American Documentary, Inc., producer of the award-winning PBS documentary series POV (Point of View) and an innovator in digital storytelling and engagement for public media, and The New York Times have announced a new project supported by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.
The “Embedded Mediamaker” project will allow a documentary filmmaker, creator or creative technologist rooted in documentary storytelling to work for 20 weeks at The New York Times alongside some of its most creative journalists. The mediamaker will work with The Times and POV to create new forms of documentary and interactive content with a team of Times writers, editors and visual storytellers involved in Race/Related, a newsletter and reporting project exploring race as it is lived today.
POV and The New York Times are currently seeking pitches from mediamakers for an extraordinary project about race and ethnicity – one that includes publishing early and often and takes advantage of the unique opportunities that working online provides.
Applications are due by Monday, July 25, 2016 at 5 pm ET. More information and complete application instructions are available at pov.org/jobs.
“This funding from MacArthur allows POV and The New York Times to lead the exploration of what it means to be a documentary filmmaker in an age of rapid technological change,” said Adnaan Wasey, POV Digital Executive Producer. “We’re looking now for a mediamaker – whether a traditional filmmaker, an online video creator or a developer who uses code – to merge storytelling and social platforms to create a conversation that’s entirely new.”
“We are thrilled to collaborate with POV on what will certainly be a transformative moment for digital journalism,” said Nancy Gauss, Executive Director of Video, The New York Times. “The filmmaker will work alongside The Times’s most creative journalists to experiment with innovative storytelling tools to explore and report on race, one of the biggest issues in the country right now.”
“The MacArthur Foundation is actively encouraging collaborations at the intersection of documentary storytelling techniques and digital journalism,” said Kathy Im, Director of the Journalism and Media program at the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. “POV is among the handful of documentary organizations providing artistic and technical leadership to bridge these two fields, developing innovative ways to inform and engage American audiences about contemporary social and civic issues.”
Previous digital collaborations between POV and The New York Times include the co-distribution of the documentaries “The Men of Atalissa” (pov.org/atalissa), “Strangers at Sea” (pov.org/strangersatsea) and “The Nipple Artist” (pov.org/nippleartist).
In 2013, American Documentary | POV was one of only 13 nonprofit organizations around the world to win a MacArthur Award for Creative and Effective Institutions. The award recognizes exceptional grantees that have demonstrated creativity and impact.
