MPT recognizes the importance of local and independent filmmakers and their unique ability to capture truths about the world with artistic integrity, intelligence, and balance. MPT supports these artists and gives viewers access to their voices and viewpoints. These producers' programs provide viewers with a better understanding of the world, an open door to the arts, and actionable information to improve their daily lives.

Welcome, producers! Please scroll to the bottom of this page for special information about submitting your work or program ideas to MPT.

Blackboards & Barriers: Cecil County Colored Schools

Monday, August 25th @ 9:00 PM (premiere); Tuesday, August 26th @ 1:00 & 4:00 AM

A look at the untold story of education during segregation in Cecil County, Maryland. Through personal testimonies, archival footage, and historical context, the film chronicles the experiences of Black students who attended the county’s segregated “Colored Schools” from the post-Civil War era through the Civil Rights Movement. The film also examines the legacy of desegregation and the slow process of school integration, which continued long after legal mandates. It sheds light on the physical preservation of these historic school buildings and the importance of remembering this chapter of American history.

Pictures from a Hiroshima Schoolyard

Tuesday, August 5th @ 10:00 PM on MPT2/Create

A collection of surprisingly joyful drawings created by school children living among the ruins of Hiroshima in 1947 becomes the heart and soul of this true, inspiring story about an exchange of gifts between Americans and Japanese after a devastating war. This powerful documentary about reconciliation and the power of gift, introduces the children artists (now in their late 70s) who reflect on their early lives amidst the rubble of their destroyed city and the hope they shared through their art. In 2010, the newly restored drawings, buried for decades deep inside All Souls Church in Washington DC, were taken back to Japan where they were reunited with the artists and exhibited in the very building where they were created.

The Five Demands

Monday, August 18th @ 9:00 PM; Tuesday, August 19th @ 1:30 AM

In April 1969, a small group of Black and Puerto Rican students shut down the City College of New York, an elite public university located in the heart of Harlem.  The CCNY strikers were the vanguard of a national Black student movement that transformed the culture, mission, and curriculum of American higher education.  For many, it was the first time they ever stepped foot on the neo-Gothic campus on a hill overlooking their neighborhood. Told through the participants' point of view, the film follows the students' struggle against the institutional racism that, for over a century, had shut out people of color from this institution and other public universities.

Deconstructing the Beatles (local MPT version)

Airdate(s):  Series Marathon: 

Ep. 1 - The Beatles Come to America -  Saturday, July 12th @ 10:00 PM ; Sunday, July 13th @ 2:00 AM
Ep. 2 - Deconstructing Rubber Soul -  Saturday, July 12th @ 10:30 PM ; Sunday, July 13th @ 2:30 AM Ep. 3 - A Trip Through Strawberry Fields -  Saturday, July 19th @ 10:00 PM ; Sunday, July 13th @ 2:00 AM
Ep. 4 - A Stroll Down Penny Lane -  Saturday, July 19th @ 10:30 PM ; Sunday, July 13th @ 2:30 AM 
Ep. 5 - Deconstructing A Day in the Life-  Saturday, July 26th @ 10:00 PM ; Sunday, July 13th @ 2:00 AM
Ep. 6 - The Beatles Go East -  Saturday, July 26th @ 10:30 PM ; Sunday, July 13th @ 2:30 AM 

Even more than 50 years since the band broke up, The Beatles' influence endures, thanks to songs and records that continue to captivate audiences of all ages. As with all classic works of art, these masterpieces keep revealing new and surprising elements the closer we look. Producer/composer/entrepreneur/educator Scott Freiman dives deeply into the creative process behind these timeless records, taking us on an educational, entertaining journey through the development of the Beatles' classic songs and records, and of the band itself. 

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Food, Fiber & the Female Farmer

Saturday, July 26th @ 7:00 PM

Going back to the horse-and-buggy days, to becoming the leading industry in the state, agriculture has always been prominent in the Old Line State. "Food, Fiber, & the Female Farmer" is a documentary capturing the work of a group of six extraordinary women from Maryland, preserving and sustaining food sources and applying best agricultural practices.

Barnstorming

Sunday, July 27th at 5:00 PM

In the 1920s and 1930s, gypsy "barnstorming" pilots would set down their single-engine planes in a field and invite farmers, townspeople and children to experience flight for the first time. In 1999, modern-day barnstormers Andrew King and Frank Pavliga revived this tradition when they landed their antique airplanes on an eastern Indiana alfalfa field and treated the farmer's two sons to their first flights. The pilots returned year after year, each time bringing with them other pilots with their own vintage airplanes. Soon, it evolved into an annual event for the entire community, with neighbors dropping by the farm to see aerial maneuvers and to enjoy a picnic, dancing, late-night stories and camping. 

The Last Independent Automaker

Series Marathon - Sunday, July 6th from 3:00 - 6:00 PM (Eps. 101- 106) / Episodes also air weekly on Wednesday nights at 7:00 PM throughout the month

At half the size of its Big Three competitors, American Motors Corporation had to innovate throughout its 30-year history to survive. AMC factories provided new opportunities and a pathway to the middle class for thousands of minorities, women and immigrants. However, the perfect storm of economics, mismanagement, and betrayal would eventually bring everything crashing down.

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