American Documentary Marks 10 Years of Our America Grants with $30,000 for Regional Partners
American Documentary announced the 2026–27 recipients of its Our America: Documentaries in Dialogue grants on October 19, 2026, marking the program’s tenth year. The organization will distribute $30,000 across four grantees operating in the Northeast, South, Midwest and Mountain West. The awards continue a decade-long effort to use independent documentary film as a tool for bringing communities together around issues that shape American life.
The four recipients are the HBCU Library Alliance, which receives $10,000; Mountain Lake PBS and the CEF Library System, awarded $7,500; PBS Utah, which receives $5,000; and Rocky Mountain PBS, also awarded $7,500. The cohort reflects an expanded model that connects public media outlets with libraries, journalism partners and educational institutions. These collaborations aim to deliver local programming while creating resources that can scale for national use.
Our America began after the 2016 presidential election to help PBS stations build community engagement programs capable of bridging political, social and cultural divides. Since its launch, the initiative has awarded more than $250,000 to PBS stations and their partners. The program operates on the principle that documentary storytelling can connect people who hold different experiences and perspectives and create space for finding common ground.
Robert Salyer, Director of Outreach & Impact at POV and leader of the initiative since 2021, emphasized the continuing need for in-person connection. “Community screenings, people coming together to watch a film and actually being together, it seems like such a radical and essential thing to be doing now,” he said. “We are continuing to support stations in their efforts to build and strengthen trust in their communities and have seen firsthand the impact that can have. Stations are partnering with their regional library systems to bring POV films to their members, and having open and honest conversations about issues that matter to them locally. This work is more important than ever, and with the loss of federal funding, it is urgent and necessary.”
Beyond direct funding, the grants supply access to POV documentaries, educational materials, film discussion guides and strategic resources. Recipients may apply the support to screenings, workshops, marketing, participant fees and other activities shaped to local priorities. The design favors sustained conversation over single events by linking documentary storytelling with organizations already trusted in their communities.
Asad Muhammad, Vice President of Impact and Engagement Strategy at American Documentary, welcomed the partnership with the HBCU Library Alliance. “As an HBCU graduate of Hampton University, I am particularly ecstatic that AmDoc is partnering with the HBCU Library Alliance,” he said. “We have our own POV digital library of full-length documentaries and shorts that will invite students to expand their thinking on everything from gun violence to climate solutions. We are proud of the community and public media investments we’ve made these past ten years, and our focus is to continue to support public media stations and organizations with a commitment to open media access, collective power, resource sharing, and transformative storytelling!”
The milestone arrives as public media organizations face shifts in audience behavior, persistent misinformation and political polarization while managing reduced resources. In July 2025 Congress passed the Rescissions Act of 2025, which eliminated approximately $1.07 billion in previously approved appropriations to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Our America supplies tools for stations and partners to convene audiences around stories that affect their lives and the wider nation.
As the program begins its second decade, it will continue building regional relationships, strengthening ties between public media and civic institutions, and developing engagement models that can extend beyond their original communities. Our America: Documentaries in Dialogue receives support from the Open Society Foundations and the National Endowment for the Arts.
