Black stories are in the spotlight at the Pitchblack Forum & Awards

Black Public Media (BPM) is on target to hit $2 million in funding this year for film and immersive projects through its PitchBLACK Forum — the largest pitch competition of its kind in the United States for independent filmmakers and creative technologists who create Black content.

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The event will take place in Harlem on Wednesday, April 30, from 9 am to 5 pm. Winners of production and distribution awards will be announced at the PitchBLACK Awards on Thursday, May 1, at 7 pm, an event during which history-making film editor Lillian E. Benson, ACE (American Cinema Editors) will receive the prestigious BPM Trailblazer Award. Benson is known for her Emmy® nominated work on Eyes on the Prize II, Showtime's Soul Food, NBC's Chicago Med, and OWN's Greenleaf. Sponsored by Netflix and PBS, PitchBLACK will feature creatives pitching their projects before an audience of public media, commercial television networks, distributors, and funders from across the country.

BPM is a national nonprofit that funds quality film and immersive work, develops media makers, and produces and distributes original content. Since 2015, the group has awarded more than $1.8 million to 23 film and immersive projects through the competition, which this year moves to The Apollo Stages at the Victoria in Harlem, the New York City neighborhood where BPM is based. With BPM planning to award more than $225,000 to projects this year, the organization will break the $2 million mark for funding awarded through the PitchBLACK program since it launched in 2015.