Medford Resident Wins Emmy for Documentary

Film Focuses on Unsolved Disappearance of Childhood Friend

Medford resident and Lawrence, Massachusetts native Melanie Perkins has won an Emmy for her documentary on the unsolved disappearance of her childhood friend.

Perkins won an Emmy this past weekend in New York in the “Outstanding Investigative Journalism, Long Form” category.

“Have you Seen Andy?” is about the disappearance of Perkins’ friend, Andy Puglisi, from the Higgins Memorial Pool in Lawrence in August 1976.

Perkins was only 9 at the time and the experience moved her so deeply she decided to make a film to educate friends and family of missing children to continue to search and to hold law enforcement accountable.

“For me, telling Andy’s story is much more than the process of making my first independent film. It is a personal voyage back into a traumatic past where children were survivors as well as victims; a time where we were happy and, yet, incredibly sad. ‘Have You Seen Andy?’ is a story that exposes the subtleties of class distinction for the smallest and most vulnerable in our society, children, who should be cared for and protected despite their background,” wrote Perkins on the film’s website.

Perkins began shooting the film, her first independent one, in 1998 and it was released in 2007.  She began her career in television production with NOVA, the longest-running series on public television.  She is currently a freelance producer and consultant and recently worked on the ABC News investigative series “PrimeTime Live.”

– InsideMedford.com