Director Stanley Nelson and writer-producer Marcia Smith have formed trendy documentary storytelling and the sector round it, pairing revelatory movies with lasting infrastructure that helps different artists thrive. Nelson is extensively thought to be a number one chronicler of the African American expertise in nonfiction movie, work that has earned him a MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship, a Peabody recognizing his physique of labor and the Nationwide Medal within the Humanities. Smith has has helped advance documentary filmmaking as a author, producer and nonprofit chief, incomes recognition for her work and management together with a Writers Guild Award, a Muse Award and BlackStar’s Luminary Award. By way of Firelight’s Documentary Lab, they’ve helped launch the careers of greater than 100 nonfiction filmmakers of shade and constructed Firelight right into a nationally revered dwelling for nonfiction work by and about communities of shade.
BPM’s Trailblazer Award is introduced to documentary filmmakers whose physique of labor and dedication to mentoring rising filmmakers producing Black tales are exemplary. Previous recipients embody Michèle Stephenson & Joe Brewster (2019), Marco Williams (2021) Orlando Bagwell (2022), Yoruba Richen (2023), Sam Pollard (2024), and Lillian E. Benson (2025).
“Not solely has Marcia and Stanley’s prolific physique of labor set superior requirements for the sector and blessed the world with a plethora of essential African American tales, their dedication to creating new alternatives for different underrepresented and underserved media makers has made it attainable for the trade to develop in ways in which higher replicate its more and more numerous audiences,” mentioned Leslie Fields-Cruz, government director of Black Public Media. “Black Public Media is thrilled to bestow our highest award on these two impartial media titans.”
By way of its PitchBLACK initiative, Black Public Media (BPM) has awarded greater than $2 million to 26 movie and immersive initiatives since 2015. Many have gone on to nationwide primetime premieres on public media broadcast and streaming platforms.
Annually, the PitchBLACK Discussion board & Awards draw leaders from public tv, business tv, documentary movie, rising media and funding worlds. On the Discussion board, 5 documentary movie groups will pitch their initiatives within the morning, adopted by 5 immersive media groups within the afternoon, with initiatives judged by panels of trade professionals.
Winners will probably be introduced on the PitchBLACK Awards on Thursday, April 30. The occasion will function an Artists’ Chat with Nelson and Smith about their careers and the way forward for public media, moderated by NPR journalist and podcast host Brittany Luse. The recipient of BPM’s 2026 Nonso Christian Ugbode Fellowship, a memorial award named for BPM’s first director of digital initiatives recognizing under-30 artists in immersive media, will even be introduced. Held in-person, the PitchBLACK Awards will probably be broadcast at a later date by NYC Media.
Since 1979, BPM has funded and helped distribute high quality movie and immersive work whereas growing creatives. The nationwide nonprofit additionally produces and distributes authentic content material, together with its signature sequence, AfroPoP: The Final Cultural Trade and its digital offshoot, AfroPoP Digital Shorts.
ABOUT THE AWARDEES
Stanley Nelson is the foremost chronicler of the African American expertise working in nonfiction movie at present. His documentary movies, lots of which have aired on PBS, mix compelling narratives with wealthy and deeply researched historic element, shining new gentle on each acquainted and under-explored elements of the American previous. A MacArthur “Genius” Fellow, Nelson was awarded a Peabody for his physique of labor in 2016. He has acquired quite a few honors over the course of his profession, together with the 2016 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Nationwide Academy of Tv Arts Sciences. In 2013, President Barack Obama introduced Nelson with the Nationwide Medal within the Humanities.
Nelson’s newest documentaries embody Sound of the Police for ABC Information Studios/Hulu, and Harriet Tubman: Visions of Freedom and Changing into Frederick Douglass for PBS. His earlier documentary Attica for SHOWTIME Documentary Movies was nominated for Finest Documentary Function on the 94th Academy Awards® and earned him the DGA Award for Excellent Directorial Achievement in Documentary. In 2021, Nelson additionally directed Crack: Cocaine, Corruption & Conspiracy for Netflix and Tulsa Burning: The 1921 Race Bloodbath, with co-director Marco Williams for Historical past, which was nominated for 3 Primetime Emmy® Awards.
Nelson’s function for American Masters, Miles Davis: Start of the Cool premiered on the Sundance Movie Pageant in 2019, marking his tenth premiere on the prestigious competition – essentially the most of any documentary filmmaker. The movie received two Emmy® Awards on the forty second Annual Information and Documentary Emmy Awards and was nominated for Finest Music Movie on the 62nd Grammy Awards. His movie The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution (2016) received the 2016 NAACP Picture Award. Different notable Nelson movies embody Freedom Riders (2010, three Primetime Emmy® Awards and included within the Nationwide Movie Registry by the Library of Congress), Freedom Summer time (2014, Peabody Award),The Black Press: Troopers With out Swords (1999, Emmy-nominated), Jonestown: The Life and Demise of Folks’s Temple (2006, Tribeca Movie Pageant Particular Jury Prize) and Marcus Garvey: Search for Me within the Whirlwind (2000, Sundance Premiere). The Homicide of Emmett Until 2003) uncovered new eyewitnesses and helped immediate the U.S. Division of Justice to reopen the case.
Marcia Smith is co-founder and former president of Firelight Media, which produces documentary movies, supplies creative and monetary assist to rising filmmakers of shade and builds impression campaigns to attach documentaries to audiences and social justice advocates. Underneath her management, Firelight Media was honored with a MacArthur Award for Artistic and Efficient Establishments. Firelight Media’s flagship Documentary Lab program has supported greater than 100 rising filmmakers over the previous decade, who’ve premiered at festivals reminiscent of Sundance, and gone on to earn quite a few competition, Peabody and Emmy awards.
She has written a number of movies alongside documentarian Stanley Nelson together with: Inform Them We Are Rising: The Story of Black Faculties and Universities; By way of the Hearth: The Legacy of Barack Obama; Freedom Riders; Jonestown: The Life and Demise of the Peoples Temple; Marcus Garvey: Search for Me within the Whirlwind; and The Homicide of Emmett Until. Smith acquired a Primetime Emmy nomination and received the Writers’ Guild Award for greatest nonfiction writing for her work on The Homicide of Emmett Until, and was honored with a 2016 Muse Award from New York Ladies in Movie & Tv, in addition to the 2019 Luminary Award from BlackStar Movie Pageant. She will even function the author for Firelight’s upcoming four-hour documentary sequence, Creating The New World, on the transatlantic slave commerce.
Smith is a member of the Academy of Movement Image Arts and Sciences, sits on the Peabody Board of Administrators (East Coast) and is a member of the Board for Martha’s Winery Movie Society.
ABOUT BLACK PUBLIC MEDIA (BPM)
BPM helps the event of visionary content material creators and distributes tales concerning the international Black expertise to encourage a extra equitable and inclusive future. For 45+ years, BPM has addressed the wants of unserved and underserved audiences. BPM-supported applications have received 5 Emmys®,10 Peabodys, 5 Anthem Awards, 14 Emmy® nominations and an Oscar® nomination. BPM continues to handle historic, up to date and systemic challenges that historically impede the event and distribution of Black tales.
