POV Awards Grants for ‘Most Dangerous Man’

American Documentary | POV has awarded seven grants totaling $50,000 to public television stations to support local programming and community activities around the Oscar®-nominated film The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers. The grants are part of the second phase of POV’s national campaign to engage communities in dialogues about issues the film addresses. Funding for the campaign is provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

KNME – Albuquerque, N.M.
KNME will collaborate with the University of New Mexico and Albuquerque Public Schools. The station will broadcast a panel discussion on ethics and freedom of the press, and promote the documentary’s April broadcast on the public affairs program New Mexico in Focus. Host Gene Grant will interview Daniel Ellsberg via satellite uplink from KQED, using questions submitted by University of New Mexico Ethics in Journalism students and History of Media students, who will be in the audience. A panel of working journalists will discuss the issues.

KQED – San Francisco, Calif.
KQED is partnering with University of California Berkeley’s Boalt Hall School of Law and the Northern California chapter of the ACLU to hold an afternoon of discussion and debate about WikiLeaks, the legacy of the Pentagon Papers, national security, personal freedom and the rule of law. Ellsberg will talk about these issues on a panel that will also include university professors, government officials, reporters and other experts from across the country. The Most Dangerous Man in America also will be screened as part of the event.

Maryland Public Television – Owings Mills, Md.
MPT will engage journalism students at the University of Maryland’s Philip Merril College of Journalism with a screening and panel discussion on the station’s Direct Connection program. Audience members will participate in a live “Tweetup” with a hashtag to track the discussion. Prior to the event, the dean of the college will assign related projects to students.

WFYI – Indianapolis, Ind.
WFYI, along with the Pulliam School of Journalism at Franklin College, will host a community screening and discussion focusing on issues of transparency and freedom of information; Ellsberg will Skype into the event. WFYI will also reach Central Indiana listeners through the production of an episode of the local public affairs radio show No Limits.

WGVU – Grand Rapids, Mich.
WGVU is partnering with the Hauenstein Center for Presidential Studies at Grand Valley State University, Thomas M. Cooley Law School, journalism and political science classes at Grand Valley State University, and the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum, where a public screening and panel discussion will be held. Ellsberg will participate via Skype, and the event will serve as a “Tweetup” for some of the attendees. WGVU will also produce special editions of its local public affairs television program, Newsmakers, and radio call-in show, the WGVU Morning Show.

WVIZ – Cleveland, Ohio
WVIZ has forged a partnership with Case Western Reserve University and Cleveland State, as well as five local libraries and the Lakewood Public School District, to present a screening and panel discussion. The event will be accessible to viewers across the nation through real-time videoconferencing, posted on the WVIZ/PBS ideastream® website.

WXXI – Rochester, N.Y.
WXXI will collaborate with New York State universities Geneseo and Brockport, along with Rochester-area colleges, to hold a public screening followed by a Q&A with one of the film’s directors in-person, and Ellsberg via Skype. WXXI will also broadcast a radio interview with Ellsberg and use the encore broadcast of The Most Dangerous Man in America for its spring pledge drive.

Questions about the grant program? Contact Eliza Licht at POV.

 

Tribeca Film Inst. Announces $750K Fund for Audience Engagement

The Tribeca Film Institute (TFI) announced last week that it is partnering with the Ford Foundation’s recently created JustFilms initiative to create the Tribeca Film Institute New Media Fund. TFI’s release states that “the $750,000 fund will provide support and funding to film projects which go beyond traditional screens – integrating film with content across newer media platforms, from video games and mobile apps to social networks and micro-blogging.”

In addition to this announcement, TFI is modeling the audience engagement they’re looking to fund, by actively gathering feedback on this program in order to shape their submission guidelines.

Deadline Extension: CPB Community Hub RFP

Based upon applicant feedback and to ensure that stations can provide the best possible information on their eligibility, CPB is extending the application deadline for its Dropout Awareness and Youth Engagement Initiative Public Media Community Hub RFP.

The new deadline is 11 p.m. EST Wednesday, March 2.

CPB will award twelve, $200,000 grants to public media stations that develop and implement effective plans to positively impact the dropout crisis in partnership with local education, community, civic, corporate and other relevant organizations.

Want to learn more? Access the grant RFP and application tool. Have questions? Check out FAQs, or e-mail CPB representatives Michael Fragale, Doug McKenney or Fiona Macintyre.

NEA to Support Creative Community Engagement

Are you considering collaborating with others to serve the needs of your community through the arts? The National Endowment for the Arts Our Town grant program offers grants ranging from $25,000 to $250,000 to organizations partnering for the purpose of Creative Placemaking to strengthen and engage their community. Supported projects will be those in which:

“…communities, together with their arts and design organizations and artists, are looking to increase their livability, and specifically are seeking to:

• Improve their quality of life.
• Encourage creative activity.
• Create community identity and a sense of place.
• Revitalize local economies.”

The NEA is hosting a series of webinars regarding this and other upcoming grant opportunities over the next several weeks.

Ford Foundation to Support Filmmakers

The Ford Foundation today announced a $50 million investment in documentary film production through its JustFilms program, which includes support for the Global Perspectives Project (the work of ITVS). The Ford Foundation’s site states: “We support GPP to develop, produce and help finish international social justice films, as well as to earn placement of these works on PBS and other public broadcasters worldwide.”

JustFilms seeks to “Enlarge the conversation on issues of importance by investing in documentary films that capture people’s imaginations and engage them in shaping their futures.” If you’re interested in learning more about producing for public media and being better able to take advantage of funding partnerships such as this one, NCME’s Engagement Guide for Producers is a great way to get started.

Community Engagement Going Global

Rising Voices, a project of Global Voices Online, launches another round of micro grants to bring underrepresented voices to the global conversation. The project places media tools into the hands of those who have little or no access to participate in civic dialogue.

BBC World’s Have Your Say has also taken the idea of community engagement global with its World Challenge project, in partnership with Newsweek. The competition has been going strong since 2005, soliciting creative solutions to local problems around the world.

Indy Producer Resources on the AIRwiki

Wiki, wiki, wiki! Our friends at the Association of Independents in Radio are calling on the power of all of us to share resources, opportunities, grants, awards and other leads to support the creativity and innovation of pubradio production and the world of sound. Anyone can join in: check out the FAQ.