Under African Skies

Paul Simon’s Grammy Award®-winning album Graceland – an irresistible and groundbreaking fusion of American and South African pop music — was an immediate hit when it was released in 1986. It also proved to be a lightning rod for controversy, after South African leaders protested that Simon had broken the cultural boycott of the nation’s oppressively racist apartheid regime. In the documentary Under African Skies , premiering at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival, Simon returns to South Africa, which formally ended apartheid in 1994 — 25 years after Graceland‘s release. Director Joe Berlinger (Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory ) follows Simon as he reunites with his South African collaborators, and revisits the controversy the album caused, while luminaries like Oprah Winfrey, Quincy Jones, Lorne Michaels, David Bryne and Sir Paul McCartney share their thoughts on what the album meant to them.

Christopher Awards 2013 
Television and Cable

Primetime Emmy Awards 2012 
Outstanding Sound Mixing for Nonfiction Programming

Nashville Film Festival 2012
Impact of Music Award

New York Festivals 2013
Grand Award: The Arts - Television - Documentary/Information Program

Newport Beach Film Festival 2012
Outstanding Achievement in Filmmaking: Music

SWSX Film Festival
24 Beats Per Second

Encounters South African International Documentary Festival  Best International Film

Silverdocs Documentary Festival 
Honorable Mention: Charles Guggenheim Symposium

Telly Awards 
TV Programs, Segments, or Promotional Pieces - Documentary TV Programs, Segments - Sound/Sound Design