Begin forwarded message:

From: Stefanie Koperniak <stefanie_koperniak@...>

Date: April 7, 2008 12:34:16 PM EDT

Subject: new, election-themed WGBH Lab/P.O.V. Open Call

Reply-To: Stefanie Koperniak <stefanie_koperniak@...>

The WGBH Lab and P.O.V. are today launching a new Open Call seeking short video pitches themed around Election 2008. Below is a press release. Feel free to contact me with any questions.
Best,
Stefanie Koperniak
Publicist, Media Relations
WGBH
phone: 617-300-5317
fax: 617-300-1016
stefanie_koperniak@...


The WGBH Lab and P.O.V. announce new Open Call: Election 2008

Visit http://lab.wgbh.org

The 2008 presidential election is already one for the history books. This spring, the WGBH Lab and PBS’s P.O.V. documentary series offer filmmakers a chance to make their voices heard before the voting booths open.

The WGBH Lab and P.O.V. invite filmmakers to submit ideas for a compelling video short related to the upcoming election. Filmmakers can submit a pitch between April 7th and May 2nd. Stories could be about an ongoing national or local issue, memories of elections past, or insight on how our new president can make vital  changes. The WGBH Lab will post video pitches, invite the public to vote for their favorites, and choose the top ideas for production. As filmmakers complete their short films, industry professionals and users of the Lab site will post comments and suggestions. Selected films (approximately three minutes in length) will receive $2000 in financial support, will be featured online at www.pbs.org/pov and may be broadcast on PBS. For more details on the submission process visit http://lab.wgbh.org/open-call/election2008.

On Tuesday June 24, P.O.V. will kick off its 2008 season on PBS with “Traces of the Trade” by Katrina Browne, the first filmmaker to participate in WGBH’s Filmmaker-in-Residence program. Browne worked on “Traces of the Trade” at WGBH from 2003-2005. The Filmmaker-in-Residence program is a part of the WGBH Lab, and invites filmmakers and innovators from related industries to work on their independently funded projects during a nine-month residency at WGBH.

In “Traces of the Trade,” an Official Selection of the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, first-time filmmaker Katrina Browne makes a troubling discovery—her New England ancestors were the largest slave-trading family in U.S. history. She and nine fellow descendants set off to retrace the Triangle Trade: from their old hometown in Rhode Island to slave forts in Ghana to sugar plantation ruins in Cuba. Step by step, they uncover the vast extent of Northern complicity in slavery while also stumbling through the minefield of contemporary race relations.

Other documentaries airing this season on P.O.V. related to the upcoming election include “Election Day” by Katie Chevigny, “Campaign” by Kazuhiro Soda, “The Ballad of Esequiel Hernandez” by Kieran Fitzgerald, “Critical Condition” by Roger Weisberg, and “Soldiers of Conscience” by Catherine Ryan and Gary Weimberg. The programs tell stories that deal with critical election issues such as voter turnout, healthcare, the Iraq war, race relations, election reform, immigration and border security, and the health of democracy, both in America and around the world. Film descriptions, filmmaker bios and video trailers are available now at the P.O.V. Web site (www.pbs.org/pov ). Selected short films from the Open Call may be licensed for use via broadcast or broadband with airings of the P.O.V. films.

About WGBH
WGBH Boston is America’s preeminent public broadcaster, producing such celebrated national PBS series as Masterpiece Theatre, Antiques Roadshow, Frontline, Nova, American Experience, Arthur and more than a dozen other award-winning primetime, lifestyle and children’s series. Boston’s last remaining independent TV station, WGBH produces local TV productions (among them, Greater Boston, Basic Black and Maria Hinojosa One-on-One) that focus on the region’s diverse community, while WGBH 89.7 FM is Boston’s NPR Arts & Culture station, offering a rich menu of classical, jazz, blues, news programming and more. WGBH is the leading producer of online content for pbs.org—one of the most-visited dot-org sites on the Internet—a major producer for public radio and a pioneer in developing educational multimedia and new technologies that make media accessible for people with disabilities. For its efforts, WGBH has been recognized with hundreds of honors, including Oscars, Emmys, Peabodys and duPont-Columbia Journalism Awards. Visit WGBH on the Web at www.wgbh.org.

About P.O.V.
Produced by American Documentary, Inc. and celebrating its 21st season on PBS in 2008, the award-winning P.O.V. series is the longest-running showcase on television to feature the work of America's best contemporary-issue independent filmmakers. Airing Tuesdays at 10 p.m., June through October, with primetime specials during the year, P.O.V. has brought more than 250 award-winning documentaries to millions nationwide, and now has a Webby Award-winning online series, P.O.V.'s Borders. Since 1988, P.O.V. has pioneered the art of presentation and outreach using independent nonfiction media to build new communities in conversation about today's most pressing social issues. More  information about P.O.V. is available online at www.pbs.org/pov.
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