WGBH Educational Foundation
To support the production and associated marketing and promotion of two prime time American Experience documentary films about the role of science and technology in history
This grant provides ongoing support to American Experience, a popular and award-winning PBS history documentary series to integrate science and technology themes and profiles of scientists, engineers, and mathematicians. Grant funds will allow American Experience to research, produce, and broadcast two new one-hour documentary shows telling historical tales about the overlooked contributions of women and people of color in science and technology. The Sun Queen will tell the story of Maria Telkes, a physical chemist who was consumed from an early age by the potential of using the sun as a viable energy source. Zora Neale Hurston, meanwhile, recounts the story of the famous writer and Harlem Renaissance literary figure who led a second, less well-known life as a pioneering anthropologist. The two films will be broadcast during primetime on PBS.