ITVS, NCME partnering to bolster Community Cinema engagement

The Independent Television Service and the National Center for Media Engagement are partnering up this fall on ITVS's tremendously successful Community Cinema engagement work. In six years, Community Cinema has expanded to more than 100 communities nationwide, with more than 150,000 participants so far attending some 2,500 screenings and discussions. ITVS's commitment to bringing communities and local organizations together through documentary film "aligns perfectly with NCME’s CPB-funded mission to support public media in working collaboratively with their communities to discover, understand, and address community concerns," NCME Executive Director Charles Meyer said in announcing the collaboration.

NCME will focus on "developing and delivering impact strategies and collaborating with stations to capture and convey stories that demonstrate the program’s overall performance and impact in communities," Meyer said. Jennifer MacArthur, NCME's director of television and digital media engagement, will host monthly webinars and coach stations on leveraging films for local impact.

"By integrating Community Cinema into other station-led engagement work, we can help stations grow the pie bigger locally — and that’s a win-win-win for stronger stations, stronger stories, and stronger communities," Meyer noted.