The winner of the 2026 Origins filmmaking grant is Chezik Tsunoda, who will produce the fifth season of the Cascade PBS series. Alongside her team at Visually Inspired Productions, Tsunoda will create a short-form docuseries that traces the history of Black life in the Pacific Northwest through the lens of music. She was announced as the winner Sunday night at the closing ceremony of the Seattle International Film Festival.
Tsunoda was one of over 50 directors who applied to work with Cascade PBS to create the latest season in a video series that reflects the makeup of our region, told from an insider’s perspective. A key requirement for the Origins grant is that the filmmaker be part of the community they are documenting.
The project will receive $40,000 in grant funding to cover production costs for the five-part series, as well as technical and editing support. Their work has the potential to be broadcast and streamed by Cascade PBS.
Through oral histories, archival materials, and cinematic recreations, viewers will “feel the pulse of a neighborhood that once swung late into the night,” they said in their submission, while building to the modern music scene of Seattle over the course of the five episodes. “The Sound of Black Seattle” will span decades as the filmmakers share stories from the early Black music scene and how it influenced and shaped the city.
The docuseries is intended for release on Cascade PBS platforms in March 2027.
The most recent season of Origins, “Our Thousand Days,follows the aftermath of the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941 when Japanese American citizens and Japanese nationals in the Pacific Northwest were forcibly removed and imprisoned in concentration camps without trial or due process. Directed by Andrew Inaba, the five-part docuseries centers on two women who were children at the time of their imprisonment, revealing a story of resilience against injustice that resonates today.
