Spark Media is an independent multi-media and documentary production house based in Washington D.C.

History

Established in 1989 by director and producer Andrea Kalin

Andrea Kalin

Andrea Kalin is an independent American filmmaker . She is also the principal and founder of Spark Media, Inc. and founder and Executive Director of Stone Soup Productions, Inc., a 501c3 non-profit foundation-Personal life:...

, the non-profit company specializes in creating socially-conscious media used to raise public awareness in America and throughout the world. The company has produced over a dozen films, including three feature length documentaries Partners of the Heart, Prince Among Slaves

Prince Among Slaves (film)

Prince Among Slaves is a historical documentary directed, written and produced by Andrea Kalin and narrated by Mos Def made for PBS by Unity Productions Foundation...

, and The Pact, which all aired on PBS

Public Broadcasting Service

The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....

.

Partners of the Heart, narrated by Morgan Freeman

Morgan Freeman

Morgan Freeman is an American actor, film director, aviator and narrator. He is noted for his reserved demeanor and authoritative speaking voice. Freeman has received Academy Award nominations for his performances in Street Smart, Driving Miss Daisy, The Shawshank Redemption and Invictus and won...

, aired on PBS’s American Experience

American Experience

American Experience is a television program airing on the Public Broadcasting Service Public television stations in the United States. The program airs documentaries, many of which have won awards, about important or interesting events and people in American history...

 in February 2003 and was rebroadcast in March 2005. Partners went on to win the Erik Barnouw Award for Best History Documentary in 2004 and was later turned into the Golden Globe-nominated HBO film Something The Lord Made starring Mos Def

Mos Def

Dante Terrell Smith is an American actor and Emcee known by the stage names Mos Def and Yasiin Bey. He started his hip hop career in a group called Urban Thermo Dynamics, after which he appeared on albums by Da Bush Babees and De La Soul. With Talib Kweli, he formed the duo Black Star, which...

, who also narrated Prince Among Slaves.

Several of Spark Media's films have won awards, including Emmys

Emmy Award

An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...

, CINE

CINE

CINE is a consortium formulated to depict American life and thought realistically for a global audience. CINE recognizes and fosters the highest quality of non-theatrical film and video production through its semi-annual film competitions....

 Golden Eagles, Golden Globes, Gracies, and numerous other awards.

Current Projects

Spark Media is producing an adaptation of Rita Dove

Rita Dove

Rita Frances Dove is an American poet and author. From 1993-1995 she served as Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress, a position now popularly known as "U.S. Poet Laureate"...

's 'Sonata Mulattica', about George Bridgetower

George Bridgetower

George Augustus Polgreen Bridgetower was an Afro-Polish-born virtuoso violinist, who lived in England for much of his life. He was born in Biala in Galicia, where his father worked for Hieronimus Wincenty Radziwill, in 1778. He was baptised Hieronimo Hyppolito de Augusto on 11 October 1778...

, a black musician and friend of Ludwig van Beethoven

Ludwig van Beethoven

Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...

. The film, entitled 'Prodigy' will detail Bridgetower's life and relationship with Bethoveen, and contrast that story to a contemporary young black musician Joshua Coyne

Joshua Coyne

- Personal Biography :Joshua was born in Kansas City, MO. He was adopted at age two and moved to Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The Coyne family was involved in the local arts community, participating in community theater and the Cedar Rapids Symphony. Joshua quickly expressed interest and aptitude in music...

Films

• The Pact
• Prince Among Slaves
• Partners of the Heart
• Talking Through Walls
• Allah Made Me Funny
• Asia’s Water Crisis: The Struggle Within Each Drop
• Battered Lives, Broken Trust: When Men Abuse Women
• Too Brief a Child: Voices of Married Adolescents
• Breaking the Poverty Cycle: Investing in Early Childhood
• Bridges: Southeast Asians’ American Journey
• Wired for Change: Information Technology for Development in the Americas
• A Voice of Her Own: Women and Economic Change in Asia
• From rage to Recovery: Society’s Search for Peace
• World Bank
  World Bank
  The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans to developing countries for capital programmes.The World Bank's official goal is the reduction of poverty...
  
   HUNGER Public Service Announcement
  Public service announcement
  A public service announcement or public service ad is a type of advertisement featured on television, radio, print or other media...