S1, E8 The Oral History of Sheila Nevins

Sheila Nevins’s educational background was in English literature and theater. But she found herself drawn to television, and to telling the extraordinary stories of ordinary people. After her early career working for several employers including the US Information Agency, PBS, CBS and Time-Life Films, Nevins found her home at HBO in 1979, where she was hired as the fledgling pay network’s first director of documentaries and given the freedom to produce them with her own unique approach to storytelling. Almost forty years and more than 500 films later, as President of HBO Documentary Films, Nevins is still flourishing, with a body of work that has earned scores of Emmys, Oscars and Peabodys. This interview was taped in July 2001.