Nonprofit organization Black Public Media recently held their three-day pitch event where they awarded $75,000 in funding to two new immersive projects by Black creators.
Held virtually from April 26 to April 28, the second day of the event, known as “PitchBlack,” gave five creators the opportunity to pitch their immersive projects for funding. The jury eventually awarded $50,000 to creator Tamara Shogaolu for her project “FORTY Acres” and $25,000 to creator Leonardo Souza for his work “Rabiola Open Skies.”
Conceptualized as a multiplatform experience, Shogaolu’s “FORTY Acres” focuses on the lives of Black American farmers, herbalists and land stewards and their history with the land.
The project, which consists of a documentary television series and an augmented reality sculpture made out of electronic textiles in tribute to the farmers, will also focus on laws and policies related to land ownership as well as how the farmers are coping with climate change.
“For some Black people in the U.S., the land, particularly in the American South, has gone from being a space of forced manual labor on another man’s property to an opportunity for freedom through land ownership for young Black, LGBTQIA+ people,” said a statement on the Black Public Media website. “FORTY ACRES is the root of these stories, with each branch focusing on a deeper understanding of what land means to us.”
Shogaolu has been named as one of the rising talents in immersive media by news outlets like the Guardian and Vogue Magazine. With her film and XR studio, Ado Ato Pictures, she has created projects across different mediums such as film and augmented reality to help viewers think about their responsibilities and their roles in the stories she presents to them.
Amongst her work is an immersive experience about the race-related murders in the U.S. Known as “Un(re)solved,” the project has viewers learn about stories using the Emmett Till Act and through virtual interactions with the program where the project has viewers say the names of the people that were lost.
Chosen alongside “FORTY Acres,” Souza’s “Rabiola Open Skies” is a virtual reality experience that encourages people to go outside. Through their phones, users are able to fly virtual kites in Rio as they interact with a story about Paulo, the man who owns the kite shop, and his love of kites, going back all the way to his childhood.
Souza, who is from Brazil himself, created the VR application as an offshoot from another VR application that he’s currently making, “Rabiola Tales.” His previous work has been featured at the Tribeca Film Festival when his 360 VR documentary, “Children Do Not Play War,” debuted there in 2019. Souza was also nominated for Best Documentary at the Human Rights Film Festival in Brazil for his work on “Um Grito Parado No Ar (Unfinished Shout).”
Along with the immersive experiences, PitchFest awarded Marlene McCurtis and Joy Silverman $150,000 for their documentary Wednesdays in Mississippi, a film about an activist group of Black and white women from the North and South that worked towards racial justice during the 1960s.
Orlando Bagwell, a filmmaker who focuses on Black history and modern-day race relations in his documentaries, was also honored.
