The Nebraska-based public media company responsible for 80% of the nation’s public content by and about Native Americans released the last of its Public Media Fund, according to a statement from the company.
Vision Maker Media announced its 2025 Public Media Fund recipients in a September news release, awarding more than $940,000 for the completion of 22 Native American film productions focused on Indigenous cultures and history.
The 2025 recipients represented the largest number of awardees for a single year in Vision Maker history, the news release said, but the federal grant that funds the program has been discontinued.
Since 1976, a grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which lost the entire $1.1 billion in federal funding it was scheduled to receive over the next two years, has supported Vision Maker Media’s Public Media Fund.
With U.S. Congress voting to pull federal funding from public media, Vision Maker Media anticipates a total loss of half its operating budget.
Established in 1976 as the Native American Public Broadcasting Consortium, Vision Maker Media used the nearly $1.9 million it received from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to host events, training and mentorship programs and fund projects that broadcast companies could air, President and CEO Francene Blythe-Lewis said.
“While we are committed to continuing our important work, the decision to rescind funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting has created big challenges for Vision Maker Media, and for the many Native American filmmakers and storytellers who rely on (Vision Maker Media’s) funding to support productions like the ones that we are announcing today,” Blythe-Lewis said. “We are reassessing how we can continue to serve Native country.”
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