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The Black List and the GM Incubator Fund Announce Emerging Filmmaker Program Offering $100,000
NNPA NEWSWIRE – Filmmakers, writers, directors and writer/director teams who have directed at least one narrative short film and have a completed, feature-length screenplay are eligible for the Writer-Driven Shorts program consideration via the Black List’s website through August 15, 2023.
The post The Black List and the GM Incubator Fund Announce Emerging Filmmaker Program Offering $100,000 first appeared on BlackPressUSA.

Writer-Driven Shorts Program to provide diverse filmmakers with $100,000
LOS ANGELES – The Black List, a company providing an annual survey of Hollywood executives’ favorite unproduced screenplays, and the GM Incubator Fund today announced the launch of the Writer-Driven Shorts Program, which will provide two emerging diverse filmmakers with a $100,000 grant toward production funds to shoot a short film based on feature scripts. The short films will then be submitted to major festivals and will aim to compete for 2024 awards consideration. GM will also provide both selected filmmakers with vehicles for use in their shorts.
Filmmakers, writers, directors and writer/director teams who have directed at least one narrative short film and have a completed, feature-length screenplay are eligible for the Writer-Driven Shorts program consideration via the Black List’s website through August 15, 2023.
“Writer-driven says it all,” said Black List founder Franklin Leonard. “We’re incredibly excited to collaborate with General Motors to provide resources for two screenwriters from underrepresented communities to direct short films based on their scripts with the long-term goal of getting their features financed with them at the helm. I could not be more excited to read the scripts that emerge from this process and see the shorts the selected writers direct based on them.”
All genres are encouraged to submit for the Writer-Driven Shorts program, ranging from romantic comedy, action adventure, grounded dramas, fantastical sci-fi and more. In alignment with GM’s sustainable, all-electric future and aspiration to be the most inclusive company in the world, films showcasing sustainability, electrification and/or diversity will be highly considered. Scripts with scenes of excessive violence, illegal drug or substance abuse, car crashes, unsafe driving and/or explicit sexual acts will not be considered.
“The GM Incubator Fund focuses on making strategic investments that provide underrepresented communities opportunities to aid in innovative content and storytelling,” said Tarshena Armstrong, GM Director of Multicultural Marketing and Development. “Working with the Black List Writer-Driven Shorts Program, we look to make a meaningful impact within local communities while fostering equitable representation.”
As part of a broader commitment to a more equitable Hollywood, the Black List and the GM Incubator Fund will also grant fee waivers for one free month of hosting and two free evaluations on blcklst.com to the first 200 writers from traditionally underrepresented communities.
The relationship was brokered by UTA Entertainment & Culture Marketing, the brand consulting division of United Talent Agency that represents General Motors.
THE BLACK LIST, an annual survey of Hollywood executives’ favorite unproduced screenplays, was founded in 2005. Since then, at least 440 Black List scripts have been produced, grossing over $30 billion in box office ticket sales worldwide. Black List movies have won 54 Academy Awards from 267 nominations, including four of the last 12 Best Picture Oscars and 11 of the last 28 Best Screenplay Oscars.
In October of 2012, the Black List launched a unique online community where screenwriters make their work available to readers, buyers and employers. Since its inception, it has hosted nearly 80,000 screenplays and teleplays and provided more than 130,000 script evaluations. As a direct result of introductions made on the Black List, dozens of writers have found representation at major talent agencies and management companies, as well as sold or optioned their screenplays. Several films have been produced from scripts showcased on the website.
Currently, the Black List hosts over 5,000 scripts by approximately 3,700 writer members. These scripts are available for download by industry professionals ranging from agency assistants to studio and network presidents, to A-list actors and directors.
More information on the Black List is available at http://www.blcklst.com. For regular updates, join our mailing list or follow the Black List on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
GENERAL MOTORS (NYSE:GM) is a global company focused on advancing an all-electric future that is inclusive and accessible to all. At the heart of this strategy is the Ultium battery platform, which powers everything from mass-market to high-performance vehicles. General Motors, its subsidiaries and its joint venture entities sell vehicles under the Chevrolet, Buick, GMC, Cadillac, Baojun and Wuling brands. More information on the company and its subsidiaries, including OnStar, a global leader in vehicle safety and security services, can be found at https://www.gm.com.
The post The Black List and the GM Incubator Fund Announce Emerging Filmmaker Program Offering $100,000 first appeared on BlackPressUSA.
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Seniors Organize for Dignity at Sojourner Truth Manor
“They’re not treating us seniors like we’re human beings; since this management company has been here, there is no communication whatsoever,” said Beverley Colston, who has lived at Sojourner Truth for eight years and serves as the chairperson of the tenant association.

By Ken Epstein
Residents of Sojourner Truth Manor in North Oakland, a housing complex for seniors founded by local civil rights and community leaders almost 50 years ago, are involved in a fight for dignity and decent living conditions with HumanGood, a nonprofit company that manages senior housing in Oakland and across the country.
Tenants interviewed by the Oakland Post said that they are kept in the dark about what the management is planning or what repairs are underway. They say management often does not respond to their complaints and concerns about needed repairs such as broken fixtures, flooding, and lack of heat or hot water in individual apartments, vermin, broken security cameras, televisions and building elevators, while the complex’s community room has been out of operation for 11 years.
More general concerns are the lack of a social service coordinator, a position that in the past offered community-building activities and provided information and support for residents. Tenants are also concerned about the failure to provide translation for tenants who are not English-speaking, including those who are Ethiopian, Eritrean, Vietnamese, Cambodian, or Arabic-speaking.

Beverly Colston, an eight-year tenant at Sojourner Truth Manor, serves as chairperson of the tenant association. Photo by Ken Epstein.
“They’re not treating us seniors like we’re human beings; since this management company has been here, there is no communication whatsoever,” said Beverley Colston, who has lived at Sojourner Truth for eight years and serves as the chairperson of the tenant association.
Underscoring the lack of transparency, 14-year-resident Nancy Delaney said, “Management is treating us like we’re livestock; they feel they don’t have to give us common courtesy, even to tell us what they’re doing.”
Sojourner Truth, located at 6015 Martin Luther King Jr. Way in Oakland, consists of three buildings with 74 studios and 13 one-bedroom apartments.
In the past few years, there has been turn-over of management companies that operate and maintain the complex. Since mid-2022, Sojourner Truth has been managed by HumanGood, the largest nonprofit provider of senior housing and services in California and among the 10 largest organizations of its kind in the nation, according to reports on the internet.
In Oakland, besides Sojourner Truth, HumanGood operates at Piedmont Gardens, Allen Temple’s senior residences, JL Richard Terrace and Irene Cooper Terrace.
Overall, the company has over 5,000 employees and serves over 14,000 residents in seven states.
Annual reports on the nonprofit senior living market sector are produced by LeadingEdge Ziegler 200. Ziegler is described on its website, as a “privately held investment bank, capital markets and proprietary investments firm and the nation’s leading underwriters of financings for not-for-profit senior living providers.”
While the lack of repairs is a serious concern for many tenants, the most pressing need at Sojourner Truth, said Colston, is to hire a full-time social services coordinator, a social worker “who would serve as an advocate for tenants with management and help with recertification for food stamps, health services and all the other forms we have to submit on a yearly basis.”
“We have too many people who speak too many different languages, and we get written notices in English,” she said. “They don’t communicate with us except by letters, and we often don’t understand them.”
The tenants need someone who can patiently and respectfully explain these notices, Colson said. In the past, the social services coordinator also organized bingo, exercise sessions, dominos, activities and celebrations of holidays and birthdays, she said.
In fairness, Colston said, the deterioration of physical conditions at Sojourner Truth did not begin with HumanGood but with the previous manager, Christian Church Homes. HumanGood is responsible for not communicating. “With these people here, there is no communication whatsoever,” she said.
By the Oakland Post’s deadline, HumanGood had not replied to email questions. Calls to the office of Sojourner Truth were not picked up.
Tenants at Sojourner Truth have been meeting with residents of Harriet Tubman Terrace apartments in Berkeley who are also pushing for improved conditions.
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WATCH LIVE! — NNPA 2023 National Leadership Awards Reception
NNPA NEWSWIRE — Welcome to the NNPA 2023 National Leadership Awards Reception
The post WATCH LIVE! — NNPA 2023 National Leadership Awards Reception first appeared on BlackPressUSA.

The post WATCH LIVE! — NNPA 2023 National Leadership Awards Reception first appeared on BlackPressUSA.
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OP-ED: Delivering Climate Resilience Funding to Communities that Need it the Most
NNPA NEWSWIRE — Just last month, FEMA announced nearly $3 billion in climate mitigation project selections nationwide to help communities build resilience through its Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) national competition and Flood Mitigation Assistance program. In total, more than 50% of these projects will benefit disadvantaged communities, and in particular, 70% of BRIC projects will do the same.
The post OP-ED: Delivering Climate Resilience Funding to Communities that Need it the Most first appeared on BlackPressUSA.

By Erik A. Hooks, FEMA Deputy Administrator
We know that disasters do not discriminate. Yet, recovery from the same event can be uneven from community to community, perpetuating pre-existing inequalities. Recognizing these disparities, FEMA and the entire Biden-Harris Administration have prioritized equity when it comes to accessing federal programs and resources.
The numbers tell the story.
Just last month, FEMA announced nearly $3 billion in climate mitigation project selections nationwide to help communities build resilience through its Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) national competition and Flood Mitigation Assistance program. In total, more than 50% of these projects will benefit disadvantaged communities, and in particular, 70% of BRIC projects will do the same.
These selections further underscore the Biden-Harris Administration’s commitment to equity and reaffirm FEMA’s mission of helping people before, during and after disasters, delivering funding to the communities that need it most.
Building on this momentum and our people-first approach, FEMA recently announced the initial designation of nearly 500 census tracts, which will be eligible for increased federal support to become more resilient to natural hazards and extreme weather worsened by the climate crisis. FEMA will use “Community Disaster Resilience Zone” designations to direct and manage financial and technical assistance for resilience projects nationwide, targeting communities most at risk due to climate change. More Community Disaster Resilience Zone designations, including tribal lands and territories, are expected to be announced in the fall of 2023.
These types of investments have, and will yield a significant return on investment for communities nationwide.
For example, in my home state of North Carolina, the historic community of Princeville, founded by freed African American slaves, uses BRIC funding to move vulnerable homes and critical utilities out of flood-prone areas.
In East Harlem, BRIC dollars will provide nature-based flood control solutions to mitigate the impacts of extreme rainfall events in the Clinton low-income housing community.
While we are encouraged by these investments, we know more must be done.
Not every community has the personnel, the time or the resources to apply for these federal dollars. Fortunately, FEMA offers free, Direct Technical Assistance to help under-resourced communities navigate the grant application process and get connected with critical resources. Under the leadership of FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell, this assistance has been a game-changer, reducing barriers and providing even more flexible, customer-focused, tailored support to communities interested in building and sustaining successful resilience programs.
In Eastwick, Philadelphia, FEMA’s dedicated support helped the city with outreach to multiple federal agencies. Together, we built a comprehensive community-led flood mitigation strategy. When applied and implemented, this will make this community more resilient to hazards like flooding, which was negatively affecting many neighborhood blocks.
In DePue, Illinois, we worked hand-in-hand with communities to improve their ability to submit high-quality funding applications for hazard mitigation projects. We are happy to share that DePue is the first Direct Technical Assistance community to be selected in the BRIC national competition. And, we know they will not be the last. Thanks to this assistance and their ambition, DePue was awarded more than $20 million to build a new wastewater treatment plant, which will reduce flooding and raw sewage back-up into the basements of homes.
In total, our agency is working with over 70 communities, including tribal nations, to increase access to funding for mitigation projects that will make communities more livable and resilient.
With extreme weather events becoming increasingly intense and frequent due to climate change, we must keep pressing forward and continue investing in ways to better protect ourselves and our neighbors. And we are encouraged that local officials are engaging with us to learn more about the benefits of the BRIC non-financial Direct Technical Assistance initiative—just last week, we saw hundreds of participants nationwide register for a recent webinar on this important topic.
We want to see even more communities take advantage of this initiative, and, ultimately, obtain grants for innovative and forward-looking resilience projects. To that end, FEMA recently published a blog with five steps to help local communities and tribal nations learn more about the benefits of this non-financial technical assistance to access federal funding. I hope your community will take action and submit a letter of interest for this exciting opportunity and increase meaningful mitigation work throughout the country.
With the pace of disasters accelerating, communities can utilize federal resources to reduce their risk and take action to save property and lives. FEMA stands ready to be a partner and collaborator with any community that is ready to implement creative mitigation strategies and help build our nation’s resilience.
The post OP-ED: Delivering Climate Resilience Funding to Communities that Need it the Most first appeared on BlackPressUSA.
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