Making Media Now

Here's a brief update on the current status of public media.

 

In short: it ain’t good.

 

If you’re a regular listener to MMN, you probably know that over the more than 150 episodes that we’ve produced a sizable chunk of them involved conversations with documentary filmmakers whose work was broadcast on public media outlets like PBS and NPR. 

 

Much of the reason that these documentaries have found a home at places like PBS is because they deal with important issues—issues that impact the health of our democracy, our natural environment, the rights of marginalized groups, and often compelling human interest stories that the commercial broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox) fear won’t attract a big enough audience to sell to advertisers.

 

That’s not to say that thoughtful, well-made, and illuminating documentaries can’t be found on commercial broadcast networks or subscription-funded streaming platforms like Netflix, Apple TV, or Amazon Prime. 

 

But public media is often the last bastion of informational and educational programming that is (or was) available to all: free of charge and free of advertiser oversight.

 

On August 1, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting announced that it would shut down after nearly 6 decades of services. In the aftermath of the announcement, I read and heard lots of concern—and no small amount of confusion—about what that means and why it matters.

 

Lucky for me, later on that same day, I read, in the online publication Vulture, an extremely helpful overview of what CPB is and how its relationship to public media works written by journalist Nicholas Quah.

 

So I thought I’d take some time to share excerpts from that article to help those concerned understand exactly where things stand. The article, which I’ve linked to in our episode notes, is titled “The Future of Public Media Looks Rocky”

 

Making Media Now is sponsored by Filmmakers Collaborative, a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting media makers from across the creative spectrum. From providing fiscal sponsorship to presenting an array of informative and educational programs, Filmmakers Collaborative supports creatives at every step in their journey.

About the host: www.writevoicecreative.com and https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-azevedo/

 

Sound Engineer: A.J. Kierstead

Documentary filmmakers Ellen Martinez and Steph Ching join host Michael Azevedo to discuss Slumlord Millionaire, winner of the Audience Award at the 2024 DOC NYC Film Festival. The film explores the rapid gentrification of New York City neighborhoods and the housing crisis sweeping not only New York but the nation.

Told through the stories of a group of fearless residents, activists and nonprofit attorneys who fight corrupt landlords and developers for the basic human right to a home, the film premieres on the PBS series VOCES on Monday, July 28. It will also be available on all PBS digital streaming platforms starting on that same date.

Ellen Martinez and Steph Ching previously directed and produced After Spring, a feature documentary about the Syrian refugee crisis. The film was executive produced by Jon Stewart, had its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival, was broadcast on Starz and received a Frontline Award for Documentary Journalism. Additionally, Ellen & Steph were both honorees on DOC NYC’s inaugural "40 Under 40" list as directors.

Making Media Now is sponsored by Filmmakers Collaborative, a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting media makers from across the creative spectrum. From providing fiscal sponsorship to presenting an array of informative and educational programs, Filmmakers Collaborative supports creatives at every step in their journey.

About the host: www.writevoicecreative.com and https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-azevedo/

 

Sound Engineer: A.J. Kierstead

Joining host Michael Azevedo on this episode is Troy Farkas, the creator, producer, and host of "Seacoast Stories," a podcast featuring compelling stories about the unique people, businesses, and newsmakers of New Hampshire and southern Maine.

 

This weekly podcast takes on sometimes controversial issues, highlights local businesses, tells entertaining stories, and seeks to uncover what makes the northern NE Seacoast such a hidden gem.

 

Prior to creating the "Seacoast Stories" podcast, Troy spent 7 years producing top-performing podcasts at ESPN and The Ringer podcast network on Spotify which were hosted by some of the most high-profile sports media personalities in the world. Troy spoke to me from, as expected, his home on the New Hampshire seacoast.

 

Making Media Now is sponsored by Filmmakers Collaborative, a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting media makers from across the creative spectrum. From providing fiscal sponsorship to presenting an array of informative and educational programs, Filmmakers Collaborative supports creatives at every step in their journey.

About the host: www.writevoicecreative.com and https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-azevedo/

 

Sound Engineer: A.J. Kierstead

 

Host Michael Azevedo is joined by members of the team behind a compelling and eye-opening short documentary called “Gone Guys.”  Chad Ervin  is the film’s director & producer. Also joining the conversation is the film's executive producer, Lauren Curry, of the Richard E and Deborah L Tarrant Foundation.

 

The documentary draws on the influential work of writer & social scientist Richard Reeves. Reeves is the author of the 2022 best seller “Of Boys and Men”, which illuminates these challenges through powerful data and compelling personal stories. 

 

NOTE: In the interest of accuracy, we note that a slight misstatement was made at the 54min, 24sec mark of this interview. A more accurate statement would be: "In 1980, 40% of the US elementary and middle school educator workforce was male. Today that's 20%.”

 

Making Media Now is sponsored by Filmmakers Collaborative, a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting media makers from across the creative spectrum. From providing fiscal sponsorship to presenting an array of informative and educational programs, Filmmakers Collaborative supports creatives at every step in their journey.

About the host: www.writevoicecreative.com and https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-azevedo/

 

Sound Engineer: A.J. Kierstead

“If everybody always lies to you, the consequence is not that you believe the lies, but rather that nobody believes anything any longer. And the people that no longer believe anything cannot make up its mind. It is deprived not only of its capacity to act, but also of its capacity to think and to judge. And with such a people, you can then do what you please.”

Those are the words, written more than 6 decades ago, of political philosopher Hannah Arendt, whose life and work is vividly explored in "Hannah Arendt: Facing Tyranny," which will premiere on PBS broadcast and digital channels on June 27 as part of the "American Masters" series.

 

Jeff Bieber, the executive producer and co-writer/director of this timely and compelling documentary, joins host Michael Azevedo on this episode of Making Media Now.

 

The film explores Arendt’s fearless examination of power, propaganda and moral responsibility in the face of authoritarianism.

 

Making Media Now is sponsored by Filmmakers Collaborative, a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting media makers from across the creative spectrum. From providing fiscal sponsorship to presenting an array of informative and educational programs, Filmmakers Collaborative supports creatives at every step in their journey.

About the host: www.writevoicecreative.com and https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-azevedo/

 

Sound Engineer: A.J. Kierstead

Joining host Michael Azevedo on this episode is Chad Freidrichs, the director and editor of a fascinating and intriguing film called "The Cinema Within."

"The Cinema Within," which is now streaming on Amazon Prime Video and on Vimeo, is a feature-length documentary that delves into the psychology of film editing – the mystery of how and why an edited movie feels so natural and so effortlessly makes sense.

Drawing on the insights of famed movie editor Walter Murch, scholar David Bordwell, and a varied group of perceptual scientists, "The Cinema Within" explores the idea that in film’s earliest years, the most common edits were instinctively shaped to fit the contours of human perception — and that this might explain why, more than a century later, most modern-day filmmakers still rely on these exact same techniques.

But in the remote mountains of Turkey, a young researcher – and a group of people who have never seen a film before – put this deepest of cinematic ideas to the test.

Playfully inventive in its construction and striking in its visuals, the documentary dives deep into the deliberately hidden language of film editing – a language so seemingly natural it usually goes unnoticed.  

Drawing on dozens of examples from both well-known and obscure films across cinema history, it explores not only the essential grammar of the world’s most popular art form, but the very mechanics of how we perceive reality.

Making Media Now is sponsored by Filmmakers Collaborative, a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting media makers from across the creative spectrum. From providing fiscal sponsorship to presenting an array of informative and educational programs, Filmmakers Collaborative supports creatives at every step in their journey.

About the host: www.writevoicecreative.com and https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-azevedo/

 

Sound Engineer: A.J. Kierstead

Host Michael Azevedo welcomes back Mickela Mallozzi, the four-time Emmy Award-winning host and executive producer of “Bare Feet with Mickela Mallozzi,” a PBS series that highlights the diversity of dance with episodes filmed around the world. A dancer since early childhood, Mickela has parlayed her lifelong passion into a popular PBS series that travels the world to celebrate the joy of movement.

 

Making Media Now is sponsored by Filmmakers Collaborative, a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting media makers from across the creative spectrum. From providing fiscal sponsorship to presenting an array of informative and educational programs, Filmmakers Collaborative supports creatives at every step in their journey.

About the host: www.writevoicecreative.com and https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-azevedo/

 

Sound Engineer: A.J. Kierstead

Host Michael Azevedo is joined by two guests to discuss recent funding cuts to the National Endowment for the Humanities, the NEH, and the National Endowment for the Arts, the NEA. To provide insight into the topic, Michael is  joined by documentary filmmaker and television producer Marisa Fox, who in a recent article in the Hollywood Reporter described what she and many of her peers have been going through as the Trump administration makes drastic cuts to the NEH and the NEA.

Also joining the conversation is Laura Azevedo, executive director of Filmmakers Collaborative, which sponsors this podcast, to share how these cuts have impacted documentary filmmakers working with FC and how FC, as an organization that also runs educational programs around filmmaking and media literacy, has been impacted.

Making Media Now is sponsored by Filmmakers Collaborative, a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting media makers from across the creative spectrum. From providing fiscal sponsorship to presenting an array of informative and educational programs, Filmmakers Collaborative supports creatives at every step in their journey.

About the host: www.writevoicecreative.com and https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-azevedo/

 

Sound Engineer: A.J. Kierstead

Joining host Michael Azevedo on this episode is writer/director Gene Tempest. Gene’s latest documentary is “Mr. Polaroid” and it will debut on PBS as part of the American Experience series on May 19. Following its broadcast premiere, the film will be available via the PBS app and on the American Experience YouTube channel. The film profiles Edwin Land, a pioneering tech disruptor and Inventor of the mid-century icon that transformed photography.

 

Long before the iPhone, another inventive device allowed everyone to instantly chronicle their lives — the Polaroid camera. The product, and the company’s unique culture, would launch not only instant photography mania but also become the model for today’s Silicon Valley tech culture. 

 

"Mr. Polaroid" tells the little-known story of the man behind the camera, a Harvard dropout named Edwin Land. Over a half century ago, before the smartphone, Land was dreaming up “a camera that you would use as often as your pencil or your eyeglasses.” He would also come to believe his company was “on its way to lead the world — perhaps even to save it.” Hubris, technology, brilliance, and a billion photographs a year are all part of the rollicking Polaroid story.

 

Making Media Now is sponsored by Filmmakers Collaborative, a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting media makers from across the creative spectrum. From providing fiscal sponsorship to presenting an array of informative and educational programs, Filmmakers Collaborative supports creatives at every step in their journey.

About the host: www.writevoicecreative.com and https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-azevedo/

 

Sound Engineer: A.J. Kierstead

Joining host Michael Azevedo on this episode are Will Parrinello and Rick Tejada-Flores, the director and co-producers of a documentary that premiered on PBS in April called "Water for Life." 

 

The film, which is available to stream via the PBS app and on PBS.org, tells the story of three extraordinary individuals: in Honduras; Francisco Pineda, in El Salvador; and in Chile, who refused to let government supported industry and transnational corporations take their water and redirect it to mining, hydroelectric projects or large scale agriculture. Despite reassurances from companies and the authorities, they knew what lay ahead: contaminated water, environmental devastation, and the destruction of their communities.

 

It is a story of courage and determination, betrayal and corruption, death threats and murder, and of unexpected victories in the countryside and in the courts. It is a story that asks how economic development can grow in harmony with environmental protections. Above all, Water For Life illuminates a growing recognition of Indigenous rights and a rising demand for corporate responsibility and environmental justice. It is a story that begins and ends with water.

Making Media Now is sponsored by Filmmakers Collaborative, a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting media makers from across the creative spectrum. From providing fiscal sponsorship to presenting an array of informative and educational programs, Filmmakers Collaborative supports creatives at every step in their journey.

About the host: www.writevoicecreative.com and https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-azevedo/

 

Sound Engineer: A.J. Kierstead