MPT recognizes the importance of local and independent filmmakers and their unique ability to capture truths about the world with artistic integrity, intelligence, and balance. MPT supports these artists and gives viewers access to their voices and viewpoints. These producers' programs provide viewers with a better understanding of the world, an open door to the arts, and actionable information to improve their daily lives.

Welcome, producers! Please scroll to the bottom of this page for special information about submitting your work or program ideas to MPT.

Bay to Baltimore

Tuesday, April 21st @ 8:30 PM (premiere); Wednesday, April 22nd @ 12:30 and 3:30 AM; Friday, April 24th @ 7:30 PM

Ultramarathon open water swimmer and painter Katie Pumphrey hopes to become the first person to swim 24 miles from the Chesapeake Bay Bridge to Baltimore’s newly swimmable Inner Harbor. As she trains for and promotes this difficult swim, Pumphrey must face a public who thinks she’s crazy to swim in the historically polluted waters.

Moon Crab

Monday, April 20th @ 9:20 PM (premiere); Tuesday, April 21st @ 1:50 AM

Blending reflections on nature's cycles with archival and experimental visuals to immerse the viewer in the horseshoe crab's subaquatic world, MOON CRAB acts as a meditation on one of Earth's oldest living species now struggling with extreme population decline. Narrated with intimate depth by physiologist Dr. Abner Lall, the film weaves a timeless story of resilience and fragility, urging us to reconsider our connection to the natural world.

Saving Chesapeake Bay: A Cleaner Future

Monday, April 20th @ 7:30 PM  (premiere)

An examination of more than 40 years of efforts to revitalize the Chesapeake Bay after decades of pollution, intensive agriculture, overfishing, and uncontrolled urban development devastated its waters. The film highlights how both pollution and efforts to revitalize the Bay have impacted the livelihoods of watermen and water-women as well as the continued efforts to improve the health of the watershed.

Unfiltered

Monday, April 20th @ 9:00 PM (premiere); Tuesday, April 21st @ 1:30 AM

Oyster farming is on the rise on Maryland's Eastern Shore, but farmers and environmentalists are confronted with the challenges of changing tides in the Chesapeake Bay. UNFILTERED tells the story of how conservation, culture, and industry are mingling in the region to create new hurdles and opportunities for farmers both new and old.

Chesapeake Rhythms - Wednesday, April 22nd @ 8:00 PM; Thursday, April 23rd @ 12:30 and 4:00 AM
Cold-Stunned - Monday, April 20th @ 11:15 PM
Headwaters Down, Part 2 (previously titled Headwaters Down: Tidal River) - Thursday, April 23rd @ 9:00 PM; Friday, April 24th @ 1:00 and 4:00 AM
Nassawango Legacy - Saturday, April 25th @ 6:15 PM
On Water's Edge - Wednesday, April 22nd @ 7:00 PM
Oysterfest - Monday, April 20th @ 10:00 PM; Tuesday, April 21st @ 2:30 AM
A Passion for Oysters - Saturday, April 25th @ 5:30 PM
Power of the Paddle - Tuesday, April 21st @ 9:00 PM; Wednesday, April 22nd @ 1:00 and 4:00 AM
Reviving the Forgotten River - Thursday, April 23rd @ 11:00 PM
Salted Earth - Wednesday, April 22nd @ 7:30 PM
Water's Way: Thinking Like a Watershed - Monday, April 20th @ 10:30 PM; Tuesday, April 21st @ 3:00 AM

Food, Fiber & the Female Farmer

Sunday, April 5th @ 4:30 PM

Going back to the horse-and-buggy days, to becoming the leading industry in the state, agriculture has always been prominent in the Old Line State. "Food, Fiber, & the Female  Farmer" is a documentary capturing the work of a group of six extraordinary women from Maryland, preserving and sustaining food sources and applying best agricultural practices.

Liberty of Conscience: The Founding of Maryland

Thursday, April 9th @ 10:00 PM (MPT2/Create)

The fascinating story of colonial Maryland's beginnings as America's first experiment in religious tolerance, starting with George Calvert's vision for a tolerant colony, and the complicated legacy his sons Cecilius and Leonard carried forward. The film explores the origins of how these early ideals of religious liberty took shape amid colonization, power struggles, and Indigenous displacement.

Searching for Shaniqua

Wednesday, April 8th @ 10:00 PM (MPT2/Create)

"Searching for Shaniqua" examines the impact that unique, cultural and so-called "ghetto" names have on people's lives. The film addresses the personal, professional and social complexities of navigating name bias. Working from the question, "What's in a name?", the film centers the stories of six African-American women who have all faced stereotyping, because of their names. Their personal stories, along with the voices of professors, community members and other experts, illuminate the destabilizing power of structural and internalized racism, pressed up against classism. The right to name ourselves and our offspring is part of the basic fabric of family tradition. For some, the privilege to name is constricted by fears of how society will place value on an individual.

Smile for the Dead

Wednesday, April 1st @ 10:00 PM (MPT2/Create)

In 1860's Boston, William Mumler was known as the "Man Who Captured Lincoln' s Ghost on Camera."  He became famous and quite wealthy for taking "spirit photographs" - portraits in which the subject's dead relatives would magically appear. Mumler made international headlines when he was arrested for defrauding the public. Shockingly, he won the trial because experts could not figure out exactly how he created these supernatural photographs. Watch as filmmaker and photographer Hamilton Ward embarks on a new investigation into exactly how Mumler did these magical portraits - or maybe they were REAL?