Development of a ninety-minute documentary film on the diary of Rywka Lipszyc, which records her experience as a Jewish girl in the Lodz ghetto during the Third Reich.

“Diary from the Ashes” is a 90-minute television documentary that reveals the biography and writing of Rywka Lipszyc, an intensely imaginative and intelligent 14-year-old girl whose diary was found in the rubble of an Auschwitz crematorium in 1945. The diary remained unread—and her identity, story, and fate unknown—for the next seven decades. The film will contextualize Rywka’s story through a variety of humanities disciplines—history, literature and journalism, feminist theory, Jewish studies, theology, and philosophy—which correspond to different facets of her diary. Rywka Lipszyc (pronounced “Rivka Lipshitz”) recorded her innermost thoughts while the Third Reich directly oppressed her through forced labor, starvation, and the murder of her family. “Diary from the Ashes” will bring to life the talent and voice of this irrepressible young woman, who used her imagination to cope with the unimaginable.

Development of a four-part documentary series exploring the history and impact of American tourism.

We are requesting funds to develop a 4-part documentary series for public television about the history of American tourism. The series will tell the amazing story of how a nineteenth-century pastime for the wealthy grew into what is arguably today the world's largest industry, touching the lives of almost everyone for better or for worse. The series will showcase recent humanities scholarship while exploring a facet of our history that is largely unknown to the public: how and why tourism shaped our understanding of our nation and the modern world.

Development of a documentary film about the history and legacy of Eyes on the Prize, the landmark public television series about the civil rights movement.

Eyes on the Prize Reclaimed is the story of African American filmmaker Henry Hampton, the creation of the acclaimed television history of the civil rights movement and its legacy today. The 90-minute documentary will explore the ‘making-of’ Eyes on the Prize, interwoven with the filmmakers’ experiences as civil rights activists. It will explore the series’ significance in teaching generations of Americans about the civil rights movement, and it will measure its lasting impact in light of recent thinking about the movement, in scholarly work and in public sites of memory. The film will be directed by Marco Williams (Two Towns of Jasper) and written by Maia Harris (GI Jews), filmmakers whose previous documentaries have delved deeply into questions of race and civil rights.

Development of a feature-length documentary on Sakae “Frank” Matsura (1873–1913), a Japanese photographer who came to live in the Pacific Northwest in the early twentieth century.

Our Mr. Matsura, a feature-length documentary, will tell the story of Japanese-born photographer Frank (Sakae) Matsura who came to live in the Pacific Northwest in the early years of the 20th century. Matsura created a body of work that transcended mere documentation of his adopted home. He depicted, with obvious warmth and connection, the varied peoples of northeastern Washington State, along with surprising self-portraiture some of which reads as photographic “performance.” In addition, he extended this performance photography into collaborative visual storytelling with members of the diverse population in Okanogan County, white settlers and native American people alike. It is a unique portfolio of imagery and has much to tell us about a transitional time in U.S. history.

Development of a feature length documentary examining the life of influential actor, athlete, musician, and civil rights activist Canada Lee (1907–52).

Canada Lee, Native Son tells the inspiring story of one of the 20th century’s greatest yet forgotten heroes. Canada was a pioneering African American athlete, musician, actor, producer and activist who poured his talent into fighting for racial and economic equality. His uncompromising stance prompted the U.S. Government to label him a Communist, destroying his reputation and career. Broken-hearted and impoverished, Lee died at the age of 45 from kidney disease.

Development of a feature-length film about a Reconstruction-era conflict between southern whites and African Americans and its legal and social legacy.

This project explores the history of the 1873 Colfax Massacre, the subsequent Supreme Court case U.S. vs. Cruikshank and their effect on the political rights of the South’s black population and the ultimate fate of Reconstruction.

Development of a ninety-minute documentary film on the Tejon Tribe of California’s struggle to reclaim sovereignty and revitalize their native language.

Nihunavea is a feature-length documentary film (co-directed by Sandra Hernandez and Colin Rosemont) bearing witness to the complex struggles of reclaiming Native California Indian cultural heritage, spirituality, and Tribal Sovereignty. Set shortly after the Tejon Indian Tribe’s decades-long struggle for sovereignty through Federal Reaffirmation, Sandra Hernandez—an enrolled member and elected official of the Tejon Indian Tribe—forges a path through government agencies, museum institutions, & academia as she works to revitalize the Kitanemuk language, repatriate artifacts, and strengthen the foundational core of her Native identity: family & community. This is a story of reasserting tribal sovereignty and reclaiming cultural heritage in the face of a historical legacy of dispossession.

Development of a documentary film on the history of a Native American tribe’s displacement and eventual return to their ancestral homeland.

Coming Round: The Kashia-Pomo Struggle for Homeland (Coming Round) is the story of a Native California tribe’s remarkably successful effort to recover sacred land and their quest for reunification with descendants of family members brought to Russia at the end of that country’s brief colonial venture on the California coast.

Development of a two-hour film exploring the history of presidential transitions.

It is the morning of January 20, 2009, just hours before the historic inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States. At the White House, the Situation Room buzzes with activity. U.S. intelligence agencies are convinced that Somali terrorists have snuck into the country from Canada — and will explode bombs on the National Mall during the Inauguration. Unseen by the American public, Hillary Clinton, Condoleezza Rice and the highest levels of the Bush and Obama administrations are working together to ensure that the plot is not successful — and that the presidency will survive if it is. Here, The People Rule, a two-hour film for PBS, will unfold around a number of broad themes, each involving several transitions. We will hear interesting and enlightening stories of notable transitions in history.

Development of a sixty-minute film examining the Reconstruction-era integration of the University of South Carolina.

The ETV Endowment of South Carolina is seeking a $72,143 twelve-month Development Grant for the creation of a script and trailer for an hour-long documentary film entitled University of Reconstruction. The film tells the story of the 1873-77 integration of the University of South Carolina, the most dramatic initiative in the integration of American higher education after the destruction of slavery in the Civil War, and places that story in the context of the long struggle for educational equity in the United States. Designed for broadcast and digital public media platforms, the film will have appeal for a wide national audience, including the general public, students and educators. South Carolina ETV (SCETV) will serve as the ETV Endowment’s production partner, employing a seasoned, innovative media team with experience in the creation of several NEH-funded media projects, including the digital Reconstruction 360.

Development of a podcast series about the history and legacy of the Federal Writers’ Project of the 1930s.

Stone Soup Productions requests $74,710 to support the development phase of The People’s Recorder, a national podcast series inspired by the WPA’s Federal Writers’ Project of the 1930s that will take listeners on a journey that explores the Project’s legacy, what it achieved, where it fell short, and what it means for Americans today.

The development of a documentary film exploring the historical and cultural legacies of Nancy Drew, a fictional literary detective whose books have been in print for nearly 100 years.

"Nancy Drew: The Case of the American Icon" is a one hour documentary exploring the history and cultural resonance of the fictional character of Nancy Drew. Weaving together interviews with leading historians and famous fans, archival material, animation, and vérité footage of "real life" Nancy Drews both young and old, the documentary uses the iconic girl detective as a lens to examine the history of women in America and access the impact of representations of women in the media.

Development of a film about free people of color in New England from 1780 to 1900. 

We seek a $75,000 Media Development grant to consult with our Humanities Advisers, write a script, shoot a trailer, and complete a full Production Proposal for a two-part (60 mins. each) documentary titled “A Peculiar Freedom: Portraits of Black New England.” “Peculiar freedom” defines free Black life in the Northeast between the 1780s and 1900, when white racism limited the opportunities of Black citizens, resulting in their social, political, and economic disenfranchisement. To be free and Black at this time meant confronting White assumptions about Black inferiority and having to prove one's worthiness as an American. Thus, our documentary will analyze the tensions between the theory of free-Black life and the lived experiences of free Blacks in late 18th- and 19th-century New England. We have two main objectives: to dispel the myth of a historically all-White New England, and to reveal the role that literacy and allies played in Black self-determination and self-actualization.

Development of a feature length documentary about the figure of the cowboy in American popular imagination and its role in shaping myths and identities throughout U.S. history.     

TAKING THE REINS examines the figure of the cowboy in America’s popular imagination and its role in shaping myths and identities throughout our nation’s history. The film explores the unexpected ways in which marginalized Americans, often cast out of both regional and national narratives, have reimagined, reinvented, and redeployed the iconic cowboy archetype as a means of demanding inclusion into an “authentic” American identity. Throughout American history, the figure of the cowboy has coalesced identity markers such as independence, resilience, self-invention, and freedom. Now, on the eve of another pivotal presidential election, as we find ourselves more bitterly divided than ever, the debates roiling the national conversation center on questions about who belongs on this soil and what it means to be American. Our film rides into that conflicted space, exploring the cultural and political significance of the cowboy, how and why we have crafted its image, and who gets to claim it.