Congratulations to MPI filmmaker Megan Harrington whose newest documentary Native Ball will play on PBS stations across the country during November’s Native American Heritage Month. The short doc is scheduled to air over 660 times on 219 PBS stations and channels, including all of the top ten PBS networks from WNET in New York City to PBS SoCal in Los Angeles. It will also be available to stream on the PBS homepage and YouTube channel. 

Native Ball tells the story of Blackfeet Nation’s Malia Kipp, the only Native American woman out of nearly 5,000 high school girls’ basketball players to earn a full-ride Division I scholarship in 1992. “Living in two worlds presented challenges and so did the pressure to succeed as a University of Montana Lady Griz,” reads the film’s synopsis. “Through the support of her family and community, she carried the burden with resilience, grace and grit. Described by her Chief as ‘a warrior,’ she blazed a trail—and heroic legacy—for other Native girls to follow.”

The film is an offshoot of Harrington’s doc The House That Rob Built that profiles Lady Griz coach Robin Selvig, who recruited Kipp from the Blackfeet Indian Reservation in Browning. Harrington previously workshopped the Emmy-nominated feature film in MPI’s Documentary Storytelling Workshop. 

Click here to find a Native Ball airdate near you!