviewed extensively in the national media about her involvement in the CIA and the search for Bin Laden.