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The WGBH Lab announces Open Call for Election 2008 short film pitches

WHAT: The WGBH Lab -- WGBH's new media film-making outreach -- is seeking pitches for 3-minute films on the subject of Election 2008 for potential broadcast.
WHO: Filmmakers with all ranges of experience are encouraged to submit.
WHEN: Pitches are DUE May 2nd, 2008
MORE: http://lab.wgbh.org


The 2008 presidential election is already one for the history books. This spring, the WGBH Lab and PBS's P.O.V. documentary series offer filmmakers a chance to make their voices heard before the voting booths open.

The WGBH Lab and P.O.V. invite filmmakers to submit ideas for a compelling video short related to the upcoming election. Filmmakers can submit a pitch between April 7th and May 2nd. Stories could be about an ongoing national or local issue, memories of elections past, or insight on how our new president can make vital changes. The WGBH Lab will post video pitches, invite the public to vote for their favorites, and choose the top ideas for production. As filmmakers complete their short films, industry professionals and users of the Lab site will post comments and suggestions. Selected films (approximately three minutes in length) will receive $2000 in financial support, will be featured online at www.pbs.org/pov and may be broadcast on PBS. For more details on the submission process visit http://lab.wgbh.org.

On Tuesday June 24, P.O.V. will kick off its 2008 season on PBS with "Traces of the Trade" by Katrina Browne, the first filmmaker to participate in WGBH's Filmmaker-in-Residence program. Browne worked on "Traces of the Trade" at WGBH from 2003-2005. The Filmmaker-in-Residence program is a part of the WGBH Lab, and invites filmmakers and innovators from related industries to work on their independently funded projects during a nine-month residency at WGBH.

In "Traces of the Trade," an Official Selection of the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, first-time filmmaker Katrina Browne makes a troubling discovery--her New England ancestors were the largest slave-trading family in U.S. history. She and nine fellow descendants set off to retrace the Triangle Trade: from their old hometown in Rhode Island to slave forts in Ghana to sugar plantation ruins in Cuba. Step by step, they uncover the vast extent of Northern complicity in slavery while also stumbling through the minefield of contemporary race relations.

Other documentaries airing this season on P.O.V. related to the upcoming election include "Election Day" by Katie Chevigny, "Campaign" by Kazuhiro Soda, "The Ballad of Esequiel Hernandez" by Kieran Fitzgerald, "Critical Condition" by Roger Weisberg, and "Soldiers of Conscience" by Catherine Ryan and Gary Weimberg. The programs tell stories that deal with critical election issues such as voter turnout, healthcare, the Iraq war, race relations, election reform, immigration and border security, and the health of democracy, both in America and around the world. Film descriptions, filmmaker bios and video trailers are available now at the P.O.V. Web site (www.pbs.org/pov). Selected short films from the Open Call may be licensed for use via broadcast or broadband with airings of the P.O.V. films.