“We are very pleased that Sputnik Mania has joined the list of previous award winners,” said David Sheehan, Director of ABCNEWS VideoSource. “David Hoffman is one of the true masters of documentary filmmaking, and the skill and artistry with which he uses archival imagery to construct this film, as well as the amazing quality of the footage he unearthed, brings the story of Sputnik to life with great immediacy, drama and impact.” Sputnik Mania, a film by David Hoffman, tells the story of the Soviet Union’s launch of the world’s first satellite and what happened to America during the following year. Initially regarded with wonder and awe, Sputnik was soon widely viewed as a step closer to nuclear war. Though Hoffman pored through thousands of hours of archival footage to create the film, because of the sometimes-superficial nature of newsreel coverage from that period, he was initially skeptical that the footage itself would be a central component of his film.

“The idea of archival footage wasn't really where I began,” said Hoffman. “I had little hope that the footage would give me what I needed. I thought I was going to have to recreate a lot of things, use a lot of talking heads and really struggle.” Hoffman and his three-person team, including producer Eric Reid and editor John Vincent Barrett, cast a wide net in their archival research, relying on YouTube, Ebay and other innovative channels to locate and obtain previously lost and never-before-seen footage from the 1950s. “The original story I was going to tell changed based on what I saw in the footage,” said Hoffman. “For example, I did not realize how strongly the leading Democrats and military leaders attacked President Eisenhower. The interviews with military leaders and political leaders right after the launch of our first satellite, indicating they were pushing hard for weapons in space, which I had read about but did not expect to find on film, not only proved the story I was trying to tell, but carried it further than I had thought."

Sputnik Mania will be honored at the IDA Awards Gala, which will take place on December 7, 2007 in Los Angeles.

Web: www.sputnikmania.com  -  www.thrivingarchives.com  -  www.abcnewsvsource.com