Pipeline 2009

This annual list, now incorporating its Dec. 22 addendum, includes about 180 noninstructional projects one hour or longer in various stages of planning, fundraising and production that will debut nationally in January 2009 and beyond. ¶ Children’s programs don’t appear in this list. We’ll report on them in Current next year. ¶ Responding to Current’s annual Pipeline survey, producers and their distributors supplied most information for this list. Thanks to those who responded to the survey.

 

Winter/spring09

All About Prints

Producing organization: Stereopticon Pictures. Distributor: APT. Episodes: 1 x 60 (HD). Status: postproduction. Major funder: Print Research Foundation. Executive producer: Christopher Noey. Producer: Elizabeth McGlynn. Contact: Thomas Davison, [email protected], 617-338-4455, ext. 160. ¶ Explores collaborative nature of printmaking in the United States and the art form’s deep-rooted traditions from the perspectives of influential curators, collectors, dealers, printmakers and artists.

Antarctica’s Icy Secrets

Producing organizations: NET Television, Lincoln, Neb., and WGBH/Nova. Distributor: PBS. Episodes: 1 x 60 (HD). Status: production. Budget: $1.3 million. Major funders: NSF International Polar Year Fund, PBS, CPB, David H Koch, Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Executive in charge for NET: Mike Farrell. Producer: Gary Hochman. Director: Kirk Wolfinger. Executive producer: Paula S. Apsell. Contact: David Feingold, dfeingold @ netNebraska.org, 402-472-9333, ext. 440. ¶ For the International Polar Year of 2007-09, geological sleuths unearth rock and fossil records deep beneath the Antarctic ice to determine how cycles of icescapes may affect future global climate and coastlines. Outreach activities include inquiry-based middle school modules in collaboration with the University of Nebraska State Museum and National 4-H, and “flexibits” for science museums nationwide.

Appalachia: A History of Mountains and People

Producing organization: James Agee Film Project. Presenting station: Oregon Public Broadcasting. Distributor: PBS. Episodes: 4 x 60 (HD). Status: completed. Budget: $2.1 million. Major funders: NSF, Arthur Vining Davis Foundations, NEH, Southern Humanities Media Fund, Cherokee Preservation Foundation. Producer: Jamie Ross. Director: Ross Spears. Narrator: Sissy Spacek. Interviews: Barbara Kingsolver, E.O. Wilson, Mary Lee Settle, Denise Giardina. Contact: Jamie Ross, [email protected]. ¶ Compelling story of how the landscape shapes human cultures and, in turn, how humans shape the land. Weaves scientific and humanities insights into a portrait of one of the world’s peoples and one of its ecological treasures. Outreach includes conference sponsored by the University of Tennessee Knoxville and study guides. Designed for pledge. Web: www.appalachiafilm.org. [Current article, 2004]

The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln

Producing organizations: An Arc Media film for WGBH/American Experience. Distributor: PBS. Episodes: 1 x 90 (HD). Status: preproduction. Major funders: Liberty Mutual, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, PBS, CPB. Executive producer: Mark Samels. Series producer: Sharon Grimberg. Producer: Barak Goodman. Contact: Meredith Nierman, [email protected]. ¶ Chronicles Lincoln’s final tumultuous months, including his murder and the manhunt for John Wilkes Booth.

Bellydance Superstars: Live in Paris at the Folies Bergère

Producing organization: The Copeland Group. Distributor: APT. Episodes: 1 x 60 (wide SD). Status: postproduction. Executive producer: Miles Copeland. Contact: Thomas Davison, [email protected], 617-338-4455, ext. 160. ¶ The Bellydance Superstars, a critically acclaimed ensemble of dancers perform with powerful tribal music. Presented with high-production values, ornate costumes and sets at Paris’s famed Folies Bergère theater.

The Big Energy Gamble

Producing organization: WGBH/Nova. Distributor: PBS. Episodes: 2 x 60 (HD). Status: preproduction. Major funders: PBS, CPB, David H. Koch, Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Producer/director, Larry Klein. Senior executive producer: Paula S. Apsell. Contact: Meredith Nierman, [email protected]. ¶ Shines spotlight on California, an oasis of conservation in an energy-hungry country. Examines whether the rest of the country can join this state’s aggressive pursuit of a sustainable energy future.

Chess in Concert

Producing organization: A production of Thirteen for WNET.org. Presented by Great Performances. Distributor: PBS. Episodes: 1 x 150 (HD). Status: production. Major funders: PBS National Program Service, Irene Diamond Fund, NEA, Vivian Milstein, Ann-Maria & Stephen Kellen Arts Fun, LuEsther T. Mertz Charitable Trust. Executive producer: David Horn. Performers: Idina Menzel, Adam Pascal, Josh Groban. Contact: Melissa Turoff, [email protected], 212-560-8264. ¶ Set during the Cold War intrigue of international chess tournaments, the musical by Tim Rice and Abba’s Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus dramatizes the romantic checkmate between an American chess champion, his lover and a Russian opponent secretly planning to defect to the West.

Chicano Rock! The Sounds of East Los Angeles

Producing organizations: Wilkman Productions Inc., Latino Public Broadcasting. Distributor: PBS. Episodes: 1 x 60 (HD). Status: completed. Major funders: Skirball Foundation, Historical Society of Southern California. Executive producer: Jon Wilkman. Narrator: Edward James Olmos. Contact: Luis Ortiz, [email protected], 818-847-9656. ¶ Recounts the little-known story of how music became a place of pride and power for Chicanos in the United States. Features Lalo Guerrero, Ritchie Valens, Thee Midniters, El Chicano, Los Lobos and more.

Cinema’s Exiles: From Hitler to Hollywood

A co-production of Film Odyssey Inc. and Thirteen in association with WNET.org. Distributor: PBS. Episodes: 1 x 120. Status: postproduction. Major funders: NEA, NEH, New Line Cinema, PBS, Dreyfus Foundation, Feuchtwanger Foundation, Skirball Foundation, Warner Home Video. Executive producer: Margie Smilow. Narrator: Sigourney Weaver. Contact: Melissa Turoff, [email protected], 212-560-8264. ¶ Illuminates the impact of exiled German artists on cinema’s history, their achievements in the early days of German film, their escape from Adolf Hitler and their contributions to American cinema.

A Class Apart

Producing organization: Camino Bluff Productions for WGBH/American Experience. Distributor: PBS. Episodes: 1 x 60 (wide SD). Status: postproduction. Major funders: Liberty Mutual, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, PBS, CPB, ITVS, Latino Public Broadcasting. Executive producer: Mark Samels. Senior producer: Sharon Grimberg. Producers: Carlos Sandoval, Peter Miller. Contact: Meredith Nierman, [email protected] ¶ Tells the unfamiliar story of underdog lawyers who successfully challenged Jim Crow-style discrimination against Mexican-Americans in a landmark Supreme Court case.

Cry for Help

Producing organization: A production of Thirteen for WNET.org. Distributor: PBS. Episodes: 1 x 90, 1 x 30. Status: production. Major funders: Donald & Barbara Jonas, Raymond Dalio, Rubin Foundation, PBS. Supervising producer: Scott Davis. Contact: Melissa Turoff, [email protected], 212-560-8264. ¶ For teens struggling with depression and suicidal thoughts, their parents and those on the front lines of prevention and care, this special and its half-hour followup program offer a rare and important look at mental illness among young adults.

The Curious Mister Catesby

Producing organization: Marsh Elder Productions LLC. Presenting station: South Carolina ETV. Distributor: NETA. Episodes: 1 x 60. Status: completed. Budget: $1 million. Major funders: Kiawah Island Real Estate, Post and Courier Foundation, Charleston Area Convention & Visitors Bureau, Brumley Family Foundation Trust, Gaylord & Dorothy Donnelley Foundation, Mills Bee Lane Foundation, Humanities Council of South Carolina, Rob Hicklin, Richard Jenrette, Lyndhurst Foundation, John Rivers Jr. Foundation. Producer/director: Cynthia B. Neal. Executive producer: David J. Elliott. Writer: Mike Purswell. Host: Dennis Stone. Voice of Mark Catesby: Mike Harris. Contact: David J. Elliott, [email protected]. ¶ Three centuries ago, Mark Catesby — scientist, artist, adventurer–sailed to America. What he found changed his life; what he recorded challenged our view of the world and of our place in it. Web: www.catesbytrust.org.

Cyrano de Bergerac

Producing organization: A production of Thirteen for WNET.org. Distributor: PBS. Episodes: 1 x 150 (HD). Status: production. Major funders: PBS National Program Service, Irene Diamond Fund, NEA, Vivian Milstein, Ann-Maria & Stephen Kellen Arts Fun, LuEsther T. Mertz Charitable Trust. Executive producer: David Horn. Director: David Leveaux. Actors: Kevin Kline (Cyrano), Jennifer Garner (Roxane), Daniel Sunjata (Christian). Contact: Melissa Turoff, [email protected], 212-560-8264. ¶ Edmond Rostand’s romantic classic was recorded in early 2008 at the end of its first Broadway run since 1984. Tells the tale of Cyrano — a gifted writer, musician and peerless duelist hopelessly handicapped in the romantic arena by his unusually large nose.

Daniel O’Donnell: Hope and Praise

Producing organization: Detroit Public TV. Distributor: PBS. Episodes: 1 x 80, 1 x 120 pledge event (HD). Status: production date Nov. 24, 2008. Executive producers: Diane Bliss, Sean Reilly. Producer: Josette Marano. Contact: Jamie Jendrzejewski, [email protected], 248-305-3784. ¶ O’Donnell celebrates songs of hope and inspiration in this new concert with a 24-member choir, 12-member youth choir, 18-piece orchestra, 7-piece band and Mary Duff.

Doctors—The Last Chapter (w.t.)

Producing organization: WGBH/Nova. Distributor: PBS. Episodes: 2 x 60 (wide SD). Status: production. Major funders: Koch, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, PBS/CPB. Executive Producer: Paula Apsell. Producer: Michael Barnes. Contact: Meredith Nierman, meredith_nierman @wgbh.org. ¶ Last in a series of Nova reports dating back to 1987 that have followed seven Harvard Medical School students to see what kind of doctors–and people–they have become. (This report looks at six doctors; the seventh in earlier reports has changed careers.)

Egalité for All: Human Rights and the Haitian Revolution

Producing organization: Koval Films. Presenting station: Oregon Public Broadcasting. Distributor: PBS. Episodes: 1 x 60 (HD). Status: production. Budget: $500,000. Major funders: PBS/CPB Challenge Fund, ITVS. Executive producer for OPB: David Davis. Director: Noland Walker. Writers: Margaret Koval, Noland Walker. Producer: Pat Aste. Director of photography: Michael Chin. Contact: David Davis, [email protected], 503-293-1959. ¶ Explores Haitian revolution of the late 18th century, the only successful slave revolt in history.

The Fitness Show

Producing organization: West 175 Productions (Seattle). Presenting station: Oregon Public Broadcasting. Distributor: NETA. Episodes: 13 x 30. Status: completed. Budget: $1 million. Major funders: Balance Gym. Executive producer for OPB: David Davis. Executive producer/series producer: Jamie Hammond. Host: Colin Hoobler. Contact: David Davis, [email protected], 503-293-1959. ¶ Teaches basic health and fitness.

Fly Boys: Western Pennsylvania’s Tuskegee Airmen

Producing organization: WQED Multimedia (Pittsburgh). Distributor: APT. Episodes: 1 x 60 (wide SD). Status: completed. Budget: $100,000. Major funders: University of Pittsburgh, Alcoa Foundation, Pittsburgh Foundation. Producers/writers: Chris Moore, Olga George. Narrator: Chris Moore. Videographer: Bob Lubomski. Editor: David H. Cohen. Original music: Emmai Alaquiva. Vice president of production: Darryl Ford Williams. Contact: Rosemary Martinelli, [email protected], 412-622-6433. ¶ Covers the military’s World War II Tuskegee Airmen Experiment to see if African American men could fly complicated aircraft. Stories include interviews with white pilots who owed their survival to these men.

A Girl’s Life

Producing organization: Powderhouse Films Inc. Presenting station: Oregon Public Broadcasting. Episodes: 1 x 60. Status: R&D. Budget: $500,000. Major funders: PBS, ITVS. Executive producer for OPB: David Davis. Executive producer for Powderhouse: Tug Yourgrau. Host: Rachel Simmons. Contact: David Davis, [email protected], 503-293-1959. ¶ Explores the complexities of growing up as a teenage girl in America today.

Glass: A Portrait of Philip in Twelve Parts

Producing organizations: Ava Bridge Motion Pictures Ltd. in association with American Masters. Presenting station: WNET. Distributor: PBS. Episodes: 1 x 120 (HD). Status: completed. Major funders: NEA, PBS, CPB, Rosalind P. Walter, Blanche & Irving Laurie Foundation. Producers: Scott Hicks, Susanne Preissler. Director: Scott Hicks. Contact: Melissa Turoff, [email protected]. ¶ Intimate verité portrait follows a wild year in the life of the distinguished, often misunderstood composer—his annual ride on the Coney Island Cyclone, his retreat to his Nova Scotia farmhouse and his performance with a didgeridoo virtuoso in Australia.

Green Builders

Producing organization: NJN (New Jersey Network) Public Television. Distributor: PBS. Episodes: 1 x 60 (HD). Status: completed. Budget: $160,000. Major funders: Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, Cape Branch Foundation. Writer/producer: Bob Szuter. Contact: JoAnne Ruscio, [email protected], 609-777-3993. ¶ Profiles green-building pioneers who have created energy-efficient and environmentally friendly parts of the “built environment.” Web: njn.net/television/specials/greenbuilders.

Harlem in Montmartre: A Paris Jazz Story

A co-production of Vanguard Documentaries, Thirteen and Ideale Audience in association with Arte/France and WNET.org. Presented by Great Performances. Distributor: PBS. Episodes: 1 x 90. (HD). Status: production. Major funders: NEH, ITVS. Producers: Margaret Smilow, Charles Hobson. Contact: Melissa Turoff, [email protected], 212-560-8264. ¶ Explores the vibrant expatriate jazz community that grew in Paris between the World Wars.

Hollywood Chinese

Producing organization: DeepFocus Productions Inc. Presenting station: WNET. Distributor: PBS. Episodes: 1 x 90. Status: completed. Major funders: NEA, PBS, CPB, Rosalind P. Walter, Blanche & Irving Laurie Foundation. Producer/director: Arthur Dong. Contact: Melissa Turoff, [email protected]. ¶ Examines how Chinese artists have contributed to and been portrayed by the often-dismissive film industry, from the first Chinese-American film produced in 1916 to Ang Lee’s Brokeback Mountain.

Homemade Astronaut: Clay Anderson’s Journey to Space

Producing organization: NET Television (Nebraska). Distributor: APT. Episodes: 1 x 60 (HD). Status: production. Budget: $84,000. Major funders: NET Foundation for Television. Producer/director/writer: Sue Maryott. Videographer/editor: Jim Underwood. Contact: David Feingold, [email protected], 402-472-9333, ext. 440. ¶ After applying for duty 15 times, Clay Anderson was accepted for a space station mission that took him away from his wife, small children and mother, who was in a fierce battle against terminal cancer.

House of Life: The Old Jewish Cemetery in Prague

Producing organization: A Production of The Music Project for Television. Presenting station: WNET-TV. Distributor: PBS. Episodes: 1 x 60. Status: completed. Major funders: Judith Mandrakos, Schnurmacher Foundation, Ted Mirvis, Dan & Joanna Rose, Samuel I. Newhouse Foundation, Barbara Bartlett Sloan, Goldie Anna Charitable Trust. Project executive : Margie Smilow. Contact: Melissa Turoff, [email protected], 212-560-8264. ¶ Prague’s Old Jewish Cemetery survived pogroms, wars and years of Communist neglect. Chronicles the vibrant Prague Jewish community of the past and visits today’s smaller Jewish community for whom the cemetery still serves as a spiritual center.

The Incomplete Charles Dickens

Producing organizations: Oliver Twist: A BBC-WGBH co-production. David Copperfield (encore): A BBC America and WGBH co-production. Little Dorrit: A BBC-WGBH co-production. The Old Curiosity Shop: A Carnival/WGBH /Ingenious Broadcasting co-production. Presented by WGBH/Masterpiece Classic. Distributor: PBS. Episodes: Oliver Twist: 2 x 90 (wide SD). David Copperfield: 2 x 120 (wide SD). Little Dorrit: 1 x 120; 4 x 90 (HD). The Old Curiosity Shop: 1 x 90 (wide SD). Status: postproduction. Executive producer: Rebecca Eaton. Screenwriters: Sarah Phelps for Oliver Twist, Adrian Hodges for David Copperfield, Andrew Davies for Little Dorrit, and Martyn Hesford for The Old Curiosity Shop. Oliver Twist actors: Timothy Spall, Sophie Okonedo, Tom Hardy. David Copperfield actors: Daniel Radcliffe, Bob Hoskins, Maggie Smith, Imelda Staunton. Little Dorrit actors: Matthew Macfadyen, Tom Courtenay. The Old Curiosity Shop actors: Derek Jacobi, Toby Jones, Zoe Wanamaker. Contact: Meredith Nierman, meredith
[email protected]. ¶ Masterpiece Classic returns with three new Charles Dickens adaptations plus an encore, David Copperfield.

Interpreting Ancient Fashion

Producing organization: D3 Productions Inc. Presenting station: KCSM (San Mateo, Calif.). Distributor: APT. Episodes: 1 x 60 (wide SD). Status: completed. Executive producer: Duffy Wang. Contact: Nikki Marsh, [email protected], 510-635-8603 x104. ¶ Seeking inspiration in ancient Chinese villages, two American fashion designers travel to remote Guizhou province, home of 55 ethnic minority groups, each with a distinct traditional style of dress. Web: www.d3mediagroup.com/ whats_new/fashion.htm.

Iran, Yesterday and Today

Producing organization: BackDoor Productions. Presenting station: Oregon Public Broadcasting. Distributor: APT. Episodes: 1 x 60 (HD). Status: postproduction. Executive producers for OPB: Tom Doggett, David Davis. Series producer: Simon Griffith. Executive producer/host: Rick Steves. Contact: David Davis, [email protected], 503-293-1959. ¶ Travel writer Rick Steves explores Iran’s great historical and archeological sites, introduces viewers to its people and culture.

Jean-Michel Cousteau: Ocean Adventures

Producing organizations: Ocean Futures Society and KQED. Presenting station: KQED (San Francisco). Distributor: PBS. Episodes: 1 x 60, 1 x 120 (HD). Status: postproduction. Budget: $2.5 million. Major funders: Dow, Richard & Rhoda Goldman Foundation, KQED Campaign for the Future Program Venture Fund, CPB. Executive producer/producer: Jean-Michel Cousteau. Executive in charge of production: Michael J. Isip. Writer/associate producer: Pamela Stacey. Editor/associate producer: Jim Knowlton. Contact: Suzanne Romaine, [email protected], 415-553-2366. ¶ In “Sea Ghosts,” Cousteau and his crew investigate why some groups of beluga whales in the high Arctic thrive while others disappear. “Orcas” profiles the “wolves of the sea” that hunt prey with coordinated precision bordering on ritual. Web: www.pbs.org/kqed/ oceanadventures.

Jerome Robbins: Something to Dance About

Producing organization: American Masters/WNET. Presenting station: WNET. Distributor: PBS. Episodes: 1 x 120 (HD). Status: completed. Major funders: NEH, NEA, PBS, CPB, Rosalind P. Walter, Blanche & Irving Laurie Foundation, LuEsther T. Mertz Charitable Trust, Philip & Janice Levin Foundation, SHS Foundation. Executive producer: Susan Lacy. Producer/director: Judy Kinberg. Narrator: Ron Rifkin. Contact: Melissa Turoff, [email protected]. ¶ Robbins’ life inspired controversy, but no one disputes his place as a preeminent American musical theater director/choreographer who forged an unparalled career in ballet and transformed Broadway with shows such as West Side Story, Gypsy and Fiddler on the Roof.

Jerusalem: Center of the World

Producing organization: Two Cats Productions, New York. Presenting station: Oregon Public Broadcasting. Distributor: PBS. Episodes: 1 x 120 (HD). Status: completed. Budget: $1.5 million. Major funders: Aimwell Foundation, Chais Family Foundation. Executive producer for OPB: David Davis. Writer/director: Andrew Goldberg. Host: Ray Suarez. Contact: David Davis, [email protected], 503-293-1959. ¶ Looks at what may be the world’s the most influential city, with chapters that feature Abraham, King David, Jesus and Mohammed.

King Lear

Producing organization: A production of Thirteen for WNET.org. Distributor: PBS. Episodes: 1 x 180 (HD). Status: production. Major funders: PBS National Program Service, Irene Diamond Fund, NEA, Vivian Milstein, Ann-Maria & Stephen Kellen Arts Fun, LuEsther T. Mertz Charitable Trust. Executive producer: David Horn. Directors: Trevor Nunn, Chris Hunt. Actor: Ian McKellen. Contact: Melissa Turoff, [email protected], 212-560-8264. ¶ William Shakespeare’s unrelenting tragedy King Lear, widely considered one of the playwright’s most enduring and haunting works, is performed by the Royal Shakespeare Company at New York’s Brooklyn Academy of Music.

Legacy of War

A co-production of Thirteen and Colonial Pictures in association with WNET.org. Distributor: PBS. Episodes: 1 x 60. Status: production. Major funders: Joseph A. Wilson, Robert & Jean Stern, Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, Norman & Rosita Winston Foundation, Murray Nathan, Vera Eberstadt, M&H Sommer Foundation, Mr. and Mrs. Samuel P. Peabody, Mr. and Mrs. Ernest Tyrrasch, Melvin Goldstein, Drue Heinz Trust. Supervising producer: Maria Patrick. Contact: Melissa Turoff, [email protected], 212-560-8264. ¶ Sixty years after covering the aftermath of World War II, Walter Cronkite returns to key European locations to recall wartime reporting from London. Traces complex relationship between the United States and Britain, exploring shifts during and after the Cold War.

The Linguists

Producing organization: Ironbound Films Inc. Distributor: PBS. Episodes: 1 x 60 (HD). Status: completed. Budget: $520,000. Major funder: NSF. Producers/directors: Seth Kramer, Daniel A. Miller, Jeremy Newberger. Contact: Daniel A. Miller, [email protected]. ¶ Tells how languages become endangered and how intrepid scientists race to record them in the face of overwhelming odds. Web: www.thelinguists.com.

Looking for Lincoln

A co-production of Kunhardt Productions, Inkwell Films and Thirteen in association with WNET.org. Distributor: PBS. Episodes: 2 x 60 (HD). Status: production. Major funders: CPB/PBS Program Challenge Fund, State Farm, Motorola. Project executive: Bill Grant. Contact: Melissa Turoff, [email protected], 212-560-8264. ¶ Examines changes in Abraham Lincoln’s public image since his death. Designed for the 2009 bicentennial of Lincoln’s birth.

Make:

Producing organization: Twin Cities Public Television. Distributor: APT. Episodes: 10 x 30 (HD). Status: production. Budget: $1.3 million. Major funder: Geek Squad. Executive producer: Richard Hudson. Series producer: Michael Smith. Contact: Richard Hudson, [email protected], 651-229-1317. ¶ Do-it-yourself series mixes old and new technology to create fun and fascinating new marvels based on the popular Make: magazine. Inspires viewers to think, create and make. Web: www.makezine.com/tv.

Make ’Em Laugh

A co-production of Ghost Light Films Inc. and Thirteen in association with WNET.org. Distributor: PBS. Episodes: 6 x 60 (HD). Status: production. Major funders: CPB/PBS, Cullman, Warner, BBC4, Mertz, Starr, Culture & Arts R&D, Shaws, NEA, Heywood Memorial Fund, Judy Resnick, Mary & Marvin Davidson, Horace Goldsmith/Vital Projects Fund, Carson Family Charitable Trust, Gershwin Philanthropic Fund, Buddy Teich, Susan Malloy/The Sun Hill Foundation, Seinfeld Family Foundation, Biddle Foundation, ABC Australia. Executive producer: Michael Kantor. Host: Billy Crystal. Narrator: Amy Sedaris. Contact: Melissa Turoff, [email protected], 212-560-8264. ¶ Spotlights the popular personae, incisive stand-up and hilarious shtick—from Buster Keaton to Jerry Seinfeld—that reflect and illuminate the past century of American life.

The Mosque in Morgantown

Producing organizations: WETA and Version One Productions Inc. Part of the America at a Crossroads series. Distributor: PBS. Episodes: 1 x 60 (digital wide screen). Status: postproduction. Major funders: CPB. Series executive producers: Dalton Delan, Jeff Bieber. Series producer: Leo Eaton. Program producer: Brittany Huckabee. Contact: Kate Kelly, [email protected]. ¶ Chronicles the unfolding drama in a Muslim mosque in West Virginia as its members raise questions that cut to the heart of American Islam. Web: www.pbs.org/crossroads.

The Music Instinct: Science and Song

A co-production of Mannes Productions and Thirteen in association with WNET.org. Distributor: PBS. Episodes: 1 x 120 (HD). Status: postproduction. Major funders: NSF, NEA, International Foundation for Music, Goldsmith Foundation, Rita & Fritz Marcus, Mary Rodgers Guettel, Victor Elmaleh. Producer: Margaret Smilow. Contact: Melissa Turoff, [email protected], 212-560-8264. ¶ Explores how cutting-edge science reveals startling new connections between music, the human mind and body, and the natural world. Music helps Parkinson’s disease patients walk and stroke patients speak, and it’s proven to improve linguistic skills.

Open Road

Producing organization: Open Road TV. Presenting station: KQED (San Francisco). Distributor: APT. Episodes: 26 x 30. Status: fundraising. Budget: $550,000. Host/producer: Doug McConnell. Contact: Suzanne Romaine, [email protected], 415-553-2366. ¶ On the heels of Doug McConnell’s long-running local series, Bay Area Back Roads, he chronicles his extraordinary road trips across the West. Web: www.openroadtv.com.

Our Disappeared/Nuestros Desaparecidos

Co-production of Geovision Inc. and ITVS in association with Latino Public Broadcasting. Presented by Independent Lens. Distributor: PBS. Episodes: 1 x 90 (HD). Status: completed. Major funders: Latino Public Broadcasting, ITVS, Sundance Institute. Writer/producer/director: Juan Mandelbaum. Contact: Lois Vossen, [email protected], or Luis Ortiz, [email protected], 818-847-9656. ¶ Viewers share the filmmaker’s personal journey to his native Argentina to discover what happened to friends and loved ones who disappeared during the 1976-1983 military dictatorship. Web: www.ourdisappeared.com.

Out of the Shadow of Her Mother: The Irène Joliot-Curie Story

Producing organization: Rosemarie Reed Productions. Presenting station: KQED (San Francisco). Distributor: PBS. Episodes: 1 x 60. Status: postproduction. Budget: $550,000. Major funders: Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Producer/director: Rosemarie Reed. Narrator: Julianne Moore. Contact: Lisa Landi, [email protected]. ¶ The eldest daughter of Marie and Pierre Curie, whose lives and work already were legendary when she was a small child, Irène Joliot-Curie made a contribution to nuclear physics that was as groundbreaking and significant as her parents’ work. Like her parents, she received a Nobel Prize.

Passport & Palette

Producing organization: Brush with Life LLC. Distributor: APT. Episodes: 13 x 30 (HD). Status: postproduction. Executive producer: Theodore Johnson. Contact: Thomas Davison, [email protected], 617-338-4455, ext. 160. ¶ For this new generation of arts education on TV, viewers see the world through the eyes of master painters working in picturesque locations in France, Greece, Guatemala, Italy, Canada and the United States. Designed for pledge. Web: www.brushwithlife.com.

Planet Forward (w.t.)

Producing organizations: The Public Affairs Project at the Center for InNovative Media at George Washington University (Washington, D.C.), NET Television (Nebraska), Public Agenda, Sunburst Creative. Presenting station: NET Television. Distributor: PBS. Episodes: 1 x 60 (HD). Status: fundraising, preproduction. Budget: $675,000. Major funders: George Washington University and its Public Affairs Project at the Center for InNovative Media. Managing editor/host: Frank Sesno. Executive editor: Colette Rhoney. Executive producer: Mark Ganguzza. Executive producer for NET Television: David Feingold. Web director: Scott Bittle. Contact: Colette Rhoney, [email protected]. ¶ Web-to-TV program incorporates produced elements as well as expert- and user-generated content examining the feasibility of alternative energy sources and debating their viability as near-future alternatives to fossil fuels. Five stations will be selected to test outreach concepts for future nationwide rollout.

Poisoned Waters (w.t.)

A Frontline co-production with Hedrick Smith Productions Inc. Presenting station: WGBH. Distributor: PBS. Episodes: 1 x 120 (HD). Status: principal photography. Major funders: Seattle Foundation, Russell Family Foundation, Wallace Genetic Foundation, Morris & Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation, Keith Campbell Foundation for the Environment, Merrill Family Foundation, Park Foundation, Rauch Foundation, Town Creek Foundation, Clayton Baker Trust, Lockart Vaughn Foundation, Munson Foundation, Ron McDowell, Chesapeake Bay Trust. Correspondent/senior producer: Hedrick Smith. Producer: Marc Shaffer. Director: Rick Young. Frontline executive producer: David Fanning. Contact: Meredith Nierman, [email protected]. ¶ Examines perilous condition of Puget Sound and Chesapeake Bay estuaries, two decades after the Clean Water Act. Explores public and environmental health hazards and explains why it’s so hard to keep our waters clean.

The Polio Crusade

Producing organization: Sarah Colt Productions for WGBH/American Experience. Distributor: PBS. Episodes: 1 x 60 (HD). Status: postproduction. Major funders: Liberty Mutual, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, PBS, CPB. Executive producer: Mark Samels. Producer: Sarah Colt. Contact: Meredith Nierman, [email protected]. ¶ Tells the dramatic story of a decades-long public health crusade that eradicated one of the 20th century’s most dreaded diseases.

Pounce for Alpha Wealth with Ken Stern

Producing organization: Detroit Public TV. Distributor: to be determined. Episodes: 1 x 60, 1 x 90 pledge event (HD). Status: postproduction. Executive producer: Diane Bliss. Producer: Josette Marano. Contact: Jamie Jendrzejewski, [email protected], 248-305-3784. ¶ Think 2008 has been challenging? Does that mean “‘weather the storm”? Absolutely not! According to Ken Stern, every economy offers ways to grow and protect wealth—learn how!

The Quest to See Infinity (w.t.)

Producing organizations: Twin Cities Public Television and Green Umbrella Productions. Presenting stations: TPT, WGBH/Nova. Distributor: PBS. Episodes: 2 x 60 (HD). Status: production. Major funders: Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Executive producer for TPT: Richard Hudson. Producers: David Axelrod, Peter Jones (Green Umbrella). Contact: Richard Hudson, [email protected], 651-229-1317. ¶ Celebrates the telescope’s 400th birthday by telling the international story of its history and astronomical breakthroughs it made possible. Nova will support promotional activities including anniversary celebrations for astronomy with amateur astronomy organizations, planetariums and science museums.

Rochester International Jazz Festival

Producing organization: Rochester International Jazz Festival and WXXI Public Broadcasting (Rochester, N.Y.). Distributor: APT. Episodes: 4 x 60 (HD and wide SD). Status: postproduction. Major funders: Louis S. & Molly B. Wolk Foundation, New York State Music Fund, Office of New York State Sen. Jim Alesi. Executive director of broadcast productions: John Overlan. Executive producer: Todd McCammon. Editors: Joanne Gordon, Dinh La. Field producer: Julia Figueras. Contact: Elissa Orlando, [email protected], 585-258-0349. ¶ First three programs feature hour-long performances by Catherine Russell, Slide Hampton and The Bad Plus; fourth program offers overview of festival. Web: WXXI.org/jazz.

Rough Crossings

A co-production of the BBC and Thirteen in association with WNET.org. Distributor: PBS. Episodes: 1 x 90 (wide SD). Status: production. Major funders: PBS. Project executive: Bill Grant. Contact: Melissa Turoff, [email protected], 212-560-8264. ¶ Historian Simon Schama examines the Revolutionary War experience of slaves, lured into battle with promises of freedom from both the British and the American rebels.

SciGirls

Producing organization: Twin Cities Public Television. Distributor: PBS plus. Episodes: 13 x 30. Status: preproduction. Major funders: NSF. Executive producer: Richard Hudson. Contact: Richard Hudson, [email protected], 651-229-1317. ✤Live-action series for ages 8-13 follows girls in communities nationwide as they discover the wonders of science. Extensive web, education and outreach activities. Web: www.scigirls.org.

The State of the Planet’s Oceans

Producing organization: Screenscope Inc. Presented by Journey to Planet Earth. Presenting station: South Carolina ETV. Distributor: PBS. Episodes: 1 x 160 (wide SD). Status: production. Major funders: NSF, National Marine Sanctuary Foundation, Munson Foundation. Producers: Hal Weiner, Marilyn Weiner. Host/narrator: Matt Damon. Contact: Marilyn Weiner, [email protected]. ¶ Program investigates health and sustainability of the world’s oceans, taking a hard look at key 21st-century environmental issues. Web: www.pbs.org/journeytoplanetearth.

Swimming in Auschwitz

Producing organization: Bala Cynwyd Productions. Distributor: APT. Episodes: 1 x 60 (HD). Status: postproduction. Writer/director: Jon Kean. Executive producer: Michael Berenbaum. Contact: Thomas Davison, [email protected], 617-338-4455, ext. 160. ¶ Doc focuses on interlinking stories of six Jewish women from a broad range of countries and backgrounds who were brought together by the horrors of Auschwitz and survived. Web: www.swimminginauschwitz.com.

Tess of the D’Urbervilles

Producing organizations: BBC and WGBH. Presented by WGBH/Masterpiece Classic. Distributor: PBS. Episodes: 2 x 120 (HD). Status: postproduction. Executive producer: Rebecca Eaton. Actors: Gemma Arterton, Hans Matheson. Contact: Meredith Nierman, [email protected]. ¶ Violated by one man, forsaken by another, Tess Durbeyfield is the magnificent and spirited heroine of Thomas Hardy’s heartbreaking novel.

Time Team America

Producing organizations: Oregon Public Broadcasting, Videotext Communications Ltd. Distributor: PBS. Episodes: 5 x 60 (HD). Status: postproduction. Budget: $2.2 million. Major funders: PBS, Channel 4 International. Executive producer for OPB: David Davis. Executive producer for Videotext: Tim Taylor. Series producer: Graham Dixon. Producer: Bruce Barrow. Contact: David Davis, [email protected], 503-293-1959. ¶ Brings a team of experts to archeological digs, uncovering North American history buried below the ground. Modeled on the successful British production.

The Trials of J. Robert Oppenheimer

Producing organizations: A David Grubin Productions film for WGBH/American Experience. Distributor: PBS. Episodes: 1 x 120 (HD). Status: preproduction. Major funders: Liberty Mutual, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, PBS, CPB. Executive producer: Mark Samels. Series producer: Sharon Grimberg. Producer: David Grubin. Contact: Meredith Nierman, [email protected]. ¶ Profiles one of the most important 20th-century American scientists, Robert Oppenheimer, in the heady world of international physics, the top-secret Manhattan Project and the dark days of McCarthyism.

Turning Setbacks into Comebacks with Willie Jolley

Producing organization: Detroit Public TV. Distributor: to be determined. Episodes: 1 x 90 pledge event (wide SD). Status: postproduction. Executive producer: Diane Bliss. Producer: Aimee Longato. Contact: Jamie Jendrzejewski, [email protected], 248-305-3784. ¶ Have you ever had a setback? Has life ever thrown you a curve ball? Motivational speaker and best-selling author Willie Jolley encourages viewers to embrace change.

A Walk in the Park with Nick Mollé

Producing organization: Nick Mollé Productions. Distributor: APT. Episodes: 3 x 30 (wide SD). Status: postproduction. Host/executive producer: Nick Mollé. Contact: Judy Barlow, [email protected]. ¶ Nature lover and award-winning filmmaker Nick Mollé encounters Colorado’s most precious natural resources. Web: www.walkintheparkwithnickmolle.com.

Wildside with Nick Mollé

Producing organization: Nick Mollé Productions. Distributor: APT. Episodes: 1 x 60 (wide SD). Status: postproduction. Host/executive producer: Nick Mollé. Contact: Judy Barlow, [email protected]. ¶ Nick Mollé embarks on entertaining and educational adventures in Costa Rica, one of the most biologically diverse places on Earth.

Wuthering Heights

Co-production of Mammoth Screen and WGBH. Presented by WGBH/Masterpiece Classic. Distributor: PBS. Episodes: 1 x 90, 1 x 60. Status: postproduction. Executive producer: Rebecca Eaton. Actors: Tom Hardy, Charlotte Riley. Contact: Meredith Nierman, [email protected]. ¶ New adaptation of Emily Bronte’s haunting classic about the passionate spiritual bond between Heathcliff, an abandoned Gypsy boy adopted by the Earnshaw family of Wuthering Heights, and the family’s daughter, Cathy.

You: Inner and Outer Beauty with Dr. Michael Roizen

Producing organization: Detroit Public TV. Distributor: PBS. Episodes: 1 x 60, 1 x 90 pledge event (HD). Status: Production date Nov. 15, 2008. Major funders: Humana, PBS. Executive producers: Diane Bliss, Dr. Michael Roizen. Producer: Josette Marano. Contact: Jamie Jendrzejewski, [email protected], 248-305-3784. ¶ Throughout a 24-hour day, Dr. Michael Roizen brings science to the topic of beauty as he shares advice on how to look, feel and be more beautiful—inside and out.

Your Kids Are Drinking

Producing organization: NET Television (Nebraska). Distributor: NETA. Episodes: 1 x 40 (wide SD). Status: completed. Budget: $78,000. Major funders: Nebraska Office of Highway Safety, Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services. Producer/writer: Bill Kelly. Producer/writer: Perry Stoner. Contact: David Feingold, [email protected], 402-472-9333, ext. 440. ¶ Attributing a substantial amount of the blame for underage drinking to parents and other adults in the community, program reports on how lax attitudes aggravate the problem. Looks at ways adults can provide realistic solutions. Outreach kit for local communities in development. Spouses of state governors have formed a group to advocate community education. Web: www.netNebraska.org/kidsdrinking.

Summer09

Beijing: Changed by the Olympics

Producing organization: D3 Productions Inc. Presenting station: KCSM (San Mateo, Calif.). Distributor: APT. Episodes: 1 x 60 (HD). Status: completed. Executive producer: Duffy Wang. Host/narrator: Mary Windishar. Contact: Nikki Marsh, [email protected], 510-635-8603, ext. 104. ¶ Explores lasting impact of the 2008 Olympics on China’s capital city of 18 million. Viewers witness changes in Beijing’s skyline as well as the cultural shifts of its citizens. Web: www.d3mediagroup.com/ programs/beijingchanged.htm.

Blueprint America

Producing organization: A production of Thirteen for WNET.org. Distributor: PBS. Episodes: 2 x 60 (plus 1 x 60 radio). Status: production. Major funder: Rockefeller Foundation. Executive producer: Kathleen Hughes. Contact: Melissa Turoff, [email protected], 212-560-8264. ¶ Television and radio segments show how America’s decaying and neglected infrastructure is placing at risk both our quality of life and our ability to compete in a global economy. Web: www.pbs.org/wnet/blueprintamerica.

El General

A co-production of ITVS in association with Latino Public Broadcasting. Distributor: PBS. Episodes: 1 x 60. Status: postproduction. Major funders: Latino Public Broadcasting, Sundance Documentary Institute, ITVS, Creative Capital, New York State Council for the Arts, Renew Media, Beca Gucci, Ambulante, MacDowell Colony, Women Make Movies, Estela Award (National Association of Latino Independent Producers), Jerome Foundation. Producer/director/editor: Natalia Almada. Contact: Luis Ortiz, Latino Public Broadcasting, [email protected], 818-847-9656. ¶ The filmmaker, a great granddaughter of Plutarco Elías Calles, a controversial president of Mexico between 1924 and 1928, journeys into her family’s conflicted past.

Garrison Keillor: The Man on the Radio in the Red Shoes

Producing organizations: American Masters/WNET, Peter Rosen Productions & ITVS. Distributor: PBS. Episodes: 1 x 90. Status: completed. Major funders: NEA, PBS, CPB, Rosalind Walter, Blanche & Irving Laurie Foundation. Executive producers: Susan Lacy, Sally Jo Fifer. Producer/director: Peter Rosen. Contact: Melissa Turoff, [email protected]. ¶ Reveals for the first time the man who has become our national philosopher, following Keillor to the set of A Prairie Home Companion and to Lake Wobegon, America’s collective hometown.

Inspector Lewis, Series II

A co-production of Granada and WGBH. Presented by WGBH/Masterpiece Mystery. Distributor: PBS. Episodes: 4 x 90 (wide SD). Status: postproduction. Major funder: PBS. Executive Producer: Rebecca Eaton. Actor: Kevin Whately. Contact: Meredith Nierman, [email protected]. ¶ In spin-off to popular Inspector Morse series, Kevin Whately returns as Detective Inspector Robbie Lewis, who has transferred back to Oxford following the tragic death of his wife.

Legends & Lyrics

Producing organization: Song-Writers in the Round LLC. Distributor: APT. Episodes: 8 x 60 (HD). Status: postproduction. Contact: Judy Barlow, Judy_Barlow@ APTonline.org. ¶ Live music series features celebrated recording artists performing their own hit songs, including Kris Kristofferson, Patty Griffin, Charlie Daniels, Kenny Loggins, Jimmy Webb, Shawn Colvin, John Hiatt and more.

Miss Marple, Series IV

A co-production of ITV Productions and WGBH in association with Agatha Christie Ltd. (A Chorion Company). Presented by WGBH/Masterpiece Mystery. Distributor: PBS. Episodes: 4 x 90 (wide SD). Status: postproduction. Major funder: PBS. Executive producer: Rebecca Eaton. Actor: Julia McKenzie. Contact: Meredith Nierman, [email protected]. ¶ Julia McKenzie assumes the knitting needles as she steps into the role of Agatha Christie’s famous sleuth.

New Muslim Cool

Producing organizations: Specific Pictures, Latino Public Broadcasting, Center for Asian American Media. Distributor: PBS. Episodes: 1 x 60 (HD). Status: postproduction. Major funders: Latino Public Broadcasting, Ford Foundation, NEA, Center for Asian American Media, Wallace Alexander Gerbode Foundation, Anthony Radziwill Fund, Hartly Film Foundation, Paul Robeson Fund, Nu Lambda Trust, LEF Foundation. Producer/director/writer: Jennifer Maytorena Taylor. Contact: Luis Ortiz, [email protected], 818-847-9656. ¶ Follows a Puerto Rican American Muslim hip-hop artist and his family facing life in post-9/11 America. Web: www.specificpictures.com.

Poirot, Series X

A co-production of ITV Productions and WGBH in association with Agatha Christie Limited (A Chorion Company). Presented by WGBH/Masterpiece Mystery. Distributor: PBS. Episodes: 2 x 90 (wide SD). Status: postproduction. Major funder: PBS. Executive producer: Rebecca Eaton. Actor: David Suchet. Contact: Meredith Nierman, [email protected]. ¶ David Suchet returns to his signature role as suave Belgian super-sleuth Hercule Poirot in two productions based on novels by Agatha Christie.

Scenes from a Parish

Producing organizations: Documentary Educational Resources and Latino Public Broadcasting. Distributor: PBS. Episodes: 1 x 60. Status: postproduction. Major funders: Latino Public Broadcasting, LEF Foundation, Our Sunday Visitor Institute, Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities, Sundance Documentary Institute. Producer/director: James Rutenbeck. Contact: Luis Ortiz, [email protected], 818-847-9656. ¶ In hard-pressed city north of Boston, nine Catholics face obstacles that threaten to break apart the fellowship they seek.

Wallander

A co-production of the BBC and WGBH. Presented by WGBH/Masterpiece Mystery. Distributor: PBS. Episodes: 3 x 90 (wide SD). Status: postproduction. Major funders: PBS. Executive producer: Rebecca Eaton. Executive producer/actor: Kenneth Branagh. Contact: Meredith Nierman, [email protected]. ¶ Kenneth Branagh plays the Swedish detective Kurt Wallander in three new dramas adapted from best-selling author Henning Mankell’s critically acclaimed mysteries.

Fall09

Avec Eric

Producing organization: A La Carte Communications. Distributor: APT. Episodes: 13 x 30. Status: production. Budget: $500,000. Major funders: Olympus, Cuisinart, Acqua Panna. Executive producers: Nat Katzman, Geoffrey Drummond. Contact: Hope Reed, [email protected], 520-622-1393. ¶ Three-star Michelin chef Eric Ripert, lately of Top Chef, delivers creative and delicious inspiration on culinary journey from the Pacific to the Atlantic to the Mediterranean.

Building Modern China: I.M. Pei and the Transformation of an Ancient City (w.t.)

Producing organization: PACEM Productions. Presenting station: South Carolina ETV. Distributor: ITVS. Episodes: 1 x 60 (wide SD). Status: postproduction. Major funders: Miho Museum/Japan, ITVS, NEA, Kimball Chen, Alice King. Producer/executive producer: Eugene B. Shirley Jr. Executive producer: Anne Shirley. Co-executive producer: Caroline Courtauld. Writer/director: Anne Makepeace. Director of photography: George Adams. Editor: Brian Funck. Consulting editor: Kate Amend. Contact: Eugene Shirley, [email protected], 310-652-0400. ¶ Legendary architect I.M. Pei returns to China after decades in the West to design a new museum for his ancestral home of Suzhou—and inevitably enters a crucible of conflict. Web: www.pacem.tv/building_cm.html

Elbert Hubbard & The Roycroft Movement (w.t.)

Producing organization: WNED-TV (Buffalo, N.Y.). Distributor: PBS. Episodes: 1 x 60 (HD). Status: production. Budget: $437,000. Major funder: Margaret L. Wendt Foundation. Executive producer: John Grant. Producer: Paul Lamont. Contact: John Grant, [email protected], 814-234-5210. ¶ Profiles Elbert Hubbard, who founded a utopian arts and crafts colony in 1895 in East Aurora, N.Y., became a pop culture icon, and influenced American thought in the early 20th century.

For the Rights of All: The Elizabeth Peratrovich Story

Producing organizations: ITVS, Native American Public Telecommunications. Presenting station: KAKM (Anchorage, Alaska). Distributor: NAPT. Episodes: 1 x 60 (HD). Status: postproduction. Budget: $280,000. Major funders: NAPT, Alaska Native Heritage Center, Alaska Native Corporations, Ciri Foundation, Alaska Humanities Forum, Ramuson Foundation, Sealaska Corp./Heritage Institute, Alaska Airlines. Executive producer/senior advisors: Byron Mallott, Steven Alvarez. Producer/co-director/co-writer: Jeffry Silverman. Co-director/editor: Phil Lucas; Associate producer/co-writer/actor: Diane E. Benson. Contact: Kim Baca, [email protected], 907-277-2583. ¶ Tells the story of Elizabeth Peratrovich, a Tlingit woman who swayed the Alaska Senate in 1945 to pass the nation’s first civil rights bill. Web: www.alaskacivilrights.org.

Games of the North

Producing organizations: Starseed Media Inc., in association with the Alaska Native Heritage Center and Native American Public Telecommunications. Distributor: PBS. Episodes: 1 x 60 (HD). Status: postproduction. Major funders: Rasmuson Foundation, NAPT, Arctic Slope Regional Corp., Ukpeagvik Inuit Corp., Chugach Native Corp., North Slope Borough ECHO Project, Conoco Phillips, Alaska Humanities Forum. Executive producers: Steven Alvarez, Jonathon Stanton. Writers: Jonathon Stanton, Phillip Blanchett. Director: Jonathon Stanton. Co-producer: Phillip Blanchett. Contact: Carolyn Kinneen, [email protected], 907-227-8422. ¶ Filmmakers follow Native Alaskan athletes as they compete in the games of their ancestors such as one-handed stands and fish cutting. Outreach includes national educational curriculum for grades 3-12 and collegiate levels, using video podcasts, audio, posters and sporting equipment. Web: gamesofthenorth.com.

Joan Baez (w.t.)

Producing organizations: American Masters/WNET and Razor & Tie. Distributor: PBS. Episodes: 1 x 90. Status: production. Major funders: NEA, PBS, CPB, Rosalind P. Walter, Blanche & Irving Laurie Foundation. Executive producer: Susan Lacy. Producers: Mary Wharton, Mark Spector. Director: Mary Wharton. Contact: Melissa Turoff, [email protected]. ¶ Centers on the singer’s haunting power as an artist and those who influenced her and who were influenced by her. With a rich archive of material, traces her route from Boston coffeehouses and the civil rights movement to international struggles for peace and justice.

Last Mission to Hubble (w.t.)

Producing organization: WGBH/Nova. Distributor: PBS. Episodes: 1 x 60. Status: R&D. Major funders: Koch, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, PBS/CPB. Executive producer: Paula Apsell. Producer: Rush Denoyer. Contact: Meredith Nierman, [email protected]. ¶ Shows the risky NASA shuttle mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope for one last time and carry out the first-ever in-space repairs of defective instruments.

Latin Music USA

Producing organizations: WGBH and BBC. Distributor: PBS. Episodes: 4 x 60 (HD). Status: postproduction, fundraising. Major funders: BBC, CPB. Executive producer: Elizabeth Deane. Series producer: Adriana Bosch. Narrator: Jimmy Smits. Contact: Meredith Nierman, meredith_ [email protected]. ¶ Explores history of Latin music in the U.S. — mambo, salsa, tejano, Latin pop and more — and its influence on mainstream music from rock to hip-hop. Five public TV stations can receive $10,000 grants to develop local coalitions and community activities. Web: www.pbs.org/latinmusicusa.

Life (Part 2)

Producing organization: Twin Cities Public Television. Distributor: PBS. Episodes: 20 x 30 (HD). Status: production. Major funders: MetLife Foundation, Atlantic Philanthropies. Executive producer: Naomi Boak. Co-executive producer: Ron Fried. Host: Robert Lipsyte. Contact: Naomi Boak, [email protected], 651-229-1125. ¶ Refreshing and savvy look at the realities and possibilities of life after 50. Includes roundtable discussions, interviews and feature stories filled with candor and wit.

Louisa May Alcott: The Woman Behind Little Women

A co-production of Nancy Porter Productions, Inc. and WNET. To be presented by: American Masters. Distributor: PBS. Episodes: 1 x 85 (HD). Status: completed. Budget: $1.76 million. Major funders: NEH, CPB, Arthur Vining Davis Foundations, Simons Foundation, NEA, PBS. Executive producer: Susan Lacy. Producer/director: Nancy Porter. Producer/writer: Harriet Reisen. Actors: Elizabeth Marvel, Daniel Gerroll, Jane Alexander. Contact: Susan Lacy, [email protected]; Nancy Porter [email protected]; Harriet Reisen, [email protected]. ¶ Louisa Alcott’s life was no children’s book, but she got rich transforming it into stories. She died with a literary secret undiscovered for 50 years. Companion book and study guide are planned. Web: www.alcottfilm.com.

Mr. Alaska: Bob Bartlett Goes to Washington

Producing organization: KUAC-TV (University of Alaska, Fairbanks). Distributor: APT. Episodes: 1 x 60 (HD). Status: postproduction. Budget: $325,000. Major funder: New York Life. Producer: Michael Letzring. Executive producer: Claudia Clark. Editor: Aaron Elterman. Associate producer: Deb Lawton. Contact: Claudia Clark or Deb Lawton, 907-474-7491. ¶ Alaska Sen. Bob Bartlett was an improbable politician, yet this humble man became the architect of Alaska statehood and a remarkably successful member of the U.S. Congress.

The National Parks: America’s Best Idea

A co-production of Florentine Films and WETA. Distributor: PBS. Episodes: 6 x 120 (HD). Status: postproduction. Major funders: General Motors, Bank of America, Evelyn & Walter Haas Jr. Fund, CPB, Arthur Vining Davis Foundations, Park Foundation, PBS, National Park Foundation, Peter Jay Sharp Foundation, Pew Charitable Trusts. Director/producer: Ken Burns. Producer/writer: Dayton Duncan. Executive in charge for WETA: Dalton Delan. Project director: David S. Thompson. Contact: Kate Kelly, [email protected]. ¶ Chronicles the human story behind the creation of U.S. national parks, from the team that produced Lewis & Clark: The Journey of the Corps of Discovery. Outreach aims to attract new audiences to the parks based on the Untold Stories project, which collected stories on the role of minorities in the creation and protection of individual parks. Web: www.pbs.org/nationalparks.

The Nuclear World: A Way Beyond? (w.t.)

Producing organization: Whistling Communications LLC. Episodes: 1 x 20 or 2 x 60 (HD). Status: postproduction. Producer/director: Robert E. Frye. Contact: Bob Frye, [email protected]. ¶ Profiles the advocates in the renewed debate over the future role of nuclear weapons. Web: www.thenuclearworld.org.

Patti Smith

A co-production of Thirteen for WNET.org and Clean Socks LLC. Presented by P.O.V. Distributor: PBS. Episodes: 1 x 110 (HD). Status: completed. Executive producer: Margaret Smilow. Contact: Melissa Turoff, [email protected], 212-560-8264. ¶ Film about the musician, poet and artist whose career spans 25 years is more of a musical biographical poem than a “biopic.” It traces Smith’s inner life through lyric images, interview segments and music.

Peter Matthiessen: No Boundaries

Producing organization: WQED Multimedia (Pittsburgh). Distributor: PBS. Air date: April 24, 2009. Episodes: 1 x 60 (HD). Status: postproduction. Budget: $285,000. Major funders: Heinz Endowments, Richard King Mellon Foundation. Executive producer/producer/director/writer: Jeff Sewald. Narrator: Glenn Close. Director of photography: Paul G. Sanderson III. Editor: David H. Cohen. Original music: Robert Weinstein. Contact: Jeff Sewald, [email protected], 724-816-7490; Rosemary Martinelli, 412-622-6433, [email protected]. or Darryl Ford Williams, 412-622-1393, [email protected]. ¶ Captures the fire that, for more than 50 years, has maintained award-winning writer Peter Matthiessen’s commitment to the environment, wildlife, vanishing cultures and oppressed peoples. Outreach includes possible promotional tour with Matthiessen and Sewald, live webinar conference and accompanying toolkit for stations. Competitive grant program (pending) proposed to help stations focus on Native American rights and/or environmental conservation.

The Profilers (w.t.)

Producing organization: NET Television (Nebraska). Distributor: APT. Episodes: 1 x 60 (HD). Status: production. Budget: $85,000. Major funders: NET Foundation for Television, Nebraska Educational Telecommunications Commission. Producer/writer: Bill Kelly. Contact: David Feingold, [email protected]. ¶ Sequel to Murder House details techniques used by behavioral crime scene analysts — known as “profilers” — by following the work of one seasoned investigator and one rookie.

Raymond Chandler: The Simple Art of Murder

Producing organization: American Masters/WNET. Distributor: PBS. Episodes: 1 x 90. Status: Preproduction. Major funders: NEA, PBS, CPB, Rosalind Walter, Blanche & Irving Laurie Foundation. Executive producer: Susan Lacy. Producer/director: Morgan Neville. Contact: Melissa Turoff, [email protected]. ¶ A master of language and observation whose name is synonymous with crime fiction, Chandler is portrayed as a loner and an alcoholic who didn’t publish until age 51 and whose personal life often equaled the mysterious twists of his unique L.A.-based fiction.

Retirement Revolution: The New Reality with Paula Zahn

Producing organization: WTTW National Productions. Distributor: PBS. Episodes: 1 x 90 (HD). Status: preproduction. Budget: $1.15 million. Major funder: MassMutual. Executive producer: Fran Harth. Producer: Brian Boyer. Host: Paula Zahn. Contact: Fran Harth, [email protected], 773-509-5483. ¶ Focuses on how older Americans can survive and thrive in troubling economic times. Weaves together critical commentary from respected experts, economists, demographers, bankers and health-care and insurance specialists, as well as financial planners. Web: www.wttw.com/retirementrevolution.

Search for the First Human

Producing organization: WGBH/Nova. Distributor: PBS. Episodes: 3 x 60 (HD). Status: preproduction. Major funders: PBS, CPB, David H. Koch, Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Senior executive producer: Paula Apsell. Contact: Meredith Nierman, [email protected]. ¶ Investigates in-depth, for the first time, recent discoveries that have transformed our understanding of our human ancestors.

She Wants to Be a Matador

Producing organizations: Talcual Films and Latino Public Broadcasting. Distributor: PBS. Episodes: 1 x 60. Status: postproduction. Major funders: Latino Public Broadcasting, La Fetra Foundation, Pacific Pioneer Fund. Producer/ director/writer: Gemma Cubero. Producer/ director/ cinematographer: Celeste Carrasco. Contact: Luis Ortiz, [email protected], 818-847-9656. ¶ Profiles women who choose the profession of bullfighting, challenging the usual gender roles and rigid social traditions. Web: www.talcualfilms.com.

The Thirteenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition (w.t.)

Producing organization: Peter Rosen Productions Inc. Presenting station: KERA (Dallas). Distributor: PBS. Episodes: 1 x 60. Status: preproduction. Budget: $900,000. Major funder: ExxonMobil. Producer/director: Peter Rosen. Internet producer: Molly McBride. Executive producer: Richard Rodzinski. Contact: Peter Rosen, [email protected], 212-535-8927. ¶ Rosen’s fourth film on the Cliburn Competition features young artists from more than 30 countries. Before the fall 2009 broadcast, the project will present a live 24/7 Internet stream of music and behind-the-scenes drama for three weeks in May and June. Web: www.cliburn.org.

Trumbo

Producing organizations: Safehouse Pictures and Filbert Steps Productions. Presenting station: WNET. Distributor: PBS. Episodes: 1 x 90. Status: completed. Major funders: NEA, PBS, CPB, Rosalind Walter, Blanche & Irving Laurie Foundation. Producer: Will Battersby. Director: Peter Askin. Writer: Christopher Trumbo. Contact: Melissa Turoff, [email protected]. ¶ Chronicles the life of Dalton Trumbo, a successful Hollywood screenwriter who, after refusing to testify before the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC), was convicted, jailed and unable to work in his own name for more than a decade. Adapted from his son Christopher’s recent play.

Voces

Producing organization: Latino Public Broadcasting. Distributor: APT. Episodes: 8 x 60. Status: postproduction. Major funder: Ford Foundation. Executive producer: Patricia Boero. Host: Edward James Olmos. Contact: Luis Ortiz, [email protected], 818-847-9656. ¶ Goes beyond typical media coverage, exploring and showcasing Latinos’ contributions and influences in U.S. society. Web: www.voces.tv.

Wild by Nature (w.t.)

Producing organization: First Light Films. Presenting station: KQED (San Francisco). Distributor: APT. Episodes: 2 x 60 (HD). Status: postproduction. Producer: Chelsea Congdon. Contact: Suzanne Romaine, sromaine@ kqed.org, 415-553-2366. ¶ Captures the glories of undeveloped, wild places through stunning images and passionate tales of America’s modern wilderness heroes—volunteers who spend countless hours ensuring that wild places remain forever wild.

Worse Than War

A co-production of JTN Productions and Thirteen in association with WNET.org. Distributor: PBS. Episodes: 1 x 120. Status: production. Major funders: Pershing Square Foundation, Einhorn Family Charitable Foundation, Cukier Goldstein-Goren Foundation, Lowenberg Family Foundation, Robert Davoli & Eileen McDonagh. Project executive: Andy Halper. Contact: Melissa Turoff, [email protected], 212-560-8264. ¶ Explores genocide, ethnic cleansing and mass murder in our time. Author Daniel Jonah Goldhagen, whose Hitler’s Willing Executioners changed how the scholarly and popular worlds viewed the Holocaust, does the same for genocide.

Your Life, Your Money

Producing organizations: WNED-TV (Buffalo, N.Y.), Working Dog Productions. Distributor: PBS. Episodes: 1 x 60 (HD). Status: production. Budget: $1.5 million. Major funder: HSBC in the Community Foundation (USA) Inc. Executive producer: John Grant. Producer: Tom Simon. Host: Donald Faison. Contact: John Grant, [email protected], 814-234-5210. ¶ Presents a broad range of fundamental financial information, from basic banking to credit debt. Encourages young people to be smart and proactive with their money.

Sometime in ’09

Casino Nation

Producing organizations: ITVS, P.O.V., Native American Public Telecommunications, Sundance Institute. Presenter/distributor: P.O.V. Episodes: 1 x 60 (HD). Status: production. Budget: $364,902. Major funders: ITVS, NAPT, P.O.V.’s CPB-funded Diverse Voices Project, Sundance Institute Documentary Program. Producers: Terry Jones, Laure Sullivan. Contact: Terry Jones, cornsoupman@ yahoo.com. ¶ After enduring a long and bloody struggle over tribal gaming, the impoverished Seneca nation is now in the casino business and searching for ways to heal the divided community. [Current article]

Degrees That Work

Producing organization: WVIA-TV (Wilkes-Barre/Scranton) and Pennsylvania College of Technology. Episodes: 4 x 30 (HD). Status: production. Executive producers: Tom Currá, Elaine Lambert. Producers/writers/editors: Chris Leigh, Tom Speicher. Contact: Tom Speicher, [email protected], 570-320-2400, ext. 2767. ¶ Uses stories to examine career fields that will be rewarding for the next generation of workers. First episodes focus on nanotechnology, welding, advanced manufacturing and plastics. Outreach includes educational resources for K-12 educators for each episode. Web: www.degreesthatwork.com.

Evo Devo

Producing organization: WGBH/Nova. Distributor: PBS. Episodes: 2 x 60 (HD). Status: scripting. Major funders: PBS, CPB, David H. Koch, Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Producer/director: Sarah Holt. Senior executive producer: Paula Apsell. Contact: Meredith Nierman, [email protected]. ¶ Marking Charles Darwin’s 2009 bicentennial, biologist Sean B. Carroll explores the workings of natural selection and the exciting new field of evolutionary developmental biology, or “evo devo.”

Exploring World Art (w.t.)

Producing organizations: A production of Thirteen for WNET.org by Annenberg Media. Episodes: 13 x 30 (HD). Status: production. Major funder: Annenberg Foundation. Project executives: Sandra Sheppard, Jill Peters, Susan Rose. Contact: Melissa Turoff, [email protected], 212-560-8264. ¶ Takes a thematic approach to art history and appreciation for adults and young adults. Interviews with artists connect their work with that of their predecessors.

Ghosts of Appalachia

Co-produced by Sally Rubin, Jen Gilomen and ITVS. Presenting station: Kentucky Educational Television. Distributor: PBS. Episodes: 1 x 54 (HD). Status: production. Budget: $420,000. Major funders: ITVS. Directors: Sally Rubin, Jen Gilomen. Executive producer: David Sutherland. Contact: Sally Rubin, [email protected], 415-216-6147. ¶ Through the lens of a friendship in peril, the doc reveals the human impact of America’s growing energy consumption against a backdrop of Appalachia’s struggle over coal. Outreach includes virtual reality project on mountaintop removal mining. Designed for pledge drives. Web: www.ghostsofappalachia.org.

Good Meat

Producing organization: Native American Public Telecommunications. Distributor: NAPT. Episodes: 1 x 60 (HD). Status: postproduction. American Heart Association, Black Hills Medical Center, Inter-Tribal Bison Cooperative, NAPT, National Bison Foundation, Osteoporosis Screening Center, Rapid City Medical Center, Rapid City Regional Hospital, Dr. John Hill, Dr. Brett Lawlor, Dr. Kevin Weiland. Executive producer/director/writer: Sam Hurst. Co-producer: Larry Pourier. Contact: Kim Baca, [email protected], 505-604-3517. ¶ Beau LeBeau, an Oglala Lakota, is obese. Under a doctor’s supervision, he documents his return to a traditional Sioux diet centered on buffalo and native foods.

The Insular Empire

Producing organization: Pacific Islanders in Communications. Episodes 1 x 60. Status: postproduction. Budget: $50,000. Producer: Vanessa Warheit. Contact: Ruth Bolan, [email protected], 808-591-0059. ¶ In the Mariana Islands archipelago, 6,000 miles from the U.S. mainland, key American principles such as “liberty” and “citizenship” play out in dramatic and contradictory ways, as islanders have much to teach the U.S. about the complexities of democracy and cultural survival.

Ku‘u ‘Aina Aloha: My Beloved Country

Producing organization: Pacific Islanders in Communications. Episodes: 1 x 60. Status: production. Budget: $50,000. Producer: Meleanna Meyer. Executive producer: Alice Walker. Contact: Ruth Bolan, [email protected], 808-591-0059. ¶ Chronicles the overthrow of the Hawaiian kingdom and its aftermath, examining Hawaiian resistance from its roots through the story of Queen Lili‘uokalani, with archival music and Hawaiian-language documents.

Little Caughawaga: To Brooklyn and Back

Producing organizations: Mushkeg Media, Canadian Film Board and Native American Public Telecommunications. Episodes: 1 x 60 (HD). Status: postproduction. Executive producers: Paul Rickard, George Hargrave. Director/writer: Reaghan Tarbell. Contact: Reaghan Tarbell, [email protected]. ¶ Mohawk filmmaker Reaghan Tarbell traces her roots in Little Caughnawaga, the community of legendary Mohawk ironworkers that arose in Brooklyn during the mid-1900s.

Mau

Producing organization: Pacific Islanders in Communications. Episodes: 1 x 60. Status: postproduction. Budget: $65,000. Producer: Na‘alehu Anthony. Contact: Ruth Bolan, [email protected], 808-591-0059. ¶ A tribute to Mau Piailug, the Micronesian man who broke with tradition and re-taught Hawaiians celestial navigation. Nainoa Thompson and his students travel in the historic voyaging canoe Hokule‘a to pay homage to Mau.

Pidgin: Language and Culture in Hawai‘i

Producing organization: Pacific Islanders in Communications. Episodes: 1 x 60. Status: production. Budget: $65,000. Producers: Marlene Booth, Kanalu Young. Contact: Ruth Bolan, [email protected], 808-591-0059. ¶ Doc explores the controversy and complexity of the Hawaiian Creole language.

The Powder & the Glory

Producing organizations: Powderglory Productions LLC in association with the Center for Independent Documentary (Sharon, Mass.), YLE Teema Ateljee (Finnish public broadcasting), AVRO, and ABC Australia. Presenting station: South Carolina ETV. Distributor: PBS. Episodes: 1 x 90 (wide SD). Status: completed. Budget: $735,000. Major funders: CPB, PBS, Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities. Producers/writers/directors: Ann Carol Grossman, Arnie Reisman. Narrator: Jane Alexander. Contact: Ann Carol Grossman and Arnie Reisman, [email protected]. ¶ Shows how two pioneering entrepreneurial women—Elizabeth Arden and Helena Rubinstein—created an industry, became global rivals and cultural icons, and permanently changed the way we look at ourselves. Based on the book War Paint by Lindy Woodhead. Web: www.powderandglory.com.

The Power of the Poor with Hernando de Soto

Producing organization: Free to Choose Media. Presenting station: WTTW. Distributor: PBS. Episodes: 2 x 60 (HD). Status: postproduction. Budget: $1.4 million. Major funder: John Templeton Foundation. Executive producer: Thomas Skinner. Executive producer: Bob Chitester. Producer: Roger Brown. Producer: James Taylor. Contact: Fran Harth, [email protected], 773-509-5483. ¶ Demonstrates how free markets, individual freedom and especially the right to property can transform the poor into the most powerful resource in the world.

Power Paths

Producing organizations: Looking Hawk Productions and Native American Public Telecommunications. Episodes: 1 x 60 (HD). Status: postproduction. Executive producer: Bo Boudart. Co-producers: Norman Brown, Chris Philipp. Narrator: Peter Coyote. Contact: Kim Baca, info@ powerpaths.org. ¶ Illustrates how tribes from the Great Plains to the desert Southwest face fierce opposition in their attempts to change energy habits of utilities and electric cooperatives dependent on fossil fuels. Web: powerpaths.semkhor.com.

River of Renewal

Producing organization: Native American Public Telecommunications and Terrapin Pictures. Episodes: 1 x 60 (HD). Status: postproduction. Producer: Jack Kohler. Contact: Stephen Most, [email protected], 510-548-3537. ✤Conflicts between salmon fishing and water rights along the Klamath River in Oregon and California leads to self-discovery for Jack Kohler, a Yurok tribal member who grew up away from the reservation. Web: www.terrapinpictures.com/Klamath.

Tano y Chamorro

Producing organization: Pacific Islanders in Communications. Episodes: 1 x 60. Status: production. Budget: $30,000. Producers: Bienvenida Matias, Cristine Borja-Sumbi. Contact: Ruth Bolan, [email protected], 808-591-0059. ¶ Since invasion by Spain in the 1500s, the Chamorro on Guam have had to live with the politics of the nations fighting to possess their island. Film details Chamorro people’s contributions and sacrifices to the U.S. war effort during World War II and the consequences of those sacrifices.

There Once Was an Island

Producing organization: On the Level Productions. Episodes: 1 x 60. Status: preproduction. Producer: Lyn Collie. Contact: Ruth Bolan, [email protected], 808-591-0059. ¶ In this verité-style film on the effects of climate change, four characters take the audience on their personal journeys as they make the heart-wrenching decision of when and how to evacuate to an uncertain future in politically unstable Bougainville, Papua New Guinea.

The Wine Makers

Producing organization: Doc City Productions. Presenting station: South Carolina ETV. Distributor: APT. Episodes: 6 x 60 (wide SD). Status: postproduction. Major funders: Beringer Vineyards, Tapena, E & J Gallo, Paso Robles Wine Country Alliance, City of Pismo Beach Visitors & Convention Bureau. Executive producer: Kevin Whelan. Host: Brian Von Dedenroth. Contact: Kevin Whelan, [email protected]. ¶ Five budding winemakers compete for the job of a lifetime and a chance to create and launch their own wine label. Outreach includes public wine-tasting events, Wine Maker for a Weekend Sweepstakes, cast publicity appearances and premier receptions.

Winter10

Africa’s Class of ’28 (w.t.)

Producing organizations: WTTW National Productions and Eaton Creative Inc. Distributor: PBS. Episodes: 2 x 60 (HD). Status: fundraising. Executive producer: Fran Harth. Producers: Leo Eaton, John Keltonic. Contact: Fran Harth, [email protected], 773-509-5483. ¶ Multiplatform media project examines the potential for hope and change in Africa’s next generation of children by imagining their situation in the year when they come of age.

Dolley Madison

Producing organizations: Twin Cities Public Television and Middlemarch Films for WGBH/American Experience. Distributor: PBS. Episodes: 1 x 90 (HD). Status: preproduction. Major funders: NEH, PBS, Land O’Lakes. Executive producer: Catherine Allan. Producer/director: Muffie Meyer. Contact: Catherine Allan, [email protected]. ¶ Explores life and the career of a celebrated First Lady whose backstage political prowess helped unite the country in a turbulent time.

Joseph McCarthy

Producing organization: Ark Media for WGBH/American Experience. Distributor: PBS. Episodes: 1 x 90 (HD). Status: preproduction. Major funders: Liberty Mutual, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, PBS, CPB. Executive producer: Mark Samels, Producer/director/writer: Barak Goodman. Contact: Meredith Nierman, [email protected]. ¶ Traces McCarthy’s life from childhood in Wisconsin, through years in the Senate, to his eventual censure and subsequent descent into alcoholism and death in 1957.

The Murder of Martin Luther King

An Insignia Films production for WGBH/American Experience. Distributor: PBS. Episodes: 1 x 90 (HD). Status: production. Executive producer: Mark Samels. Producer: Stephen Ives. Contact: Meredith Nierman, [email protected]. ¶ The story of James Earl Ray, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the seething, turbulent forces in American society that led to their violent and tragic collision in April 1968.

The New Recruits

Producing organization: Ironbound Films Inc. Distributor: PBS. Episodes: 1 x 60 (HD). Status: production. Budget: $500,000. Major funder: PBS Social Entrepreneurship Fund. Producers/directors: Seth Kramer, Daniel A. Miller, Jeremy Newberger. Contact: Daniel A. Miller, miller@ ironboundfilms.com. ¶ Profiles a battalion of aspiring social entrepreneurs who use their business acumen to change conditions in the world’s most volatile, impoverished regions.

Voices of Defiance (w.t.)

Producing organizations: Twin Cities Public Television and Partisan Pictures. Distributor: PBS. Episodes: 1 x 90 (HD). Status: fundraising. Executive producer: Naomi Boak. Producer: Peter Schnall. Contact: Naomi Boak, nboak@ tpt.org, 651-229-1125. ¶ Through documentary and performance tells remarkable story of Rafael Schächter, the man who transformed the Verdi Requiem into a spiritual battle cry for the doomed Jews of the Terezín concentration camp.

Spring10

The Adventists

Producing organization: Journey Films (Alexandria, Va.). Presenting station: South Carolina ETV. Distributor: APT. Episodes: 1 x 60 (HD). Status: preproduction. Budget: $450,000. Producer/director: Martin Doblmeier. Contact: Dan Juday, [email protected]. ¶ Explores one of the few American-born faith traditions and its pioneering work in health care.

Baseball: The Tenth Inning (w.t.)

Producing organizations: Florentine Films and WETA. Distributor: PBS. Episodes: 1 x 120 (HD). Status: production. Major funders: Bank of America, CPB, PBS. Producers: Ken Burns, Lynn Novick, David McMahon. Executive-in-charge for WETA: Dalton Delan. Project director: David S. Thompson. Contact: Kate Kelly, [email protected]. ¶ Ken Burns and his producing partners follow up their landmark series Baseball, covering recent developments in the story of America’s pastime.

Benjamin Henry Latrobe: Architect of the New Republic (w.t.)

Producing organizations: A co-production of Kunhardt Productions and WETA. Distributor: PBS. Episodes: 1 x 60. Status: preproduction. Major funders: NEH, Annenberg Foundation. Executive producers for WETA: Dalton Delan, David S. Thompson. Executive producers: Peter Kunhardt, Dyllan McGee. Producer/director: Michael Epstein. Contact: Kate Kelly, [email protected]. ¶ Chronicles the life and work of early American architect Benjamin Latrobe and assesses his lasting impact on his country.

Circus

Producing organizations: A Show of Force production in association with WETA. Distributor: PBS. Episodes: 8 x 60 (HD). Status: production. Major funder: CPB Program Challenge Fund. Executive producers for WETA: Dalton Delan, David S. Thompson. Executive producer/director: Maro Chermayeff. Producer: Jeff Dupre. Contact: Kate Kelly, [email protected]. ¶ In cinéma vérité-style, the team that produced Carrier follows the Big Apple Circus through a season of big-top performances on the road.

Earth Days

Producing organization: Robert Stone Productions for WGBH/American Experience. Distributor: PBS. Episodes: 1 x 90 (HD). Status: production. Major funders: Liberty Mutual, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, PBS, CPB. Executive producer: Mark Samels. Senior producer: Sharon Grimberg. Producer: Robert Stone. Contact: Meredith Nierman,

[email protected]. ¶ Traces origins of the modern environmental movement, featuring nine Americans who were inspired to act against what they believed was the greatest threat facing mankind.

Journey to Freedom (w.t.)

Producing organization: WETA. Distributor: PBS. Episodes: 1 x 60. Status: postproduction, fundraising. Executive producers for WETA: Jeff Bieber, Dalton Delan. Producer/ director: Deborah Schaffer. Contact: Kate Kelly, [email protected]. ¶ American Unitarian leader Waitstill Sharp and his wife, Martha, help save almost 2,000 Europeans—including intellectuals, political leaders, artists and children—during World War II.

Paris: The Luminous Years

A co-production of The Eloquent Image and Thirteen in association with WNET.org. Distributor: PBS. Episodes: 1 x 120 (HD). Status: development. Major funders: NEA, ARTE France, NEH, Roz Walter, Murray Nathan, Florence Gould Foundation, Janice Levin Foundation. Executive producer: Margie Smilow. Contact: Melissa Turoff, [email protected], 212-560-8264. ¶ Recreates the most intense and significant concentration of artistic activity in the 20th century, 1905 to 1930, attempting to answer the question, “Why Paris?”

Plan B

Producing organization: Screenscope Inc. Presented by Journey to Planet Earth. Presenting station: South Carolina ETV. Distributor: PBS. Episodes: 2 x 60 (Wide SD). Status: production. Major funders: Wallace Genetic Foundation, Kellogg Foundation, Park Foundation, Turner Foundation, Weeden Foundation. Producers: Hal Weiner, Marilyn Weiner. Host/narrator: Matt Damon. Contact: Marilyn Weiner, [email protected]. ¶ Addresses root causes of today’s economic and environmental problems. Offers a roadmap for attempts to eradicate poverty, stabilize population and protect and restore the earth’s forests, soils and fisheries. Web: www.pbs.org/journeytoplanetearth.

Unforgivable (w.t.)

Producing organizations: WETA and Helen Whitney Productions. Distributor: PBS. Episodes: 1 x 120 (HD). Status: production. Major funders: Fetzer Institute, Templeton Foundation, ClearView Foundation. Executive producers: Dalton Delan, David S. Thompson. Producers: Paul Dietrich. Producer/director: Helen Whitney. Contact: Kate Kelly, [email protected]. ¶ Explores forgiveness in even the most tragic circumstances by following the stories of individuals who face agonizing choices.

Summer10

Chatauqua (w.t.)

Producing organization: WNED-TV (Buffalo, N.Y.). Distributor: PBS. Episodes: 1 x 60 (HD). Status: fundraising, preproduction. Budget: $480,000. Executive producer: John Grant. Contact: John Grant, [email protected], 814-234-5210. ¶ Focuses on contemporary story of the Chautauqua Institution—a sometimes forgotten, frequently misunderstood one-of-a-kind place – using its rich history to provide context and perspective.

The Seventies: Scenes from a Revolution

A co-production of Thirteen and Insignia Films in association with WNET.org. Distributor: PBS. Episodes: 6 x 60. Status: development. Project executive: Andy Halper. Contact: Melissa Turoff, [email protected], 212-560-8264. ¶ Gives an underappreciated decade its due, with a new perspective on how the 1970s radically reshaped American life.

Fall10

Becoming Helen Keller

Producing organizations: A production of Straight Ahead Pictures and WETA and WNET. Presented by WNET/American Masters. Distributor: PBS. Episodes: 1 x 90 (HD). Status: production. Major funders: NEH, Mitsubishi Foundation, Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities, Alabama Foundation for the Humanities. Project originator/director: Laurie Block. Consulting producer: Laurie Kahn-Leavitt. Director of cinematography: Boyd Estus. Co-writers: Laurie Block, John Crowley. Executive producers: Dalton Delan, Susan Lacy. Contact: Deb Falk, [email protected]. ¶ Places Keller’s full life and legacy in context for the first time, examining her fame and influence throughout the world and exploring 20th-century social change for people with disabilities.

Faiths of America’s Founders

Producing organizations: Groberg Films Inc. and WETA. Distributor: PBS. Episodes: 1 x 90 (HD). Status: Fundraising, preproduction, scripting. Major funders: GFC Foundation, Dana and Chris Doggett, Alan and Jeanne Hall, Garfield and Margo Cook, Larry H. and Gail Miller Family Foundation, The One Foundation, Annenberg Foundation. Executive producers for WETA: Dalton Delan, Karen Kenton. Producer: Lee Groberg. Writer: Douglas Brinkley. Co-writer: Julie Fenster. Contact: Kate Kelly, [email protected]. ¶ Examines how the founders’ religious backgrounds and beliefs shaped many of the enduring hallmarks of American society: religious freedom and tolerance, and the separation of church and state.

God in America

Producing organization to be determined. Presented by WGBH/Frontline and American Experience. Distributor: PBS. Episodes: 6 x 60 (HD). Status: preproduction. Senior producer: David Belton. Series producer: Marilyn Mellowes. Executive producer: Michael Sullivan. Contact: Meredith Nierman, [email protected]. ¶ Chronicles religious life in America from the arrival of Columbus in 1492 through the 2008 election.

Hidden Wounds of War (w.t.)

Producing organizations: WETA and The Documentary Group. Distributor: PBS. Episodes: 1 x 60 (HD). Status: R&D, fundraising. Executive producers for WETA: Dalton Delan, Karen Kenton. Executive producer for The Documentary Group: Tom Yellin. Producer: Gabrielle Tenenbaum. Creative consultant: Richard Robbins. Reporter: Bob Woodruff. Contact: Kate Kelly, [email protected]. ¶ Focuses on the latest scientific understanding of traumatic brain injury, prevention technologies under development and best practices for treatment and rehabilitation. The producers will establish partnerships with Department of Defense and Veterans Administration. The broadcast accompanies a comprehensive multimedia resource about brain injury, BrainLine.org.

The Jewish Partisans (w.t.)

Producing organizations: Daylight Films in association with WETA. Distributor: PBS. Episodes: 1 x 90 (HD). Status: fundraising, preproduction. Executive producers for WETA: Dalton Delan, David S. Thompson. Producer: Julia Mintz. Producer/writer/director: Amy Stechler. Contact: Kate Kelly, [email protected]. ¶ Survivors now in their 80s tell the virtually unknown World War II story of Eastern European Jewish partisans who escaped into the forests and fought back against the Nazis.

Sometime in ’10

Boomer Addiction (w.t.)

Producing organization: WGBH. Distributor: PBS. Episodes: 1 x 120 (HD). Status: R&D. Executive producer: Laurie Donnelly. Contact: Meredith Nierman, [email protected]. ¶ As the generation that coined the term “recreational drug use” moves deeper into middle age, boomer addicts are expected to flood the health-care system.

Cachao: Una Mas

Producing organizations: Doc Film Institute in association with San Francisco State University and American Masters. Presenting station: WNET. Distributor: PBS. Episodes: 1 x 60. Status: completed. Major funders: George & Judy Marcus, NEA, PBS, CPB, Rosalind Walter, Blanche & Irving Laurie Foundation. Executive producers: George Marcus, Robert A. Corrigan. Producers: Andy Garcia, Tom Luddy, Stephen Ujlaki. Contact: Melissa Turoff, turoffm@ thirteen.org. ¶ Profiles the Grammy-winning bassist Israel “Cachao” Lopez, an Afro-Cuban musician credited with inventing the mambo and establishing the basis for contemporary Latin jazz and salsa. Includes footage from a 2005 concert.

The Calling

Producing organization: The Kindling Group. Distributor: PBS. Episodes: 4 x 60 (HD). Status: production. Budget: $2.2 million. Major funders: ITVS, CPB/PBS Program Challenge Fund, Hartley Film Foundation, Irving Harris Foundation. Producer/director: Daniel Alpert. Contact: Bunny Tavares, [email protected], 831-462-6004, or Daniel Alpert, dannyatkindlinggroup.org, 773-728-8489. ¶ Explores faith in the United States from perspectives of Muslims, Christians, Catholics and Jews who have decided to enter the clergy. Outreach, led by Active Voice and Working Films, will target general public, values-based organizations, religious and interfaith institutions and educational institutions.

Designing Life (w.t.)

Producing organization: WGBH. Distributor: PBS. Episodes: 4 x 60 (HD). Status: R&D. Contact: Meredith Nierman, [email protected]. ✤Tells gripping stories of people facing the major bioethical dilemmas of our time.

For the Generations: A Native American Music Special

Producing organizations: Oregon Public Broadcasting and Painted Sky. Episodes: 1 x 60 (wide SD). Status: production. Budget: $300,000. Major funder: Spirit Mountain Community Fund. Executive producer for OPB: Jeff Douglas. Producers: Sean Hutchinson, Mary Hager. Contact: David Davis, [email protected], 503-293-1959. ¶ Native American singers and dancers interpret and celebrate their stories of struggle, triumph, honor and hope.

Joe Papp in Five Acts

Producing organizations: American Masters/WNET, The Papp Project and ITVS. Distributor: PBS. Episodes: 1 x 90. Status: postproduction. Major funders: NEA, PBS, CPB, Rosalind Walter, Blanche & Irving Laurie Foundation. Executive producer: Susan Lacy, Sally Jo Fifer. Producer/directors: Tracie Holder, Karen Thorsen. Contact: Melissa Turoff, [email protected]. ¶ The architect and presiding spirit of New York’s Public Theater and Free Shakespeare Festival, Papp produced innovative new works such as Hair, A Chorus Line and For Colored Girls; brought back such classics as Hamlet and Pirates of Penzance; and in the process addressed the realities of his personal history and struggles.

Michael Feinstein’s American Songbook

Producing organization: Hudson West Productions. Distributor: PBS. Episodes: 3 x 60 (HD). Status: production, fundraising. Budget: $825,000. Major funder: Michael Feinstein Foundation for the Preservation of the Great American Songbook. Host: Michael Feinstein. Series producer/director: Amber Edwards. Director of photography/co-producer: Dave Davidson. Executive producer: Ken Bloom. Contact: Amber Edwards, [email protected]. ¶ Michael Feinstein—performer, historian, collector and showman—leads a series of doc-style musical expeditions through 20th-century American popular song. Web: www.michaelfeinsteins americansongbook.org.

The Middle of Everywhere

Producing organizations: Rotating Planet (Montreal) and NET Television (Nebraska). Distributor: PBS. Episodes: 1 x 60 (HD). Status: R&D, preproduction. Budget: $225,000. Major funder: NET Foundation for Television. Producer/ director: Ari Cohen. Producer: Olive Bucklin. Principal videographer: Ralph Hammack. Contact: David Feingold, [email protected], 402-440-7322, ext. 440. ¶ Lost Boys from Sudan, survivors from Kosovo, families fleeing Afghanistan — they come to cities nationwide with nothing but the desire to live the American dream. Based on psychologist Mary Pipher’s bestseller.

One Voice

Producing organization: Pacific Islanders in Communications and Juniroa Productions. Episodes: 1 x 60 (HD). Status: R&D. Budget: $88,000. Producer: Heather Giugni. Contact: Ruth Bolan, [email protected], 808-591-0059. ¶ In the style of Mad Hot Ballroom and Spellbound, the filmmakers capture the 87-year-old Kamehameha Schools Song Contest that showcases the best traditional Hawaiian music while promoting leadership and teamwork among classmates.

Passages

Producing organizations: Pacific Islanders in Communications (PIC) with National Geographic and Piko Productions. Distributor: PBS. Episodes: 6 x 60 (HD). Status: R&D. Budget: $5 million. Major funders: PIC, PBS, CPB. Executive producers: Elizabeth Lindsey, Ruth Bolan, John Bredar. Series producer: Judy Hallet. Contact: Ruth Bolan, [email protected], 808-591-0059. ¶ Examines places and cultures long ignored by the modern world. Indigenous filmmaker, anthropologist and National Geographic Society explorer Elizabeth Lindsey interviews revered elders, leading a journey toward insight and knowledge. (Current feature)

Standing Bear’s Footsteps (w.t.)

Producing organization: NET Television (Nebraska). Distributor: PBS. Episodes: 1 x 60 (HD). Status: R&D, fundraising. Budget: $800,000. Major funders: Union Pacific Foundation, Native American Public Telecommunications, NEH, NET Foundation for Television. Producer/ director/ writer: Christine Lesiak. Contact: David Feingold, [email protected], 402-440-7322, ext. 440. ¶ Recounts the little-known story of Chief Standing Bear of the Ponca who, in 1879, sued the U.S. government for the most basic of human rights: the right to be considered a person.

William Still: Father of  the Underground Railroad (w.t.)

Producing organizations: WNED-TV (Buffalo) and 90th Parallel Productions. Distributor: PBS. Episodes: 1 x 60 (HD). Status: fundraising. Budget: $650,000. Executive producers: John Grant, Gordon Henderson. Contact: John Grant, [email protected], 814-234-5210. ¶ Profiles William Still, by any measure one of the most significant figures in the abolition of slavery. When he died, in 1902, the New York Times called him “The Father of the Underground Railroad.”

Women, War and Peace

A production of Thirteen for WNET.org. Distributor: PBS. Episodes: 4 x 60 (HD). Status: development. Executive producer: Pam Hogan. Contact: Melissa Turoff, [email protected], 212-560-8264. ¶ Focuses on women’s strategic role in the post-Cold War era, in which globalization, arms trafficking and illicit trade intersect to create a new type of war.

Winter11

Freedom Riders

A Firelight Films production for WGBH/American Experience. Distributor: PBS. Episodes: 1 x 120 (HD). Status: preproduction. Major funders: Liberty Mutual, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, PBS, CPB, NEH. Executive producer: Mark Samels. Producer: Stanley Nelson. Contact: Meredith Nierman, meredith_nierman@wgbh.
org. ¶ Hundreds of civil rights activists challenge segregation in interstate transport in the American South during the spring and summer of 1961. Multiplatform project includes interactive website, video podcasts, panel discussions, screening events and a traveling exhibit for libraries.

Spring11

The History of Television (w.t.)

Producing organizations: The Documentary Group and WETA in association with the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. Distributor: PBS. Episodes: 4 x 60 (HD). Status: fundraising. Major funders: CPB Program Challenge Fund. Executive producer for The Documentary Group: Tom

Yellin. Executive producers for WETA: Dalton Delan, David S. Thompson. Producer/director: Richard Robbins. Contact: Kate Kelly, [email protected]. ¶ Chronicles TV’s history from inception to multichannel universe. [Current article, 2007]

The Mental Health/Social Justice Project (w.t.)

Producing organizations: Lodge Kerrigan and WETA. Distributor: PBS. Episodes: 1 x 120. Status: fundraising. Executive producers for WETA: Dalton Delan, Karen Kenton. Executive producers: Ken Burns, Steven Soderbergh. Producer/director: Lodge Kerrigan. Contact: Kate Kelly, [email protected]. ¶ Intimate, character-driven film reveals daily lives — and frequent criminalization — of people with serious and persistent mental illness. Outreach, in partnership with National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI), features model programs and services helping people work toward independent living.

Robert E. Lee

Producing organizations: A HiddenHill Productions film for WGBH/American Experience. Distributor: PBS. Episodes: 1 x 120 (HD). Status: R&D. Major funders: Liberty Mutual, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, PBS, CPB. Executive producer: Mark Samels. Series producer: Sharon Grimberg. Producer: Mark Zwonitzer. Contact: Meredith Nierman, [email protected]. ¶ Examines the life of the preeminent Civil War general, whose successes made him the scourge of the Union and the hero of the Confederacy.

Understanding Suicide (w.t.)

Producing organizations: A production of Diane Conn Co. LLC, Anthony Potter Productions, WETA and Kartemquin Films. Distributor: PBS. Episodes: 1 x 120 (HD). Status: fundraising. Executive producers: Diane Conn, Anthony Potter, Karen Kenton, Dalton Delan. Producer/director: Maria Finitzo. Senior producer: Gordon Quinn. Contact: Kate Kelly, [email protected]. ¶ Presents intimate human stories of people touched by suicide, one of the nation’s leading public health crises. Outreach includes screening events in partnership with American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and Suicide Prevention Resource Center.

Fall11

American Ballet Theatre (w.t.)

Producing organizations: A production of Steeplechase Films and WETA. Distributor: PBS. Episodes: 1 x 120 (HD). Status: R&D. Director: Ric Burns. Contact: Kate Kelly, [email protected]. ¶ Profiles the American Ballet Theatre, exploring the the art form’s extraordinary power and how ABT evolved its uniquely American aesthetic.

Divided Republic (w.t.)

Producing organizations: Invision Productions and WETA. Distributor: PBS. Episodes: 1 x 120 (HD). Status: scripting. Major funder: NEH. Executive producers for WETA: Jeff Bieber, Dalton Delan. Producer: William Cran. Contact: Kate Kelly, [email protected]. ¶ Charts the history of America’s conservative movement.

Final Countdown (w.t.)

Producing organizations: Myth Merchant Films and WETA. Distributor: PBS. Episodes: 4 x 60 (HD). Status: fundraising, preproduction. Executive producers for WETA: Dalton Delan, Karen Kenton. Director: Michael Jorgensen. Producers: Michael Jorgensen, Carrie Gour. Contact: Kate Kelly, [email protected]. ¶ Behind-the-scenes, character-driven portrait of the final NASA Space Shuttle mission. Unprecedented access follows scientists, engineers and astronauts from launch preparation through mission accomplished. With NASA, the producers will coordinate extensive education outreach and public engagement activities.

The Italian Americans (w.t.)

Producing organizations: WETA and Ark Media. Distributor: PBS. Episodes: 2 x 120 (HD). Status: fundraising. Budget: $3 million. Executive producers for WETA: Jeff Bieber, Dalton Delan. Series producers: Barak Goodman, Rachel Dretzin. Producer/director: John Maggio. Co-writer/historian: Gay Talese. Contact: Kate Kelly, [email protected]. ¶ Author Gay Talese chronicles history of the Italian Americans, with companion book by Talese.

The Latino Americans/Los Latinos Americanos (w.t.)

Producing organizations: WETA and Latino Public Broadcasting (LPB). Distributor: PBS. Episodes: 4 x 120 (HD). Status: fundraising. Major funders: CPB, Annenberg Foundation. Series executive producers for WETA: Jeff Bieber, Dalton Delan. Series executive producer for LPB: Patricia Boero. Series producer: Adriana Bosch. Contact: Kate Kelly, [email protected]. ¶ Chronicles the experience of Latinos in the United States over last 200 years—a story of people, politics and culture with American history as the backdrop for the drama of individual lives. Outreach includes digital media project, companion series on NPR and partnerships with StoryCorps, Hispanic Communications Network (HCN) and V-me, and possibly a companion book.

The Music of America (w.t.)

Producing organizations: Nut Hill Productions Inc., WETA and Eaton Creative Inc. Distributor: PBS. Episodes: 6 x 60 (HD). Status: fundraising, scripting. Executive producers for WETA: Dalton Delan, Karen Kenton. Executive producers: Deborah Robins, Deborah Rankin, Peter Ashcroft. Series producer: Leo Eaton. Director: Mark Leviton. Contact: Kate Kelly, [email protected]. ¶ Explores 400 years of American history through its music. [Current article, 2007]

Prohibition (w.t.)

Producing organization: Florentine Films and WETA. Distributor: PBS. Episodes: 2 x 120 (HD). Status: production. Major funders: Bank of America, General Motors, PBS, CPB, Arthur Vining Davis Foundations, Park Foundation. Producers/directors: Ken Burns, Lynn Novick. Executive-in-charge for WETA: Dalton Delan. Project director: David S. Thompson. Contact: Kate Kelly, [email protected]. ¶ The producers of The War examine the Prohibition years—perhaps America’s most extensive social experiment.

The War of 1812 (w.t.)

Producing organizations: WNED-TV (Buffalo), WETA, Florentine Films/Hott Productions. Presenting stations: WNED-TV and WETA-TV. Distributor: PBS. Episodes: 1 x 120 (HD). Status: preproduction. Budget: $2.1 million. Major funders: NEH, Wilson Foundation, Warren Goldring, Phil Lind, CPB, Arthur Vining Davis Foundations, Annenberg Foundation. Executive producer: John Grant. Producer: Lawrence Hott. Writer: Ken Chowder. Contact: John Grant, [email protected], 814-234-5210. ¶ Examines a deeply significant event in the nation’s history that is largely forgotten today, even as we approach its 200th anniversary.

Sometime in ’11

The American Revolution

Producing organizations: LCMedia Inc. and The Fund for Independent Media. Distributor: PBS. Episodes: 1 x 83 (HD). Status: fundraising. Budget: $650,000. Producer: Bill Lichtenstein. Contact: Bill Lichtenstein, [email protected]. ¶ Chronicles WBCN-FM in Boston, one of the original “progressive rock” radio stations, between 1968 and 1974, and examines its role in covering and promoting the period’s profound cultural, social, musical and political changes. Web: www.LCMedia.typepad.com/ theamericanrevolution.

The Great Lakes (w.t.)

Producing organizations: WNED-TV (Buffalo), Driftwood Productions and 90th Parallel Productions. Distributor: PBS. Episodes: 5 x 60 (HD). Status: R&D, fundraising. Executive producer for WNED: John Grant. Executive producer for 90th Parallel: Gordon Henderson. Contact: John Grant, [email protected], 814-234-5210. ¶ Explores the unique freshwater chain of lakes, surrounded by more than 40 million people. Examines the impact of this vast region on America’s development, character, nature and future.

Panama Canal

Producing organization: An Insignia Films production for WGBH/American Experience. Distributor: PBS. Episodes: 1 x 120 (HD). Status: R&D. Major funders: Liberty Mutual, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, PBS, CPB. Executive producer: Mark Samels. Producer: Stephen Ives. Contact: Meredith Nierman, [email protected]. ¶ The epic story of one of the great engineering triumphs of all time—and one of the most costly in money spent and lives lost.

Steinbeck’s Truth

Producing organizations: NET Television (Nebraska) and American Masters for WNET.org. Distributor: PBS. Episodes: 1 x 90 (HD). Status: R&D, fundraising. Budget: $900,000. Major funders: NET Foundation for Television. Executive producer: Susan Lacy. Producer/director: Joel Geyer. Writer: Christine Lesiak. Contact: David Feingold, [email protected], 402-472-3611. ¶ Bio of author John Steinbeck explores the Great Depression with re-enactments and clips of films adapted from The Grapes of Wrath and his other novels.

Fall12

Central Park 5 (w.t.)

A co-production of Florentine Films and WETA. Distributor: PBS. Episodes: 2 x 90 (HD). Status: preproduction. Major funders: Atlantic Philanthropies, CPB, PBS. Executive-in-charge for WETA: Dalton Delan. Project director: David S. Thompson. Director: Ken Burns. Producers: Ken Burns, Sarah Burns, David McMahon. Contact: Kate Kelly, [email protected]. ¶ America’s complicated perceptions of race and crime, told through the story of the Central Park 5— a group of minority teenagers accused of brutally raping a white women in New York.

Air date to be determined

African American Lives 3: Reclaiming Our Past

A co-production of Kunhardt Productions, Inkwell Films and Thirteen in association with WNET.org. Episodes: 4 x 60 (HD). Status: development. Project executive: Bill Grant. Host: Henry Louis Gates. Contact: Melissa Turoff, [email protected], 212-560-8264. ¶ Final installment of Henry Louis Gates’s African American Lives series uses up-to-date DNA testing methods and genealogical tools to examine the ancestry of an intriguing selection of African Americans, including Beyoncé Knowles, Tiger Woods, Condoleezza Rice, India Arie, Samuel Jackson, P. Diddy, Venus and Serena Williams, Dave Chappelle and Spike Lee.

The Beatles, the Comrades and Me: How the Fab 4 Killed Communism

Presenting organization: WNET.org. Status: development. Producer: Leslie Woodhead. Contact: Melissa Turoff, [email protected], 212-560-8264. ✤Personal film shot in Russia by U.K. documentarian Leslie Woodhead tells how the Beatles helped chip away at the foundations of Soviet society through their revolutionary music and the attempts to repress it. Music track by Beatles tribute bands across Russia, and Paul McCartney is being asked to narrate.

Blacks in Latin America

A co-production of Wall to Wall Television, Inkwell Films and Thirteen in association with WNET.org. Distributor: PBS. Episodes: 4 x 60 (HD). Status: development. Major funders: CPB/PBS Program Challenge Fund, CPB, Ford Foundation, Alfonze Fletcher, Dick Gilder. Project executive: Bill Grant. Host: Henry Louis Gates. Contact: Melissa Turoff, [email protected], 212-560-8264. ¶ Third part of Henry Louis Gates’ planned trilogy about the connection between Africa and the New World explores how Africa and Europe jointly created the vibrant cultures of Latin America.

Cities of History (w.t.)

Producing organization: Oregon Public Broadcasting. Episodes: 4 x 60. Status: R&D. Budget: $1.8 million. Executive producer for OPB: David Davis. Contact: David Davis, [email protected], 503-293-1959. ¶ Visits some of the world’s great cities, with stops at historical sites and locations of significance in literature, film and art.

The Faces of America

A co-production of Kunhardt Productions, Inkwell Films and Thirteen in association with WNET.org. Episodes: 4 x 60 (HD). Status: development. Project Executive: Bill Grant. Host: Henry Louis Gates. Contact: Melissa Turoff, [email protected], 212-560-8264. ¶ Henry Louis Gates explores American identity beyond the black community by looking at a wide range of other American ethnicities—Jewish, Hispanic, Asian, Italian, Irish and more. Subjects include Maya Lin, Robert De Niro, Salma Hayek, Beyoncé Knowles, Maureen Dowd, Elouise Cobell, Yo Yo Ma, Jon Stewart, Sidney Poitier, Sherman Alexie, Arnold Schwarzenegger, John Travolta.

Ground War

A co-production of Granada International and Thirteen in association with National Geographic Channels International and WNET.org. Distributor: PBS. Episodes: 4 x 60 (HD). Status: production. Major funders: Sloan Foundation, PBS. Executive producer: Jared Lipworth. Contact: Melissa Turoff, [email protected], 212-560-8264. ¶ Tells stories behind key military technology advances and strategic breakthroughs that have driven — and been driven by — thousands of years of ground warfare.

Henry David Thoreau: A Biography (w.t.)

Producing organization: Oregon Public Broadcasting. Episodes: 1 x 60 (HD). Status: R&D. Budget: $500,000. Executive producer for OPB: David Davis. Director: Margaret Koval. Producer: Pat Aste. Writer: Joan Meyerson. Contact: David Davis, [email protected], 503-293-1959. ¶ Biography of Henry David Thoreau.

History of the African-American People

A co-production of Kunhardt Productions, Inkwell Films and Thirteen in association with WNET.org. Episodes: 8 x 60 (HD). Status: development. Project executive: Bill Grant. Host: Henry Louis Gates. Contact: Melissa Turoff, [email protected], 212-560-8264. ¶ Groundbreaking combination of television, scholarship and interactive media discusses an internal complexity — tension and diversity — that has been fundamental to African American life for more than three centuries, exploding myths and inspiring generations.

The Human Spark

Producing organization: Chedd-Angier Productions for Thirteen in association with WNET.org. Distributor: PBS. Episodes: 3 x60 (HD). Status: production. Major funders: Sloan Production, National Science Foundaton, John Templeton Foundation. Executive producer: Jared Lipworth. Host: Alan Alda. Contact: Melissa Turoff, turoffm@ thirteen.org, 212-560-8264. ¶ Explores the question, “What does it mean to be human?,” by delving into diverse fields, including evolution, genetics, cognitive neuroscience, anthropology, artificial intelligence, philosophy and religion.

Shakespeare’s Wings

Producing organization: Oregon Public Broadcasting. Episodes: 1 x 60 (HD). Status: fundraising. Budget: $300,000. Executive producer for OPB: David Davis. Producer: Bruce Barro. Contact: David Davis, [email protected], 503-293-1959. ¶ Behind-the-scenes observational documentary at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland, Ore., the nation’s largest and most successful repertory theater.

Thin Ice: An Exploration of the Bering Sea at the Dawn of Global Warming

Producing organizations: A Hott Production of Florentine Films/Hott Productions Produced in association with the Clark Science Center at Smith College. Presenting station: KTOO (Juneau). Episodes: 1 x 120 (HD). Status: production, fundraising. Budget: $1.2 million. Major funders: Webster Trust, North Pacific Research Board. Producers: Lawrence Hott, Tom Litwin. Editor: Diane Garey. Writer: Ken Chowder. Contact: Lawrence Hott, 413-268-8300. ¶ Examines impact of climate change, contamination and commercialization on the ecosystem and peoples of the Bering Sea, one of the most pristine and productive areas of the world. Producers circumnavigate sea to film portraits of communities on both the Siberian and Alaskan sides.