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CPB Announces First Round of Grants for America at a Crossroads

• For Immediate Release on January 21, 2005

WASHINGTON, D.C., -- The war-time experiences of American soldiers, the high-stakes international struggle for the heart of Islam, the competing demands of security and civil liberty, the trial of Saddam Hussein, and our nation's readiness for terrorist attacks -- are among the issues that will be explored in films funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting through its America at a Crossroads initiative. CPB announced today that it intends to award research and development grants to ten production teams, and expects to announce about 25 additional R&D grants in coming weeks. "The extraordinary competition for these grants -- with some 440 proposals received -- demonstrates that filmmakers are eager to wrestle with the challenges of the post-9/11 world," said CPB President and CEO Kathleen Cox. "Through these grants, CPB is able to tap their creative energy, and help inform and enrich the national dialogue through quality public affairs television." The filmmakers and production teams in this first group of awardees include several first-time CPB applicants, veteran independent producers, and PBS stations WHUT, WETA, and WGBH, which is represented by its highly acclaimed series NOVA. The film concepts and story lines feature an equally varied group of personalities, including two nationally acclaimed investigative reporters; a best-selling Canadian author, Irshad Manji; and international music promoter and agent Miles Copeland (Sting and REM). A list of intended grant recipients can be found below.

"These filmmakers will work in an array of genres, using history, narrative, cinema verite, literature and music to tell these important stories," said CPB Sr. VP for Television Programming, Michael Pack. "We think the combination of critical issues, diverse viewpoints and creative filmmaking will help CPB fulfill its mission of engaging and informing Americans on vital issues." CPB selected this round of projects for R&D funding after a rigorous review process. CPB staff read and evaluated each proposal received, screened several hundred sample films, and interviewed nearly 100 production teams. They also drew heavily on the expertise and advice of outside readers, an advisory board of distinguished policy experts and a station advisory group of public television general managers and programmers, and PBS and CPB executives.

Pending entering into appropriate agreements, CPB expects to award a total of 35 Crossroads R&D grants (averaging about $60,000) to allow the filmmakers to further develop story lines, identify characters, prepare scripts and treatments, and submit full production proposals to CPB. The R&D process could take up to six months. Based on the results of this research and development, CPB intends to award about 20 major production grants this summer.

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting First Round of R&D Grants America at a Crossroads

January 21, 2005

The Anti-Americans (Louis Alvarez and Andrew Kolker, Center for New American Media, New York) will explore European anti-American sentiment over the past 200 years with an emphasis on contemporary attitudes. The sometimes satiric look will examine the perceptions and misperceptions of some of Europe's leading political, cultural, intellectual and media figures as well as ordinary citizens.

The Day We Chose the Future (Paula Apsell, NOVA/WGBH, Boston) will combine a riveting drama, based on scenario planning, with expert interviews, to shed light on the likely choices and decisions that will confront policy makers, first responders, and citizens when responding to a WMD terrorist attack.

Jihad (William Cran and Clive Syddall, Paladin Invision, London) will examine the history and causes of Islamist Radicalism.

The Muslim Brotherhood (Steve Hewlett, MSRM Productions, Washington, D.C. and London) will feature two nationally acclaimed investigative reporters, whose identities will be anonymous while they track the Brotherhood's development, structure, international operations and financial networks. The film will also explore its relationship with Al Qaeda and other terror groups.

The Mosque in Morgantown (Brittany Huckabee of Boston) will chronicle the unfolding drama within a Muslim community in small-town West Virginia. The verite-style documentary will follow Asra Nomani, a former Wall Street Journal correspondent, as she pushes for change at the mosque her father helped to found three decades ago. It will also tell the stories of other mosque members, in their own words, as they work to determine the shape of their religious community.

Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience (Richard Robbins and Tom Yellin, PJ Productions, New York and WETA, Washington, D.C.) will bring to the screen the writing of American troops who have served the nation on the frontlines in Iraq and Afghanistan. The writings - fiction, verse, and letters, essays, memoirs, and personal journals - are being solicited and collected as part of the National Endowment for the Arts' program, Operation Homecoming.

Security Versus Liberty: The Other War (Jennifer Lawson , WHUT, Washington and Lisa Zeff, ABC News Productions, New York) will examine the tensions and trade-offs between security and liberty in the post-9/11 world by following several characters enmeshed in the controversy.

The Trouble with Islam (Gordon Henderson, 90th Parallel Films and Television Productions LTD, Ontario, Canada) will feature the internationally best-selling author Irshad Manji, who observes that Islam, under which the world's most learned and accomplished societies once flourished, closed the door on critical thinking at the end of the 11th century. Manji will meet fellow Muslims in Iran, Lebanon, Yemen and the U.S. who are trying to open those doors.

Masika Al Arabiva El Enteshar Se Amerika (Arab Music Succeeding in America) (Miles Copeland and Jonathan Brandeis, Firstars, Hollywood) will follow a group of popular Arab musicians from their preparations to depart their homeland through their American concert tour to their return to the Middle East. The Arab group will be joined in concert by leading American musicians, and the film will likely be co-broadcast in the U.S. and several Middle East countries.

The Trial of Saddam Hussein (Daniel Polin and Kenneth Mandel, Great Projects Film Company, New York) will give a behind-the-scene view of the pre-trial preparations and trial of Saddam Hussein events that will test that country's budding justice system, and begin to reconcile Iraq's legacy of dictatorship, crime, war, and occupation.

Note: All titles are working titles.

About CPB

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), a private, nonprofit corporation created by Congress in 1967, is the steward of the federal government's investment in public broadcasting. It helps support the operations of more than 1,400 locally-owned and -operated public television and radio stations nationwide, and is the largest single source of funding for research, technology, and program development for public radio, television and related online services.