The Oscars finally created a documentary category with their 14th ceremony. This was specifically for short documentaries. Churchill’s Island beat out 10 other titles to be named the first winner. The same year, two “features” were honored with Special Academy Awards. But that wasn’t all. Short documentaries also won in two other categories, making the Best Documentary (Short Subject) category seem less distinct. Of Pups and Puzzles won the Academy Award for Best Short (One-Reel), and Main Street on the March! won the Academy Award for Best Short (Two-Reel). Both were produced and narrated by John Nesbitt, who also won two years earlier in the Best Short Subject (One-Reel) category with the nonfiction film That Mothers Might Live.
H. Paul Moon is a filmmaker based in New York City and Washington, D.C. whose works concentrate on the performing arts. Major films include “Sitka: A Piano Documentary” about the craftsmanship of Steinway pianos, “Quartet for the End of Time” about Olivier Messiaen’s transcendent WWII composition, and an acclaimed feature film about the life and music of American composer Samuel Barber that premiered on PBS. Moon has created music videos for numerous composers including Moondog, Susan Botti and Angélica Negrón, and three opera films set in a community garden. His film “The Passion of Scrooge” was awarded “Critic's Choice” by Opera News as a “thoroughly enjoyable film version, insightfully conceived and directed” with “first-rate and remarkably illustrative storytelling.” Further highlights include works featured in exhibitions at the Nevada Museum of Art and the City Museum of New York, PBS television broadcasts, and best of show awards in over a dozen international film festivals.
