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.

MAY LOCAL PREMIERE

Bicentennial Bonsai: Emissaries of Peace

Saturday, May 11 @ 7pm (premiere)

In 1975, only thirty years after the United States and Japan had been at war, Japan gifted 53 priceless bonsai trees to the United States in celebration of the U.S. Bicentennial. Some bonsai were several hundred years old. One had remarkably survived the bombing of Hiroshima. "Bicentennial Bonsai: Emissaries of Peace" chronicles this historic gift, includes rare interviews and archival footage, and reveals how we can rediscover our shared humanity and establish a path toward healing and world peace.

MAY LOCAL PREMIERE

Teilhard: Visionary Scientist

Sunday, May 19th @ 4pm

Teilhard de Chardin was a French priest-paleontologist-visionary who was suppressed by his Jesuit order for advocating evolution.  Told largely in his own words, with a mix of archival film and images, expert interviews and commentary, and recreations, "Teilhard: Visionary Scientist" explores Teilhard's theories and how he was exiled to China by the church as a way to silence him. The film also explores his role as part of the team that made the remarkable discovery of Peking Man, the most important fossil discovery in history to that point.

MAY NATIONAL PREMIERE

To Dine For with Kate Sullivan, Season 7 (10 eps.)

Premieres weekly on Thursdays @ 7:30pm starting May 2nd; weekly encores begin Wednesday, May 15th @ 10pm on MPT2/Create

Four-time Emmy Award-winning journalist Kate Sullivan accompanies 10 different guests to their favorite restaurants.  Over dinner, Kate's guests - entrepreneurs, change agents, musicians, actors, newsmakers and others - discuss their early lives, their struggles, their successes, the American dream, and how they have tried to achieve it. This season dissects the anatomy of a dream and what it takes to bring one to fruition.

MAY STREAMING PREMIERE

MSG: Mysterious Savory Grains

Digital Release: May 1, 2024

In 1968, the forces of racism and consumer activism collided to give monosodium glutamate (MSG) its unsavory reputation. Today, chef Tim Ma is on a mission to change that perception and use MSG as a way to share his culture through food. Through interviews with Ma and two MSG experts, the documentary explores the origin of MSG's stigma and how the ways we talk about food can be just as pervasive today.

MAY LOCAL ENCORE

John: Living with Mental Illness

Thursday, May 21st @ 10pm on MPT2/Create

John Smith, a 53-year-old Elkton man, lives with schizophrenia and uses rapping and entertainment to cope with his mental illness. Via John's story, the film sheds light on the realities of living with mental illness and the importance of supporting and understanding those who are struggling. The complexities of schizophrenia and the various ways in which it can impact a person's life, as well as the various treatments and approaches to managing this condition, are explored, as is the importance of understanding and acceptance in supporting those living with mental illness.

MAY LOCAL ENCORE

The Hello Girls

Sunday, May 26th @ 3pm

In 1918, the U.S. Army Signal Corps sent 223 women to France as telephone operators to help win the Great War. They were intrepid, united in a common cause and like Joan of Arc before them, they wanted to save France. Told through 100-year-old letters, photos, rare archival footage, and interviews with family and historians, this documentary brings to life a story that was almost entirely unknown.

APRIL NATIONAL ENCORE

The Misty Experiment: The Secret Battle for the Ho Chi Minh Trail

Sunday, May 26th @ 4pm

This film explores the special U.S. Air Force squadron codenamed "Misty" whose pilots volunteered for one of the Vietnam War's most dangerous air missions - the search for enemy supply transports and anti-aircraft installations concealed within the web of trail paths and waterways collectively known as the Ho Chi Minh Trail, and to direct on-site rescue operations for U.S. and allied aircrews who had been shot-down while flying over the jungles of North Vietnam and Laos.