Marcus Harun to premiere new documentary ‘Essential Journalists’ Oct. 20

‘ESSENTIAL JOURNALISTS: HOW CORONAVIRUS CHANGED TV NEWS’

TIMELY DOCUMENTARY ABOUT REPORTERS DEALING WITH COVID-19 TO BE RELEASED NEXT WEEK: TUE. OCT. 20

Free film to be released online at EssentialJournalists.com

Independent documentary from award-winning MSNBC TV news producer Marcus Harun.

Featuring reporters, anchors, producers and photographers from coast to coast: AZ, CA, CO, CT, DC, FL, IL, LA, MI, NC, NY, OR, PA, RI, SC, TX, & VA.

Addressing the emotional toll the pandemic has had on those reporting the vital news everyday.

Watch the trailer now. Media screener available upon request.

NEW YORK – The powerful new documentary “Essential Journalists: How Coronavirus Changed TV News,” from award-winning television producer Marcus Harun, will premiere for free online streaming on EssentialJournalists.com beginning on Oct. 20, 2020.

“Essential Journalists” goes behind-the-scenes with reporters around the U.S. to find out how they are coping with the pandemic — including losing loved ones — while reporting on the horror themselves.

Harun, a TV producer at MSNBC, created this independent film to document the seismic shift in the journalism industry.

“News is not the same as it was a year ago,” said Marcus Harun, the Executive Producer of “Essential Journalists.” “Reporters are working from home, officials are holding press conferences on facetime, and anchors are reporting on the Coronavirus death toll — while dealing with deaths in their own family. I was shocked by COVID-19’s impact on journalism and that’s why I created this film.”

“Essential Journalists” features interviews from more than 30 news reporters, anchors, photographers, producers, and managers from Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Louisiana, Michigan, North Carolina, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia, and Washington, DC.

“This is a story that has to be told,” Harun said. “The reporters are essential workers telling us what we need to know during this pandemic — but we have not yet heard the stories of those reporters’ lives.”

Ahead of its on-demand release, “Essential Journalists” had its world premiere at the Society of Professional Journalists Conference in September. The 18-minute film will be published on Quintus Studios’ “Free Documentary” YouTube channel, with more than 1.6 million subscribers.

The film will be available to the public at EssentialJournalists.com on Oct. 20 at 12 p.m. eastern time.

Synopsis

Armed with 6-foot microphone poles, mask-clad reporters are filming interviews through windows to tell the stories of their communities, while worrying what illness they may bring back to their families. National news producer Marcus Harun remotely interviews dozens of journalists from across the country about how the coronavirus impacted their jobs and the frightening reality of heading out into the danger zone to report vital information to the public. Some of the country’s most-watched news programs are being broadcast out of the anchor’s basements as the industry adopted work-from-home plans for the first time. At the national level, a CNN anchor continued to host his show while suffering from the virus, and CBS lost a producer to COVID-19. In local news, producers grapple with limited resources to telecommute and anchors struggle to babysit their children during live newscasts. This film about social distancing was produced, edited and completed all while social distancing from home in a New York apartment.

The film is not affiliated with MSNBC.

About The Executive Producer

Marcus Harun is a journalist with experience working in ten newsrooms. He’s a news producer at MSNBC in New York, where he produces interviews with presidential candidates and congressional leaders and has written breaking news scripts for nearly every MSNBC anchor including Brian Williams, Craig Melvin, Andrea Mitchell, and Alicia Menendez. Before moving to New York, he worked in local news for five years. As Executive Producer of FOX Connecticut’s 7-hour morning show, he led a team of 25 reporters, anchors and producers and grew ratings 200% in one year. He earned an MBA and a BA in journalism from Quinnipiac University. He grew up in Hamden, CT and now lives in New Rochelle, NY with his wife, Rabiah.