While the world argues over walls and borders, Boulder-based filmmaker Susan Polis Schutz prefers building bridges. Her ninth documentary, “Bridging Divides: Sharing Heartbeats,” skips the cynicism and goes straight to the music, sports and heart-to-hearts that connect us as human beings.

For her efforts, she’s taking home a Christopher Award in the TV, cable and streaming category — a prize that awards works that “affirm the highest values of the human spirit,” according to the nonprofit. This is her second Christopher Award — she picked up her first one in 2019 for the documentary “The Homeless Chorus Speaks.”

Christopher Awards are bestowed upon storytellers who prove that tales told with empathy, courage and compassion are still worth hearing. Think of it as the Oscars for goodness: Since 1949, the Christopher Awards have recognized works in film, television and books that celebrate the best in humanity. Past winners include classics like “To Kill a Mockingbird,” “Dead Poets Society” and “Inside Out.”

In “Building Bridges,” Polis Schutz takes viewers around the globe in search of harmony — from the borderlands between San Diego and Tijuana, where a grassroots festival invites musicians and dancers from the United States and Mexico to gather on either side of the border wall; to Jerusalem, where Israeli and Palestinian teens join voices in a youth chorus; to Northern Ireland, where thousands of Catholic and Protestant children are brought together through the PeacePlayers program as teammates on the basketball court; and even to Omaha, Nebraska, where the Tri-Faith Initiative brings a synagogue, church and mosque together on a single campus.

This year, “Bridging Divides” stands out for its irrepressible optimism, earning a spot alongside heavyweight winners like the Oscar-nominated “Sing Sing” and Disney’s “Young Woman and the Sea.”

For Polis Schutz, though, the hardware is just a bonus.

“Winning the award, it was a great honor,” Polis Schutz said. “It felt like a symbol of affirmation, not just for my filmmaking, but for the message itself, which is more important than me. The message is that people can get along. No matter how different they are, they can find connection.”

She added: “I had so much fun meeting all of the groups in the film. There were hundreds of others I could have chosen, but I picked the ones I thought were the most fascinating. It’s wonderful to get an award that recognizes the work, especially when the message behind it really matters.”

For Polis Schutz, the need to create this film grew out of exhaustion with the endless stream of “hatred, divisiveness and anger” in the news. She said she grew tired of hearing about conflict everywhere she turned. Curious to see if people were still coming together in meaningful ways, she began searching for stories of hope.

The search led her to Fandango Fronterizo, a festival where people from both sides of the U.S.—Mexico border gather to sing and dance.

“It’s like the wall isn’t even there,” she said.

Polis Schutz described footage of people reaching through the border’s wooden poles to touch hands, making the physical divide seem almost irrelevant. That moment stuck with her.

“If Mexican and American people who love each other can do that when they’re not even allowed to be together, then I knew there must be more groups doing similar things.”

Polis Schutz started researching, convinced these moments weren’t isolated, and quickly found many more examples of connection in unexpected places — particularly in groups sharing traditional folk music, choral singing, or the simple act of playing on the same sports team.

“Music is a universal language. Sports are a universal language. When you bring people together to do those things, you forget about your problems with each other,” she said.

Polis Schutz found herself especially moved by the Jerusalem Youth Chorus, a Jerusalem-based group where Israeli and Palestinian teens — who, by every headline and expectation, should be worlds apart — come together and sing, side by side.

“These are kids from opposite sides of a war, from groups that are supposed to hate each other, and yet they sing together,” she said. “One of the most moving moments was when they were singing in a bomb shelter.”

When the Jerusalem Youth Chorus made a tour stop in Boulder on May 31 for their “Songs and Stories from the Frontlines of Hope” concert at Mountain View United Methodist, Polis Schutz was in the audience alongside her son, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis.

Long before her son’s political career took off, Polis Schutz said she made sure he was steeped in music, theater and cultural experiences.

She recalled bringing him to Red Rocks as a 5 year old to see John Denver: “He was dancing in the aisles. It was so cute. We still play John Denver to this day.”

Arts and culture were part of family life. From annual visits to the Colorado Shakespeare Festival at the University of Colorado Boulder to family trips exploring Native American reservations and sharing dances with the Hopi and Navajo tribes, Polis Schutz said she surrounded her children with experiences that went beyond the typical after-school activities.

“They grew up surrounded by the arts, and we still do that as a family,” she said. “Sharing the arts is so important — it’s something I did with my family, and it’s something I hope to do with the world.”

Alongside her husband, Stephen Schutz, Polis Schutz is also the co-founder of the greeting card and book publisher Blue Mountain Arts.

“Bridging Divides: Sharing Heartbeats” can be streamed at PBS.com for free. Polis Schutz said she chose to distribute the documentary free of charge instead of following the traditional film festival circuit because PBS reaches a wider audience. She wanted it to reach as many people as possible, not just those who could snag a seat at a festival screening.

“Film festivals are wonderful and very prestigious,” she said, “but they only reach the people who attend. I wanted this to be available to a much wider audience.”

The documentary aired about a year ago on PBS, running roughly 3,000 times across the United States. It even reached international viewers.

But Polis Schutz is less interested in counting viewings and more focused on sparking real connections offscreen.

“I just hope people come away from it with the idea that hatred can be diminished if you realize people are just people,” she said. “These kinds of groups are forming every day. Maybe the film will help someone decide to start their own.”