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Logline

In Baltimore, an ambitious nonprofit newsroom is either the future of local journalism or proof that it cannot be saved. A Banner Year follows its coming of age: a city hall reporter pushed to the breaking point, an investigative team chasing a story that shook the city, and a startup that becomes a Pulitzer winner.

Synopsis

Every week, two American newspapers close. More than 3,200 have shut down since 2005, and the reporters who once covered city hall, school boards, and local courts have gone with them. Democracy doesn’t die all at once. It fades, neighborhood by neighborhood, as the paper that covered it disappears.

A Banner Year follows the Baltimore Banner, one of the country’s most closely watched attempts to reverse that trend, through the year it came of age. Founded in 2022 by philanthropist Stewart Bainum after hedge fund Alden Global Capital blocked his bid to save the Baltimore Sun, the Banner launched as a nonprofit digital newsroom competing directly with its city’s legacy paper, betting that local journalism could survive on philanthropy and subscribers instead of hedge-fund ownership.

No other cameras were granted this kind of access to the Banner’s newsroom. We follow city hall reporter Emily Sullivan, a gifted young journalist chasing a contentious mayoral election while asking herself how long she can sustain this life; an investigative team spending a year building a story about a local megachurch accused of covering up decades of abuse; and editor-in-chief Kimi Yoshino, who left the LA Times to bet her career on an experiment that could reshape local news or collapse under its own ambition.

Over the course of the year, the newsroom covers the collapse of Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge, the sale of the Baltimore Sun to a Sinclair Broadcasting executive, a year-long investigation into a mega-church accused of covering up decades of sexual abuse, and a nail-biting mayoral primary, all while quietly building toward the story that will define their year: a Pulitzer Prize for local reporting.

Meet the Filmmakers

Josh Davidsburg – Director/Producer
Josh Davidsburg is a filmmaker, journalist, and educator based in Baltimore. He founded the documentary master’s program at the University of Maryland’s Philip Merrill College of Journalism, where he teaches. His previous documentary, Queen of the Capital, screened at the Slamdance Film Festival and has been distributed on Starz, Peacock, Tubi, iTunes, and Amazon. He has worked as a reporter and photojournalist throughout his career, including at WBAL and Maryland Public Television. A Banner Year is his most personal film.

Adam Evans – Editor
Adam Evans is a British filmmaker and editor based in New York. His most recent feature, Free Leonard Peltier, directed by David France and Jesse Short Bull, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. His previous film, How to Survive a Pandemic, directed by David France for HBO, won Outstanding Science and Technology Documentary at the 44th News and Documentary Emmys. He also edited Catching Fire: The Story of Anita Pallenberg, which screened at the Cannes Film Festival. He holds an MFA in Social Documentary Film from the School of Visual Arts and has worked across BBC, Netflix, and HBO for over 15 years.

Alanna Delfino – Producer
Alanna Delfino-Kopania is a cinematographer, producer, and full-time lecturer at the University of Maryland’s Philip Merrill College of Journalism, where she leads News Videography for undergraduate and graduate students. Previously, she was a photojournalist on Tegna’s national Verify team and at Baltimore’s Fox 45, specializing in long-form and daily storytelling under deadline. Her work has earned 13 NATAS regional Emmys, and she is a two-time NPPA East Top Photographer of the Year.

Keniera Wagstaff – Co-producer
Keniera Wagstaff is a film and journalism student at Morgan State University with a thriving video production and photography business. She plans to pursue film and documentary work after graduation.

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Contact

For inquiries, please contact [email protected].