NJN - New Jersey Public Television and Radio


DATE:	March 3, 2006

CONTACT:	Arlene Carollo 973-377-3300; Email: ACarolloZGF@optonline.net

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

NJN’s John Barra Wins National Cine Golden Eagle Award

STATEWIDE – NJN Public Television and Radio is pleased to announce that John Barra is the recipient of a 2005 national CINE Golden Eagle Award for his role as producer of the HAVA: Be Powerful, Be Heard PSA Campaign. The campaign, which won in the category of Professional/Non-Fiction Division: PSAs & Commercials, is a series of Public Service Announcements (PSAs) produced in conjunction with the Office of the Attorney General to inform viewers about the importance of voting, whether for president or the local school board. HAVA is an acronym for the Help America Vote Act of 2002.

The winning entry showcased spots by Michael Douglas, former New Jersey Nets basketball player Kenny Anderson, Queen Latifah, Jason Alexander, and Billy Baldwin, among others. In addition to Barra, who produced the campaign, Tim Hufnell of NJN Public Television was the On-Line Editor.

The CINE Golden Eagle Awards recognize excellence in documentary and other informational film and video production. Past CINE Award recipients have included Steven Spielberg and George Lucas as well as Charles Guggenheim and Frederick Wiseman. The awards will be presented at a ceremony in April 2006 in Washington, D.C.

Barra has been a producer/director in the Media Productions department at NJN Public Television since 1992. Media Productions is the client services production arm of the network, producing both broadcast and non-broadcast projects for state, corporate and non-profit organizations. Barra has also recently become the Series Producer for NJN’s weekly business/job program, NJ Works.

Barra’s wide-range of producing credits includes the areas of entertainment, business, environmental studies, science and technology, wildlife management and even state government reassessment. Projects encompass videoconferences, public service announcements, live town meetings and educational, training videos. Among these are a weekly 30-minute magazine public affairs series, Classroom Close-Up, NJ (in it's 12th season); a yearly educational game show, The Rutgers Academic Challenge (which ran for six seasons); and the pilot for New Jersey, Inc., which became an Emmy-nominated weekly NJN business series.

Barra is also the recipient of the 1999, 2002 and 2003 Mid-Atlantic Emmy Awards and the 2002 and 2003 New York Emmy Awards for Classroom Close-up, NJ and has twenty-four Emmy Award nominations. Other awards include Axiem Awards, Communicator Awards, Aurora Awards, and two prestigious Telly Awards.

A member of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS) since 1993, he serves on the NATAS Board of Governors and is currently the organization’s Treasurer. He has produced the Mid-Atlantic Emmys for NATAS for the past four years.

Barra is a magna cum laude graduate of Trenton State College, now The College of New Jersey, where he received the Communications Award of the Year in 1992. He is currently an Adjunct Professor in the School of Communications. Born and raised in Roselle Park, New Jersey, he now resides in Bensalem, Pennsylvania in Bucks County.