Media Projects Cumulative Awards List, 2018 to 2022
For a printable WORD version, click here.
Fiscal Year 2018
Development
Winchelldom: The World of Walter Winchell
International Documentary Association
Los Angeles, CA
Award: Outright; $74,995
Development of a one-hour documentary and companion website about newspaper columnist and radio commentator Walter Winchell (1897–1972).
Ruth and Margaret
Center for Independent Documentary, Inc.
Boston, MA
Award: Outright; $75,000
Development of a feature-length documentary on the lives and careers of anthropologists Margaret Mead (1901–78) and Ruth Benedict (1887–1948).
Marian Anderson: The Whole World in Her Hands
WNET
New York, NY
Award: Outright; $75,000
Development of a script and trailer for a sixty-minute documentary film on the popular singer Marian Anderson.
Unladylike
Futuro Media Group
New York, NY
Award: Outright; $75,000
Development of a series of short documentary films and related digital components about the lives and accomplishments of women during the Progressive Era.
Shanghailanders
WQED Multimedia
Pittsburgh, PA
Award: Outright; $49,987
Development of a script for a ninety-minute documentary about the social, cultural, and political legacies of European Jews who found refuge in Shanghai, China, during the late 1930s.
Production
José Lezama Lima: Letters to Eloísa
Latino Public Broadcasting
Burbank, CA
Award: Outright; $450,000
Production of a sixty-minute documentary about the Cuban writer José Lezama Lima (1910–76).
Splitting the Second: The Brilliant, Eccentric Life of Eadweard Muybridge
Inside Out Media
Oakland, CA
Award: Outright; $500,000
Production of a ninety-minute documentary chronicling the life and work of the nineteenth-century photographer Eadweard Muybridge.
Changing State: Black Diplomats, Civil Rights, and the Cold War
Women in Film & Video, Inc.
Washington, DC
Award: Outright; $450,000
Production of a one-hour documentary about three African American men who broke the color line at the U.S. State Department in the years following World War II.
Cartooning America: The Fleischer Brothers Story
Filmmakers Collaborative, Inc.
Melrose, MA
Award: Outright; $500,000
Production of a sixty-minute documentary film about the family of animators who created such iconic early cartoon characters as Koko the Clown, Popeye the Sailor Man, and Betty Boop.
American Oral History Project: LBJ's Great Society & Richard Nixon's War
Public Radio International, Inc.
Minneapolis, MN
Award: Outright; $301,331
Production of two radio documentaries and twelve podcasts exploring the Johnson and Nixon presidencies from 1963 to mid-1975.
Laura Ingalls Wilder: Prairie Legend
Twin Cities Public Television, Inc.
St. Paul, MN
Award: Outright; $500,000
Production of a ninety-minute documentary film chronicling the life, work, and cultural impact of Laura Ingalls Wilder (1867–1957).
Mae West: I'm No Angel
WNET
New York, NY
Award: Outright; $500,000
Production of a documentary film about the writer and actress Mae West (1893–1980).
The History of Now
Radio Diaries
Brooklyn, NY
Award: Outright; $250,000
Match; $100,000
Production of eighteen radio documentaries for broadcast and online distribution, exploring a wide range of events in U.S. history.
Classroom Connections
University of Virginia
Charlottesville, VA|
Award: Outright; $460,000
Production of fifty-two radio episodes accompanied by an educational outreach campaign.
Fiscal Year 2019
Development
Alaska Documentary with Ric Burns
Anchorage Museum Association
Anchorage, AK
Award: Outright; $25,000
Match; $50,000
Development of a three-part documentary film on the history of Alaska produced through a partnership between the Anchorage Museum and Steeplechase Films.
All This Life: The Many Worlds of Roman Vishniac
Katahdin Foundation
Berkeley, CA
Award: Outright; $75,000
Development of a film script exploring the life and work of American photographer Roman Vishniac (1897–1990) in Eastern European Jewish communities.
Tektite Revisited: NASA’s Forgotten Underwater Mission
University Corporation at Monterey Bay
Seaside, CA
Award: Outright; $74,989
Development of an eighty-minute documentary on the Tektite Program, an experimental underwater research station operated by NASA in the U.S. Virgin Islands between 1969 and 1970.
City Lights
Media Process Educational Films
Chicago, IL
Award: Outright; $75,000
Development of a one-hour documentary on San Francisco’s City Lights Bookstore and the poetand publisher Lawrence Ferlinghetti (born 1919).
Hazel Scott: Café Society
New York Foundation for the Arts
Brooklyn, NY
Award: Outright; $75,000
Development of a documentary film about the African American musician and broadcast pioneer Hazel Scott (1920–81).
The People’s Will
Women Make Movies, Inc.
New York, NY
Award: Outright; $74,992
Development of a sixty-minute documentary using the 1849 Astor Place Riot as a vehicle to explore the history of theater and Shakespeare in nineteenth-century America.
Production
Winchelldom: The World that Walter Winchell Built
International Documentary Foundation
Los Angeles, CA
Award: Outright; $650,000
Production of a sixty-minute documentary film
about the prominent newspaper columnist and radio commentator Walter Winchell (1897–1972).
Language and Linguistics Podcast (Successor to “World in Word”)
Linguistic Society of America
Washington, DC
Award: Outright; $199,330
Production of twenty original episodes of a podcast on language, Subtitle, and additional related programming.
Modernism, Inc.
Bread and Butter Films
Berkeley, CA
Award: Outright; $500,000
Production of a one-hour film exploring the life and work of architect and industrial designer Eliot Noyes’ (1910–77) corporate work.
American Routes: Cultural Continuity & Creativity in the Vernacular Humanities
Tulane University
New Orleans, LA
Award: Outright; $200,000
Production of eight, two-hour radio programs on American music and culture.
The Bell Affair: A Film Reframing American Slavery and Freedom
University of Nebraska, Board of Regents
Lincoln, NE
Award: Outright; $200,000
Production of a one-hour live action animated documentary about an enslaved family that sued for freedom in 1830s Washington, D.C.
UNLADYLIKE2020
Futuro Media Group
New York, NY
Award: Outright; $500,000
Match; $100,000
Production of twenty-six animated short documentary films about little-known Progressive Era women who achieved success in science, business, aviation, journalism, politics, medicine, exploration, and the arts.
Smarthistory: At Risk Cultural Heritage Education Series, Phase 2
Smarthistory, Inc.
Pleasantville, NY
Award: Outright; $260,740
Production of twenty videos and five framing essays about the preservation, destruction, and re-creation of art.
Steeplechase Films: Dante
City Lore: NY Center for Urban Folk Culture
New York, NY
Award: Outright; $500,000
Production of a three-hour documentary film exploring the life and work of Dante Alighieri (1265–1321), author of The Divine Comedy.
Travel Notes of a Geechee Girl
Women Make Movies, Inc.
New York, NY
Award: Outright; $500,000
Production of a two-hour documentary film on the life and work of Vertamae Smart-Grosvenor (1937–2016), a twentieth-century American poet, civil rights activist, actress, culinary anthropologist, writer, journalist, radio host, and chef.
South by Somewhere
Southern Documentary Fund
Durham, NC
Award: Outright; $600,000
Production of a series of programs that examine the foodways, history, and culture of the American South.
Beethoven in Beijing
CultureTrust Greater Philadelphia
Philadelphia, PA
Award: Outright; $200,000
Production of a feature-length documentary exploring the Philadelphia Orchestra’s financial struggles and 1973 historic performance in China.
The Heart of All That Is
Little Wound School District
Kyle, SD
Award: Outright; $200,000
Production of a seven-episode podcast series about the history of the Oglala Lakota Sioux.
It’s Lit! A Series About Books from PBS Digital Studios
PBS Foundation
Arlington, VA
Award: Outright; $478,790
Production of a series of short films about literature.
Fiscal Year 2020
Development
Diary from the Ashes
Headfirst Arts & Media, Inc.
El Cerrito, CA
Award: Outright; $75,000
Development of a ninety-minute documentary film on the diary of Rywka Lipszyc, which records her experience as a Jewish girl in the Lodz ghetto during the Third Reich.
Herculaneum: Reading the Invisible
Filmmakers Collaborative, Inc.
Melrose, MA
Award: Outright; $75,000
Development of a documentary film chronicling the work of the Digital Restoration Initiative team at the University of Kentucky as they attempt to digitally preserve 2,000-year-old papyrus scrolls.
Tourist Nation: The History of American Tourism
Stone Lantern Films, Inc.
Suffern, NY
Award: Outright; $75,000
Development of a four-part documentary series exploring the history and impact of American tourism.
Luis Muñoz Marín: The Making of a Modern Puerto Rico
New York Foundation for the Arts
Brooklyn, NY
Award: Outright; $75,000
Development of a ninety-minute film on the life of Luis Muñoz Marin(1898–1980), the first democratically elected governor of Puerto Rico.
Eyes on the Prize Reclaimed
Center for Independent Documentary, Inc.
Boston, MA
Award: Outright; $75,000
Development of a documentary film about the history and legacy of Eyes on the Prize, the landmark public television series about the civil rights movement.
Production
American Experience: American Oz
WGBH Educational Foundation
Boston, MA
Award: Outright; $550,000
Production of a two-hour documentary about L. Frank Baum and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.
“The Prologue” on Points South, a Podcast from Oxford American
Oxford American Literary Project, Inc.
Little Rock, AR
Award: Outright; $350,000
Production of twenty-four podcast segments and four video short films on the culture of the American South.
Return to Oaxacalifornia
International Documentary Foundation
Los Angeles, CA
Award: Outright; $313,793
Production of a ninety-minute film that uses the lens of three generations of the same family to explore ideas of what is lost and gained through immigration and assimilation.
Vishniac
Katahdin Foundation
Los Angeles, CA
Award: Outright; $396,940
Production of a feature-length documentary about the photographer Roman Vishniac (1897–1990).
Media Projects Production
The Keepers: Radio/Podcast/Social Media Project, Season Two
Kitchen Sisters Productions
San Francisco, CA
Award: Outright; $100,000
Production of the second season of The Keepers,
including eight podcasts for National Public Radio and fifty-two short stories for the website and social media.
American Masters: Marian Anderson: The Whole World in Her Hands
WNET
New York, NY
Award: Outright; $650,000
Production of a documentary film about the singer Marian Anderson (1897–1993).
Lost Highways Podcast
State Historical Society of Colorado
Denver, CO
Award: Outright; $208,808
Production of nine, forty-five- to sixty-minute podcast episodes about Colorado and Western U.S. history.
American Masters—Buckley
WNET
New York, NY
Award: Outright; $500,000
Production of a 90-minute film about the life and legacy of William F. Buckley Jr.
Loïe Fuller: Obsessed with Light
Independent Feature Project, Inc.
Brooklyn, NY
Award: Outright; $325,000
Production of a ninety-minute documentary exploring the life and creative legacy of performing artist Loïe Fuller (1862–1928).
The People's Will
Center for Independent Documentary, Inc.
Boston, MA
Award: Outright; $400,000
Match; $85,000
Production of a sixty-minute documentary using the 1849 Astor Place Riot to explore the history of theater, American politics, and social class in burgeoning urban centers.
Short Documentaries
Historic Rural Churches of Georgia's Saving Grace Documentary Series
Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation, Inc.
Atlanta, GA
Award: Outright; $50,000
Production of short films about rural churches of the South.
Ginsberg's Karma
Rattapallax, Inc.
New York, NY
Award: Outright; $60,000
Production of a documentary about the American poet Allen Ginsberg (1926–97).
Poetry in America Season Three: “More Perfect Union” Episode Sequence
Verse Video Education, Inc.
Brookline, MA
Award: Outright; $250,000
Production of five, twenty-four-minute episodes of a television series on American poetry.
“The Rosenwald Schools of North Carolina” and “The Rosenwald Schools of South Carolina”
Longleaf Productions
Greensboro, NC
Award: Outright; $120,000
Production of two, thirty-minute documentaries about Rosenwald Schools in North Carolina and South Carolina.
Fiscal Year 2021
Development
TEZUKA: God of Manga
Catticus Corporation
Berkeley, CA
Award: Outright; $75,000
Development of an eighty-two-minute documentary on the artist and writer Osamu Tezuka (1928–89), a key figure in the development and popularization of Japanese comics and animation.
You Should Never Blink
Catticus Corporation
Berkeley, CA
Award: Outright; $75,000
Development of a feature-length film exploring the artistic life, teachings, and legacy of Sister Corita Kent (1918–86).
Nihunavea: My Heart, My Center
Film Independent, Inc.
Los Angeles, CA
Award: Outright; $60,000
Development of a ninety-minute documentary film on the Tejon Tribe of California’s struggle to reclaim sovereignty and revitalize their native language.
Our Mr. Matsura
Center for Independent Documentary, Inc.
Boston, MA
Award: Outright; $74,791
Development of a feature-length documentary on Sakae “Frank” Matsura (1873–1913), a Japanese photographer who came to live in the Pacific Northwest in the early twentieth century.
My Underground Mother
Center for Independent Documentary, Inc.
Boston, MA
Award: Outright; $75,000
Development of a feature-length documentary film exploring the lives and legacies of women survivors of Nazi slave-labor camps.
Kaboom! How Comics Changed America
Filmmakers Collaborative, Inc.
Melrose, MA
Award: Outright; $75,000
Development of three, sixty-minute films exploring the history of comics in American culture.
Canada Lee, Native Son
Documentary Educational Resources, Inc.
Watertown, MA
Award: Outright; $75,000
Development of a feature length documentary examining the life of influential actor, athlete, musician, and civil rights activist Canada Lee (1907–52).
Sun Ra from Saturn
New York Foundation for the Arts
Brooklyn, NY
Award: Outright; $74,970
Development of a sixty-minute documentary film examining the life and work of jazz musician and forerunner of Afrofuturism Sun Ra (1914–93).
The Colfax Massacre
City Lore, Inc.
New York, NY
Award: Outright; $75,319
Development of a feature-length film about a Reconstruction-era conflict between southern whites and African Americans and its legal and social legacy.
Production
Lost Highways Podcast
State Historical Society of Colorado
Denver, CO
Award: Outright; $310,536
Production of eight episodes of a podcast series on Colorado and Western history.
Subtitle Podcast
Linguistic Society of America
Washington, DC
Award: Outright; $227,42
Production of a twenty-episode podcast season of Subtitle, a series on language and linguistics.
The Disappearance of Miss Scott
Center for Independent Documentary, Inc.
Boston, MA
Award: Outright; $500,000
Match; $75,000
Production of a ninety-minute documentary film about the pianist, entertainer, and activist Hazel Scott (1920–81).
The Audio History Project
Radio Diaries, Inc.
Brooklyn, NY
Award: Outright; $250,000
Match; $100,000
Production of twelve documentaries for radio and podcast on twentieth-century American history and culture.
Everything Seemed Possible: Luis Muñoz Marín and the Making of Modern Puerto Rico
New York Foundation for the Arts
Brooklyn, NY
Award: Outright; $500,000
Production of a ninety-minute documentary film on the life and career of Luis Muñoz Marín, the first elected governor of Puerto Rico.
Storming Caesars Palace
Women Make Movies, Inc.
New York, NY
Award: Outright; $500,000
A feature-length documentary about the formation of the National Welfare Rights Organization (NWRO) in Las Vegas in the 1970s.
One Person, One Vote?
Women Make Movies, Inc.
New York, NY
Award: Outright; $500,000
A feature-length documentary examining the history of the Electoral College with a focus on how race and slavery shaped the voting process.
The Five Demands: Two Volatile Weeks that Changed the Face of Higher Education
Jezebel Productions, Inc.
New York, NY
Award: Outright; $500,000
Production of a seventy-five-minute documentary film examining the legacy of the 1969 strike by Black and Puerto Rican students at City College of New York.
Genealogies of Modernity Podcast
Forbes Avenue Foundation
Pittsburgh, PA
Award: Outright; $299,900
Production of a podcast series on the meaning and origins of modernity, as well as supplementary components including a website, colloquia, and animated videos.
Short Documentaries
Poetry in America, Season 4: “More Perfect Union” Episode Sequence
Verse Video Education, Inc.
Brookline, MA
Award: Outright; $300,000
Production of five short films in the Poetry in America series.
American Muslim
Filmmakers Collaborative, Inc.
Melrose, MA
Award: Outright; $300,000
Production of a series of six short films about the history of Muslims in the United States.
The Bigger Picture
WNET
New York, NY
Award: Outright; $300,000
Production of a series of seven short films examining photographs that have shaped American history and culture.
Fiscal Year 2022
Development
Coming Round: The Kashia-Pomo Struggle for Homeland
Fort Ross Conservancy
Jenner, CA
Award: Outright; $74,261
Development of a documentary film on the history of a Native American tribe’s displacement and eventual return to their ancestral homeland.
Bombshell
International Documentary Foundation
Los Angeles, CA
Award: Outright; $75,000
Development of a documentary film chronicling the search for truth amidst the propaganda about the use of atomic weapons in World War II.
The People’s Recorder: Revisiting the Federal Writers’ Project and What It Means Today
Stone Soup Productions, Inc.
Washington, DC
Award: Outright; $74,710
Development of a podcast series about the history and legacy of the Federal Writers’ Project of the 1930s.
Diamond Diplomacy
Center for Independent Documentary, Inc.
Boston, MA
Award: Outright; $75,000
Planning for an hour-long documentary on U.S.-Japanese relations through the prism of baseball.
Here, The People Rule
Maryland Public Broadcasting Foundation, Inc.
Owings Mills, MD
Award: Outright; $75,000
Development of a two-hour film exploring the history of presidential transitions.
To Have And To HOLD: A History of Marriage
Futuro Media Group
New York, NY
Award: Outright; $75,000
Development of a documentary series on the history of marriage in the United States.
American Commonwealth: A Podcast on Documents and the American Story
National Council for History Education, Inc.
University Heights, OH
Award: Outright; $75,000
Development of a ten-episode podcast series about canonical and non-canonical founding documents, and production of two of the episodes as pilots.
University of Reconstruction
Historic Columbia Foundation
Columbia, SC
Award: Outright; $74,874
Development of a sixty-minute film examining the Reconstruction-era integration of the University of South Carolina.
Production
Clans Documentary
Museum of Contemporary Art Flagstaff, Inc.
Flagstaff, AZ
Award: Outright; $458,000
Production of a film examining the relationship between the Diné and Dene clans and the role of language and oral tradition in the formation of Indigenous identity.
Meredith Monk: Dancing Voice, Singing Body
International Documentary Foundation
Los Angeles, CA
Award: Outright; $625,000
Production of a ninety-minute documentary exploring the life and work of performance artist, filmmaker, composer, and choreographer Meredith Monk (b. 1942).
Julia Alvarez: Something to Declare
Latino Public Broadcasting
Los Angeles, CA
Award: Outright; $699,154
Production of a ninety-minute documentary film on the life and work of Dominican American writer Julia Alvarez.
Voces de las Abuelas: Grandmothers' Food Stories from the Borderlands
University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA
Award: Outright; $536,733
Production of a documentary series on Mexican and Mexican American food culture in the borderland cities of El Paso, Los Angeles, and Tucson.
Lost Highways Season 4
State Historical Society of Colorado
Denver, CO
Award: Outright; $360,938
Production of Season 4 of Lost Highways, a podcast series about the history of the Rocky Mountain West.
The Colfax Massacre
Foundation for Excellence in Louisiana Public Broadcasting
Baton Rouge, LA
Award: Outright; $700,343
Production of a feature-length film examining Reconstruction-era violence between southern whites and African Americans and its legal and social legacy.
Eyes on the Prize Reclaimed
Center for Independent Documentary, Inc.
Boston, MA
Award: Outright; $550,000
Production of a documentary film about the history and legacy of Eyes on the Prize, the landmark public television series about the civil rights movement.
The Blues Society
Center for Independent Documentary, Inc.
Boston, MA
Award: Outright; $291,480
Post-production of a film exploring the legacy of the Memphis Country Blues Festival and development of a website offering additional resources and curriculum materials.
The Library of Darkness
Filmmakers Collaborative, Inc.
Melrose, MA
Award: Outright; $500,000
Production of a sixty-minute documentary film following a team of computer scientists as they image 2,000-year-old papyrus scrolls from Herculaneum.
Speaking Freely: A Film and Multi-platform Project about the First Amendment and the Work of Preeminent Attorney Floyd Abrams
UnionDocs, Inc
Brooklyn, NY
Award: Outright; $644,525
Production of a film about the First Amendment and the balance between free speech principles and other core values.
Uncovering Margaret Mead
Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, Inc.
New York, NY
Award: Outright; $330,349
Production of ten podcast episodes on Margaret Mead’s contributions to the public understanding of anthropology.
Jamaica Kincaid: Liberating the Daffodil
Women Make Movies, Inc.
New York, NY
Award: Outright; $500,000
Production of a film that explores the life and work of Caribbean writer Jamaica Kincaid.
The First Folio: The Making of Shakespeare
WNET
New York, NY
Award: Outright; $600,000
Production of a two-hour PBS documentary on the 400-year history of Shakespeare’s plays since they were collected in the First Folio in 1623.
New Angle Voice: Pioneering Women of American Architecture Podcast
Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation, Inc.
New York, NY
Award: Outright; $100,000
Production of a multiplatform project about the history of women’s contributions to American architecture.
Between Heaven and Earth: An Audio Documentary Series on Spirituality, Place, and Climate in America
Rector and Visitors of the University of Virginia
Charlottesville, VA
Award: Outright; $199,663
Production of a podcast series of ten episodes on how religious groups and movements have understood human interaction with the natural world and addressed environmental issues.
Short Documentaries
Instrumental: The Elayne Jones Story
University of California, Davis
Davis, CA
Award: Outright; $149,996
Production of a thirty-minute film about Elayne Jones, a pioneering percussionist who challenged racial and gender stereotypes in classical music.