Access Center

Theresa Crushshon, a participant in SPNN’s Doc U program, has won the award for Documentary Biography from the Alliance for Community Media’s Hometown Media Awards. Her film about Jazz legend Irv Williams was created in Doc U, a program funded in part by the Minnesota State Arts Board. The program gives low-income adults hands-on skills in all aspects of documentary production. In the first year of Doc U, seven participants, including Theresa, created short films on a diversity of subjects. The upcoming class of Doc U is recruiting now and will train a dozen new documentarians.

The power of the documentary film is its ability to shine a spotlight on issues, stories, and perspectives that would otherwise go unheard and thus unnoticed. Because of our belief in this power, SPNN created Doc U, a mentorship in digital documentary filmmaking for low income adults. Now entering it’s second year, this intensive mentorship program guides participants through the process of creating a 10-minute documentary on the topic of their choosing.

by, Bonnie Schumacher

With the cables wrapped, the long hours in the editing suites over and the first day of class a distant memory, Saturday night it was time to celebrate the successes. Six of the seven new documentarians from SPNN’s Doc U program showed off their work to their friends, family, and the SPNN community at a semi-private event on Saturday, February 16.

SPNN is proud to announce that the Minnesota State Arts Board has renewed the grant for Doc U, allowing us to extend our reach, training and mentoring to a dozen more low-income adults in documentary filmmaking.

We are very excited to announce that Pete Poire-Odegard will be joining SPNN as our new Access Coordinator. Originally from Minnesota, Pete is coming to us by way of Portland, OR, bringing with him a long history of community media work.

SPNN's Access Coordinator Maria Tototzintle has announced her resignation. We are now searching for a new Access Coordinator to work with members as they create community media for our viewers in St. Paul and beyond. Applications are due by Monday, November 26th at 5pm. Please click here to download a PDF with the complete job description and application information.

SPNN Access Coordinator Maria Tototzintle has announced that in January she will be moving on from the organization to pursue her dream of running her own production business, Tequila Digital Media, full-time. We’re very sad to see her go, but excited to see what new successes this next chapter brings to her.

On Friday, October 9th, the SPNN Access Center opened our doors for the 20th anniversary St. Paul Art Crawl. We wanted to hold a fun, artistic evening to introduce community members to the creative potential here at SPNN.

Whether you want to share your church service, make a documentary or short film, create an ongoing television show, or express your political opinion - SPNN is the place for you.  We offer affordable, accessible classes for both the novice media maker and the more experienced individual.