Reel South’s “The Only Doctor” Named Peabody Award Winner Historic first wins for filmmaker Matthew Hashiguchi and the PBS series
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Durham, North Carolina – On Thursday, May 1, 2025, the Peabody Awards Board of Jurors selected Reel South feature documentary “The Only Doctor,” directed by Matthew Hashiguchi and produced by Anjanette Levert, to receive a prestigious Peabody Award. The film follows Dr. Karen Kinsell, who for nearly 20 years has been the only doctor in her Southwest Georgia county, and reveals the shocking reality of rural healthcare in America.
“Working on this film with Dr. Kinsell was an incredible journey that, in many ways, mirrored my own life,” said Hashiguchi. “While I was filming with Dr. Kinsell and her patients my wife and I were also navigating the healthcare and births of our two daughters. This award is a tremendous honor, but even more meaningful to me is the way the film has become a priceless memento from the first years of my children’s lives.”
“Reel South is incredibly honored by this recognition for 'The Only Doctor,'” said series producer Nick Price. “As we embark on our next decade of storytelling in the South, we are encouraged to see that opportunities for filmmakers like Matt and public servants like Dr. Kinsell receive their due recognition from within and outside of the region. This film fulfills the mission of our series and our larger public broadcasting service.”
For Dr. Kinsell, she hopes this award “will help create the change we need to provide health and Healthcare to all.” She continues to see patients in Clay County, Georgia, and has also been purchasing dilapidated homes and remodeling them for low-income residents.
Reel South’s “The Only Doctor” won in the Public Service category. Previous winners of the category include significant public-interest and other public broadcasting programs and journalism outlets from Frontline, BBC, CNN, ABC News and ESPN. Season 9 of Reel South was funded in part by the National Endowment for the Arts. The awards presentation ceremony will take place on June 1, 2025 in Los Angeles, California.
In 1941, the National Association of Broadcasters established the Peabody Awards to honor excellence in broadcasting. Now split up into the categories of entertainment, documentary, news, podcast/radio, arts, children’s and youth, and public service programming, Peabody Award winners are a “collection of stories that powerfully reflect the pressing social issues and the vibrant emerging voices of our day” and are chosen each year by a diverse Board of Jurors through unanimous vote.
“The Only Doctor” had its U.S. broadcast premiere on the 9th season of the PBS program Reel South in 2024. Director Matthew Hashiguchi is a documentary filmmaker and Associate Professor at Georgia Southern University. He earned his M.F.A. from Emerson College in 2011 and his B.A. from Ohio State University in 2007. His feature-length documentary, GOOD LUCK SOUP, was broadcast on PBS World’s America ReFramed. He is the 2016 Documentary Fund Award from the Center for Asian American Media recipient.
Producer Anjanette Levert is a Senior Lecturer at Spelman College and the former Director of the Documentary Filmmaking Program. She is an alumna of the Southern Producers Lab by the New Orleans Film Society and the Sundance Producers Intensive.
Other production team members include Edit Consultant Martha Shane, Composer Buck St. Thomas, and Sound Designer Billy Wirasnik. The Only Doctor is the recipient of the 2019 Gucci Tribeca Documentary Fund Award and the 2021 American Stories Documentary Fund Award from Points North Institute.
About the Film:
Dr. Karen Kinsell is the only doctor in all of Clay County, Georgia, one of the poorest and unhealthiest rural regions in the state. Her clinic has served the most vulnerable in her community for over 22 years but now faces bankruptcy. Despite not drawing a personal salary to help keep the doors open, Kinsell must now weigh retiring against providing healthcare to her patients. When a Hail Mary offer arrives from a university medical association, a fully equipped health center is proposed. But Kinsell makes affordability and access her personal red lines of the potential sale. An impending state election and the outbreak of COVID add more uncertainty to the fraught population, reminding Kinsell of how much is riding on the fine print. Straight-talking and downright inspirational, the film presents a modern David-versus-Goliath healthcare story that might just restore your faith in humanity.
About Reel South: For all the wonders of the South — the food, the music, the people, the land — the collective heritage of the region is complicated, to say the least. But the ability to witness and understand that complexity and foster empathy is more important than ever, which is why Reel South exists.
Reel South is a PBS documentary series that showcases authentic and inspiring stories that unearth the spirit of the South today. With every film, the series explores the multifaceted layers of Southern life across themes of social justice, cultural experience, environmental challenges, and more. Reel South aims to leverage our region’s rich storytelling tradition as a catalyst for positive change and deeper understanding — in the American South and beyond.
Reel South is co-produced by PBS North Carolina, South Carolina ETV, and Louisiana Public Broadcasting and produced in association with Alabama Public Television, Arkansas PBS, South Florida PBS, Tennessee Public Television Council, VPM, and WABE.