NAPT seeks provocative and engaging project proposals from Native independent or public television producers. The 2007 RFP is now available on our website. Projects in all stages are welcome to apply. Sixty- minute formats are strongly preferred, but films of any length will be considered. We will mail application forms upon request. We encourage works that address new and current issues reflecting the changing identity of our community, including the following:

• Works that focus on underrepresented or unheard voices;
• Works that are innovative, original and compelling to a national audience;
• Works that explore issues of universal interest from a unique Native American perspective;
• Works that view the history of Native Americans through contemporary stories;
• Works that use new technology and/or provide new models for television production.

VisionMaker Video is proud to present Seasoned With Spirit. Loretta Barrett Oden, renowned Native American Chef and proud woman of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation hosts the new cooking, travel and Native American culture series. These five half-hour shows comprise a culinary celebration of America's bounty, combining Native American history and culture with delicious, healthy recipes inspired by indigenous foods. Tantalize your taste buds and learn about the traditional foods of tribes from the Gulf Coast, the Desert Southwest, the Great Lakes, the High Plains, and the Pacific Northwest.

NAPT is proud to present A Blackfeet Encounter to public television stations in April. Distributed by American Public Television (APT), A Blackfeet Encounter uncovers the rich history and culture of the Blackfeet people of Montana, traces the consequences of the Lewis & Clark expedition's arrival and investigates the struggles and triumphs of the Blackfeet today.

The program will be fed for record to stations on April 6, 2007, at 10 PM ET. Interested viewers can contact their local stations or check listings for air dates and times.

NAPT gets this question a lot from loyal viewers. Very often, shows distributed by NAPT are broadcast on different dates and times on various stations throughout the country. To find out when a certain program will be on TV in your area, you can log on to the PBS Station Finder, www.pbs.org/stationfinder, enter your zip code, and you'll be connected to your local station's website. There you can search for the program in their schedule listings. Better yet, call your local station's viewer services department and ask them if and when they are carrying that show. You get the information quickly, and you help NAPT to increase its reach into television markets around the country by letting those stations know that people in their service area are interested in this type of programming. So become an NAPT activist, call your local station and tell them you want to see Seasoned With Spirit and A Blackfeet Encounter.

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting is funding a nationwide, year-long search that will bring new voices to the public radio airwaves. Submissions begin April 16. Three finalists will be identified by September, 2007. They will then produce pilot shows which will be presented to CPB in early 2008. CPB will review the programs and choose one for continued funding.

Eight grants ranging from $2,500 to $6,875 have been awarded to American Indian musical artists in the first round of grant making of the First Nations Composer Initiative (FNCI), a program of the American Composers Forum. The awards are made under the Common Ground and Community Engagement programs, generously funded with the support of the Ford Foundation.

This six-week intensive workshop develops scriptwriting skills for American Indians preparing for a career as a professional writer in television and film.

To apply to the writers' track of the summer workshop, please download an application and a legal release form from www.iaia.edu. The legal release form must be properly notarized and included with your submission to the program. We cannot consider your work until you have signed and returned the required legal release. Any work submitted without a signed legal release will be destroyed without being reviewed.

Fill out the application and legal release form and send them in with the following:

• academic transcripts
• a resume
• a personal statement
• two letters of recommendation
• one writing sample per application, including a logline that summarizes the sample

Beverly Morris (Aleut) is the project director of the Institute of American Indian Arts’ summer television and film workshop in Santa Fe, NM. You can read more about her in this month's Producer Profile.