The FRONTLINE/Firelight Fellowship supports diverse, independent producers interested in investigative documentary filmmaking and audio storytelling. The Fellowship is offered in partnership with FRONTLINE, PBS’s award-winning investigative documentary series.
From FRONTLINE (PBS)’s Local Journalism Initiative, the Charlotte, North Carolina, NPR station WFAE and Firelight Media, “Fractured” examines how the country’s mental health crisis is playing out within the criminal justice system in North Carolina, a state where it’s been harder to access mental health care than in most others.
Two Strikes, a film produced with The Marshall Project as part of FRONTLINE’s fellowship with Firelight Media, examines the impact of a little-known “two strikes” law. The documentary tells the story of how a former West Point cadet struggling with PTSD and addiction got life in prison in Florida after an attempted carjacking — a sentence that even the woman whose car he’d tried to take viewed as too harsh.
A co-production between FRONTLINE, Firelight Media and WORLD Channel, Death Is Our Business examines in intimate and moving detail how Black funeral homes in New Orleans have had to adapt to the devastating impact of COVID-19 in their community.
At 16, Tearah, who suffers from mental illness, remains stuck in a hospital month after month, as her mother struggles to navigate America’s mental health care system. As Shayna, a single parent of three girls, fights to get Tearah residential treatment, she faces the possibility of losing her home and even custody of her daughter.
In this special podcast episode for kids, FRONTLINE follows a day in the life of Muzamil, a 12-year-old Somali boy growing up in Kenya’s Dadaab Refugee Camp. Producer Bianca Giaever and Reporter Roopa Gogineni bring him questions from American kids about what it’s like growing up in a refugee camp. Are there dentists? A fire department? What is your dreamland? Muzamil takes us through his daily life, answering questions from American kids along the way.
