Finals week usually brings stress, headaches and sleep deprivation, but for Laura Salcido, it was a time to celebrate.
Salcido, a junior in the School of Nursing, was studying for a final last summer when she received a phone call informing her that the film she had worked on was going to the Emmy Awards.
"I couldn't stop shouting, I was so excited," said Salcido, who was the associate producer of a documentary by filmmaker Susan Stern.
Entitled The Self-Made Man, the film is a dramatic account of the life and death of Stern's father, who took his own life by shooting himself at the age of 77 while his wife and son sat watching.
The Self-Made Man, which is part of the PBS documentary series POV - which stands for point of view and shows independent, nonfiction films - was nominated for two Emmys in the categories of Writing and Outstanding Informational Programming - Long Form.
Salcido described the film in an e-mail interview as a "true-life drama about a controversial issue" - planned suicide.
"It is such a complicated film and such a personal story," said Executive Director of POV Simon Kilmurry. "It really resonates and makes you aware of this complex issue that many of us will eventually have to deal with."
The film was made during Salcido's pre-Penn days, when she was a theater and film production major at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
She started working with Stern about six years ago and continued working with her on The Self-Made Man until its completion.
Salcido wrote that as associate editor, she "did everything that needed to be done to keep the producer, director and writer working and able to concentrate on the creative process."
This included hiring, research, bookkeeping and editing.
Salcido will be attending the Emmy ceremony in New York City on Sept. 25.
"I wouldn't miss it," Salcido wrote. "I know how much work and soul went into the project, and it is great to have another opportunity for the film's message to get across."
Salcido has worked alongside such acclaimed filmmakers as Lourdes Portillo and Emiko Omori. She transferred to the School of Nursing shortly after the film was finished.
She is now a student in the accelerated BSN/MSN Family Nurse Practitioner Program.
But, as Stern said, "Laura was a nurse in film before she was a nurse in reality."
When real-life footage of a hospital scene had to be pulled from the film at the last minute, the production crew was faced with the problem of recreating it. Salcido stepped up to the plate, volunteering to play a nurse attending a dying patient.
