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Editor Lillian E. Benson to receive the 2025 BPM Trailblazer Award.
Black Public Media is moving its annual PitchBLACK Forum & Awards event to Harlem this spring. The two-day affair will take place April 30-May 1, at The Apollo Stages at the Victoria in uptown Manhattan. Film teams participating in the pitch competition will vie for up to $150,000 in project and distribution support. Immersive teams will compete for up to $75,000.
“After many years of hosting PitchBLACK downtown, we are thrilled to be able to bring PitchBLACK to Harlem,” says Leslie Fields-Cruz, BPM executive director. “Black Public Media is based in Harlem, so bringing our signature event to what is internationally recognized as a global hub of African American arts and culture feels like the right thing to do.”
The BPM Trailblazer Award is presented each year during the PitchBLACK Awards. This year’s BPM Trailblazer is acclaimed film editor Lillian E. Benson, ACE. As part of its celebration of her work, BPM plans to host a two-week, online retrospective of her films, which will run Mon., April 28- Mon., May 12. BPM will announce the included titles in March. All films will be available for the public to stream for free, but registration is required.
PitchBLACK Forum kicks off the morning of April 30, with the film competition. Five teams will pitch their projects in the morning and six teams will pitch their immersive projects in the afternoon. The teams will pitch to a jury of experts in the fields of production, programming, distribution, and exhibition.
The PitchBLACK Awards will commence at 7 p.m., the next evening, May 1. Benson is the seventh filmmaker to receive the award. Previous recipients include: Michèle Stephenson and Joe Brewster (2019), Marco Williams (2021), Orlando Bagwell (2022), Yoruba Richen (2023), and Sam Pollard (2024). During the awards ceremony, Benson will engage in an artist chat with National Public Radio’s Brittany Luse. BPM will also announce the recipient of this year’s Nonso Christian Ugbode Fellowship, which recognizes exceptional immersive media makers under age 30. The ceremony will close with announcements of the PitchBLACK Forum winners.
Benson is a film and television editor of narrative films and documentaries. In 1991, the native New Yorker was nominated for an Emmy for her work on the acclaimed PBS civil rights series Eyes On the Prize II. She has contributed to films that have garnered five Emmy nominations, four Peabody Awards, and numerous other honors.
Her vibrant career has been heavily entrenched in the documentary space, including her recent films: Maya Angelou: And Still I Rise, Get in the Way: The Journey of John Lewis, and Beyond the Steps: Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. Benson also has directed two educational documentaries: All Our Sons: Fallen Heroes of 9/11 and Amen: The Life and Music of Jester Hairston. Currently, she is editing the independent feature Flash Before the Bang, a coming-of-age story of a deaf athlete.
Benson’s TV credits include serving eight years as an editor of NBC’s episodic television series Chicago Med and previously working on the first seasons of the OWN series Greenleaf and on the Showtime series, Soul Food. She collaborated with director-choreographer Debbie Allen on several of her film projects including the highly rated Lifetime MOW, Life Is Not a Fairytale: the Fantasia Barrino Story.
In 1991, Benson became the first woman of color to gain membership in the American Cinema Editors honorary society. Today, she serves on their board of directors. She also is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the Television Academy.
“This year is especially meaningful as we honor the remarkable Lillian Benson, whose career has helped pave the way for so many and whose commitment to mentoring is shaping a new generation of artists,” says Leslie Fields-Cruz, BPM executive director. “We look forward to once again convening the documentary and immersive media communities and their supporters for this auspicious occasion. As always, it’s going to be a spectacular couple of days.”
Registration for the PitchBLACK Awards and the Benson Trailblazer Retrospective will open in March. The PitchBLACK Forum is an invitational event. If you are part of the film or immersive media tech industry; or are a funder, investor, distributor, museum or gallery exhibitor, impact producer, or curator who would like to be invited, please complete and submit this Industry Credentials Form.
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This article was written and sponsored by Black Public Media. Learn more at: blackpublicmedia.org.