Crank: Darkness on the Edge of Town

One Tennessee town’s waking nightmare and a nation’s struggle against methamphetamine addiction.

Film Signature Image
Series
APT Presentation
Premiere Date
November 6, 2007
Length
60 minutes
Funding Initiative
Open Call
  • Award laurels-r Created with Sketch.
    2008 National Council on Crime and Delinquency-PASS Award
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    2008 Radio-Television News Directors Association-Regional Edward R. Murrow Award, News Documentary
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    2008 Telly Awards-Silver Telly Award
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    2008 CINE Golden Eagle Awards-CINE Golden Eagle Award, Professional News Division-Analysis
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    2008 Aurora Awards-Aurora Gold Award
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    2008 Communicator Awards-Award of Distinction
  • Nominated laurels-r Created with Sketch.
    2008 Regional Emmy Award - Mid South Chapter-Best Documentary
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    2008 Regional Emmy Award - Mid South Chapter-Best Writer
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    Producer/Director

    Todd Jarrell

    Todd Jarrell began producing when, after a career in television advertising he, joined a round-the-world tall-ship voyage and worked as crew while creating a public radio series from such places as Easter Island, Bora Bora, and Zanzibar. His experiences were later published as the audiobook Slow Dance with the Planet. Passion for world culture has led… Show more Jarrell to more than 50 countries across seven continents and 70,000 miles of tall-ship voyaging. His television works include the double Emmy Award-winning, CRANK: Darkness on the Edge of Town; Meth in Tennessee, which was nominated for a national Emmy; Tree Safari: A Sculptural Journey, a Shop PBS Featured Title, filmed in South Africa; and Change of Heart, which explores one young man’s work with Cape Town’s street children. Show less

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    The Film

    In less than a decade since its arrival there, methamphetamine or “crank” has wreaked devastation in the rural communities surrounding Cookeville, Tennessee. From meth’s introduction as a distinctively deadly drug phenomenon to innovative local legislation and the hard lessons families have learned about addiction, Crank is an anatomy of one town’s waking nightmare and a nation’s struggle with this growing epidemic.

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