As one of the many ways it is celebrating Black History Month, Major League Baseball (MLB) partnered with the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum and Black-owned creative entities Invisible Collective and animation studio Martian Blueberry on original animated series Undeniable. Invisible’s founder and baseball fan Justin Polk creatively spearheaded the project and co-directed with Carl Jones, who is both a director for Invisible and the founder of Martian Blueberry.

Undeniable tells stories of the Negro Leagues, starting with some of the women who made an impact in the leagues. Three episodes of the series, each approximately five minutes long, will air across MLB’s social and digital platforms during February, which is Black History Month.

Episode one, “Women of the Negro Lines,” tells the stories of female Negro League players Toni Stone, Connie Morgan and Mamie “Peanut” Johnson. It premiered on February 1, which is National Girls & Women in Sports Day.

Episode two will release on Wednesday, February 8 and explore the Negro League’s international impact. Episode three, featuring iconic Black players Jackie Robinson and Monte Irvin, releases on Wednesday, February 15.

Major League Baseball is bringing Undeniable directly to Historically Black College & University campuses, screening the episodes and then holding career fairs at Southern University on January 31 and on February 23 at Bowie State University. Representatives from Invisible Collective and Martian Blueberry will also participate on a panel and Q&A with students at Bowie State on how the project came to life.

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CREDITS

Client: Major League Baseball

Chief Operations & Strategy Officer: Chris Marinak

EVP, Chief Marketing Officer: Karin Timpone

SVP, Creative and Content Marketing: Scott Weisenthal

VP, Creative Studio: Geoff Proud

Director, Projects, Creative and Content Marketing: Gordon Lessersohn

Director, Production: Matt Mantyla

Producer: Palmira Ríos Segura

Project Manager: Gemma Kaneko

Project Manager: Danielle Skowronek

VP, Social Responsibility: April Brown

Director, Community Affairs: Kevin Moss

Created by Justin Polk, Beau Abbott and Bryan Abbott

Production Company: Invisible Collective

Live Action Director: Justin Polk

Executive Producer: Sam Kelly Jr.

Director of Photography: Adam Bial

Writers: Justin Polk, Beau Abbott and Bryan Abbott

Animation Studio: Martian Blueberry

Animation Director: Carl Jones

Executive Producers: Love Barnett, Omar McClinton and Carl Jones

Animation Supervision: Vini Wolf and Agenor Furigo Neto

Coordinators: Ana Carolina Antunes

Animation Editor: Alaric C. Martin

Art Director: Diego Molano

Animation Compositors: Ryan Cunningham, Danyell Dean

Music Composition by: Mark Iacone

Sound Post-Production: Fiddle Leaf Sound

Sound Design and Mix: Ben Freer

Color and Finishing: Guide Era VFX

Colorist/Flame Artist: Evan Guidera

Tags: black history month invisible collective major league baseball martian blueberry negro leagues


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