*Black Public Media (BPM) is poised to surpass $2 million in total funding awarded through its signature event, the PitchBLACK Forum, the largest U.S. pitch competition for independent Black filmmakers and creative technologists.
Held in Harlem at The Apollo Stages at the Victoria, the event will take place on Wednesday, April 30, with winners announced at the PitchBLACK Awards the following evening, per the news release. This year, BPM plans to award over $225,000 in production and distribution support, bringing its total investment to more than $2 million since launching PitchBLACK in 2015. The forum showcases film and immersive projects that span documentary storytelling, artificial intelligence, augmented reality, and gaming, intending to expand Black narratives in media.
“We are happy to host PitchBLACK in the creative and cultural mecca of Harlem this year,” said Leslie Fields-Cruz, BPM’s executive director. “PitchBLACK always offers a wonderful array of projects presenting unique mixes of entertainment, ingenuity and craftsmanship.”
The film segment will run from 9 a.m. to noon, with documentary projects presented by teams including Sidney Fussell and Jennifer Holness, Karen Hayes, Arlieta Hall and Brittany Alsot, Chelsi Bullard and Jacqueline Olive, and Caron Creighton. From 1 p.m. to 3:30 p.m., the **immersive segment** will feature pitches from Anatola Araba, Aya, Steven Christian, Jeremy Kamal, Joel Mack, and Rasheed Peters.
The PitchBLACK Awards, hosted by comedian Jamie Roberts, will take place on Thursday, May 1 at 7 p.m., and will honor legendary editor Lillian E. Benson, ACE with the BPM Trailblazer Award. A conversation with Benson, moderated by NPR’s Brittany Luse, will be featured, along with the announcement of the Nonso Christian Ugbode Fellowship winner. A celebratory afterparty will follow. Tickets are $300 and available via the Apollo Theater’s website HERE.
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A free streaming retrospective of Benson’s acclaimed work will be available on blackpublicmedia.org from April 28 to May 12, highlighting titles such as “Maya Angelou: And Still I Rise” and episodes from “Eyes on the Prize II.”
PitchBLACK is sponsored by Netflix, PBS, and other major cultural organizations.
To find out more about the competing projects, CLICK HERE. For more information on BPM, go to blackpublicmedia.org. Follow the organization and watch PitchBLACK highlights at @blackpublicmedia on Instagram, Facebook and TikTok.
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