Leaders in the public television documentary sector are set to convene at the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival in Arkansas for a crucial summit, weeks after Congress yanked funding for the entity that supports public media.
The festival’s Filmmaker Forum, supported by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, will host representatives from PBS, American Documentary/POV, American Public Television, Black Public Media, Firelight Media, Kartemquin Films, Latino Public Broadcasting, Reel South, along with public television stations including Austin PBS, Louisiana Public Broadcasting, Maryland Public Television, Mississippi Public Broadcasting, Nashville PBS, South Carolina ETV and WXXI Public Media (Rochester).
Also represented will be ESPN 30 for 30, Video Consortium, and Vision Maker Media, among others.
The forum comes less than three months after the House and Senate bowed to intense pressure from President Trump, rescinding more than $1 billion in funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), which provides financial support to PBS and NPR. CPB promptly announced it would shut down and public TV powerhouse GBH, which produces American Experience, immediately laid off staff of the long running documentary series focused on U.S. history. To cite another impact, Cascade PBS, which serves part of Washington state, announced it would lay off 12 percent of its staff, citing millions of dollars in lost revenue from CPB.
“With the loss of key sources of federal funding, filmmakers are in need of information about funding, distribution, and new ways of reaching audiences,” noted Ken Jacobson, executive director of the Hot Springs Documentary Film Institute. “In addition, this is a prime opportunity for those who are a part of or connected to the public media ecosystem to gather, strengthen connections, and explore where to go from here. We look forward to a deeply inquisitive and open environment for sharing perspectives and exploring ideas for the future.”
The forum will be held from October 12-14. The festival runs from October 10-18 in the historic spa town located in central Arkansas.
“A new initiative at this year’s Forum is a partnership with Video Consortium, a local-first, global nonprofit that supports nonfiction video creators to inform and inspire audiences everywhere,” the festival said in a statement. “The Forum will host Press Play Hot Springs, an important stop along the Press Play tour, which is one of VC’s newest initiatives and designed to turn innovative ideas into action, by and for local media across the country; Press Play Hot Springs will feature a variety of cross-sector conversations and solutions-focused panel discussions.”
“We’re so thrilled to partner with the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival, which has so excellently and caringly nurtured creative talent across the South for decades,” commented Video Consortium Founder and Executive Director Sky Dylan-Robbins. “During this tenuous moment for both the media and the world, now is the time for innovation, for collaborative thought partnership, and for dreaming up new systems together — and we cannot wait to do that during Press Play Hot Springs, and throughout the festival, with the immense talent that will be attending.”
In addition to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the forum is supported by the Wyncote Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, Video Consortium, and the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). The NEA itself has been gutted by the Trump administration which cancelled millions of dollars in grants in early May, saying it was refocusing priorities “on projects that reflect the nation’s rich artistic heritage and creativity as prioritized by the President.”
The Filmmaker Forum “will offer dynamic programming on the business, art, and craft of documentary storytelling and take a wider-lens approach to the nonfiction ecosystem,” according to the festival. The gathering will include presentations, panels, breakout groups, and roundtable meetings, “with a multitude of opportunities for filmmakers to engage with industry leaders and network with their colleagues in the creative nonfiction community.”