News

Filmmaker Sam Pollard, one of the most prolific and important forces in contemporary documentary, will be honored by Black Public Media at its upcoming PitchBlack Awards in New York.

Pollard — who directed or co-directed four films and docuseries this year alone, including The League and Bill Russell: Legend — will receive the Bpm Trailblazer Award in a ceremony on April 25. The event is set to take place at the Stanley H. Kantor Penthouse of Manhattan’s Lincoln Center, capping the latest edition of Bpm’s PitchBLACK Forum, described as “the largest pitch competition of its kind in the United States for independent filmmakers and creative technologists who create Black content.”

“A multiple Emmy- and Peabody Award-winning producer-director-editor, Pollard is known for his work on a plethora of important works including: Eyes On The Prize, Maynard, MLK/FBI, Lowndes County and the Road to Black Power, and Mr. Soul!,” a release noted.

Starting with a modest proposal framing Black power as the erasure of systemic white supremacy, Sam Pollard and Llewellyn M. Smith’s South to Black Power, written by and featuring New York Times columnist Charles M. Blow, proposes a roadmap forward: a reverse great migration back to southern states with Black populations. Citing Vermont as a successful case study, Blow tells the story of how the counterculture changed the rural, conservative state by simply doing the math and moving in. Born and raised in the racially mixed rural town of Gibsland, Louisiana, Blow returns home to find some signs of encouraging process, discussing with relatives their plans for redeveloping their town by obtaining power through official channels.

Herein lies the problem studied extensively in the documentary: while achieving strength and agency at a municipal level is possible, Blow uses his new hometown of Atlanta as a successful case study. But...

Still sleeping off your Thanksgiving feast? It’s not to be wondered at, as the holiday usually produces quite the food coma before sending eaters away from the table to watch the night’s NFL contest or the annual airing of “Home Alone.”

As Cyber Monday kicks off the week, there are plenty of new shows and movies coming to streaming in the final few days of November/beginning of December. Check below for The Streamable’s recommendations on what to watch this week!

Monday, Nov. 27 ‘Steeltown Murders’ Series Premiere

It’s 2002 in Port Talbot, and on hearing that the Cid is looking to reopen two sexually motivated murder cases from 1973, Dci Paul Bethell jumps at the opportunity to lead the investigation. Following two vividly different timelines, we also revisit the tragic events of ‘73 to see both a small Welsh community devastated by grief, and Paul as a junior officer...