Mollé and Doherty bring home two Emmy Awards for “Water, The Sacred Gift”

Story by Patti Brown

Nick Mollé Productions and the Rocky Mountain Channel won two Emmy Awards Saturday night for their latest PBS film, “Water, The Sacred Gift.” Seán Doherty received the Emmy for outstanding photography, and Mollé received the Emmy for director.

The documentary tells the story of the watershed in the Rocky Mountains threatened by a changing climate. It debuted April 12, 2025, at the Historic Park Theater in Estes Park during the Rocky Mountain Channel’s Environmental Film Festival.

The ceremony for the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Heartland Chapter was held in the Seawell Ballroom at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts.

The day before Mollé won the award for the PBS film, Congress cut $1.1 billion for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, eliminating all federal support for NPR, PBS, and their member stations.

“I didn’t realize how much this would mean to me until they announced it, and having Sean follow me up as we won two, was a cosmic experience. Score two for educational television,” said Mollé.

In an interview with the Estes Valley Voice at his office on Elkhorn Avenue in May, Mollé said writing, editing, and refining the film took a year and a half. The award-winning documentary has also received a Silver Telly in Videography and Cinematography, a Silver Telly Award in Nature and Wildlife, and a Bronze Telly Award in Film and Shorts.

Molle’s next project is “Stream of Conscience,” a film whose title Molle says is intended as a pun about the Colorado River. That production will have a bit of the feel of his film “Wild Ride: The Peak to Peak Highway” and will take viewers on a journey along the waterway that begins at La Poudre Pass in Rocky Mountain National Park and flows 1,450 miles to the Gulf of California in Mexico.

The Colorado River is a critical resource relied on by seven basin states – Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming – and some 40 million people for drinking water, hydropower, agricultural irrigation, recreation, and fish and wildlife habitat.

Mollé and Doherty’s film can be streamed on PBS.