Last week, April 6th, 2008, The 51st Annual New York Emmy Awards Ceremony in New York City brought celebration and honor to Buffalo, NY as one of its own was honored and awarded an Emmy Award in the category of best News Special for 2007.

The Emmy Award winner is Chris Gallant, Directing/Editing for the news documentary They Made a Mistake: the Anthony Capozzi Story that originally aired July 7, 2007. (WGRZ-TV).

The director is a native of Buffalo, NY and is a journalist, filmmaker and Director of Photography for special projects at WGRZ-TV. Gallant received his Masters of Fine Arts Degree from the University at Buffalo’s Department of Media Study. He presently teaches a class a documentary film production course at University at Buffalo and serves on the board of directors of Squeaky Wheel, Buffalo’s media art center.

They Made a Mistake: the Anthony Capozzi Story is based on the true story of Anthony Capozzi, a schizophrenic man, who in the 1980’s was sentenced to life for two rapes that he did not commit. It is the first feature length, high definition documentary for WGRZ-TV. Anthony would languish at the Attica Correctional Facility for over two decades and then DNA evidence from the case that was tested twenty-two years later proving that Capozzi was not responsible for the rapes. One year ago this week Capozzi was freed from prison.

“This was an important story to tell.” said Gallant, “All of the hard work, long hours and the many nights sleeping on the floor in the attic of the station, were well worth it. Not only were we recognized for the work that we did by winning the Emmy Award, but were able to highlight a poignant human story demonstrating the injustice that is sometimes dealt out by our legal system”.

Gallant’s career spans over 16 years and around the country. He has worked at stations WRDW-TV/ Augusta, GA, WTOL-TV/Toledo, OH, WKBW-TV/Buffalo, NY and now at WGRZ-TV/Buffalo, NY. Gallant will present at the Interactives session in the Thursday Evening at Princeton event during the NMC Summer conference 2008. His presentation title is Documentary Filmmaking as an Instructional Tool: Challenges and Possibilities.