 | |
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Film production |
| Founded | 1989 |
| Founder | Andrea Kalin |
| Headquarters | , |
Key people | Andrea Kalin, James Mirabello, Ethan Oser, Karen Simon, Diana Moss |
| Website | sparkmedia |
Spark Media is an American independent multimedia and documentary production house based in Washington, D.C., United States.
Established in 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]
Partners of the Heart, narrated by Morgan Freeman, aired on PBS’s American Experience in February 2003 and was rebroadcast in March 2005. Partners of the Heart went on to win the Erik Barnouw Award for Best History Documentary in 2004 [15] and was later turned into the Golden Globe-nominated [16] HBO film Something The Lord Made starring Mos Def, who also narrated Prince Among Slaves. As part of their 50th anniversary celebration, the National Endowment for the Humanities highlighted Partners of the Heart as one of 50 top grant projects that have enriched and shaped American lives. [17] [18] [19]
Spark Media's films have won numerous awards, among them Emmys, CINE Golden Eagles, Gracies, as well as a Writers Guild of America nomination. [20] [21] [22] [23] [24] [25]
In 2024, the documentary short Public Defender premiered at Mountainfilm in Telluride, Colorado, where it won the Moving Mountains Award for social justice and impact. [26] The film tells the story Heather Shaner, a public defender in Washington, D.C., who has spent 40 years representing people who can’t afford a lawyer. On Jan. 6, 2021, Shaner’s empathy hits a limit when a violent mob supporting outgoing President Donald Trump storms the Capitol to stop the peaceful transfer of power to President-elect Joe Biden. She wants nothing to do with the alleged criminals until she gets a call from The Federal Defender’s office asking her to represent some of the rioters. Forced to reconcile her fear and anger with her belief in the right to a fair trial, Shaner accepts a caseload of nonviolent offenders and is surprised when her disdain for the rioters eases. The goal of the film is to address America’s epidemic of division and misinformation, showing how to restore trust and accountability one conversation at a time. [27]
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]
The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is an independent federal agency of the U.S. government, established by the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965, dedicated to supporting research, education, preservation, and public programs in the humanities. The NEH is housed at 400 7th St SW, Washington, D.C. From 1979 to 2014, NEH was at 1100 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C., in the Nancy Hanks Center at the Old Post Office.
Appalshop is a media, arts, and education center located in Whitesburg, Kentucky, in the heart of the southern Appalachian region of the United States.
Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media (RRCHNM), formerly the Center for History and New Media (CHNM), is a research center specializing in digital history and information technology at George Mason University (GMU) in Fairfax County, Virginia. It was one of the first digital history centers in the world, established by Roy Rosenzweig in 1994 to use digital media and information technology to democratize history: to incorporate multiple voices, reach diverse audiences, and encourage popular participation in presenting and preserving the past. Its current director is Lincoln Mullen.
Nancy Kates is an independent filmmaker based in the San Francisco Bay Area. She directed Regarding Susan Sontag, a feature documentary about the late essayist, novelist, director and activist. Through archival footage, interviews, still photographs and images from popular culture, the film reflects the boldness of Sontag’s work and the cultural importance of her thought, and received funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Foundation for Jewish Culture and the Sundance Documentary Film Program.
Stanley Earl Nelson Jr. is an American documentary filmmaker and a MacArthur Fellow known as a director, writer and producer of documentaries examining African-American history and experiences. He is a recipient of the 2013 National Humanities Medal from President Obama. He has won three Primetime Emmy Awards.
Prince Among Slaves is a 2006 historical drama directed, written and produced by Andrea Kalin and narrated by Mos Def made for PBS by Unity Productions Foundation. The film, made in association with Spark Media and Duke Media, is based on the story of Abdul Rahman Ibrahima Sori, a prince from Guinea who was made a slave in the United States and freed 40 years later.
Andrea Kalin is an American independent filmmaker, writer, producer, and director. She is also the principal and founder of Spark Media and founder and executive director of Stone Soup Productions, a 501(c)(3) non-profit foundation.
The Jefferson Lecture in the Humanities is an honorary lecture series established in 1972 by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). According to the NEH, the Lecture is "the highest honor the federal government confers for distinguished intellectual achievement in the humanities."
Thomas Allen Harris is a critically acclaimed, interdisciplinary artist who explores family, identity, and spirituality in a participatory practice. Since 1990, Harris has remixed archives from multiple origins throughout his work, challenging hierarchy within historical narratives through the use of pioneering documentary and research methodologies that center vernacular image and collaboration. He is currently working on a new television show, Family Pictures USA, which takes a radical look at neighborhoods and cities of the United States through the lens of family photographs, collaborative performances, and personal testimony sourced from their communities..
The Center for Public History and Digital Humanities is a digital humanities center in Cleveland, Ohio, based in the Department of History at Cleveland State University.
The Donner Party is a 1992 documentary film that traces the history of the Donner Party, an ill-fated pioneer group that trekked from Springfield, Illinois to Sutter's Fort, California - a disastrous journey of 2500 miles made famous by the tales of cannibalism the survivors told upon reaching their destination. The film, narrated by David McCullough, premiered at the Telluride Mountainfilm Festival in May 1992 with an introductory lecture on the Donner Party by noted Western historian David Lavender. It subsequently aired on PBS as part of the American Experience program in October, 1992. It was funded in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Sonata Mulattica : A Life in Five Movements and a Short Play is a collection of poems by U.S. poet laureate Rita Dove, published in 2009, about the life of George Bridgetower. Bridgetower was a biracial musician who was friends with Beethoven. Beethoven's Kreutzer Sonata was originally dedicated to Bridgetower, and was originally entitled "Sonata mulattica composta per il mulatto Brischdauer [Bridgetower], gran pazzo e compositore mulattico"
John Kuo Wei Tchen, also known as Jack, is a historian of Chinese American history and the Inaugural Clement A. Price Chair in Public History and Humanities at Rutgers University.
The Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities is a nonprofit organization dedicated to furthering the education of residents of the state of Louisiana. In its mission, the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities pledges to provide access to and promote an appreciation of the history of Louisiana and its literary and cultural history. It was founded in 1972 as a result of initial funding by the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Beth Harrington is an Emmy-winning, Grammy-nominated filmmaker based in Vancouver, Washington, specializing in documentary features. Her documentaries often explore American history, music and culture, including the Carter Family and Johnny Cash, and the history of women in rockabilly. In addition to her film work as a producer, director and writer, Harrington is also a singer and guitarist, and was a member of Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers from 1980 to 1983.
D. (Dede) Fairchild Ruggles is a historian of Islamic art and architecture, and a professor in the University of Illinois Department of Landscape Architecture. She is known for her books on Islamic gardens and landscapes, her series of edited volumes on cultural heritage, and her award-winning work in gender history.
David A. Taylor is an American author and filmmaker on topics in history and science.
The Center for Documentary Studies (CDS) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit support corporation of Duke University dedicated to the documentary arts. Having been created in 1989 through an endowment from the Lyndhurst Foundation, The organization’s founders were Robert Coles, William Chafe, Alex Harris, and Iris Tillman Hill. In 1994, CDS moved into a renovated nineteenth-century home, named it the Lyndhurst House. That structure and a large addition house the main activities of CDS on the edge of Duke University’s campus in Durham, North Carolina. The Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, a CDS program, has its offices on the American Tobacco Campus in the American Tobacco Historic District in downtown Durham.
Gayle Wald is a professor of English and American Studies at George Washington University and a Guggenheim Fellow. From 1994-95 she was Visiting Assistant Professor of English and American Studies at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut.
Marianna Yarovskaya is a Russian-American documentary filmmaker who is the director and producer of the 2018 Academy Award short-listed documentary film Women of the Gulag based on the book Women of the Gulag: Stories of Five Remarkable Lives by Paul Roderick Gregory (2013). She also produced Greedy Lying Bastards (2012).
