About Homelands Productions

Homelands Productions is an independent, non-profit journalism cooperative specializing in radio documentaries. Its mission is to illuminate complex issues through compelling broadcasts, articles, books, and educational forums, and to foster freedom of expression and creative risk through the media arts.

Since its founding in 1990, Homelands has reported from 56 countries, produced seven major series for public radio programs, and has won 22 national and international awards. Several of its radio productions have been adapted for print: in three full-length books, in articles for major magazines, and in several anthologies.

Homelands' websites, which contain streaming audio from more than 140 radio features and documentaries, are used by teachers and students around the world. Homelands Productions also maintains a blog for announcements, musings, and discussion.

Homelands Projects

WORKING (2007 to 2009). Twenty-nine sound-rich profiles of workers in the global economy broadcast monthly on Marketplace, public radio's daily program about business and economics. Also an interactive website where people around the world can share and compare their work experiences.

Worlds of Difference (2003 to 2005). Forty stories from 27 countries exploring the responses of people with strong local traditions to the pressures and opportunities of a globalizing world. Broadcast on NPR's All Things Considered, Morning Edition, Weekend Edition, Day to Day, and on Living on Earth and Common Ground Radio. Also six hour-long specials distributed nationwide by NPR.

Border Stories (2001 to 2003). Fifteen documentaries and features on social, economic, legal, and environmental issues from both sides of the US-Mexico border. Pieces broadcast on NPR's Morning Edition, Living on Earth, American RadioWorks, Latino USA, and Radio Bilingüe.

World Views (1997 to 2003). Eighteen international first-person documentaries reflecting perspectives of ordinary citizens, revealing human truths beneath the surface of daily events. Broadcast on All Things Considered, This American Life, Latino USA, Living on Earth, Fresh Air, The Savvy Traveler, and Weekend Edition.

Gaviotas: A Village to Reinvent the World. Book by Alan Weisman about a sustainable community built by visionaries and engineers in war-torn Colombia. Chelsea Green Publishing, 1998. Reissued in a 10th anniversary edition in 2008.

Gloucester at the Crossroads (1997 to 1998). A four-part series examining the social, cultural, and economic effects of the loss of fishing stocks, as well as of fishermen's lives, in the oldest fishing port in the US. Broadcast on Living on Earth.

Searching for Solutions (1994 to 1995). Sixteen features documenting efforts by scientists, agriculturalists, inventors, traditional and grassroots leaders, and visionaries in Latin America, India, and the Middle East to build an environmentally sustainable world. Broadcast on NPR and Public Radio International. Also produced in Spanish and distributed in Latin America by the Centro de Educación Popular of Quito, Ecuador.

Vanishing Homelands (1991 to 1992). Twenty-three documentary features examining the profound changes to land and culture across the western hemisphere. Broadcast on NPR and rebroadcast in thirteen half-hour specials.

Awards

Awards for Homelands projects include three from the Overseas Press Club; a Sigma Delta Chi Award from the Society of Professional Journalists; a DuPont-Columbia Silver Baton; three Robert F. Kennedy awards for reporting on the disadvantaged; an Edward R. Murrow Award for best radio news documentary; a Harry Chapin World Hunger Year award; a United Nations Gold Medal; two Third Coast Festival/Robert H. Driehaus Foundation award; an International Radio Festival Award; a New York Festivals Silver Medal; a Unity Award; National Federation of Community Broadcasters' Golden Reel, Silver Reel and Special Merit Awards; a Gracie Allen Award; Brazil's Prèmio Nacional de Jornalismo Radiofônico; and the Premio Nuevo Periodismo by La Fundación para un Nuevo Periodismo Iberoamericano, awarded by Nobel laureate Gabriel García Márquez.

Financial Support

Homelands projects have received financial and/or in-kind support from the Alces Foundation, American Public Media, Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Ford Foundation, Four-Four Foundation, International Labour Organization, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, National Public Radio, Polson Institute for Global Development at Cornell University, Public Radio International, Rockefeller Foundation, University of Arizona, Wallace Global Fund, and individual donors.

Donate

Homelands Productions is part of Homelands Research Group, Inc., a 501(c)3 non-profit organization based in Tucson, Arizona. We welcome your contributions! Donations are tax deductible in the United States.

Contact

Homelands Productions
4 The Byway
Ithaca, NY 14850

Phone: (607) 266-8128
Fax: (607) 266-8666
E-mail Homelands Productions
Website: www.homelands.org

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