GVSU – WGVU Public Media – $25,000

This grant will support the production of a documentary with the working title “Frontier to Freedom: Wilderness, Revolution, and Michigan Statehood,” which is being filmed in recognition of the U.S. semiquincentennial. The documentary will explore the rich and often overlooked history of Michigan, tracing its evolution from a vast, untamed wilderness inhabited by Indigenous peoples to its emergence as the 26th U.S. state in 1837. Expert interviews, archival imagery, animated maps, and visuals of Michigan’s beautiful landscapes will be used to describe and illustrate the region’s formative years, its strategic significance during the American Revolution, and the complex socio-political forces that shaped Michigan's path to statehood. Americana's grant will support a particular focus on how the treatment of Indigenous communities in Michigan directly misaligned with the goals of freedom and self-determination that early Americans were espousing.