MARCH 12, 2024
WEEKLY DISPATCH
BLACK PUBLIC MEDIA
By Leslie Fields-Cruz
The Oscars may be over, but for those of us in the public media community the 2024 awards season is not yet done. Next month, BPM’s annual PitchBLACK Forum and Awards program will once more celebrate excellence in Black storytelling. This year’s event is shaping up to be the best ever. The forum and the awards program are both hybrid, so if you can’t make it to New York City to participate in person, you can arrange to watch online. In-person tickets are already going fast, so register soon to secure your spot. Details about how to watch virtually will be provided to those who pre-register.
PitchBLACK Forum
The 2024 PitchBLACK Forum returns this year as a one-day affair on Wed., April 24. The film portion is scheduled for the morning and the immersive portion will take place in the afternoon. We’re holding the Forum at The Greene Space, located in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village neighborhood. Five film teams and six immersive creators will pitch their projects in hopes of being selected to win production awards of up to $150K. Visit this webpage to see which projects are participating.
PitchBLACK Awards
This year’s PitchBLACK Awards ceremony takes place at Lincoln Center’s Stanley H. Kaplan Penthouse on Thurs., April 25. In addition to announcing the winners of the PitchBLACK Forum, we will present prolific filmmaker and mentor Sam Pollard with our BPM Trailblazer Award. Tickets for the awards program are currently on sale. The evening includes a pre-ceremony reception featuring cocktails and tapas fare, followed by the awards program and a brief afterparty celebration. Go here to secure your tickets.
Trailblazer Film Retrospective
Those of you who, like me, are fans of Pollard’s work will be pleased to know we’re also offering a BPM Trailblazer Film Retrospective, featuring a select assortment of Sam’s narrative and documentary work. The retrospective’s full schedule will be announced soon, but includes opportunities to watch both virtually and in person. Follow us on social media and look for details in the coming weeks in our monthly newsletter and this Weekly Dispatch.
I look forward to seeing all who are able to join us in person at these events. I also hope those of you who participate virtually will recognize how thrilled we are to be able to include you. PitchBLACK is something my staff and I look forward to every year. Not just because we get to celebrate our makers, but because it is a chance for us to bring the BPM community together. I believe we all benefit from the collective energy of celebrating excellence in our field.
Meet Our Fulbright Fellow
In closing, it gives me great pleasure to introduce you to Jean Alioune Badara Thiendella Fall. Jean, a native of France, is a Fulbright NGO Leaders Fellow and co-founder of Cinewax, an association that facilitates access to African films and films from the African diaspora. Over the next several months, he will work with Black Public Media’s marketing, communications and engagement team to support their promotional efforts for AfroPoP 16, PitchBlack and our upcoming new summer screening series. Welcome aboard, Jean!