News
USA TV Foundations assist filmmakers with disabilities
Two TV industry foundations in New York have teamed up to launch a scholarship for filmmakers with disabilities.
The Loreen Arbus Foundation has donated $40,000 to create the Focus on Disability scholarship fund, to be administered by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Foundation and the Foundation of American Women in Radio and Television.
The fund will present one scholarship to a filmmaker with a disability or to a filmmaker whose work sheds light on the lives and achievements of people with disabilities.
The other scholarship will go to the winner of an AWRT competition that calls for student filmmakers to create a 60-second public service announcement highlighting the achievements and social contributions of people with disabilities.
The scholarship was created to commemorate the upcoming 20th anniversary of the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Arbus is the daughter of ABC founder Leonard Goldenson, who was the driving force behind the formation of the United Cerebral Palsy org.
The first Focus on Disability scholarships will be presented April 10 as part of the ATAS Foundation's annual College Television Awards.
Article by Cynthia Littleton, Variety 2009.
More information about this initiative is detailed by the USA Academy of Television, Arts and Sciences.