EDITING INSTRUCTOR RECEIVES MAJOR AWARD

Production adjunct instructor Kate Amend, ACE, received the inaugural International Documentary Association Award for Outstanding Documentary Editing on December 9. She was honored at the 21st Annual IDA Distinguished Documentary Achievement Awards Gala Benefit at the Directors Guild of America Theater. Amend has compiled some 25 non-fiction film credits since launching her career during the late 1980s, including the two Oscar®-winning documentary features INTO THE ARMS OF STRANGERS: Stories of the Kindertransport (2001), and THE LONG WAY HOME (1998). INTO THE ARMS OF STRANGERS also earned Amend the 2001 American Cinema Editors’ Eddie Award for Best Edited Documentary Film. Her credits also include BEAH:  A BLACK WOMAN SPEAKS;  PEACE BY PEACE;  WOMEN ON THE FRONTLINES;  PANDEMIC:  FACING AIDS; ON TIPTOE: GENTLE STEPS TO FREEDOM; TOBACCO BLUES; ASYLUM, and DANGER:  KIDS AT WORK, among others.  Amend has also been teaching editing in a documentary filmmaking class at USC for the past 12 years.  The annual IDA Awards Gala is designed to recognize and inspire the pursuit of excellence.