Up to $60K offered to filmmakers for projects on vaccination in minority communities

Duante Beddingfield, Detroit Free Press
·2 min read
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Black Public Media (BPM), one of the nation’s most prominent funders of stories about the Black experience, is seeking creatives in Michigan to help overcome vaccine hesitancy in communities of color.

Filmmakers and other media makers are invited to attend a free, virtual Black Media Story Summit (Michigan and North Carolina) on Friday, March 3, and join in the discussion on stories needed to improve vaccination rates in minority communities. Attendees will then be allowed to submit proposals for up to $60,000 in funding for production of short-form projects that boost receptivity of COVID-19, influenza and other adult vaccines.

Related:Report: Michigan closed the gap on COVID-19 racial disparities

“As we enter the fourth year of the pandemic, it is clear that some of the most effective efforts against COVID-19 are those that are community based and community focused,” said Leslie Fields-Cruz, executive director of BPM, a Harlem-based national media arts nonprofit dedicated to creating and producing media content about the Black experience. “We look forward to hearing new ideas and thoughts from creatives and artists on ways to break through the vaccine hesitancy that touches our communities.”

The summit's Michigan-based moderator and panelists include orator G. Foster; Christine Plummer, director of west Michigan’s City on a Hill Health Clinic; Marcel "Fable" Price, chief inspiration architect of Grand Rapids arts nonprofit The Diatribe; and Patrick McNeal, director of the North Flint Neighborhood Action Council.

Radio host Santita Jackson, daughter of the Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, Sr., will deliver the keynote address at the online event, which will also feature screenings of projects that were funded when Black Public Media went to Baltimore, including “Baltimore Speaks.”

Santita Jackson, daughter of the Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, Sr. and host of “The Santita Jackson Show” on Chicago’s WCPT 820, will deliver the keynote address at Black Public Media's Black Media Story Summit on Friday, March 3.
Santita Jackson, daughter of the Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, Sr. and host of “The Santita Jackson Show” on Chicago’s WCPT 820, will deliver the keynote address at Black Public Media's Black Media Story Summit on Friday, March 3.

Jackson, host of “The Santita Jackson Show” on Chicago’s WCPT 820, will discuss the current state of vaccination with “It’s Been 3 Years… Now What?” Other sessions will explore ways to improve trust in the medical community among Black communities, and the mental health effects of the vaccine and pandemic on young adults.

The online event begins at 10 a.m. Friday and is free with registration. Media makers, health care providers and the general public, can register for the online event here.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Filmmaking grants up to $60,000 offered for vaccination projects