FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — The Emmy-award winning team of Larry Foley and Dale Carpenter have picked up yet another honor, "Best of the Competition" from the Broadcast Education Association in the documentary category.

Foley and Carpenter will receive their award during the Festival Awards Event on Saturday, April 5, 2003 at the Las Vegas Convention Center. More than 400 entries from students, faculty, and media professionals were reviewed by a panel of judges, who selected the winners in film, video, and media arts.

The documentary, which was written, directed and produced by Fulbright College faculty members Foley and Carpenter, with original music composed by music professor James Greeson, resurrects the story of two nearly forgotten adventurers who set out to explore the southern reaches of the Louisiana Territory, while their more famous counterparts trekked west and north.

Like Lewis and Clark, William Dunbar and George Hunter were gentlemen-scholars with an adventurous streak. In 1804, after much correspondence, President Thomas Jefferson charged the pair with instructions to undertake a journey that would rival the Lewis and Clark expedition, already underway.

In The Forgotten Expedition, Foley and Carpenter track the disappointments of the Hunter-Dunbar journey - from the Indian hostilities that cut their expedition short to the considerable shadow cast by Lewis and Clark, who usurped the spotlight of history.

The documentary also records their triumphs: Hunter and Dunbar offered the first reports on Louisiana and Arkansas, traced the Ouachita River and discovered the natural hot springs that would become one of the country’s first national parks.

"These men could have been every bit as famous as Lewis and Clark if Jefferson hadn’t scaled back their journey out of fear of the Osage [Indians]," Foley said. "Even then, because Hunter and Dunbar kept such detailed journals, they were quite well-known and published right after the voyage. It wasn’t until Lewis and Clark returned that history started to forget them."

Reaching two centuries back in time, the filmmakers depended on historical documents such as diaries, letters, and scarce newspaper clippings to piece together their script.

In addition, they called upon scholars from multiple fields to fill in the details of the journey. On-camera interviews feature several historians, including Trey Berry of Ouachita Baptist University and Fulbright College researcher Jeannie Whayne. But the documentary also calls upon an archeologist, biologist and chemist, who bring the perspective of their fields to the story and who comment on the natural observations that Hunter and Dunbar made.

Yet if historical research challenged the filmmakers, the visual element posed an even greater obstacle. Since the expedition occurred during the early 19th century, no still photography existed to illustrate the story. Their search for artwork, locations and landscapes sent Foley and Carpenter on their own journey around the nation, tracing the steps of Jefferson, Hunter and Dunbar, even leading up the Ouachita River.

"We probably spent thirteen months shooting and editing this film, and the search for visual materials continued right into the final weeks. But that side of the research is just as critical as the script or the interviews" Foley said. "We can’t tell anything that we can’t show."

After three trips up the Ouachita River, after location shoots at Jefferson’s Monticello and Dunbar’s Mississippi estate, and after recruiting local artists to provide sketches and local men to reenact treacherous moments of the journey, Foley and Carpenter produced a remarkably beautiful film.

For Carpenter and Foley, the thrill of documentary filmmaking is the fusion of so many different media, which layer information in a way that lends greater depth to any story. The stories they most enjoy telling, however, are those that few people have heard before - the ones that add greater depth to our own understanding.

The Forgotten Expedition was produced through a collaborative effort between the University of Arkansas, AETN and Ouachita Baptist University. Foley and Carpenter served as producers. AETN’s director of production, Carole Adornetto, was executive producer and Trey Berry, associate professor of history at OBU worked as the research director.

Major funding for the project was provided by a grant from the Arkansas Humanities Council and the Department of Arkansas Heritage.

The Broadcast Education Association was established in 1955 to prepare college students for careers in radio and television. The 1,300 members share a diversity of interests involving all aspects of telecommunications and electronic media. Approximately 250 colleges and universities are currently institutional members. To view a complete listing of this year’s festival award winners, go to http://beaweb.org/festival/2003winners.html.