Randy Barbato and Fenton Bailey were honored with the Pioneer Award at the 30th annual International Documentary Association on Friday, December 30th. Click over to watch the reel played at the ceremony highlighting all of the amazing work the founding father’s of World of Wonder have created. Also read their acceptance speech.
Acceptance speech:
FENTON: Pharell Williams – who just last week got his star on Hollywood’s walk of fame outside our office – recently said of his success that its like a kite. And that when you fly a kite, the kite doesn’t fly itself; it’s the wind that lifts the kite off the ground. Thank you to everyone at World of Wonder, you truly are the wind beneath our wings.
RANDY: Thank-you Monica. Your strength is an inspiration. Many of our subjects have been shamed, bullied, misunderstood, or are just plain outsiders. And when you think about it we’re all outsiders. We’re all just a little bit weird, a little bit gay in our own special way. That’s what makes it a world of wonder.
FENTON: As Tammy Faye said, “We’re all made out of the same old dirt and God doesnt make any junk”. One of the highpoints of our career was when the The Eyes Of Tammy Faye premiered at Sundance. And sitting in the audience was the late great film critic Roger Ebert. Years later he wrote something that pretty much sums it all up: “I believe if, at the end of it all, we have done something to make others a little happier, and something to make ourselves a little happier, that is about the best we can do. We must try to contribute joy to the world.” Thank-you Sundance film festival for supporting our work over the years and making us a little – a lot – happier.
RANDY: And thank you to our amazing network partners – Bravo, E!, Fuse, Logo, VH1, and especially HBO. from Tammy Faye and Party Monster to Inside Deep Throat and The Strange History of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, Sheila Nevins has supported us – and berated us – through thick and thin. She has made us laugh until we cried, and made us cry until we laugh.
FENTON: The Scientologists have no idea who they are up against.
RANDY: When Sheila first commissioned us we were living in the East Village. Although we had no money we were part of something far more valuable; a vibrant downtown scene of artists and drag queens who inspire us to this day. It was there that we met our long time collaborator and dear friend of 30 years RuPaul. The very first time we saw him it was clear to us he was already a star. The world just needed to catch up.
FENTON – And the world has caught up… the art of drag is especially relevant today not only because it makes us happier and brings us joy, but also because it helps us not to take ourselves too seriously. The ability to laugh in the face of the tragedy and horror humanity inflicts on itself every day is the only sanity there is in a world gone crazy.
RANDY: When Michael Lumpkin Executive Director of IDA first told us we were getting this Pioneer award we thought it was a joke. Yes, we direct and produce feature documentaries, but we also produce – and love producing – television. We call it unscripted. Others call it reality. Some call it trash.
FENTON; But we believe stories are our shared universal language however they are told: scripted, unscripted… documentary, reality… short form, long form, any form! And not just however they are told, wherever they are seen: movie screens, TV screens, laptops cellphones. You can shoot, edit, distribute for next to nothing. Truly this is a golden age of storytelling.
RANDY: We can’t take credit for any of that. But the most pioneering thing we have done is stick around. We just refused to go away. That’s it. Here we are. Thank-you IDA for this inspiring award; we hope can stick around a few more years and truly earn it.
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