National Black Programming Consortium

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Early History

The National Black Programming Consortium (NBPC) was incorporated in Seattle, Washington, in October, 1979, and opened its main office on Bryden Road in Columbus, Ohio, with three staff, including Executive Director, Mable J. Haddock, Program Coordinator, Frank Rhodes and Public Relations Coordinator, Chetuan Shaffer in May of 1980.

The impetus for the Consortia were eight brave public television producers, from small to mid-size stations in the West, Midwest, and Southern states who would constitute the first board of directors. They proposed to effect programming change on the PBS schedule by trading the best of the programs (bicycling) they’d produced on their weekly local public affairs series. Additionally, they proposed there would also be an annual conference gathering, a radio component, an on-going series offered to the PBS system, a research component, and a career development component designed to diversify PBS management. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting contract outlined these goals, and paid $180,000 annually to NBPC. Ruth Campbell, then local producer for Mississippi E-TV was elected as NBPC’s first chair, Edwin R. Clay, became the second chair. As a result of Clay’s intervention, NBPC’s offices were located in Columbus, and became an active partner with WOSU-TV.

Meanwhile, NBPC joined three consortia already in existence: The Native American Public Television located in Lincoln, Nebraska, the Latino Consortia, the Pacific Islanders In Communications(PIC), in Hawaii then on hiatus. Within the next year or two, the group would grow to include the San Francisco group, National Asian American Telecommunication Association, then called NAATA, now known as CAM and the PIC would re-form and re-emerge. Together, this group would be known as the National Minority Consortia (NMC) and would comprise a powerful voice for diverse representation in programming, production, funding, training and management in public television. They would produce and/or fund hundreds of hours of programming for public television, and NBPC would work with EMMY winners, Oscar nominees, and three MacArthur Genius Award Winners.

NBPC would operate from Columbus, Ohio for over 20 years. For a number of years, NBPC operated a black content video store, Heritage Video, which at one point boasted over 2000 members. During this 20 year period. NBPC moved its incorporation from Seattle to Columbus, opened a Pittsburgh office in partnership with WQED-TV, changed the annual conference to the popular Prized Pieces, a film/video competition, festival, and awards ceremony which attracted Hollywood luminaries such as Danny Glover, Denzel Washington, Rosalind Cash, Malcolm Jamal Warner, Kim Fields, Loretta Devine, as awards presentors. Also, during this period, locally produced public affairs programming on PBS stations dwindled from about 25 to less than 5 under the Reagan administration’s policy changes on public television; and as a result, NBPC would change the focus for acquiring and producing programming from primarily inside PBS to reaching out to independent producers and funding and distributing their work on the local, regional and national network. By 1990 the Consortia would increase its CPB contract from l80,000 to over l million annually as a result of a congressional mandate which established ITVS, the Independent Television Service, and earmarked funds for multicultural programming.

In 2000, NBPC would move its office from its home of 20 years, and relocate to Harlem, New York, hire new staff and develop and produce several major mini-series including the 4 part series, Matters of Race, produced with ROJO Productions and the NMC, the three part series on Black choreography, Free to Dance, and a work in progress, Societal Ills, a 4 part series on health in the African American, Asian American, Latino, Native American, and Pacific Islander communities.

In 2005, NBPC retired its only director, and hired Jacquie Jones, a writer, independent documentary filmmaker, and experienced administrator. She quickly positioned the organization as the premier place for New Media and Digital training for minorities in public television. Under her leadership NBPC offered video streaming, a partnership with HBCU and EYES ON THE PRIZE, and a New Media Institute and new series called AfroPoP, under the auspices of Black Public Media.

NBPC is funded through a grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), the Ford Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, The New York State Council for the Arts, Google, and individual and corporate contributions and media sales and rentals.

Filmmakers

Since its founding in 1979, NBPC has supported hundreds of media projects which have won numerous awards. A Hymn for Alvin Ailey, produced by Orlando Bagwell and Free to Dance – Steps of the Gods, produced by Madison Davis Lacy and Adam Zucker, are both Emmy Award winners. Flag Wars, produced by Linda Goode Bryant and Laura Poitras, Two Towns of Jasper, produced by Marco Williams & Whitney Dow, and the Spike Lee directed A Huey P. Newton Story have each garnered Peabody Awards. MacArthur “Genius” Fellows, Stanley Nelson, Louis Massiah and Charles Burnett, are all filmmakers who have received NBPC funding and other support for various projects during their careers. ^[1] More notable works by NBPC: Conjure Women, Demetria Royals and Louise Diamond ^[2] BrotherMen, Demetria Royals Banished, Marco Williams ^[3] Black Is, Black Ain’t Marlon Riggs, V. Kleinman ^[4] February 1st, Rebecca Scerese, Steven Channing Homecoming, Charlene Gilbert ^[5] The Twelve Disciples of Nelson Mandela, Thomas Allen Harris ^[6] Two Towns of Jasper, Marco Williams Matters of Race, Orland Bagwell ^[7] The Pact, Andrea Kalin ^[8] Ralph Ellison, Avon Kirkland ^[9] Richard Wright, Madison Davis Lacy ^[10] Dinka Diaries Filmon Mebrahtu ^[11] Price of a Ticket Karen Thorsen, Producers: William Miles and Douglas K. Dempsey ^[12] A Question of Color, Kathe Sandler ^[13] That’s my Face, Thomas Allen Harris ^[14] Ten Days in Africa, Reginald Allen ^[15] Ruth Ellis @ 100, Yvonne Welbon ^[16] Parliament Funkadelic: One Nation Under a Groove, Yvonne Smith ^[17]

New Media Institute:

The NBPC New Media Institute (NMI) is a professional development training program for emerging and seasoned filmmakers who want to create innovative projects, explore multi platform distribution, and attract new audiences using the latest in digital technology. In 2007, the NMI was a 6-week virtual workshop series followed by a week-long onsite residency held in Jackson, Mississippi from November 11th to November 17th. In 2006, NBPC launched its NMI at WGBH in Boston, MA.

BlackPublicMedia.org is the National Black Programming Consortium’s latest online distribution platform. Browsing the site, the viewer has access to a myriad of Black content. The channels available are the Black Masculinity Project, Black Family, Black Locales, Africa Open for Business, In Short, and work produced at NBPC’s New Media Institute. Audio interviews with NBPC’s filmmakers, both foreign and domestic, are available as bonus features on the site.

BlackPublicMedia.org is the National Black Programming Consortium’s latest online distribution platform. Browsing the site, the viewer has access to a myriad of Black content. The channels available are the Black Masculinity Project, Black Family, Black Locales, Africa Open for Business, In Short, and work produced at NBPC’s New Media Institute. Audio interviews with NBPC’s filmmakers, both foreign and domestic, are available as bonus features on the site.

Grant Giving: Open Call

Open Call is NBPC’s main annual request for proposals through which most of the organization’s filmmaking grants are awarded. The open call process usually begins with a submission deadline in June, and runs through a semi-finals round and a final two-day panel review process. The first phase for the semi-final selections is coordinated with an external selection of independent ‘readers,’ specifically chosen by NBPC.

These readers are usually veteran filmmakers, experienced grant writers, public television administrators/programmers, and independent media makers working both in public media and also in the commercial realm. A roster of about 25 films makes it to the final review each year, which is a two-day odd-numbered review panel of professional media makers and administrators.

Each year NBPC funds around three or four documentary productions – final awards can go up to $80,000 which is the maximum allowed request.

AfroPoP

AfroPoP is NBPC’s contemporary documentary series on Africa and the African diaspora. The series is hosted by critically-acclaimed actor Idris Elba who gained most of his visibility from the hit HBO crime drama The Wire, and more recently can be seen in major blockbusters like American Gangster with Denzel Washington, and This Christmas with Loretta Divine and Regina King. For more information on AfroPoP, visit NBPC’s video streaming and online content space: BlackPublicMedia.org is the National Black Programming Consortium’s latest online distribution platform. Browsing the site, the viewer has access to a myriad of Black content. The channels available are the Black Masculinity Project, Black Family, Black Locales, Africa Open for Business, In Short, and work produced at NBPC’s New Media Institute. Audio interviews with NBPC’s filmmakers, both foreign and domestic, are available as bonus features on the site..

AfroPoP is presented in partnership with American Public Television and is available to public television stations across the US. Titles featured most recently in AfroPoP include the cutting-edge hip-hop documentary “Hip Hop Revolution,” by South African filmmaker Weaam Williams, and also “Welcome to Nollywood,” a film on the Nigerian filmmaking industry directed by filmmaker Jamie Meltzer which Variety Magazine refers to as “…relentlessly entertaining and informative.”

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