Public TV’s Premiere Producer Making a New Push to License Imagery from Its Historical Holdings, Including Rare Footage on the African American Story
PRLog - April 17, 2015 - WASHINGTON -- WNET, the flagship public television producer and broadcaster in New York City, is using the ACSIL FOOTAGE EXPO 2015 to reintroduce its vast archives to the creative community. The archives span nearly 60 years, from the pioneering days of National Educational Television (NET), the production and distribution company that funded and commissioned the great majority of national public media content prior to the establishment of PBS, to the present.
“We consider the ACSIL FOOTAGE EXPO to be our coming-out party,” remarked Joe Basile, Director of Rights and Clearances for WNET. “In the past, we handled our business reactively, waiting in some cases for prospective licensees to tell us what we had in our own collection. But we decided to become more proactive and begin showcasing the many content areas in which we are strong. The ACSIL FOOTAGE EXPO is the first venue for our new approach,” which includes a re-tooled web page (licensing.wnet.org).
The archival holdings of WNET include critically acclaimed television series such as American Masters, Nature and Great Performances, as well as exhaustive footage on Art and Artists, Dance, Music, Drama and Natural History. Of special note is the deep inventory of footage documenting American history, with an exceptional holding of content related to African American history and culture and the Civil Rights movement.
“We prioritized African American content in our recent digitization process relating to CPB’s American Archive project, and we now have what we consider to be the deepest digital offering of the African American story, much of it not seen since it was originally broadcast on public TV forty or fifty years ago,” said Basile. “For example, we sent documentary filmmakers to chronicle major events of the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s, including extensive coverage of Martin Luther King’s Poor People’s Campaign. The moments immediately after Dr. King’s assassination in Memphis on April 4, 1968 were captured by a young NET employee named Joseph Louw, including the iconic photo of a mortally wounded MLK on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel.”
Other remarkable items include: Truman Capote discussing his new book, In Cold Blood; the Doors performing songs from the new album, The Soft Parade, in color; Ansel Adams showing viewers his photographic technique at Yosemite; Margaret Mead’s groundbreaking anthropological work in New Guinea; Eleanor Roosevelt hosting a chat show on public affairs; Muhammad Ali being interviewed about black-white relations and the Vietnam War shortly after his banishment from boxing; and Chevy Chase and Carly Simon making their TV debuts in the edgy and influential variety series The Great American Dream Machine.
WNET will be represented at the ACSIL FOOTAGE EXPO 2015 by Mr. Basile and his Rights and Clearance colleagues, Jennifer Bertani and Carmen Fernandez. Mr. Basile can be reached in advance of the Expo at Basile@wnet.org or 212-560-2944.
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ABOUT ACSIL FOOTAGE EXPO 2015
The ACSIL FOOTAGE EXPO is a global marketplace and conference that attracts buyers and sellers of stock and archival footage. Organized by the nonprofit trade association, ACSIL, which represents the collective interests of stock and archival footage sources, the EXPO will be held on April 29, 2015 at NY’s Midtown Loft and Terrace (267 Fifth Avenue, NY). A full slate of conferences has been scheduled with speakers from production, legal, digital media, research, financial and footage organizations. More information about the EXPO is available at: http://www.acsil.org/events/expo2015
ABOUT WNET
As New York’s flagship public media provider and the parent company of THIRTEEN and WLIW21 and operator of NJTV, WNET brings quality arts, education and public affairs programming to more than 5 million viewers each week. WNET produces and presents such acclaimed PBS series as Nature, Great Performances, American Masters, PBS NewsHour Weekend, Charlie Rose and a range of documentaries, children’s programs, and local news and cultural offerings available on air and online. Pioneers in educational programming, WNET has created such groundbreaking series as Get the Math, Oh Noah! (http://www.pbskids.org/noah) and Cyberchase (http://www.pbskids.org/cyberchase)and provides tools for educators that bring compelling content to life in the classroom and at home. WNET highlights the tri-state’s unique culture and diverse communities through NYC-ARTS (http://www.nyc-arts.org/), Reel 13 (http://www.thirteen.org/sites/reel13), NJTV News with (http://www.njtvonline.org/njtoday/) Mary Alice Williams and MetroFocus (http://www.thirteen.org/metrofocus), the multi-platform news magazine focusing on the New York region. WNET is also a leader in connecting with viewers on emerging platforms, including the THIRTEEN Explore App (http://www.thirteen.org/explore/), where users can stream PBS content for free.
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WNET Reintroduces Its Massive Film & Video Archives at the ACSIL FOOTAGE EXPO 2015
April 17, 2015 at 13:00 PM EDT
