*Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Sam Pollard received this year’s Trailblazer Award during Black Public Media’s PitchBLACK forum on Wednesday, April 24 and 25, at The Jerome L. Greene Performance Space in New York.
Per the news release, Black Public Media’s PitchBLACK is the nation’s largest pitch competition for independent filmmakers and creative technologists focused on works about the Black experience will be held next week. Sponsored by Netflix and PBS, the event draws a who’s who of public media, commercial television, documentary filmmaking, immersive technologies and funders to see creatives compete for up to $150,000 in film project funding and up to $75,000 in immersive project funding. This year all film projects are about climate.
Winners will be announced at the PitchBLACK Awards on Thursday, April 25, at the Stanley H. Kaplan Penthouse at Lincoln Center, where Pollard will be presented the BPM Trailblazer Award.
The acclaimed director-producer-editor and educator is known for his work on films and series like Eyes on the Prize, MLK/FBI, Lowndes County and the Road to Black Power and Mr. SOUL! and his editing of several iconic Spike Lee films.
Baltimore comedian Sir Alex will host the awards ceremony, which will see Pollard in conversation with radio personality and journalist Brittany Luse of NPR.
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PitchBLACK will also include a multi-city (Baltimore, Los Angeles and New York City) in-person and virtual retrospective of Pollard’s work.
Check out what Pollard had to say about the honor and his experience as a mentor to the next generation of filmmakers in our exclusive conversation via the clip below.
*press release
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