Emmys race: 'Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields,' 'Dear Mama,' and more heat up documentary categories

Emmy voters will see the stories of Brooke Shields and the late Tupac Shakur among others.

ByEvan Wyno OTRC logo
Friday, August 25, 2023
Emmys race: 'Aftershock,' 'Dear Mama,' heat up documentary categories
Emmy nominations spotlight on the environment, race and life's big lessons.

LOS ANGELES -- Environmental causes, racial tensions and life lessons are all spotlighted in this year's Emmy nominations for outstanding documentary.

During its first year of eligibility, Onyx Collective has secured four Emmy nominations - three for "The 1619 Project" and one for "Aftershock." Both projects, streaming on Hulu, explore life within the United States and throughout its history, offering insights through the lens of Black Americans.

ABC News also received its first-ever primetime Emmy Award nomination for "Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields," streaming on Hulu. Shields opens up about her at-times distressing childhood experiences in the Hollywood spotlight, "It's really just made a conversation possible and for everybody to voice their opinion and that's been cathartic but also really just an education," Shields says.

"Dear Mama," an F-X documentary, streaming on Hulu, is up for two Emmys. This five-part series centers on the parallel lives of rapper Tupac Shakur and his activist mother, Afeni.

National Geographic has two projects nominated in the documentary categories. "The Territory" follows the emotional fight for land in Brazil between indigenous people and settlers who are burning down the Amazon for farmland. "Secrets of the Elephants" gives us a stunning inside view of life among some of the most intelligent animals in the world."

Another Nat Geo documentary, "Life Below Zero," is heating up - thanks to two Emmy nominations in the Unstructured Reality Program category.