Filmmaker wins latest award for hospice documentary

Edgar Barens, media specialist in the Jane Addams College of Social Work’s Center for Social Policy and Research.

UIC filmmaker Edgar Barens received a Wilbur Award from the Religion Communicators Council for his Academy Award-nominated documentary, “Prison Terminal: The Last Days of Private Jack Hall.”

“I am proud to be a representative of the Jane Addams College of Social Work and help fulfill its mission through the documentary films we are producing,” said Barens, media specialist in the college’s Center for Social Policy and Research.

The Wilbur Awards honor excellence by individuals in secular media for communicating religious issues, values, and themes. The Religion Communicators Council is an interfaith association of more than 400 religion communicators.

“Prison Terminal,” set in one of America’s oldest maximum-security prisons, tells the story of the final months of a terminally ill prisoner and the hospice volunteers, also prisoners, who care for him.

The documentary was nominated for a 2014 Academy Award as Best Documentary Short Subject. It aired on HBO and is now available to HBO GO and Comcast Xfinity subscribers.

“Prison Terminal” received the 2014 Audience Choice Award from the Council on Social Work Education and a CINE Golden Eagle.