NASA Goddard Partners With The Hollywood Black Film Festival

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Mar 08, 2013, 11:31 ET

GREENBELT, Md., March 8, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- NASA Goddard Space Flight Center's Innovative Partnerships Program (IPP) Office is pleased to announce a collaboration between NASA and the Hollywood Black Film Festival.

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Also known as "The Black Sundance," the Hollywood Black Film Festival (HBFF) works with emerging writers and artists, filmmakers, film and television celebrities, and industry executives who are responsible for creating new innovative film products and distributing those products to a broad and diverse global audience.

"This agreement is a novel and fantastic opportunity for NASA Goddard to provide scientific expertise for future film and television projects," said Dennis Small, Technology Transfer manager and NASA's HBFF project manager at NASA Goddard, Greenbelt, Md.

The collaboration between NASA and the HBFF will provide screenwriters and emerging filmmakers from diverse communities with new resources to tell science fiction stories that capture science facts resulting from NASA science missions. The collaboration will also introduce a novel approach to gaining ideas of transferring NASA technologies to different medium and utility.

Not only will this collaboration help stimulate creative new work by writers, filmmakers, and producers about the great science resulting out of NASA, but it will also enlighten audiences of several generations on how NASA science programs and the technology that enables the science to fulfill NASA and non-NASA needs. Both are consistent with NASA's central objectives.

"This program is an exciting extension of HBFF's mission, which is to play an integral role in discovering and developing talented writers and filmmakers and bring them to the attention of the entertainment industry, media and public," said Tanya Kersey, founder and executive director of HBFF, Beverly Hills, Calif. "This collaboration will afford us the opportunity to encourage emerging visionary screenwriting talent from diverse communities to create compelling science fiction projects within the frame of their own communities' needs and issues."

"This innovative alliance provides an amazing platform for diverse writers and filmmakers to create innovative new works in the sci-fi genre," said Tony Chamblee, the festival's multimedia and technology director, who will oversee this collaboration with NASA.

The partnership will allow filmmakers and screenwriters to interact with NASA Goddard subject matter experts on a non-interference basis. In a unique and compelling manner, this collaboration will provide opportunities to demonstrate how NASA capabilities and technologies evolve for Earth applications that benefit society and strengthen NASA's ability to contribute to the goal of attracting and retaining students' interest in science and engineering careers that can impact the nation's future workforce.

"This collaboration is another innovative outreach approach of transferring knowledge and gleaning new ideas for applications of NASA technologies," said Nona Cheeks, chief of the IPP Office at NASA Goddard.

Founded in 1998, the HBFF aims to enhance the careers of emerging and established black filmmakers through a public exhibition, competition program and industry panels. The festival's goal is to play an integral role in discovering and launching independent films and filmmakers by bringing them to the attention of the industry, press and public. The 13th Annual Hollywood Black Film Festival will take place Oct. 2-6, 2013, in Hollywood, Calif.

For more information on NASA Goddard's Innovative Partnerships Office, please visit:

http://ipp.gsfc.nasa.gov/

For more information on the Hollywood Black Film Festival, visit:

www.hbff.org, email: [email protected]

SOURCE NASA