Welcome to PitchBLACK Week!

by Leslie Fields-Cruz

PitchBLACK 2022 kicked off last night (April 25) with the first of several screenings scheduled for this week’s PitchBLACK Orlando Bagwell Online Film Retrospective. The streaming event, co-presented by BPM and GBH, launched with The Terrible Transformation — one of Orlando’s contributions to the highly acclaimed PBS series Africans in America: America’s Journey Through Slavery — and offered a unique opportunity to not only watch the film, but to hear commentary from filmmakers Noland Walker and Ann Bennett, who worked with Orlando on the series. Tonight’s film is one of my personal favorites by Orlando: Malcolm X: Make it Plain, which starts at 8 p.m. The pass-protected access code has been sent by email to all PitchBLACK registrants.

This afternoon at 1 p.m., we kick off the PitchBLACK Forum, featuring pitches by five filmmaking teams who are working on a diversity of compelling projects. Check today’s schedule to see who’s pitching what and when. If you missed yesterday’s deadline to register for today’s competition, you may still register to attend tomorrow’s immersive pitch competition and Thursday evening’s awards ceremony and afterparty.

All who registered for at least one PitchBLACK event, are eligible to attend the rest of the week’s exclusive screenings in the Film Retrospective. All PitchBLACK 2022 events are online and free. Go here to review the schedule.

To learn more about the pitch teams and their projects, read through the PitchBLACK program book.

I hope to see you at one or all these exciting events. Best of luck to those who are pitching at PitchBLACK Forum. With awards of up to $150K available, it should be a thrilling week.

— Fields-Cruz is the executive director of Black Public Media