By Jade Veronique V. Yap

A Thousand Cuts, the documentary film that follows the story of Nobel Peace Prize recipient, and Rappler CEO Maria Ressa, was recognized as Outstanding Social Issue Documentary at the News and Documentary Emmys.

The documentary, released in 2020 and directed by Filipino-American filmmaker Ramona Diaz, follows Ressa and the news outlet Rappler as they struggle for press freedom during the administration of former president Rodrigo Duterte.

The documentary showed the challenges Rappler faced in covering the Duterte administration, including Ressa’s arrest for cyber libel in 2019 and Rappler’s Pia Ranada being banned from Malacañang, where she was assigned as a beat reporter.

The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2020 and won Best Documentary at the Gotham Awards in 2021. In June, it received the George Foster Peabody Award for Documentary.