Mark Samels "A True Story"

SPRING HUMANITIES SYMPOSIUM KEYNOTE LECTURE 2016 SYMPOSIUM THEME: “Image”

Mark Samels is executive producer of “American Experience,” PBS’s flagship history series. Produced by WGBH Boston, “American Experience” is television’s most-watched and longest-running history series. Under Samels’ leadership, the series has been honored with nearly every industry award, including the Peabody, Primetime Emmys, the duPont-Columbia Journalism Award, Writers Guild Awards and Sundance Film Festival Audience and Grand Jury awards. In 2015, the series received its ninth Academy Award nomination for the critically acclaimed “Last Days in Vietnam.”

Samels has overseen the production of more than 115 films for “American Experience,” focusing on stories from America’s past that resonate in the world today. He has expanded both the breadth of subjects and the filmmaking style embraced by the series, allowing for more contemporary topics and more witness-driven storytelling. In addition to his public television work, Samels is a founding member of the the International Documentary Association and has served on the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Nonfiction Peer Group. A native of Wisconsin, he is a graduate of University of Wisconsin. In addition, Samels holds honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degrees from Emerson College and Elizabethtown College.

Sponsored by the Messiah College Center for Public Humanities

Free tickets are required for this event; to reserve, please contact the Messiah College Ticket Office at 717-691-6036 or order online at www.messiah.edu/tickets after Sept. 1.