Harlem-based Black Public Media (BPM) selected a documentary about caregiving with comedy and two science fiction immersive projects for $225,000 in production and development funding at the PitchBLACK Awards on Thursday, May 1.
BPM said these awards catapult the total BPM has invested in Black projects through PitchBLACK, since launching the program in 2015, to over $2 million.
Netflix and PBS sponsored the event, which took place at The Apollo Stages at the Victoria in Harlem.
The Awards show was preceded by BPM’s PitchBLACK Forum, the largest pitch competition of its kind in the United States for independent filmmakers and creative technologists who create Black content. It was held on Wednesday and hosted by advertising futurist Tameka Kee.
BPM said the Forum winners, announced at the Awards program, included one film and two immersive projects. Finding Your Laughter by Chicago’s Arlieta Hall and Brittany Alsot, a documentary about the ups and downs of Hall’s life balancing caregiving for her Alzheimer’s ailing father with her comedy career, won the top award of $150,000 in the film category.
BPM said Rhythmic Wave II: Ancestral Waves, by Nigerian-American new media artist and Los Angeles resident Aya, won the $50,000 award.
It said the project is a 30-minute live interactive performance set in 5054, blending Afrofuturism, immersive dance, and AI-generated movement (from AI dancers trained on the Nigerian Akwa Ibom dance archive) in a three-wall projected space.
BPM said Prince George’s County, MD, resident Jeremy Kamal’s Run, a sci-fi third-person exploration game created in his own unique game universe, was awarded $25,000.
Hosted by comedian Jamie Roberts with a vocal performance by Yansa Fatima, BPM said the evening saw veteran film editor Lillian E. Benson, ACE (American Cinema Editors), awarded the prestigious BPM Trailblazer Award by the group’s Executive Director Leslie Fields-Cruz. Benson, who joins Orlando Bagwell, Joe Brewster, Yoruba Richen, Sam Pollard, Michèle Stephenson, and Marco Williams in having received the award, is known for her Emmy® nominated work on Eyes on the Prize II, Showtime’s Soul Food, NBC’s Chicago Med, and OWN’s Greenleaf.
BPM said NPR host Brittany Luse (It’s Been a Minute) moderated a conversation with Benson, giving audience members further insight into the history-making editor’s career.
“Tonight, it’s impossible not to reflect on the path paved by giants like Lillian E. Benson, our BPM Trailblazer. Her dedication to the artistry of editing carved out a space for editors from a mosaic of backgrounds,” said Fields-Cruz. “Her legacy as an editor and mentor continues to inspire every frame of the films she and her mentees have worked on. And for that, I am grateful.”
BPM said a two-week BPM Trailblazer Film Retrospective featuring a curated collection of works, edited by Benson, will stream for free through May 12 on blackpublicmedia.org.
Films include Beyond the Steps: Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater; Maya Angelou: And Still I Rise; New World, New Forms; The Taste of Dirt; and two parts of Eyes on the Prize II: The Promised Land (Part 10) and Keys to the Kingdom (Part 13).
BPM said Atlanta resident Joel A. Mack was announced as the latest Nonso Christian Ugbode Digital Media Fellow. This award, named after BPM’s late director of digital initiatives, recognizes a talented under-30 creative.
BPM said that Mack was selected for his/her/their work as a developer, storyteller, and creative technologist working in new media.
BPM said Descended from the Promised Land, a Black Wall Street documentary by New Orleans native Nailah Jefferson, was announced as the first-ever AfroPoP Digital Shorts Viewers’ Choice winner, in a competition launched earlier this year.
BPM said the award was voted on by audience members of the AfroPoP Digital Shorts series, which streams on BPM’s YouTube channel.
In closing out the program, Fields-Cruz charged the crowd, which included veteran filmmakers Rachel Watanabe Batton, Lisa Cortes, Chris Metzler, Stanley Nelson, and Marco Williams, to carry forward the spirit of collaboration, the fire of innovation, and the unwavering commitment to telling our stories, our way.
BPM is a national nonprofit that funds quality film and immersive work, develops media makers, and produces and distributes original content.
The group was founded in 1979 and continues to work to center Black stories.
