Yick Wo and the Equal Protection Clause, a documentary on the landmark case Yick Wo v. Hopkins (1886), in which the U.S. Supreme Court held that non-citizens had due process rights under the 14th Amendment, has been honored with a 2010 CINE Master Series Award. The Master Series Award is given to the best film in each category and is the highest honor given by the CINE organization.
The film, directed by the program staff of the Annenberg Foundation Trust at Sunnylands and produced by the Documentary Group of New York, was distributed in advance of Constitution Day, September 17, 2009, to 40,000 middle and high schools, libraries, and other organizations nationally as part of an initiative begun in 2002 by the Sunnylands Trust with the assistance of the Annenberg Public Policy Center to educate the nation’s youth about the Constitution. The Sunnylands Classroom website (SunnylandsClassroom.org) houses the award-winning books and films produced by the initiative, which can be downloaded at no cost.
The award was presented at the CINE 2010 Awards Gala held in Washington, D.C. in June. In addition, Yick Wo received CINE’s Special Jury and Golden Eagle Awards and has received a Hermes Creative Award and a Bronze Telly Award.
CINE, which is overseen by a Board of Directors representing the media industry, seeks “to serve emerging and established film, video, and new media professionals as their primary career-advancing peer group.”
