Freedom is a fundamental human aspiration. PSBT invites proposals for films on issues and concerns related to freedom and its many dimensions. These could include aspects related to its pursuit, denial or celebration. They could relate to issues of personal, political, social, economic, religious freedoms et all.

PSBT is looking for in-depth, incisive films of intellectual vigor and personal passion that explore innovative story telling techniques rising above the dull and pedantic narrative styles. We are looking to support filmmakers who will use the elements of the documentary film genre to create visually exciting and emotionally catalyzing work that is engaging and exciting.

In selecting proposals we are sensitive to regional and gender representation. We expect to complete this cycle of evaluating proposals and commissioning approx. 20-25 films on the above theme by February/March 2005. Please see a more detailed note below on the brief. Our request for proposals is not limited to ideas or concepts below but merely intended as pointers to the nuances and range of possible dimensions to the issues of freedom that film maker might explore.

This is NOT intended as a specific brief on the kind of issues we ask of filmmakers to explore but only to sensitize them to the possible range and diversity of issues and opinions related to freedom that they might consider.

The concept of what constitutes true "freedom" is often disputed by different groups on the political spectrum. For example, in right-wing libertarianism freedom is defined in terms of lack of government interference; in particular, capitalists place a high value on freedom from government interference in the economy. This kind of freedom may be referred to as a kind of negative liberty.

Those on the political left, such as Marxists, may criticize negative liberty as placing too much emphasis on the needs of the individual, while ignoring the goal of social equality. They may be more likely to see freedom in terms of positive liberty, which can be described as the freedom to act to realize one's own potential. Freedom in this sense may include freedom from want, poverty, deprivation, or oppression. Many anarchists see negative and positive liberty as complementary concepts of freedom.

Environmentalists such as the Greens often argue that political freedoms should include some social constraint on use of ecosystems. They maintain there is no such thing, for instance, as "freedom to pollute" or "freedom to deforest" given the downstream consequences. The popularity of SUVs, golf, and urban sprawl has been used as evidence that some ideas of freedom and ecological conservation can clash. This leads at times to serious confrontations, e.g. the Earth Liberation Front's arson of homes encroaching on the desert, and clashes of values reflected in advertising campaigns, e.g. that of PETA regarding fur.

In jurisprudence, freedom is the right of autonomously determining one's own actions; generally it is granted in those fields in which the subject has no obligations to fulfill or laws to obey, according to the interpretation that the hypothetical natural unlimited freedom is limited by the law for some matters.