Origins is a Cascade PBS docuseries project that allows us to collaborate with PNW and Canadian filmmaking communities. We are looking for stories that reflect the makeup of our region told from an insider’s perspective: stories grounded in ancestry, connection, culture, influence and rootedness. Stories that reflect our place, values and people. Every year, through an online submission process, the Cascade PBS Original Productions team will select a project and award $40,000 to go toward producing a five-part short form docuseries. The key requirement is that the filmmaker needs to be part of the community they are documenting (Indigenous stories told by Indigenous filmmakers, Latinx stories told by Latinx filmmakers, etc.). The winning project has the chance for a premiere event at SIFF Uptown as well as the potential to broadcast on Cascade PBS and our on-demand platforms.

Update: Submissions for our $40,000 Origins grant opportunity have been open for nearly a month, and we’ve been getting a lot of really great questions from interested folks. In that spirit, we’ll be hosting “open office hours” on Friday March 20^th where you’ll have the chance to ask questions to senior producer, Sarah Hoffman, and myself. Any clarification on the rules, questions about the application itself, feedback on your idea – whatever you want to talk about, we’re here for you.

Click here to sign up for a 15-minute block with us. We’ll be doing this from 1-4pm on March 20th. These are virtual sessions, so we’ll send a Zoom link for you to join ahead of time.