December
Interviews Shine Through on Prince Film, Casting Begins
UPF’s Prince Among Slaves Director Andrea Kalin recently shot a series of interviews for the film. Included in the interviews are author Adam Hochschild, African American novelist Bebe Moore Campbell, Scholars Hamza Yusuf, Zaid Shakir, Shaykh Ahmed Tijani, and Prince Among Slaves author Terry Alford. Casting is currently underway for reenactments, to be filmed in summer 2006.
Hajj Coverage on ABC, CNN Features UPF’s Executive Producers
CNN International ran a half hour special on the Hajj, with UPF’s Michael Wolfe among the guests, numerous times in a two day period. UPF heard from viewers in Mexico, London, Rome, Turkmenistan, and Malaysia. UPF’s Alex Kronemer appeared on a special interview with CNN-I in Washington DC and CNN leased the rights from ABC-TV to broadcast Ted Koppel’s Nightline Hajj Special featuring Wolfe, from 1997.
Talent Profile: Bill Duke, reenactment director for Prince Among Slaves Reenactments
The clean shaven head and imposing figure of Bill Duke mask a man of warmth and talent , who has enjoyed success on both sides of the camera as both an actor and director for feature films, TV, and the stage. Duke has an M.F.A. from the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University. His films include the famous comedy Car Wash, and action features such as Predator and Commando. He has directed episodes of many hit TV series, including Hill Street Blues and Miami Vice. For the PBS documentary, Partners of the Heart, Duke partnered with Andrea Kalin as a co-director to tell the story of an African American and Caucasian surgical duo who pioneered heart surgery together, even while segregation prevented them from sitting at the same lunch table. Duke and Kalin will direct together once again in UPF’s Prince Among Slaves.
August
Michael Wolfe featured on nationwide radio show
National Public Radio’s Speaking of Faith aired an hour-long program with UPF Executive Producer Michael Wolfe and others called “Progressive Islam” on 116 stations. The show was re-aired in response to the horrific subway attacks in London.
Visit: speakingoffaith.publicradio.org
July
Teen Talk to reach half of PBS audience
Far surpassing expectations for a 30 minute program, American Muslim Teens Talk is airing on major PBS Stations in cities around the country, including: Dallas, San Francisco, Raleigh, Charlotte, New Orleans and many others. This program, featuring UPF's Alex Kronemer, grew out of Muhammad: Legacy of a Prophet outreach work and features candid discussions with Muslim Teens about issues like dress, prayer, drinking and dating to engender respect for them.
Visit: www.theislamproject.org/education/AMTT.htm
June
NEH Awards Prince Among Slaves Major Grant
The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Division of Public Programs recently awarded UPF a prestigious grant for Prince Among Slaves. Part of its ‘We the People’ initiative on American History, this $600,000 grant with a $50,000 matching amount, combined with underwriting funds, will launch the project into full scale production. NEH judged Prince a “Beautiful, character-driven story that promises to examine a wide variety of themes and topics about Africans and their sophisticated and stratified societies…an incredible human interest story with both plot and substance.” NEH is an independent grant-making agency of the U.S. government dedicated to supporting research, education, preservation, and public programs in the Humanities.
John Esposito to Receive Award at October 1st Banquet
At its October 1st Banquet in Dearborn, Michigan, UPF will present Dr. John Esposito with an award for his lifelong efforts to promote Interfaith Understanding. Dr. Esposito, founder of the Center for Muslim Christian Understanding at Georgetown University and the author of many books on Islam, will speak and receive an award. Hamza Yusuf, Director of the Zaytuna Institute, will be the keynote speaker. Banquet tickets and hotel accommodations at UPF’s Discount rate are now online.
May
Director for Prince Among Slaves Wins Emmy Award
Andrea Kalin, co-director (with Hollywood’s Bill Duke) of Prince Among Slaves, recently received an Emmy Award for her participation in the HBO movie based on Partners of the Heart, her PBS documentary about pioneering open-heart surgery techniques developed by a white surgeon and his African American assistant during the era of racial segregation. The Kalin-Duke directing team has begun production planning with UPF Executive Producers Michael Wolfe and Alex Kronemer and should start filming in October.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/partners/today/t_filmmakers.html
April
Muhammad: Legacy of the Prophet on Arabic satellite channels
UPF is pleased to announce the airing of Muhammad: Legacy of a Prophet on Arabic Satellite Channels A.R.T. and Dubai TV. Legacy of a Prophet DVDs already contain Arabic subtitles. To purchase copies, click on shop.
March
Prince Among Slaves Receives Highly Praised Grant
UPF is honored to announce a production grant from the National Black Programming Consortium (NBPC). NBPC is a non-profit national media arts organization committed to the presentation, funding, promotion, distribution of diverse images of African American & African Diaspora experiences. Out of the 76 program submissions received, UPF’s was one of only 4 proposals recommended for funding. Past grantees by NPBC include Citizen King and This Far By Faith: An African American Spiritual Journey.
For more information on NBPC, visit: www.nbpc.tv
Cordoba Rising in Lithuania
Lithuania, the former Hollywood of the Soviet Empire, has an abundance of resources for filmmakers and is an economical choice for producing historical reenactments. Gardner Films, in association with UPF, is currently working on sets and costumes for the reenactments to be filmed there for our film Cities of Light.
Alex Pitches Spain at Reel Screen Summit
Reel Screen Summit is the largest annual conference in the non-fiction programming industry. Producers and broadcasters attend from around the world. Each year a plenary session called Pitch It! showcases four pre-selected projects for an audience of 1500 professionals. This year, UPF was chosen to present Cities of Light. Executive Producer Alex Kronemer presented the project and received an overwhelmingly positive response. As a result, we are now in conversation with several international broadcasters, including National Geographic International and BBC.
Thousands of Downloads of Muhammad: Legacy of the Prophet Lesson Plans
As part of UPF’s outreach work, the Islam Project and the Council on Islamic Education (CIE) developed and posted several related lesson plans to be used by teachers in conjunction with the film Muhammad: Legacy of a Prophet. Over 20 lesson plans have been developed and the two organizations have had thousands of downloads from teachers across the country.
Visit: www.cie.org and www.theislamproject.org
February
Legacy and UPF Featured on LinkTV Pledge Drive
UPF Executive Producer Michael Wolfe appeared this month in an hour-long interview and pledge-drive on LinkTV, the public television broadcaster carried by DirectTV and DISHNetwork to 22 million households nationwide. Link-TV is now offering DVDs of Muhammad: Legacy of a Prophet as a premium for donors. The film was broadcast four times on LINK-TV last month by special arrangement with PBS.
January
South African TV to Broadcast Legacy Film
SABC, The South African Broadcast Corporation, has licensed rights to broadcast Muhammad: Legacy of a Prophet nationwide. Legacy has already been broadcast worldwide on National Geographic Television in December, 2003. SABC is the number one rated channel in the nation.
Visit www.sabc.co.za/portal/site
Michael Wolfe on CNN for Hajj
Executive Producer Michael Wolfe was recently interviewed as a featured guest for CNN’s 2005 Hajj coverage with News Anchor and Producer Zain Virjee. CNN’s coverage will be broadcast throughout the week of January 17-20, 2005. Wolfe's comments will be interspersed in the programming.