April 16, 2025
Since its launch in 2015, BPM has channeled over $1.8 million to assist 23 compelling movie and immersive tasks by way of the PitchBLACK competitors.
Black Public Media (BPM), a nationwide nonprofit championing Black content material creators, introduced Tuesday that its PitchBLACK Discussion board will award over $2 million in funding for movie and immersive tasks this yr. The discussion board, acknowledged as the biggest pitch competitors in the US for impartial filmmakers and artistic technologists centered on Black narratives, will convene in Harlem April 30 from 9 a.m. to five p.m.
The fruits of the occasion would be the PitchBLACK Awards Could 1 at 7 p.m., the place manufacturing and distribution awards shall be introduced. The night may even characteristic the presentation of the distinguished BPM Trailblazer Award to Lillian E. Benson, ACE (American Cinema Editors), a celebrated determine identified for her Emmy-nominated work on groundbreaking tasks reminiscent of Eyes on the Prize II, Showtime’s Soul Meals, NBC’s Chicago Med, and OWN’s Greenleaf.
Sponsored by business giants Netflix and PBS, the PitchBLACK Discussion board will present a platform for gifted creatives to pitch their revolutionary tasks earlier than a distinguished viewers of public media representatives, industrial tv community executives, distributors, and funders nationwide.
Since its launch in 2015, BPM has channeled over $1.8 million to assist 23 compelling movie and immersive tasks by way of the PitchBLACK competitors. This yr marks a big milestone because the discussion board strikes to The Apollo Levels on the Victoria in Harlem, the colourful New York Metropolis neighborhood that serves as BPM’s base. With BPM anticipating awarding greater than $225,000 in funding to tasks this yr alone, the group is poised to interrupt the $2 million mark in whole funding awarded by way of the PitchBLACK program since its inception.
“We’re pleased to host PitchBLACK within the artistic and cultural mecca of Harlem this yr,” mentioned Leslie Fields-Cruz, government director of BPM. “PitchBLACK at all times presents a beautiful array of tasks presenting distinctive mixes of leisure, ingenuity and craftsmanship. We stay up for what this yr’s creatives have in retailer for audiences.”
Promoting futurist Tameka Kee will return to average the PitchBLACK Discussion board for this yr’s occasion. The movie phase, scheduled from 9 a.m. to midday, will characteristic pitches for documentary tasks from groups together with Sidney Fussell and Jennifer Holness, Karen Hayes, Arlieta Corridor and Brittany Alsot, Chelsi Bullard and Jacqueline Olive, and Caron Creighton. The immersive challenge rivals – Anatola Araba, Aya, Steven Christian, Jeremy Kamal, Joel Mack, and Rasheed Peters — will take the stage from 1 p.m. to three:30 p.m., presenting tasks that incorporate cutting-edge applied sciences reminiscent of synthetic intelligence (AI), augmented actuality, 3D animation, and interactive video games.
The PitchBLACK Discussion board winners shall be introduced on the Could 1 awards ceremony at 7 p.m.
Hosted by comic Jamie Roberts, the awards ceremony will embrace an insightful dialog with Trailblazer Award recipient Lillian E. Benson, moderated by NPR host Brittany Luse of the acclaimed podcast It’s Been a Minute.
The Nonso Christian Ugbode Fellowship winner, a prestigious award named in honor of BPM’s late director of digital initiatives and designed to assist a gifted under-30 artistic, may even be introduced in the course of the awards ceremony. The night will culminate in a full of life after-party.
Tickets for the PitchBLACK Awards are priced at $300 and will be bought by way of the Apollo Theater’s web site.
Including one other dimension to celebrating Benson’s impactful profession, this yr’s BPM Trailblazer Movie Retrospective will characteristic a curated assortment of works edited by the esteemed honoree. These movies shall be accessible at no cost streaming on blackpublicmedia.org between April 28 and Could 12, providing a wider viewers the chance to expertise Benson’s masterful enhancing. The featured movies embrace Past the Steps; Maya Angelou: And Nonetheless I Rise; New World, New Kinds; and The Style of Grime; and two pivotal components of Eyes on the Prize II: The Promised Land (Half 10) and Keys to the Kingdom (Half 13).
PitchBLACK’s vital impression on the panorama of Black media is made potential by way of the beneficiant assist of key sponsors Netflix and PBS, with further funding supplied by the Company for Public Broadcasting, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Basis, Acton Household Giving, Agog LLC, New York Neighborhood Belief, Rockefeller Household Fund, New York Metropolis Division of Cultural Affairs, New York State Council on the Arts, Jerome Basis, Sonder Basis, and the New York Mayor’s Workplace of Media and Leisure.
For these occupied with studying extra in regards to the revolutionary tasks competing on this yr’s PitchBLACK Discussion board, detailed info will be discovered right here. Additional particulars about Black Public Media and its initiatives can be found at blackpublicmedia.org. Highlights and updates from PitchBLACK will be adopted on Instagram, Fb, and TikTok at @blackpublicmedia.
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