Spark Documentary

[Kerby Kolpack]

Establishedin 1989 by director and producer Andrea Kalin, the company specializes in creating socially conscious media used to raise public awareness in America and throughout the world.[1][2] The company has produced over a dozen films, including the documentary short Public Defender and twelve[3] [4] feature-length documentaries: Scattering CJ,[5] First Lady of the Revolution (Reel South on PBS),[6] Red Lines (Free Speech TV),[7] No Evidence of Disease (American Public Television, WorldChannel, V-me),[8] Soul of a People: Writing America's Story (Smithsonian Channel),[9] Worlds of Sounds: Ballard of Folkways (Smithsonian Channel),[10] Talking Through Walls (PBS),[11] Prince Among Slaves (PBS),[12] Allah Made Me Funny (theatrical release),[13] The Pact (American Public Television), and Partners of the Heart (PBS American Experience).[14]

In early 2019, Spark Media completed production on Scattering CJ, the story of CJ Twomey, a seemingly happy Air Force recruit who violently ended his own life at age 20, whose passing plunged his family into unrelenting grief and guilt. Years later, in a moment of desperate inspiration, his mother put out an open call on Facebook, looking only for a handful of world travelers who might help fulfill her son's wish to see the world by scattering some of his ashes in a place of beauty or special meaning to them - a call that 21,000 would answer.[28] Scattering CJ had its world premiere at the Camden International Film Festival in September 2019.[29][30][31] On November 21, 2020, the filmmakers hosted a live virtual conversation about the film and suicide prevention to commemorate International Survivors of Suicide Loss Day.[32] Scattering CJ premiered on public television in September 2022, including a national broadcast on PBS WORLD Channel on September 16, 2023.[33]

Spark Media is also producing an adaptation of Rita Dove's Sonata Mulattica, about George Bridgetower, a black musician and friend of Ludwig van Beethoven. The film, also entitled 'Sonata Mulattica,' will detail Bridgetower's life and relationship with Beethoven, and contrast that story to a contemporary young black musician, Joshua Coyne.[34][35]

Spark Media is also in post-production on Klandestine Man, about Stetson Kennedy, the folklorist and social justice activist who famously infiltrated the Ku Klux Klan in the 1950s with the goal of dismantling the violent white supremacist group from the inside out.[36]

With funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities Office of Digital Humanities, Spark Media began production on Project Maestro (now known as humanities.games) in 2019, an open-source platform that "empowers educators and students with limited computer access to make digital humanities games."[37][38] The platform was first created for Spark Media's game The Search For Harmony, a web game about the rich, forgotten historical legacy of classical musicians of African descent.[39]

In December 2020, Spark Media in collaboration with UXR Tech completed production on El 48,[40] a virtual reality experience based on the abolition of the Costa Rican army. The exhibit was opened on December 1, 2020,[41] the anniversary of the abolition of the military, is currently housed at Museo Nacional de Costa Rica and is the first of its kind at the museum. [42]

In 2024, Spark Media released a podcast series called The People's Recorder which explores stories first unearthed by Works Progress Administration writers and artists in the 1930s. Spark Media is producing the podcast with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities,[43] Florida Humanities Council,[44][45] Virginia Humanities,[46] Wisconsin Humanities,[47] California Humanities,[48] and Humanities Nebraska.[49] A second season of the podcast is currently in production, supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities.[50]

POV's first three interactive productions which will feature a wide range of storytelling utilizing cutting-edge technologies. These projects include Changing Same, created by Michle Stephenson, Joe Brewster, and Yasmin Elayat; Queen vs. Godfred, created by Marc Serpa Francoeur, Robinder Uppal; and Atomu, created by Shariffa Ali, Yetunde Dada. (More information on the POV Spark productions below; content will be distributed on multiple platforms):

Changing Same: An American Pilgrimage is an immersive, room-scale virtual reality experience where the participant travels through time and space to witness the connected historical experiences of racial injustice in the United States. A haunting story infused with magical realism and afrofuturism, Changing Same: An American Pilgrimage examines the uninterrupted cycle of the history of racial oppression, past and present. A co-production of Rada Film Group and Scatter.

The Queen Versus Godfred is an interactive visual podcast taking a deep dive into incidents that occurred one night in 2013, when 26-year-old West African immigrant Godfred Addai-Nyamekye was the victim of horrific police brutality in Calgary, Canada. Using dynamic visuals, audio storytelling, and exclusive investigative materials, The Queen Versus Godfred will be available online in mobile, tablet, and desktop formats. A co-production with Lost Time Media, Big Cedar Films, and the National Film Board of Canada.

Atomu places the viewer at the cyclical center of a Kikuyu tribal myth. Circle the Mugumo tree seven times and transform from masculine to feminine or feminine to masculine; and live in your new identity forever. This is the ritual of the Kikuyu ancestors that no contemporary person has experienced until now, in virtual reality. Atlas V is a co-executive producer of Atomu.

POV Spark's second field-building initiative includes the reboot of its incubator program, POV Spark Labs, which will serve as a dynamic learning module for skill-building and cross-disciplinary collaboration. Designers and technologists are paired with mentors and guided through the development cycle of their interactive production, which is later considered for distribution via POV Spark.

Building on POV's generations-long commitment to independent artists, POV Spark launches Public Update this spring as part of public media's first interactive project dedicated to expanding documentary forms through interactive, nonfiction art, published quarterly on the AmDoc and POV websites, as well as an accompanying physical zine. Working with artists from around the world, Public Update is the premiere showcase for independent voices exploring the boundaries of nonfiction storytelling.

POV Spark is guided by an advisory board of eight members, each providing valuable insight to support the objectives of this program. The advisory board includes: Karim Ben Khelifa, Author/Director of The Enemy; Heidi Boisvert, CEO & Creative Director at futurePerfect lab; Nicole Eley-Carr, Digital Strategy & Marketing Lead at Ford Foundation; Melissa Malzkuhn, Founder & Creative Director, Motion Light Lab, Gallaudet University; Errol King, Creative Technologist, experienced designer, investor and social entrepreneur; Maria Popova, writer and founder of Brain Pickings; Saschka Unseld, Co-Founder & COO of Tomorrow Never Knows; and Rachel Yehuda, PhD, Professor of Psychiatry and Neuroscience, Director of Mount Sinai School of Medicine, Traumatic Stress Studies Division.

The Spark Fund offered support to established independent documentary filmmakers who self-identify as Black, Indigenous, and/or people of color, and whose work on humanities-themed projects was disrupted by the COVID-19 public health emergency.

The Spark Fund provided 36 stipends of $50,000 to selected filmmakers over the period of one year, for their use in alleviating financial hardship and work disruptions endured from the COVID-19 pandemic. Guidelines are archived below.

The American Rescue Plan: Humanities Grantmaking program is an emergency relief program intended to fund grantmaking programs that assist organizations and individuals working in the humanities who have been adversely affected by the coronavirus pandemic and require support to restore and sustain their core activities. The National Endowment for the Humanities has funded 13 grantmaking programs: six grantmaking programs for individuals and seven grantmaking programs for organizations. Collectively, these awards will support approximately 145 individuals and as many as 625 organizations. Learn more: neh.gov/sharp/grantmaking

It is with careful parsing that I praise this film, having authored Deadly Departure, a book that deals with the air safety issues related to this same air accident. I am concerned about the filmmakers decision to interview subjects of questionable expertise and their heavy reliance on eyewitnesses.

My most serious problem, though is the false premise that dominates the first section of the documentary and that is that the FBI was up-to-no-good from the get-go, as demonstrated by the fact that they arrived en masse, seizing control of everything and hoarding information.

Former NTSB investigator Hank Hughes plays a large role in the film joining others whose opinions I hold in regard. On Wednesday Hughes filed a petition for reconsideration of the crash report and it is under review, a spokeswoman said.

First of all I would like to commend your objectivity in your post since you have no small amont of "skin in the game". There are notmany journalists around anymore that are interested in the facts over theri own perspective.

Your book, representing many hours of research, gives a very well documented description of the crash and resulting investigation. You have the "high ground" here when it comes to this very interesting accident. I don't find it surprising that someone would take another look at this watershed tragedy.

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