2017 AFI DOCS CPB Public Media Forum

Film

Jun 24

AFI DOCS CPB Forum panel – Truth in Storytelling: Docs and the Media in a Post-Truth World. Photo: Thomas G. Kochel for AFI DOCS

AFI DOCS Festival forums were the hot tickets of the week.

The CPB-sponsored public media forum sessions took place Friday, June 16 at the festival’s downtown DC Hub. [Michon Boston Group Ltd was the producer for the forum.] The sessions featured public broadcasters, independent filmmakers, series producers, and community leaders in conversation about public media’s role in fostering a civil society. 2017 marks the 50th anniversary of the enactment of the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967.

You can watch the public media forum sessions on YouTube (or below). Additional forums and festival events are posted on the American Film Institute’s YouTube channel.

Truth in Storytelling: Docs and the Media in a Post-Truth World
Speakers: Andi McDaniel (moderator), WAMU; John Yang, PBS NewsHour; Raney Aronson-Rath, Frontline; Phil Bertelsen, Realization Pictures; Whitney Dow, Veterans Coming Home, POV “Whiteness Project”

Documentary Film in Service of a Civil Society
Speakers: Caty Borum Chattoo (moderator), Center for Media and Social Impact; Emmalee Hackshaw, Georgia Public Broadcasting; Naomi Starobin, WHYY Radio; Jefferi K. Lee, WHUT

Documentary Case Study: GENTLEMEN OF VISION + Nine Network of Public Media
Speakers: Eliza Licht (moderator), POV; Frank Popper (Co-Director), GOV; Amy Shaw, Nine Network of Public Media; Marlon Wharton (founder, subject), Gentlemen of Vision Rights of Passage Enterprises, Inc.; Chris Randall (coach), GOV Rights of Passage Enterprises, Inc.; Chris Hastings, WorldChannel.org

The festival screening of Nine Network‘s GENTLEMEN OF VISION followed the case study panel — a speed walk to the E Street Landmark Theater. Part of CPB’s American Graduate initiative, GOV profiles the struggles and triumphs shard by a competitive high school step team and their determined coach (Marlon Wharton) as they prepare for a key competition. We were fortunate to snap a photo before the screening: (Lto R) Co-director Jim Kirchherr, Jamie Powell (AFI Director of Foundation and Government Relations), GOV executive producer Amy Shaw (Nine Network), GOV founder Marlon Wharton, Reginald A. Melvern who coaches the rival Dem’ Raider Boyz Step Squad team in the “Gentlemen of Vision” film, Chris Randall (GOV Rights of Passage Inc.), moderator C Brian Williams (Step Afrika!), GOV co-director Frank Popper, AFI DOCS Festival Director Michael Lumpkin.