In Los Angeles, POV co-hosted a sneak preview screening of Dalya’s Other Country with the Independent Documentary Association and the Skirball Cultural Center. California has one of the largest populations of Syrian refugees in the country, and the response from Los Angeles was overwhelming: over 250 people turned out to the Tuesday night screening. Prior to the screening, attendees explored a special exhibition called “Future Aleppo,” a model of the city. The installation was created by a 12 year-old Syrian refugee as a vision of hope for rebuilding Aleppo. To honor of attendees who were observing Ramadan, after the film, audience members were invited to break bread at an Iftar, the traditional fast-breaking meal. The evening continued with a screening of an excerpt from the Oscar-nominated file 4.1 Miles, followed by a post-screening conversation. The panel featured Dalya’s Other Country co-producer Mustafa Rony Zeno; film subject, Dalya Zeno; Daphne Matziaraki, director of 4.1 Miles; and the Skirball Center’s “Future Aleppo” curator, Cate Thurston. Simon Kilmurry, Executive Director of the International Documentary Association, moderated the discussion.

Meanwhile, in New York, POV partnered with the New York Times Op-Docs team to host an evening of films and discussion on the Syrian war and global refugee crisis. At Manhattan Center Productions’ TV-1 studio, attendees viewed clips from the POV films Dalya’s Other Country, The War Show, 4.1 Miles, and Last Men in Aleppo, followed by a panel discussion with Julia Meltzer; director of Dalya’s Other Country, Jennifer Patterson, deputy executive director at USA for UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency; and Alaa Hassan, producer of The War Show. The panel was moderated by Michael Slackman, international editor for the New York Times. 

To open the discussion, Slackman spoke about the capacity of documentary to help us maintain a sense of urgency about the Syrian crisis—a humanitarian disaster that, despite its “truly epic” scale, often seems remote. “It feels something like the world has grown weary talking about refugees,” he remarked. “No matter that more people have been displaced than at anytime in recent history.” Despite our day-to-day passivity, there are moments when an image or a film clip has grabs us by the shoulders and demands action. A photo of a drowned child washed up on a beach, tiny sneakers still on his feet. A child whose parents loved him, and who could belong to any of us. “That is when the world seems to focus,” Slackman said. “These are real people, living real lives, putting one foot in front of the other, hoping each day is better than the next.”

The theme of how to humanize refugees resonated with all the panelists. Julia Meltzer, director of Dalya’s Other Country, emphasized that a crisis like the Syrian war “could happen anywhere.” Although westerners often think of the Middle East as an impossibly violent region where war has become the norm, many Syrian refugees were “regular, middle-class, educated people” before the war began. One of Meltzer’s aims was to show Dalya as a normal teenager who experienced the same anxieties, pressures, and identity questions as a typical American girl; through Dalya, Western viewers can see that the victims of the Syrian crisis are more similar to us than different. At the same time, Dalya’s Other Country is a story of a mother and daughter navigating their dual identities as both Americans and as Muslims.  Meltzer pointed out that Dalya was more eager than her mother to publicly celebrate her Muslim identity, She attended Holy Family, a Los Angeles high school “full of immigrants,” and was encouraged to represent her heritage proudly. Rudayna, on the other hand, had more experience with persecution: she was cautious and often apprehensive, even hiding her hijab in fear of the Islamophobic attacks that spiked during Donald Trump’s election campaign.

Jennifer Patterson of USA for UNHCR, an independent NGO that supports UN Human Rights Commission’s work resettling refugees, said that Americans only became aware of the Syrian refugee crisis in 2015, years after the carnage had begun. In the fall of that year, there was an “outpouring of support” for Syrians, as previously disengaged Americans began to donate money through social media campaigns and Kickstarter. Still, Patterson noted, the UNHCR has referred less than one percent of the 65.6 million refugees registered worldwide for resettlement in United States. And contrary to popular perceptions about a flood of Muslim refugees, the majority of Syrians resettled in the U.S. are Christians. European countries such as Germany and Norway, as well as Canada, pull more than their weight in accepting refugees.

Alaa Hassan, producer of The War Show and a Syrian emigré himself, argued that Americans’ interest in helping refugees has been both short-lived and misguided. He said that Syrians have felt abandoned by the international community. People wanted to help in the aftermath of high-profile violence, but aid efforts failed to address the geopolitical root causes of the Syrian war.

Patterson and Hassan addressed the misconception that most refugees dream of emigrating to the United States. In fact, most want desperately to stay in their home countries, and seek asylum in any country where they’ll be safe. While most refugees intend to stay in their host countries only temporarily until it is safe to return, Patterson said, some spend up to 20 years abroad, due to continuing instability and violence in their home countries.

When an audience member asked what we can do to support Syrians, Hassan spoke from his own experience in the United States. “Refugees don’t want you to pity them.” Like most Americans, refugees want work and education, not charity (although donations can be vital in times of crisis). The best we can do is form real relationships with refugees, and help them integrate into their host societies. Remember that many refugees were highly skilled professionals in their home countries: help them find ways to use their talents to contribute to their new communities.

As for donations, Hassan said, donate to small grassroots organizations, not governments or large NGOs. This will ensure that the money actually helps people in need, rather than getting funneled into bureaucratic costs.

Finally, in this era of “fake news” and media manipulation, we can help the Syrians’ cause by calling out falsehoods and disseminating accurate information. The Syrian regime uses a sophisticated propaganda campaign as a weapon of war. We must be vigilant for misinformation and seek out credible news sources, helping spread these sources within our network. Documentarians like Hassan and Meltzer play a vital role in society. They help spread the truth across borders—both factual and emotional. By viewing their films, people around the world come to see the Syrian crisis as a human story, and are galvanized to take action. “Our job is to tell stories,” said Hassan. “We want the world to know so we don’t have the same experience in the future, anywhere in the world.”

“This is a 100-minute account of lives lived in hell, without proper medicine and housing, where a gathering of friends is considered a legitimate bombing target.” — Charlie Phillips, The Guardian

“The title of Feras Fayyad’s documentary Last Men in Aleppo suggests heroism and disaster, as befits its subject.” — Peter Keough, Boston Globe

“Feras Fayyad’s viscerally immediate, exquisitely realized portrait of the Syrian Civil Defense’s ‘White Helmet’ volunteers at the frontline of the conflict in Syria’s decimated capital … provides viewers with the most sensorily vivid and empathetic sense yet of how it feels to live (and die) through the carnage.” — Guy Lodge, Variety

“Frequently heartbreaking and hard to watch … the film demands to be reckoned with as a testament to the selflessness and courage of these literal life savers.” — Boyd van Hoeij, The Hollywood Reporter 

“A cool, objective film critic could complain that Last Men in Aleppo becomes repetitious, but it’s that repetition that eats into your mind and makes objectivity foolish.” — David Edelstein, Vulture

“[This film forms] a vital and necessary window into the prologue and ongoing horror of what the region continues to face.” — Steve Green, IndieWire

“Last Men balances the visceral and the melancholy.” — Mark Jenkins, NPR

At the 2017 PBS Annual Meeting, a screening of August Wilson: The Ground on Which I Stand featured actress Phylicia Rashad, filmmaker Sam Pollard, executive producer Darryl Ford Williams, and American Masters series executive producer Michael Kantor.

Local collaboration, education, and social impact are hallmarks of public media engagement, and WQED has creatively used these elements to produce dynamic initiatives within the Pittsburgh community. Darryl Ford Williams, the Vice President of Content oversees the development, production and program delivery for WQED. Under her leadership, the station has presented a number of compelling documentary films along with impactful engagement initiatives.

One initiative featured the highly acclaimed August Wilson: The Ground On Which I Stand, for which Ford Williams also served as the film’s Executive Producer. Presented by WNET’s American Masters series, the project was awarded with a funding grant, and embarked on an engagement tour in four major cities. The station also participated in the release of the multi-award winning The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution – the first feature documentary to provide in-depth coverage of the Black Panthers. Before the film was broadcast on Independent Lens (IL), a preview was presented to the Pittsburgh community via IL’s Indie Lens Pop-Up engagement series (see trailer here). The partnership resulted in a dynamic discussion with a former Panther member from Pittsburgh. Also, via POV’s Emmy-nominated American Promise (see trailer here), WQED worked in their community to promote a robust education initiative that helped to reshape the image of African American boys. American Promise‘s post-screening program featured filmmakers Joe Brewster and Michèle Stephenson, and their son Idris who is a subject in the film. Richard Gray, J.D., director of community organizing and engagement at the Annenberg Institute for School Reform also participated in the conversation, along with executive leaders from Robert Morris University, Uzuri Think Tank, Urban Innovation21, and A+ Schools.

The station has continued to build strong community ties through locally produced films such as, Your Vote, Your Voice. The documentary not only provided significant outreach to the Latino community, it also produced partnerships with institutions such as Our World Affairs Council based in Argentina. WQED was able to strengthen and expand their relationships with local businesses as well. Additional initiatives include a weekend program called the “Filmmaker’s Corner,” which showcases films by Pittsburgh filmmakers, or films about Pittsburgh.

WQED’s vast range of innovative ideas and local focus have not only created unique and memorable programs, but have also helped to provide additional funding opportunities, as well as diverse range of meaningful partnerships with local organizations, businesses, and public officials in Pittsburgh. Their engagements efforts have become a great example of how stations can creatively use independent film to serve within their communities.

Join us next week for our last installment in this engagement series!

A portrait of an effective criminal justice reform movement in America

“We are village people. We have village values. And those values compel us to take care of each other, our families and our country,” says Abby Abinanti, chief judge of the Yurok Tribal Court and the first Native American woman admitted to the State Bar of California. Tribal Justice spotlights tribal courts that incorporate indigenous customs and beliefs into their justice systems. The film follows Abby Abinanti and Claudette White, chief judges in two of the more than 300 tribal courts across the country, as they navigate cross-jurisdictional issues in their courts and communities.

Tribal Justice has its national broadcast premiere on the PBS documentary series POV (Point of View) on Monday, August 21, 2017 at 10 p.m. (check local listings). POV is American television’s longest-running independent documentary series, now in its 30th season.

White is the chief judge of the Quechan Tribal Court in the Southern California desert. She says the affiliated tribe has been “vastly diminished,” but never removed from its homeland. “We have a lot of social ills in our community based on our location and the limitation to services,” she says. “In my capacity as chief judge, what I’m fighting for is our people, our independence, our sovereignty, our existence.”

White sees Abinanti as a mentor, and both women are focused on restoring their communities rather than punishing offenders. The Yurok and Quechan tribes are the two largest in California. Each faces its own unique issues, but Abinanti and White share the goal of increasing safety and decreasing incarceration in an effort to dismantle the school-to-prison pipeline. Both judges are passionate about preserving their cultures and creating new pathways to justice for families dealing with historical trauma and intergenerational addiction.

“You guys could be leaders in our community or you could help destroy our community,” White tells two teenage boys in her court.

Studies show that rural areas and American Indian reservations are plagued by the manufacturing, trafficking and use of crystal methamphetamine. Reservations are targeted by non-Native drug cartels. Native Americans have the highest meth usage of any ethnic group in the nation, resulting in extremely high crime and incarceration rates. Abinanti remarks, “The state has a lot of responsibility for all the people. I have responsibility to one set of people—6,000 Yuroks and their families. And that’s what I’m responsible for: for that and for this land.”

Viewers first meet Taos Proctor, a large and gregarious young man, in Abinanti’s tribal court in 2013. While out on parole from San Quentin State Prison, Proctor was arrested with methamphetamine on his person; he is facing a third-strike conviction and 25 years to life in prison. Over two years, the film follows Abinanti and her staff as they take on Proctor’s case and help him to complete court programs and rebuild his life.

A thousand miles to the south, White invokes the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 to reunite an autistic and epileptic 9-year-old boy with his family. She also takes on a more personal case when she becomes the legal guardian to her troubled teenage nephew, Isaac Palone. Palone has recently left a group home and faces two felony charges for breaking into cars; his case is in state court rather than tribal court, and he is at risk of beginning a life shuttling in and out of prison.

Tribal Justice contradicts the entrenched mainstream narrative that depicts Native Americans as locked in hopeless circumstances as their tribes vanish. Abinanti and White’s struggles and triumphs tell a different story, one of strong female leaders working alongside their people to affirm tribal sovereignty and break free of the systems of poverty and inequality confronting Native Americans today.

Director Anne Makepeace says that she was immediately moved by the two judges upon meeting them in 2013 and felt that audiences needed to know about their work. “I realized the film would educate a broad audience about something few Americans know about—tribal courts—and that it could have a tremendous positive impact on our criminal justice system.”

“Tribal Justice challenges viewers to reexamine the current definition of justice in America,” says POV executive producer Justine Nagan. “Through the often personal experiences of two powerful women striving to elevate their people through the tribal court process, Anne Makepeace gives us the opportunity to watch a rarely seen justice system effectively at work.”

About the Filmmaker:

Anne Makepeace, Director, Producer

Anne Makepeace has been a writer, producer and director of award-winning independent films for more than three decades. Her previous documentary, We Still Live Here, about the return of the Wampanoag language, had its broadcast premiere on the PBS series Independent Lens. Other recent films by Anne Makepeace include: I.M. PEI: Building China Modern (PBS broadcast on American Masters in 2010) and her Emmy-nominated feature documentary Rain in a Dry Land (POV 2007). Makepeace’s American Masters/PBS documentary Robert Capa: In Love and War, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2003, won an Emmy. Her first documentary, Baby It’s You (POV 1998), premiered at Sundance and screened at the Whitney Biennial 2000.

Credits:

Producer/Director: Anne Makepeace; Executive Producer: Ruth Cowan; Production Consultant: Jennifer Walter; Co-Producers: Daniel Golding (Quechan) and Lori Nesbit (Yurok); Cinematographer: Barney Broomfield; Editor: Russell Greene; Composer: Chris Ruggiero; Executive Producers for POV: Justine Nagan and Chris White; Executive Producer for Vision Maker Media: Shirley K. Sneve

When: 7/11/2017 at 6:00 p.m.

The Principal Story by Tod Lending and David Mrazek

Join the Maiden Branch Library for a free screening of The Principal Story. This is the kickoff event for the Adult Summer Learning Program school supply drive. For more information, visit librarynews.catawbacountync.gov or call 828-428-2712.

The Principal Story Conversation Starter:

What did you learn from the film about what it takes to turn a school around, to take it from being a toxic environment to being a place where people are proud to work and families want to send their kids?

Visit our local events calendar for a full list of events happening across the country and join our Community Network to host a screening of your own!

As a tip of the hat to POV, I asked some filmmakers to share their love for a series that not only reaches millions of viewers, but, clearly, also a wide, diverse and appreciative community of documentary professionals.

“I watched and adored POV films in the years before I had my own films as a director and producer, like Tongues Untied and the films of Alan Berliner. First, you watch these movies and then you get to work with the people who made them. When I made My Perestroika, POV took me on on the basis of a ten-minute reel. I knew where my broadcast would be during three years of production. You feel proud to be a part of it and there’s pride in the accssibility to the entire country. If you care about reaching the broadest audience possible, you can be proud to be a part of POV.”
– Robin Hessman (My Perestroika)

“POV was a doula for me for my first film, Street Fight. I didn’t know anybody. I didn’t have money or relationships. And they welcomed me to the world of documentary filmmaking.”
– Marshall Curry (Street Fight., Racing Dreams, If A Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front)

“The great thing about POV is they showcase documentaries that tell honest and true stories about their subjects. Two Towns of Jasper is one of my favorites. The staff really cares about the craft and the filmmakers.”
– Michael Fequiere (former POV intern, director of KOJO: A Short Documentary)

“They released the first film that I was a director on, If A Tree Falls. I don’t think I realized how I lucky was. But the by the second time, for Art and Craft, I knew. They made my career.”
– Sam Cullman (If A Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front, Art and Craft)

Read more about the films that make up POV’s 30th season on PBS.

Get more documentary film news and features: Subscribe to POV’s documentary blog, like POV on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter and Instagram!

Penelope Falk is an award-winning editor with over 15 years of documentary experience. She most recently edited Step, which won a Special Jury Award at Sundance this year and will open in theaters August 4, and Bright Lights: Starring Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds, which premiered at Cannes and was broadcast on HBO. Other editing credits include Maidentrip (SXSW Audience Award 2013) and Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work (Sundance Excellence in Editing Award 2010). This year, she’s a mentor to editor Leigh Johnson through the Karen Schmeer Film Editing Fellowship.

Leigh: I thought I could get meta and talk to you about mentorship. You’ve told me about some people who have been mentor type figures in your own career, and I’m curious about how that happened for you.

Penny: I love editors. One of the reasons I became an editor is that I was in a job where a lot of editors came through, and I thought they were smart, engaged and curious. I wanted to be just like them. And I was right, it’s a great world that I love being a part of. We’re oddly not competitive, we all help each other get work, and it’s just something organic that happens. So I found three people who became my mentors – Toby Shimin, Jonathan Oppenheim, and Jay Freund – who helped me, and still help me, figure out how to navigate the doc world.

Jay would say things to me and I would actually run home and write them down. Like, “there’s no such thing as a cutaway.” I went home and wrote that down. Because I didn’t know anything about editing! “Every shot has to resolve the last and set up the next.” And another thing, I fight to this day about this with directors: “A scene can only be about one thing.” That is so important. Not that a scene can’t be complicated, have nuance, have layers of complexity, but it should just be about one thing.

Leigh: So how did those relationships develop?

Penny: Jennifer Fox did a thirteen part series for PBS where she hired inexperienced editors, and we spent a year cutting. Then after PBS came in for feedback, she decided to hire more experienced editors, but still kept me around. She had me sit behind Jonathan Oppenheim for two months, and I would watch him cut. And that’s actually how I learned. It was funny because he would do something that I wouldn’t understand, and I’d literally furrow my brow. Without turning around Jonathan would be like, “What? What’s your problem?”

We became friends, as I did with Toby and Jay who were also working on the series. It wasn’t conscious, I wasn’t pursuing them to be my mentors, it just happened. I remember going out with Jonathan when I didn’t know what to do next, and he gave me great advice which I quote all the time for people who are starting out. “Work in the world you want to be in.” Most editing jobs are in reality television. But if you don’t want to work in reality television, don’t work in reality television. Because that’s how you make your contacts.

Leigh: I was going to ask you to conjure up some pearls of wisdom from Jonathan Oppenheim so I’m glad you started spontaneously doing that.

Penny: My first job doing a feature film, Jonathan was working next door so we shared a wall. It was called Bombay Eunuch, a vérité film. I didn’t know what the hell I was doing. I ran into Jonathan’s office, and I said, “Jonathan! There are no scenes in this film! What do I do??” He looked at me and said, “A smile can be a scene.”

I was like, “Great!” And I ran back, and I sat back down, and I was like, “What the hell does that mean?”

Leigh: In the time I’ve known you, one of the pearls of wisdom that you’ve taught me is about having one word or concept that nails down what a film is about. Could you talk about that idea and give some examples from the films you’ve edited?

Penny: Right, the post-it thing. Well it’s funny because I was just reading a book about the history of Fiddler on the Roof. The play wasn’t working until they came up with the song “Tradition.” They put it at the top, and then you see the whole thing through the lens of tradition. So the play came together when they put that song in.

What happens is I watch the footage and I try to figure out what I think the thematic principle of the film is. And I literally will write it on a post-it and put it on my computer to remind me that this is my organizing principle as I cut the film. It’s not like every single thing has to be about that, but pretty much every single thing has to be about that. The Joan Rivers post-it was “relevance.” For Step I had “double minority.”

For Maidentrip, my post-it was “home,” because it was about a girl’s search for home. In the opening lines of the film, she says when she was three on a boat with her family she felt like she was home. But when I first got that footage, I didn’t see that. In fact, I wasn’t convinced there was a film there. I called up the director and said that it’s a short. It’s a girl on a boat with nothing going on. And I went out to dinner with my mentor Jonathan and his wife Josie who is a psychoanalyst. And I said, “There’s no film here!” Josie told me, “You’re an asshole. You have a fourteen year old girl who is choosing to be alone in the middle of the ocean. Why?” And she was totally right.

Leigh: Can you think of a particularly difficult problem you were having in a film where feedback from a colleague or mentor helped things click into place?

Penny: Jennifer Fox introduced me to the idea of “setting the clock” when I edit a film. It means that at the top of the film, you somehow let your audience know when the film will be over. It’s similar to setting up a question or conflict that will be answered or resolved by the end. It’s a way to create narrative momentum as well as provide a framework that allows the audience to settle in and enjoy the ride. Of course, not all documentaries do this (think Wiseman, Maysles) but it’s a tool I’ve found quite effective through the years.

We were having rough cut screenings for Joan Rivers and although people were enjoying the movie, I could sense it wasn’t quite gelling for them. Close but not 100%. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. When Toby Shimin watched, she suggested we put a title card at the top of the film letting the audience know that this was a year in the life of Joan Rivers. Although she didn’t use the term “setting the clock,” she (correctly) thought this would let the audience understand the parameters of the film. We put in a card after the title that says “a year in the life of a semi-legend,” and such a seemingly small fix made quite the difference. It was like the bow on the box that made the package complete.

I show all my mentors my work and listen to them. But sometimes I don’t agree with them, by the way.

Leigh: Well, I think specifically in editors there’s this interesting grouping of qualities that you need, which is the ability to be super flexible and take tons of feedback from multiple points of view, but then you also need to be strong in your own opinions. And it seems like those could be contradictory, but they both need to exist.

Penny: Yes. I have a pearl of wisdom to spit at you! Are you ready? “Listen to people’s problems, never their solutions.”

I love feedback sessions, to me it’s a tool of our trade. But when people watch films, they tend to give solutions, like “here’s what you need to do.” But they don’t know what you’re dealing with. So listen to people’s problems, never their solutions. Find out what’s not working for them. I think since I go into feedback sessions like that, it’s not a problem for me. It’s about what’s working for the film, what’s not working for the film. I think it feels a lot more personal for directors, like an attack on them and their vision.

I trust my gut, but I also know I’m wrong all the time. You can’t be a good editor if you’re not willing to be wrong. I’m wrong constantly! In the film I’m working on now, I haven’t had screenings yet, and there’s one character I’m in love with. There’s something about him that just touches my heart. But I’ve seen hundreds of hours of him, and I’m not sure if a distilled version of him will make people feel the way I do about him. So I sent my mentor Toby Shimin a bunch of scenes from my current film and told her, “I really like this, am I crazy?”

Leigh: I want to see some of your scenes! You should send them to me!

Penny: You should come visit me.

Leigh: I’ll come sit behind you and furrow my brow.

Penny: That would be great.

~~

Rapid Fire with Penny

Favorite documentary of all time? Marwencol, Exit Through the Gift Shop and Metallica: Some Kind of Monster.
Favorite documentary of the past year? Cameraperson.
Funniest documentary you’ve ever seen? The Aristocrats.
Editor(s) you admire? My mentors, and also Jean Tsien, Mona Davis, Geoff Richman, Mike Levine and David Zieff
Avid, Premiere, or Final Cut? Final Cut 7 or Avid, I won’t cut on Premiere. The font’s too small I can’t see!
Software tip or trick that changed your life? The “TTTT” in Final Cut that moves everything to the right in the timeline, there’s a way to do that in Avid and once I found that out it changed my life.
Favorite film festival? Full Frame, I go every year with 25 editors from New York for the past ten years, it’s heaven.
Common misconception about editors or editing? That we’re lousy lovers?
Favorite snack in the edit room? Coffee and Chobani yogurt.
Longest feature doc edit you’ve done? 15 months.
Shortest feature doc edit you’ve done? 7 months.
The most footage you’ve ever worked with for a film? 700 hours for The New Public.
Ideal length for a documentary? 84 minutes. And Step is 83 minutes 59 seconds.

Awarded annually, the Karen Schmeer Film Editing Fellowship was created in 2010 to honor the memory of gifted editor Karen Schmeer. This year’s application deadline will be in the fall.

Get more documentary film news and features: Subscribe to POV’s documentary blog, like POV on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter and Instagram!

June 29, 2017 — New York, N.Y. — POV and The New York Times embedded mediamaker project reached its final triumphant milestone this week as the piece “6 Years and Desegregating a School” by Bayeté Ross Smith and Logan Jaffe published in the Times today.

Beginning in 2016, POV partnered with The New York Times on the project, in which three filmmakers fluent in digital media spent several months working at The Times, creating interactive video projects about race and ethnicity. The work was co-produced by senior editorial staff at POV and The Times‘ video and national desks and its Race/Related newsletter. The mutual goal was to produce bold, challenging projects about race that neither The Times nor POV would create on their own, and, for POV, to explore new avenues of digital distribution.

About the Mediamakers:

Bayeté Ross Smith is a photographer, multimedia artist and filmmaker from Harlem, N.Y. He began his career as a photojournalist with Knight Ridder. Ross Smith has exhibited his work internationally with institutions such as the San Francisco Arts Commission, the Brooklyn Museum, the Oakland Museum of California, the Schomburg Center, the Unseen Photo Festival (Amsterdam), Goethe-Institut (Ghana) and Zacheta National Gallery of Art (Poland). His collaborative projects “Along The Way” and “Question Bridge: Black Males” were showcased at the Sundance Film Festival among other festivals. His accolades include an International Center of Photography Infinity Award for New Media. Ross Smith is a faculty member at the International Center of Photography and New York University and associate program director of the nonprofit Kings Against Violence Initiative. Follow Bayeté Ross Smith on Twitter and Instagram @BayeteKenan.

Logan Jaffe was the multimedia producer of WBEZ’s Curious City, a news-gathering experiment that answers listeners’ questions about the Chicago region. She is the producer of Battle Flag, an interactive documentary about the Confederate flag’s place in America, which was featured in The Atlantic, The Guardian and The Washington Post. Following her time as a mediamaker, Logan joined The Times as a producer/journalist on their 360 video team. Follow Logan Jaffe on Twitter @loganjaffe.

Saleem Reshamwala is a video producer based in Durham, N.C., whose work has focused on culture, race and music. Reshamwala has created work for LinkedIn, Soccer.com and PBS Digital Studios, for which he filmed rappers and beatmakers in Senegal, Ethiopia, Fiji, Panama and the Democratic Republic of Congo (for the web series “Beat Making Lab”). He also had “an incredibly weird” two-year stint as an art assistant at Seventeen Magazine. Reshamwala has studied, worked or hung out in 50 countries and is fluent in English, Japanese and Final Cut. He has degrees in journalism and philosophy from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Follow Saleem Reshamwala on Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat @kidethnic.

About the projects

Confronting Racist Objects: A Painful Past Still Present

Racist objects remain pervasive in America today – so how can we use them to face our past? POV embedded mediamaker Logan Jaffe, working in collaboration with The New York Times’ Race/Related team, received hundreds of stories from everyday Americans about reconciling, reclaiming and reinterpreting racist objects. Watch video and read some of their stories.

Exit Poll Oversimplification

This election year has often felt like one enormous swarm of poll numbers, vote forecasts and nonstop statistical analysis. All this number crunching led POV Mediamaker Saleem Reshamwala and The New York Times’ Giovanni Russonello to wonder what might be missed when we try to describe entire groups as being uniformly for or against a presidential candidate.

Who, Me? Biased?

Our subconscious brain makes all sort of quick – and not always fair – decisions about everything, including race. Saleem Reshamwala, one of POV’s mediamakers embedded at The New York Times, looks at research into implicit bias and tangible ways we can improve.

Hyphen Nation

The filmmaker and artist Bayeté Ross Smith asked nine different Americans of varied backgrounds questions about when they have felt most and least American. You can see their answers in Hyphen-Nation, a video, art and interactive project – and you can also participate.

#HereIsMyAmerica revisited

Earlier this year Bayeté Ross Smith, one of POV’s mediamakers working on a collaboration with the New York Times’ Race/Related team, launched a project to collect images of a diverse America. Hundreds of people contributed vibrant photos and stories about their lives, and a selection of those have now been published at The Times.

#AwkwardRaceQuestions:

For the past few months, three POV mediamakers have been embedded at The New York Times working on projects about race and ethnicity. Along the way, they asked each other a bunch of awkward questions about race and answered those questions on Instagram. Dive into the entire conversation.

Daily 360: Firsthand Account: The Assassination of Malcolm X

The civil rights leader Malcolm X was killed Feb. 21, 1965, at a rally in New York City. In this project by Bayeté Ross Smith, we hear from a witness, A. Peter Bailey, and visit the site of the assassination — in the past, present, and in 360 video.

As vice president, Olukemi will oversee the strategic direction, expansion and operation of POV’s interactive projects and partnerships, digital labs and new initiatives. POV Digital continues to explore the future of independent nonfiction media through its digital productions and the POV Digital Lab, where media makers and technologists collaborate to reinvent storytelling forms.

Olukemi brings a proven track record of successfully created spaces and pipelines for interdisciplinary artists, communities, and content teams to experiment with and create meaningful, innovative content. “I am thrilled that Opeyemi will be joining our team,” said Justine Nagan, executive producer/executive director of POV | American Documentary. “She shares our values and our focus on creative innovation in non-fiction, and will bring passion and a strong network to the position. Her leadership will help the organization build on our recent successes and continue to lead in this space.”

“I am honored to lead the new stage of interactive storytelling at POV and to continue to innovate within the media landscape,” said Olukemi. “In an age of accelerating change, it is paramount that we equip authentic storytellers with the appropriate technologies and techniques to create the most transformative and impactful media possible.”

Before joining POV, Olukemi was the senior director of interactive programs for the Tribeca Film Institute, where she oversaw the TFI New Media and TAA Prototype Funds and led the institute’s interactive programs. Prior to TFI, she produced for ScrollMotion and managed teams of designers, programmers and third-party vendors to build new media applications for clients such as Disney, O: The Oprah Magazine and Genentech.

PBS Annual Meeting Discussion Highlight:

KTTZ at Texas Tech University

The next installment in our blog series “Making Independent Film Work for Your Station” puts into focus the work of Paul Hunton, General Manager at KTTZ at Texas Tech University. Hunton and his team have produced world-class stories about their community in Lubbock, Texas that not only resonate with local citizens, but have been recognized by the industry as well, garnering the station several Emmy Awards. However, the impact of KTTZ extends well beyond the broadcast — their vision includes thoughtful, partnership-based initiatives and powerful film screening engagements that feature documentaries curated by POV and Independent Lens.

Paul’s engagement model includes a highly successful, three-pronged strategy that is reciprocal and produces measurable results. The plan consists of the following elements:

• Connect: who is the audience is for the event?
• Engage: where do we engage with our target demographic?
• Invest: how do we invest in them and they in us?

One example includes the acclaimed film TRAPPED by award-winning director, Dawn Porter (watch the trailer here). The film addressed the controversial reproductive health battle surrounding TRAP laws and the closing of women’s health clinics in southern states. The collaboration on the film began at a previous PBS Annual Meeting where Paul and Dawn met in person. What followed was a collaboration that included key partnership that advocated for community concerns, embraced online engagement, and more.

What does all mean? How did film engagement advance the KTTZ mission and serve their Texas community? Well, not only did their viewership increase, parts of Texas HB2 bill were repealed by the Supreme Court, and the station acquired new registered voters. Take a look at Paul’s case study here for more information on how an independent film screening in your community can create similar, meaningful impact.

Next week takes us to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, as we see how WQED has been using indie film engagement to creatively break new ground in their community!

Through home movies, audio recordings, family photos, letters and interviews, Cecilia Aldarondo’s Memories of a Penitent Heart reconstructs her uncle Miguel’s New York life, one he lived far from his family, especially his religious mother. Along the way, her investigation untangles a knot of family secrets, denials and repressed conflicts.

Memories of a Penitent Heart has its national broadcast premiere on the PBS documentary series POV on Monday, July 31, 2017. POV is American television’s longest-running independent documentary series, now in its 30th season. Memories of a Penitent Heart, which premiered at the 2016 Tribeca Film Festival, is a co-presentation between POV and Latino Public Broadcasting.

Born and raised in the 1970s in Puerto Rico, Miguel Dieppa was a gay man eager to leave the island in search of Broadway fame in New York City.

Aldarondo’s investigation begins with a two-year search for Miguel’s long-time partner, Bob, who disappeared after Miguel’s funeral. When she eventually finds him, he is living in Pasadena, California, as Father Aquin, a Franciscan monk. Through the reminiscences of Aquin and others who knew him, Miguel emerges as a charismatic and vivacious actor and playwright, struggling to live comfortably in his own skin.

We see glimpses into Miguel’s restlessness in his autobiographical play, Island Fever: “I guess that’s a diagnosis for my case. It’s that feeling that creeps on up on those who have known wide spaces, or long to do so.”

Miguel seems eternally torn between two identities. His New York friends know him as Michael, a freedom-loving gay thespian, while to his family in Puerto Rico he remains Miguel, the obedient son who downplays his sexuality.

Unexpectedly, Miguel begins to get sick, and although he refuses to be tested, telltale skin lesions on his legs indicate AIDS as the underlying illness.

Miguel’s illness places Bob on a collision course with Miguel’s mother, Carmen, as the two come to represent opposing faces of faith. Fearing that her son is not yet “dead to life but dead to grace,” Carmen feels Miguel can only find redemption if he repents.

Delving into her family’s trove of secrets, Aldarondo’s Memories of a Penitent Heart examines the light and dark sides of faith and how we fight over the memories of those we love. In the director’s intensely personal film, Miguel’s friends and family reflect on their imperfect relationships. Considering her own flaws, Miguel’s sister (Aldarondo’s mother) Nylda reflects, “The bottom line is that we all need to survive and we use different ways of surviving, according to our gifts, our limitations and our circumstances.” That prompts her daughter to ask, “Can’t we survive and look out for others as well?”

Memories of a Penitent Heart is a brave and honest exhumation of buried resentments that ultimately reveals how reflections on grief, betrayal and love bring us closer to reconciliation.

“Cecilia Aldarondo’s beautiful and evocative film explores not only the difficulties of being Puerto Rican in America, but also what it means to be gay and shunned by your community, family and church,” said POV executive producer Chris White. “This personal and complex portrait of her uncle and those who loved him shows how hard it can be to reconcile religion and sexual identity—and how blurry the line between sinners and saints can be.”

About the Filmmaker:

Cecilia Aldarondo, Director, Producer, Writer

Cecilia Aldarondo is an award-winning documentary director/producer whose work has been supported by the Sundance Institute, Firelight Media, Field of Vision, the Independent Filmmaker Project, the Jerome Foundation and many others. Her feature documentary Memories of a Penitent Heart had its world premiere at the 2016 Tribeca Film Festival. She is a 2017 Women at Sundance Fellow and was named one of the “25 New Faces of Independent Film” for 2015 by Filmmaker magazine.

Credits:

Director, Producer, Writer: Cecilia Aldarondo; Cinematographer: Brennan Vance; Editor: Hannah Buck; Executive Producer: Esther Robinson; Producer: Patricia Benabe; Associate Producers: Matthew Romanelli, Nylda Aldarondo-Jeffries, Virginia Thompson; Music: Angélica Negrón; Executive Producers for POV: Justine Nagan, Chris White

When: 6/29/2017 at 7:00 p.m.

Dalya’s Other Country by Julia Meltzer

Join Girls Living Life on Purpose for a free screening of Dalya’s Other Country. For more information, visit http://www.gllopinc.org.

GLLOP offers a variety of girl empowerment programs, trainings, and services designed to inspire passion, build confidence, increase capacity, strengthen families and support teen girls as they transition to womanhood.

Visit our local events calendar for a full list of events happening across the country and join our Community Network to host a screening of your own!

“With Dalya’s Other Country… Meltzer continues her exploration of Syria by providing an intimate portrait of its diaspora. Through the unfiltered honesty of Dalya and her mother, Rudayna, the film reveals how family can become a home away from home.” — Drew Tewksbury, L.A. Weekly

“While they are citizens and not refugees, their story paints a picture of the struggles faced by Syrians who feel fear and prejudice in the United States.” — Timothy Bella, Jezebel

“It’s the feminist Muslim documentary we need.” — Nicole Einbinder, Bustle

“This is a coming-of-age story, but even more, it is an expression of humanity.” — David Ulin, Forward

“The documentary hits on many points: assimilation, Islamophobia, feminism. But one of the strongest themes is the relationship between Dalya and her mom, Rudayna.” — Lori Galarreta, Take Two

“The documentary focuses upon the stark differences between US and Syrian culture as mother and daughter struggle to balance both worlds.” — Selina Mixner, Awards Circuit

“Refugees from the Middle East can be portrayed as either victims or threats. They can also sound like real human beings once they’re allowed to tell their story. That is the lesson of Dalya’s Other Country.” — Kevin McDonough, United Feature Syndicate

There’s nothing not to like here — the film is about the group but also about music itself and the passage of time—so check out the Kickstarter page (just a few days left) and read Green’s take on this laudatory push into nonfiction creativity.

Please describe this live documentary concept.

I generally say it’s all the elements of a film, but it happens live. So I am on stage and narrate in person. There are images up on the screen — a combination of archival footage and photos and interviews I’ve filmed, and then a live band is onstage performing a soundtrack. So, it’s like a movie, but you just can’t check it out on YouTube while checking your email or binge-watching it on Netflix. Sometimes when I describe the form, people are still like, “Huh?” And so it’s best just to show a photo. I’ve attached a couple from various live documentaries I’ve made. One of these is the band Yo La Tengo. The piece is called The Love Song of R. Buckminster Fuller. That was commissioned by the SFMOMA in 2012 and we’re still touring all over the world showing that one.

What inspired you to do work with this format.

I sort of happened upon this form in 2009. I was making an experimental film about Utopia and I was stuck in the middle of editing it. I couldn’t get the film to work — to make sense to people I showed it to. At some point, Craig Baldwin at Artists’ Television Access (ATA) in San Francisco asked me to do a presentation about the project. I said, “Sure.” I would show some clips and talk. And because that sounded kind of boring, I would get my friend to do live music. We did this “presentation” and it actually worked just the way I wanted the film to work. Audiences seemed to get it, and everyone stuck around after and talked about the state of the world, the idea of utopia, and what has happened to our utopian dreams? So I filed that away. Interesting. Then someone else asked me to do the same presentation. It was Matt McCormick at the PDX festival in Portland. I made it fancier, wrote better narration and we added more music. And that worked too. It was a great screening and everyone hung out afterwards and seemed to get a lot out of the collective nature of the experience. At a certain point I thought to myself, “I’ve never seen anyone else make anything like this, but why not?” I’ve always believed that the film itself should determine its form. So, we premiered that “live film” at Sundance. It was called Utopia in Four Movements, which then toured all over the world with a band screening it. It was a fantastic experience and I’ve continued to come back to this live form just because I’m fascinated by it, by the power and potential of that kind of kinesthetic experience for audiences.

Does the Kronos Quartet have a story worth telling?

Yes! The thing that surprised me most is that they’ve been around for 44 years and no one else has made a film about them!

Who else in the doc world has had success with Kickstarter?

I have a studio in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, and my neighbors there are Gary Hustwit and Jessica Edwards. They are the doc king and queen of fundraising through Kickstarter. They are fantastic at it. Super smart about their audience and how to reach them. Gary made the films Helvetica, Objectified and many others. He just did a Kickstarter campaign for a film he’s making about the designer Deiter Rams and raised $279,000!  They have helped me a lot.

You’re an established filmmaker and this film can’t be that (relatively) expensive — why have you turned to Kickstarter? Did you try to go through other routes?

It’s always hard to raise money for films. Or at least that has always been my experience. And it’s actually harder than ever for some kinds of films. We are living in tough times for sure, and I think a lot of foundations and other grantmakers are in emergency crisis mode. Social issue documentaries are sucking up most of the air in the room these days. I’m not necessarily critical of that, I’m just saying that’s the way it is. The films I am making are political, and certainly the live documentary form is political, but my work is formally radical and lyrical as opposed to didactic; it’s not easy to sell these films in the social issue marketplace. The truth is I’d rather not do a Kickstarter campaign but I’m deep in editing right now and we are going to finish the film by January. I needed to do whatever I could to raise the rest of the budget.

How’s the Kickstarter campaign going?

Having said all of the above, I did one Kickstarter campaign before, and it really changed the way I think of them. I used to be very cynical about crowdfunding. I personally get emails about Kickstarter or Indiegogo campaigns all the time. It seemed to me really sad that the model we’ve been reduced to in making films is everybody bugging their friends for money! I hadn’t realized that there are tons and tons of people out there who don’t get emails all the time about Kickstarter campaigns and for them there might be something cool about it. I always thought this was a self-serving rationale for people who do crowdfunding, but it really is true that there are lots of people out there who are genuinely excited to help you make your work. They want to be part of the experience. There’s something really nice about that. So, the trick with crowdfunding becomes how to reach beyond your family, friends and fellow filmmakers. That feels important to me.

This one is going well. As I write this, we are 75 percent of the way to the $50,000 goal and we have five days left. We are done on June 28. It’s going to get a bit ugly between now and then, but we’ll make it. We’ll make it.

Get more documentary film news and features: Subscribe to POV’s documentary blog, like POV on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter and Instagram!

The POV Community Network is a platform for screening facilitators to explore the 100+ feature documentaries, shorts and digital projects in our lending library and host community screenings. Partners can also screen POV’s current 30th anniversary season of films prior to their PBS broadcasts-for free! The POV Community Network also offers a catalogue of resources that can be used to engage audiences in dialogue around the most pressing issues of our time, including over 200 discussion guides, standards-aligned lesson plans with streaming film clips, reading lists and publicity materials. Films and digital projects are searchable by title or topics, with one-click access to trailers and resources.

Have you ever watched a documentary and come away with a different opinion about an issue or a renewed desire to get involved? What do you do, besides urging all of your friends to view the film? Every year, POV’s community partners organize 700+ screenings, discussions, and activities to encourage civic debate and engagement.

Inspired by our partners, we put together a list of ways to use the POV Community Network to deepen viewers’ engagement and prompt action. Have more ideas? Share them with us at events@pov.org or on Twitter at @povengage!

30 Ways to Use the POV Community Network

1. Screen one of the following films about refugees. After the film, brainstorm ways you can support local organizations that resettle refugees—or start your own initiative. For example: organize a fundraiser or a drive to collect donations of supplies and food, volunteer to teach English, offer childcare, set up a peer-to-peer buddy program for refugee children and teens, organize a presentation at your school to share the stories of refugee families, offer legal or translation services and reach out to your elected officials and share your opinions about state and national policies.
   • Dalya’s Other Country
   • 4.1 Miles
   • From Damascus to Chicago
   • Neuland
   • Lost Boys of Sudan
2. Look at the Local Screenings Map and type in your zip code to find POV screenings in your area. If there are no upcoming events, find a local organization (for example, a library or community center) and reach out to them to propose a screening.
3. Invite local law enforcement officials and people who have experienced police violence to join a “Working Group” on police-community relations. At the first meeting, screen Do Not Resist. Then hold a dialogue that helps each group understand the other’s perspective and clarifies misconceptions. Make a list of shared goals, and discuss ways that police officers and community members can cooperate to reach those goals.
4. After screening one of the following films, reach out to veterans and others who have lived through war and interview them about their experiences. Try to speak to people from a range of age groups, nationalities, and genders (if possible, conduct video or phone interviews with people who aren’t in your community). Ask tough questions: did war change your relationship with your homeland? Is there such thing as justified violence? Is the world a better place after this war? How can we use the lessons from the conflicts you experienced to avoid war in the future? Using these interviews, produce an oral history project that examines the differences and commonalities of wartime experiences. Come up with a way to present these veterans’ stories to a broader community, and with each other.
   • The War Show
   • Last Men in Aleppo
   • Almost Sunrise
   • Where Soldiers Come From
   • Of Men and War
5. Choose a film on a topic that you’d like to learn more about and organize a book club. Use the Delve Deeper Reading List for the film to select a book and then screen the film at the club meeting as a way to spark discussion.
6. After screening one of the following films, find five news pieces (e.g. newspaper or magazine articles, television segments, radio clips) that address the Syrian conflict or Syrian refugees. Ask a family member or friend where they get their news, and include a piece from that outlet. Compare your pieces and assess their credibility using the media literacy standards discussed in the films’ Lesson Plans. Do the sources present conflicting information or different angles? Write a short essay that analyzes these differences and comments on the neutrality of each source. Explain your findings to the friend or family member and ask whether your discussion changes the way they approach the news source.
   • Dalya’s Other Country
   • From Damascus to Chicago
   • The War Show
   • 4.1 Miles
   • Last Men in Aleppo
   • Return to Homs
7. Set up a conversation with Muslims in your community to discuss common misconceptions about their faith and culture. Based on that conversation, create a publicity campaign to help educate others. Design posters, a video, or a game that uses humor to confront ignorance and stereotyping.
   • Dalya’s Other Country
   • The Light in Her Eyes
   • New Muslim Cool
8. Watch Koch and host a Q&A or panel discussion with longtime residents of New York City. Ask them to share their observations about how the city has changed. Have them describe some of the most influential New Yorkers that contributed to the city’s evolution. Help your guest speaker lead a tour of a New York neighborhood and have them point out landmarks of historical importance.
9. Are you an artist? A dancer, a musician, a painter or a doodler? Watch one of these films and think of ways your art can be used as a method of healing. Organize a program or event to share your art with people who are in need of healing.
   • From Damascus to Chicago
   • Seven Songs for a Long Life
   • Beats of the Antonov
   • When I Walk
   • Art and Craft
10. What responsibilities do we have towards refugees and immigrants? Screen the following films, or excerpts from these films, and host a debate about the role of the United States in helping refugees escape war and persecution.
    • Joe’s Violin
    • Al Otro Lado
    • Don’t Tell Anyone (No Le Digas a Nadie)
    • Sin Pais
    • Rain in a Dry Land
    • Lost Boys of Sudan
11. Screen one of the following films about the criminal justice system, then organize a public debate to examine the arguments for and against one of the following policies: the death penalty, the “three strikes” rule, juvenile life sentences, restorative justice as an alternative to incarceration, mental illness treatment for incarcerated individuals, prostitution, self-defense and “stand your ground” laws, hate crime sentencing guidelines, and private prisons.
    • Tribal Justice
    • 15 to Life
    • The Return
    • Out in the Night
    • Prisontown, USA
    • Presumed Guilty
12. After screening Raising Bertie, get involved with an alternative education program in your community that serves disadvantaged young people. Find ways to connect them with local mentors or resources such as office visits, presentations, job application workshops, and mock interviews. Collect the success stories of the program’s graduates and share these with current students.
13. Host a screening of Motherland and deliver a presentation about women’s reproductive health in the United States. How do statistics about maternal and infant health compare to developing countries, and other developed countries? Is there anything we can learn from other countries? Compose a policy brief that suggests ways to improve our approach to reproductive health, childbirth and parenting and send it to your elected representatives.
14. After screening Cameraperson, find photos and videos that you have shot and create a multimedia piece using these clips. If you wish, add music or commentary. Share this piece with friends and family, including those who live far away.
15. Screen My Love, Don’t Cross that River, then find a couple that has been married for more than 30 years and interview them about their marriage. What’s their secret to a successful partnership? What challenges have they faced? What has surprised them about marriage? What advice would they give to a young couple?
16. Join or start a recreational sports league. Organize a screening of Swim Team or Ping Pong and discuss how sports bring people together. Organize a program that connects experienced athletes to novices to teach them a new sport.
17. If you’re an American, chances are your family immigrated to the U.S. sometime in the last few generations. How much do you know about your family history? Choose an immigrant in your family – whether a living family member or an ancestor – and learn as much as you can about them. Where were they born and what was it like growing up in their circumstances? What brought them to America? What kind of world did they dream of and strive for? How did they get there, or what obstacles stood in their way? Ask friends to do the same, then host a potluck dinner where each guest brings a dish from their immigrant’s home country and gives a short talk about the person’s life. For inspiration, screen one of the following:
    • Memories of a Penitent Heart
    • Joe’s Violin
    • First Person Plural and In the Matter of Cha Jung Hee
    • Bronx Princess
18. Almost everyone has misconceptions about disabilities and mental illness. In a group, make a list of your assumptions about the abilities of people with autism, Downs Syndrome or other disabilities and invite a disabled person (or someone who works with disabled people) to give a presentation that addresses those preconceptions. Ask them about what they wish most people knew about them. How can your school or community change their policies to better accommodate people with disabilities?
    • Swim Team
    • The Grown-Ups
    • My Way to Olympia
    • Best Kept Secret
    • Neurotypical
19. Screen one of the following films about communities that have been displaced. Host a discussion about land ownership, displacement of indigenous communities, and forced migration. What does it mean for a group of people to feel ownership of a physical space? What is the meaning of citizenship and who should get to define it? Discuss your feelings towards your own homeland. What obligations (if any) should a community have towards the former residents of the place where they reside? If possible, invite indigenous people to speak about their experiences with migration.
    • A World Not Ours
    • Sun Kissed
    • In the Light of Reverence
    • Fallen City
20. Screen Critical Condition and host a teach-in about the United States healthcare system. Invite speakers who represent some of the following stakeholders: patients, doctors, healthcare professionals, policymakers, activists, and insurance companies. After the discussion, split into small groups and create proposals for an “ideal” healthcare system. Have each group pitch their ideas to the whole group, and compile the best ideas in a letter to your elected representatives.
21. Screen Don’t Tell Anyone (No Le Digas a Nadie) or Sin Pais and brainstorm ways to gives voice to people in your community who are afraid to speak out because of their immigration status or victimization. Create a public art project that amplifies the stories of these people in a way that makes them feel visible and supported. Invite a local elected official to an event that showcases this project and convey to them your views on immigration policy.
22. Watch excerpts from Hooligan Sparrow, Ai Weiwei, Of Civil Rights and Wrongs: the Fred Korematsu Story, and The Camden 28, and host a discussion comparing different forms of political activism in the United States and China. What are the different social problems that activists have responded to in each country? What are the challenges these activists encountered from their governments? Can Chinese and American activists learn from each other’s tactics?
23. Big Men and Food, Inc. pull back the curtain on the two major industries to reveal the origins of resources – oil and food – that most of us use everyday without a second thought. Choose a product that you use every day and do a research project on its origins. Give a presentation on that industry and discuss its impact on the people, animals and environment involved in its production. Does this change the way you will consume that product? In a group discussion, make a list of ways to make our consumption more ethical and think of ways to hold each other accountable to these goals.
24. What is masculinity? Femininity? What have your parents and role models taught you about how your gender should look and behave? Screen excerpts from one of the following films, then host a discussion with the audience. What experiences have you had that have defined your gender identity, and have you ever felt pressure to act in a certain way or participate in certain activities because of social expectations about gender? On a piece of paper, anonymously write a gender-based expectation that you wish you could change, and put these into a bowl. Pass the bowl around and have each person read aloud a piece of paper, then discuss each expectation.
    • Pink Boy
    • Girl Model
    • Where Soldiers Come From
    • Point and Shoot
    • Out in the Night
    • From This Day Forward
25. Our discussions of climate change often focus on the future. The Islands and the Whales shows us how climate change is currently affecting the day-to-day lives of fishermen on the Faroe Islands. Investigate how changes in the environment are already affecting a community, and create a piece – writing, audio, photography or video – that documents these changes. Try to center the personal experiences of individuals rather than the statistical or big-picture view of climate change, although you may wish to include that information as well.
26. After screening one of these films, write a letter to someone who is incarcerated – either someone you know or a stranger. Ask them what they miss about the outside world. Then, come up with a way to bring them an approximation of what they miss – whether it’s an art piece, a book, or the voice of a loved one.
    • What I Want My Words to Do to You
    • Herman’s House
    • 15 to Life
    • The Return
27. Use one of these films to spark a discussion about how the internet is changing our lives. Come up with a list of ways that our relationships are either strengthened or impoverished by online communication. For one week, try to change something about the way you use the internet – abstain from social media, for example, or post a daily photo diary on Instagram. Return to the group with your observations about the pitfalls of the web, and create a list of ways we can modify our internet use to feel more connected and fulfilled.
    • Presenting Princess Shaw
    • Web Junkie
    • xoxosms
28. Screen one of the following films that feature senior citizens, then interview elderly folks in your community. Ask them questions about their most memorable experiences and then stage short plays to reenact these stories. Invite multiple generations to a public performance of these plays.
    • Shalom Italia
    • StoryCorps Shorts
    • The Barber of Birmingham
    • Iris
    • The Way We Get By
29. Screen one of the following films and discuss different ways that the U.S. federal and local governments protect residents from environmental harm. Is climate change part of the conversation around public health? How can “natural disasters” hurt already-marginalized communities and exacerbate inequality? What is the government’s responsibility towards those who live in the regions most vulnerable to environmental damage?
    • I’m Carolyn Parker
    • Getting Back to Abnormal
    • Libby, Montana
    • Up the Yangtze
    • The Islands and the Whales
30. Screen Waging a Living and then lead an activity that simulates the experience of living in poverty. Assign students a character (e.g., single mom with two kids, two part-time jobs, has a medical condition) a list of items with their costs, and an income, and ask students to come up with a monthly budget. Discuss the decisions that they made about how to spend their income, and what kinds of aid the government should provide to people like that character. In the discussion, highlight the ways the government provides resources to different people (for example: the mortgage interest deduction) and note the different ways we talk about each of these government subsidies.

Visit our local events calendar for a full list of events happening across the country and join our Community Network to host a screening of your own!

June 16, 2017 — New York, N.Y. — In a series first, following events nationwide commemorating World Refugee Day on June 20, POV’s 30th season opens with three feature films and two shorts about a single subject: the Syrian war and global refugee crisis.

The 30th season begins Monday, June 26, 2017 at 9 p.m. (check local listings) on PBS with concurrent streaming at pov.org. The series continues for three weeks with each broadcast premiere airing on Monday at 10 p.m. POV is American television’s longest-running independent documentary series.

The first film in the special series, Dalya’s Other Country, follows a young Syrian girl and her mother displaced by the conflict at home as they adjust to their new life in Los Angeles. The feature documentary will premiere with two shorts, beginning with 4.1 Miles, an Oscar^®-nominated short spotlighting a small Greek town on the sea and the coast guard’s daily efforts to save thousands of migrants crossing the Mediterranean. For some refugees, new beginnings bring hope and opportunity. In From Damascus to Chicago, two young Syrian siblings resettle in Chicago and enroll in a dance class, while their family navigates a new city and new country. Dalya’s Other Country and the two shorts have their national broadcast on Monday, June 26 on PBS.

The special series then turns to the collateral damage of the Syrian civil war with The War Show and Last Men in Aleppo. Captured through the lens of radio host Obaidah Zytoon, The War Show, airing Monday, July 3, is a wrenching chronicle that starts with the country’s protests in 2011 and the youth that fueled them, then follows the country’s descent into violent conflict. Last Men in Aleppo, premiering Monday, July 10, unveils the war’s terrifying repercussions, and shines a light on the volunteer rescue workers and first responders known as the White Helmets who have stayed behind to pull their neighbors from the rubble.

“During last year’s submission process, we noticed an uptick in films featuring stories of displacement in Europe and the Middle East,” said Justine Nagan, executive producer/executive director of POV/American Documentary. “Meanwhile, elections here and abroad were throwing these issues into stark relief.”

“Given this unique historical moment and the competing narratives around the Syrian conflict and migrants here and in Europe, we felt no one voice or film could adequately capture these complex crises. Though POV has always showcased storytelling on contemporary social issues, this series is exceptional in its breadth and scope. From Los Angeles to Greece to Aleppo, filmmakers across the country and around the world are showing how these events are truly global in scale, and how few people are untouched by these developments. We’re humbled to be able to bring these stories to American audiences this summer and continue the national conversation.”

The series will follow a day of events held nationwide to honor World Refugee Day on Tuesday, June 20, a day to raise awareness of forcibly displaced people worldwide. POV will co-host two events that day, one in New York and the other in Los Angeles.

In New York, POV is partnering with the New York Times Op-Docs team for an evening screening of curated film clips from Dalya’s Other Country, The War Show and New York Times Op-Docs. A post-screening discussion will include Julia Meltzer, director of Dalya’s Other Country; Jennifer Patterson, deputy executive director at USA for UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency; and Alaa Hassan, producer and writer of The War Show. Michael Slackman, deputy international editor for The New York Times, will moderate the panel, which will be held at Manhattan Center Productions‘ TV-1 studio. Register to attend here.

In Los Angeles. POV is partnering with the Skirball Cultural Center and the International Documentary Association (IDA) for an evening screening of Dalya’s Other Country and clips from 4.1 Miles. The post-screening discussion will include Mustafa Rony Zeno, co-producer of Dalya’s Other Country; Daphne Matziaraki, director of 4.1 Miles; Cate Thompson, associate curator at the Skirball Cultural Center; and Simon Kilmurry, executive director of IDA and former executive producer/executive director of POV/American Documentary. The screening will be held at the Skirball Cultural Center in association with its new exhibition, “Future Aleppo.” Register to attend here.

Community partners across the country are also hosting screenings and conversations in recognition of World Refugee Day—15 such events in 11 states.

Highlights include:

• In partnership with the Committee in Solidarity with the People of Syria, Arrive Ministries is hosting Accidental Neighbors: Conversations on World Refugee Day at the Wilder Center in St. Paul, Minn., featuring a screening of 1 Miles and Last Men in Aleppo. The screenings will be followed by a conversation with members of the local Greek-American and Syrian-American communities.
• In partnership with Bridge Refugee Services, the Knoxville Museum of Art is hosting a screening of From Damascus to Chicago and Dalya’s Other Country as a part of its Refugee Film Festival. For more info, visit bridgerefugees.org.

Additional screenings are taking place across the United States in California, New Hampshire, Arizona, South Carolina, Colorado and New Jersey. To find other local events, visit POV’s screenings map: communitynetwork.amdoc.org/events

When: 6/20/2017 at 6:00 p.m.

4.1 Miles by Daphne Matziaraki

Last Men in Aleppo by Feras Fayyad

Join the Downtown Islamic Center for a free screening of 4.1 Miles and Last Men in Aleppo on World Refugee Day. For more information, visit www.dic-chicago.org.

Since 1976, the Downtown Islamic Center has provided educational classes, children’s programs, and daily prayers for Muslims in the loop area. Their mission is to serve not only the Chicago Muslim community but also the downtown community at large, building interfaith relationships and volunteering in the refugee community.

Visit our local events calendar for a full list of events happening across the country and join our Community Network to host a screening of your own!

Three Italian Jewish brothers search for the cave where they hid from the Nazis

On the run from Nazis, three Italian Jewish brothers spent months during their childhood hiding in a cave in the Tuscan countryside. Nearly 70 years later, after emigrating to Israel, the three reunite in the country they were forced to abandon and rediscover their hiding place. “For years I’ve wanted to find that cave, the place to which we owe our lives,” says Bubi, the youngest of the trio.

Amid hearty Tuscan meals and sweeping landscapes, the octogenarians’ quest unexpectedly swells with humor and clashing memories in Shalom Italia. Directed by Tamar Tal Anati, the film has its national broadcast premiere on Monday, July 24 at 10 p.m. (check local listings) on the PBS documentary series POV (Point of View). POV is American television’s longest-running independent documentary series, now in its 30th season. The feature film will follow the Oscar^®-nominated short Joe’s Violin, in which a donated musical instrument forges an improbable friendship between a 91-year-old Holocaust survivor and a 12-year-old Bronx school girl.

Retracing their steps, the brothers in Shalom Italia are as different as can be. Emmanuel, the oldest and a world-renowned anthropologist and archaeologist based in Israel, simply recalls misery and only agrees to the journey to make Bubi happy. “Why search for it? I don’t want to remember,” he says.

Meanwhile, Andrea, an athletic physicist just two years younger than Emmanuel, remembers an enchanted childhood: “Those were wonderful times. We lived in the woods, played Robin Hood and collected mushrooms. I had fun during the Holocaust.”

However, Bubi, 4 1/2 at the time, barely remembers the cave. “I don’t know whether family stories and my memories overlapped. It’s all a bit vague.”

“It’s human for our memories—personal or shared—to become a source of our identity,” said filmmaker Tamar Tal Anati. “Whether that memory comes from one ‘truth’ is explored by Bubi, Emmanuel and Andrea. Often it seems any particular moment can only be accurately constructed when everyone is involved, as each person’s particular recollection of an event helps piece together a larger mosaic of a shared experience. I hope Shalom Italia will inspire American audiences to reexamine their own stories and history.”

Unalike as they are, Bubi, Andrea and Emmanuel are undoubtedly brothers. They bicker over driving directions, recipes and how exactly their time in the cave should be remembered. Probing the boundaries between history and myth, the brothers soon learn their memories are not so easily unraveled. They can’t agree whether the family hid valuables with a village neighbor, or whether the bow and arrows they played with in the woods were bought at a store or fashioned by hand. “History is full of doubts,” Emmanuel, says, to which Bubi impatiently replies, “You keep doubting and contradicting everything and saying it’s not true over and over again.”

“More than 70 years after the Holocaust, the youngest survivors are advancing in age. Both Joe’s Violin and Shalom Italia raise compelling questions about how we will continue passing on that generation’s memories,” said POV executive producer Justine Nagan. “In Joe’s Violin, those connections are made across cultural and economic lines, reminding us how often our lives are woven together across common divides. On the other hand, Shalom Italia compels us to probe the limits of memory and recognize its inherent malleability.” Nagan continued, “Despite the gravity of the history, both films are immensely enjoyable and uplifting work that speak to the resiliency of humankind.”

Shalom Italia and Joe’s Violin will stream online on pov.org in concurrence with their broadcast.

About the Filmmaker:

Tamar Tal Anati, Director/Producer/Writer

Tamar Tal Anati is an award-winning filmmaker with more than 20 international awards. Her documentary Life in Stills won the Award of the Israeli Film Academy—Israel’s highest film award—for Best Documentary in 2012 and was named best film at the Docaviv International Documentary Film Festival in Tel Aviv. She was also named best new director at the Dok Leipzig international film festival in 2011.

Credits:

Director: Tamar Tal Anati; Producers: Tamar Tal Anati, Tina Leeb, Jürgen Kleinig; Executive Producer: Hilla Medalia: Editor: Boaz Leon; Writer: Tamar Tal Anati; Cinematographer: Emmanuelle Mayer; Soundtrack: Kai Tebbel; Music: Kobi Vitman; Executive Producers for POV: Justine Nagan, Chris White

* * * *

About Joe’s Violin:

In the Oscar^®-nominated Joe’s Violin, a donated musical instrument forges an improbable friendship between 91-year-old Holocaust survivor Joe Feingold and 12-year-old Bronx schoolgirl Brianna Perez, proving that the power of music can bring light into the darkest of times, and that a small act can have a significant impact. Nominated, 2017 Academy Award for Best Documentary Short Subject.

About the Filmmaker:
Kahane Cooperman is a documentary filmmaker and television producer. She is currently the executive producer and showrunner of a project with RadicalMedia for SundanceTV. Prior, she was the executive producer and showrunner of The New Yorker Presents, a series with Jigsaw Productions for Amazon Prime, and a co-executive producer of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. For her work at the latter, she received eleven Primetime Emmy awards and two Peabody awards. She directed and produced several documentaries prior to Joe’s Violin, including Cool Water, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, and Making Dazed about Richard Linklater’s Dazed and Confused, which was broadcast on AMC and acquired by the Criterion Collection. Cooperman also produced the feature doc Heidi Fleiss: Hollywood Madam, directed by Nick Broomfield. Cooperman has an MFA in film from Columbia University.

Joe’s Violin Credits: Director: Kahane Cooperman; Producers: Kahane Cooperman, Raphaela Neihausen; Executive Producer: Peter Kenney; Editors: Amira Dughri, Andrew Saunderson; Composer: Gary Meister; Director of Photography: Bob Richman; Executive Producers for POV: Justine Nagan, Chris White

At the PBS Annual Meeting held last month in San Diego, POV was proud to partner with Firelight Media and ITVS to present a panel called “Making Independent Film Work for Your Station.” The forum highlighted the proven impact of independent documentary film and its ability to draw diverse audiences, attract new viewers, and provide creative opportunities to build invaluable community collaborations.

Moderated by Marcia Smith, the multi award-winning president and co-founder of Firelight Media, the discussion provided great insight into how stations nationwide use documentaries (curated and locally produced) to raise their profiles within their community, increase membership, create impact, fundraise and more.  The following station leaders who shared about successful film engagement campaign initiatives included:

• Amy Shaw, Senior VP of Engagement and Content at Nine Network of Public Media
• Darryl Ford Williams, VP of Content at WQED
• Paul Hunton, General Manager at KTTZ at Texas Tech University
• Jamie Annuncio Myers, the COO and VP of Engagement at PBS So Cal

Amy Shaw led the panel with a dynamic presentation of her work in St. Louis, starting with the CPB funded American Graduate initiative featuring films that included POV’s All the Difference, Brooklyn Castle and American Promise. Along with those programs, she provided an effective model for public media engagement that demystified the process, and revealed impressive statistical information on the impact and value-add for partners and the community at large.

The presentation also included Independent Lens’ Black Panthers: Vanguard for a Revolution, and Nine Public Media’s compelling new local production, Gentleman of Vision (watch the trailer here) – both were used to effectively address vital local/national issues in areas such as St. Louis and Ferguson. The successful program initiatives proved that film not only increases awareness, and provides a deeper understanding of important issues, but also facilitates new opportunities, and a practical range of benefits for public media stations across the nation. Take a look at Amy’s case study here for more information on how film can create meaningful impact.

Stay tuned for our next highlight from this engaging discussion on and how independent films can help your station and community!

Get more documentary film news and features: Subscribe to POV’s documentary blog, like POV on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter and Instagram!

Distribution to Lead Theatrical Release Later This Year

Documentary to Broadcast on POV in 2018

(ARLINGTON, VA & NEW YORK, NY)— PBS announced yeterday it has acquired North American distribution rights for Bill Nye: Science Guy, which premiered at the South by Southwest Film Festival in March. Bill Nye: Science Guy follows the legendary science advocate and TV personality Bill Nye in his pursuit to ignite a passion among Americans for science and science education.

PBS Distribution (PBSd) will release the film in theaters across the country later this year, following a robust festival tour including upcoming screenings at AFI Docs in Washington, D.C. and the Los Angeles Film Festival. It will have its broadcast premiere in 2018 via PBS documentary series POV. PBSd will handle all home entertainment, digital, educational/non-theatrical and Canadian rights.

Bill Nye: Science Guy was produced and directed by David Alvarado and Jason Sussberg, produced by Seth Gordon, Kate McLean, and Nick Pampenella, executive produced by Walker Deibel, Mary Rohlich, Henry S. Rosenthal, and Chad Troutwine, and co-executive produced by Andre Gaines.

Bill Nye is on a journey to change the world. Once the host of a popular kids show, today he is the CEO of The Planetary Society where he’s leading a mission to launch a solar-powered satellite into the cosmos and advocating for the importance of science research and discovery. He is taking off “The Science Guy” costume and taking on those who deny the importance of science, with the goal of creating a more scientifically literate and engaged universe. Bill Nye: Science Guy follows the man himself as he embarks on a quest to change the world through science advocacy and education. With intimate and exclusive access, as well as plenty of wonder and whimsy, this is a behind-the-scenes portrait of “the Science Guy,” as he inspires millennials to participate in STEM. The film features Bill Nye, Neil DeGrasse Tyson, Ann Druyan, Ken Ham, Joe Bastardi, and many others.

“We are over the moon to add Bill Nye: Science Guy to our theatrical slate and to be partnering with POV to bring Bill back to PBS,” said PBS Distribution’s Head of Theatrical, Erin Owens. “The filmmakers have given us a revealing portrait of an icon whose work and personality are seared indelibly into the minds of so many Americans.  We can’t wait to bring this film to audiences across the country, and we know they’ll leave the theater further inspired by Bill Nye and his lifelong quest to making science a national priority.”

“Many of us grew up with Bill Nye the Science Guy. He loved science, and he inspired a whole generation of kids to share that passion through his PBS show,” said POV executive director/executive producer Justine Nagan. “Now, as Bill Nye has focused on his role as a champion for climate science, we hope his story and this film will spark dialogue across ideological lines. We are thrilled to bring this outstanding independent film on Bill’s life and work to public media audiences.”

“Bill Nye has long been synonymous with education, science — and PBS! So, we are thrilled to have the opportunity to partner with POV and PBSd to bring this film both to PBS audiences and to theater audiences across the country,” said Marie Nelson, Vice President of News and Independent Film, PBS. “His message of the importance of science education is as relevant today as when his show debuted on PBS nearly 25 years ago.”

Said the filmmakers, “We’re thrilled to partner with PBS, PBSd and POV to bring this film to American audiences. We grew up as middle schoolers watching Bill Nye on PBS, and we’re science filmmakers in no small part due to ‘The Science Guy.’ It’s a dream come true to have our movie in theaters and on public television, and we know our film is in good hands with the PBS family.”

The deal was negotiated by Emily Rothschild, Justine Nagan, and Chris White on behalf of PBS/POV and WME Global on behalf of the filmmakers.

About PBS Distribution

PBS Distribution is the leading media distributor for the public television community, both domestically and internationally, extending the reach of programs beyond broadcast while generating revenue for the public television system and production partners. PBS Distribution offers its customers a diverse range of programming, including Ken Burns’s films, documentaries from award-winning series such as NOVA, FRONTLINE, AMERICAN MASTERS, NATURE and AMERICAN EXPERIENCE, and dramas from MASTERPIECE, as well as films from independent producers and popular children’s programs. As a multi-channel distributor, PBS Distribution offers consumers high-quality content in multiple formats including DVD, Blu-ray, digital download and digital streaming. PBS Distribution reaches expanded audiences through PBS International, a leading source for factual content for broadcast, cable and satellite services outside of North America, and a theatrical initiative, which specializes in theatrical, festival and non-theatrical distribution.

About POV

Produced by American Documentary, Inc., POV is public television’s premier showcase for nonfiction films. Since 1988, POV has been the home for the world’s boldest contemporary filmmakers, celebrating intriguing personal stories that spark conversation and inspire action. Always an innovator, POV discovers fresh new voices and creates interactive experiences that shine a light on social issues and elevate the art of storytelling. With our documentary broadcasts, original online programming and dynamic community engagement campaigns, we are committed to supporting films that capture the imagination and present diverse perspectives. In 2017 and 2018, POV will be exploring issues related to science and the environment as part of its commitment to timely, essential stories – including the upcoming premiere of The Island and the Whales.

POV films have won 36 Emmy® Awards, 19 George Foster Peabody Awards, 12 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Awards, three Academy Awards®, the first-ever George Polk Documentary Film Award and the Prix Italia. The POV series has been honored with a Special News & Documentary Emmy Award for Excellence in Television Documentary Filmmaking, three IDA Awards for Best Curated Series and the National Association of Latino Independent Producers Award for Corporate Commitment to Diversity.

POV’s Community Engagement and Education team works with educators, community organizations and PBS stations to present more than 650 free screenings every year. In addition, we distribute free discussion guides and standards-aligned lesson plans for each of our films. Learn more at www.pbs.org/pov/. @povdocs on Twitter.

About PBS
PBS, with nearly 350 member stations, offers all Americans the opportunity to explore new ideas and new worlds through television and digital content. Each month, PBS reaches nearly 100 million people through television and nearly 28 million people online, inviting them to experience the worlds of science, history, nature and public affairs; to hear diverse viewpoints; and to take front row seats to world-class drama and performances. PBS’ broad array of programs has been consistently honored by the industry’s most coveted award competitions. Teachers of children from pre-K through 12th grade turn to PBS for digital content and services that help bring classroom lessons to life. Decades of research confirms that PBS’ premier children’s media service, PBS KIDS, helps children build critical literacy, math and social-emotional skills, enabling them to find success in school and life. Delivered through member stations, PBS KIDS offers high-quality educational content on TV – including a new 24/7 channel, online at pbskids.org, via an array of mobile apps and in communities across America. More information about PBS is available at www.pbs.org, one of the leading dot-org websites on the internet, or by following PBS on Twitter, Facebook or through our apps for mobile and connected devices. Specific program information and updates for press are available at pbs.org/pressroom or by following PBS Pressroom on Twitter.

About Structure Films
Structure Films makes films about people doing cool things in science, health, information and technology. They strongly believe that cinematic storytelling can revolutionize science communication and engage the public with the awesome responsibility that comes with the scientific enterprise. Structure Films projects have screened in major international festivals including South by Southwest, Hot Docs International, and London International Film Festival; broadcast on the BBC, TIME, and Outside Magazine; and supported by the Sundance Institute, Tribeca Film Institute, ITVS and the MacArthur Foundation.

Digital Innovations Coincide with Launch of 30th Season on PBS

June 14, 2017 — New York, N.Y. — POV, American television’s longest-running documentary series, launched two digital tools in June, unveiling a multiplatform bot, the POV Assistant, as well as a redesigned Community Network and Lending Library that further enhance the user experience for the more than 10,000 community organizers, station staffers and educators who use POV’s free library of films for public screenings. The two projects coincide with POV’s 30th season, premiering June 26 on PBS. They are the latest in the series’ innovations on the web and the newest digital platforms; the Webby Award-winning POV Digital created PBS’s first series website in 1995 and its first web series in 2002. The two newest digital tools help further POV’s mission to make award-winning documentaries as accessible as possible to American audiences.

The POV Assistant is one of public media’s first multiplatform bots, delivering information about 30 years of POV documentaries via Facebook Messenger, Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa. POV Digital built the POV Assistant to be a dynamic technology that can be adapted to new assistant platforms as they come online.

The POV Assistant pulls from an exhaustive database of information on POV’s 30-year history on PBS. It brings content from the POV website and its vast repository for documentary history to life in a conversational format.

The first version of the POV Assistant will offer an array of information, including broadcast schedules, streaming availability and film synopses. POV Digital will continue to add features, such as a search engine that recommends documentaries based on category. Explore the POV Assistant’s features now on Facebook Messenger, Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa. Don’t know what to say? Try the following:

What’s coming up?
What’s streaming?
Tell me about Dalya’s Other Country.

In addition to introducing the interactive POV Assistant, POV recently relaunched the POV Community Network and Lending Library, a platform that community organizers, station staffers, educators and other engaged community members use to gain access to more than 90 POV feature documentaries, shorts and digital projects for free. Films in POV’s current 30th anniversary season are available prior to their PBS broadcasts.

Produced by POV’s Community Engagement and Education team, the POV Community Network presents a catalogue of resources that can be used to engage communities and classrooms in dialogue around the most pressing issues of our time, including more than 200 discussion guides, standards-aligned lesson plans with streaming film clips, reading lists and publicity materials. More than 90 films and digital projects are searchable by title or topic, and there is easy one-click access to film trailers.

A core part of POV’s activities, the Community Engagement and Education team works with PBS stations, national organizations, community groups, educators and policymakers to organize free screenings and discussions before and after each film’s broadcast date, extending the life of each documentary and building a robust, trusted resource library. Through the POV Community Network, POV facilitates more than 700 screening events across the country every year.

“The launch of our POV Assistant and redesign of the Community Network couldn’t come at a more appropriate time,” said Justine Nagan, executive producer/executive director of POV/American Documentary. “As we enter our 30th broadcast season on PBS, our organization continues to find new and innovative ways to make essential documentaries available to all Americans, whether they watch our films via broadcast, online or at in-person screenings. These tools support audiences and community organizations seeking curated, quality media, and they help filmmakers looking to reach mass audiences of viewers across the country. Such technical investments will have lasting effects for years to come.”

POV’s full-stack developer Sunil Patel built POV Assistant to be a dynamic technology that can be adapted to new bot and assistant platforms as they come online. For now, you can start a conversation with POV Assistant on Facebook, Google and Amazon.

We see the creation of the Assistant as part our continuing mission to bring POV’s award-winning work to new platforms and audiences. As AI and bot technology emerges as a new way to discover and explore content, we wanted to take advantage of its potential as a powerful way to engage with audiences.

Facebook Messenger

To start chatting with POV Assistant on Facebook Messenger, send a new message to “povdocs” on the Messenger app, or click here.

Google Assistant

If you have Google Home or any support phone (Android 6.0+ or iOS 9.0+) you can start talking to POV by launching Google Assistant and asking “Talk to POV”. Here’s a link to Action on Google Discover page.

Amazon Alexa
Search “POV” on the Amazon Alexa app (available on compatible iOS and Android phones) and enable the skill. Then say “Alexa, Talk to POV”.
Here’s are the questions you can ask:
What’s coming up?
What’s streaming?
What’s playing on [PBS Member Station]?
Tell me about [POV film name].

You can ask follow up questions after asking about POV film.
Who is the filmmaker?
When is streaming?
How long is the film?
Which season is the film in?
When is it broadcasting?
When is playing on my station?

POV Digital will continue to add features, such as a search engine that recommends documentaries based on subject. We’re proud to introduce POV Assistant to help you connect with over 400+ films in the archive.

Have a question or want to give us feedback? Contact us at feedback@pov.org.

Get more documentary film news and features: Subscribe to POV’s documentary blog, like POV on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter and Instagram!

An unexpected pair reveals music’s cross-cultural impact

By day, Samantha Montgomery cares for the elderly in New Orleans. By night, she writes and sings her own songs as Princess Shaw on her confessional YouTube channel. Little does she know that her fiery-red hair and soulful voice have captured the attention of a video artist 7,000 miles away on an Israeli kibbutz.

In an unexpected musical mash-up, Princess Shaw finds herself at the center of a viral video hit by Israeli producer Ophir Kutiel, known as Kutiman on YouTube, whose video mixes of amateur YouTube performers have graced the halls of New York’s Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.

Montgomery’s bubbly, can-do spirit and Kutiman’s quiet genius come together in Presenting Princess Shaw, which offers a heartwarming look at the power of music, both as therapy and as a magnetic force bringing together wholly different personalities and worlds. Directed by Ido Haar, the film follows the pair’s parallel stories, as it cuts between Montgomery’s struggle to make it big in music and Kutiman’s secret plans to make that happen.

Presenting Princess Shaw has its national broadcast premiere on the PBS documentary series POV (Point of View) on July 17, 2017 at 10 p.m. (check local listings). POV is American television’s longest-running independent documentary series, now in its 30th season.

At the nursing home where she works, Montgomery’s voice fills the halls. She soothes residents with an expressive rendition of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” and takes breaks to dance with coworkers. When one of the residents inquires about the cameras, Montgomery tells her what she was told by Haar, that he’s documenting YouTube personalities. “I have videos on YouTube and he saw them and he contacted me,” she says. She has no idea that Kutiman—a friend of the filmmaker—has also seen those videos and has fallen in love with her work.

The audience knows this right away, lending the film a sense of anticipation from the beginning. On the other side of the world, Kutiman has discovered his new muse. Using a multi-monitor setup on a kibbutz, Kutiman pores over hours of Montgomery’s work and the work of other YouTubers who will accompany her.

Back in New Orleans, Montgomery doesn’t wait for chance. She sings at open-mic nights, auditions for The Voice and continues uploading to her YouTube channel, interspersing stirring melodies with heartbreaking confessionals about abuse in her past. Feeling weighed down by this history and a seemingly endless wall of musical dead-ends, Montgomery resolves to spend some time in Atlanta and try to break into the music scene there.

Montgomery’s struggles—and her refusal to bow down to them—make the drop of Kutiman’s mix featuring her bluesy voice all the more cathartic for viewers. Montgomery finds out about the track from a friend and watches messages of adulation pour in through the comments section. “Get an agent, QUICK!” writes one viewer.

Everyone wants to root for an underdog like Montgomery—a resilient, complex character. Eventually, she meets Kutiman in Tel Aviv. Before singing in front of a live audience, she walks the rehearsal stage, recording where she will later perform in front of hundreds. “If you could only see what I see in real-live time,” she says, almost certainly speaking to her growing audience online.

“There are so many people with great talent, original thinking and unique voices,” said Haar. “Most of them weren’t dealt the right cards at birth to have the access or ability to break into the often exclusive realms of music, art and culture. What are the chances that we will hear about them?”

He continued, “Presenting Princess Shaw might offer a modest, momentary fix for that. It is not about stardom, but rather about the deeply human experience of being seen—an antidote to the loneliness and anonymity many can feel in a world that is constantly manufacturing new stars.”

“Samantha Montgomery is an all-American, modern Cinderella,” said POV executive producer Justine Nagan. “Her bubbly personality and persistent resolve are infectious, and her discovery by a producer on a kibbutz is made for television. Presenting Princess Shaw shows the possibility of creation across borders, ultimately illustrating the power of art to unite people. We cannot wait to bring it to public media audiences.”

About the Filmmakers:

Ido Haar, Director, Producer

Award winning documentary filmmaker Ido Haar graduated from the Sam Spiegel Film & Television School in Jerusalem. His credits as an editor include Jonathan Demme’s I’m Carolyn Parker: The Good, the Mad and the Beautiful (POV 2012). He also directed the documentaries Melting Siberia, 9 Star Hotel and Enlistment Days.

Liran Atzmor, Producer

As a former managing director and senior producer for Belfilms Production Company in Israel, Liran Atzmor has produced programming for all of Israel’s major broadcasters, as well as broadcasters and distributors in North America and Europe, including BBC, ZDF/Arte and the History Channel. His credits include The Yad Vashem Films, The Inner Tour and My Stills. Atzmor also served as senior commissioning editor for Israel’s documentary channel, Channel 8. He produced The Law in These Parts (POV 2013) by Ra’anan Alexandrowicz, winner of the 2012 Sundance Film Festival World Cinema Grand Jury Prize for Documentary, as well as a Peabody award.

Stephen Apkon, Co-Producer

Stephen Apkon is a New York-based filmmaker and social entrepreneur and a founder of Reconsider, which develops media and workshops that inspire both dialogue and action. He was a producer of Jonathan Demme’s I’m Carolyn Parker: The Good, the Mad and the Beautiful, a producer of Enlistment Days and executive producer of Planetary and is director and producer of the film Disturbing the Peace. Apkon is the founder of the Jacob Burns Film Center and the author of The Age of the Image: Redefining Literacy in a World of Screens, published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux.

Credits:

Director: Ido Haar; Producers: Liran Atzmor, Stephen Apkon; Executive Producers for POV: Justine Nagan, Chris White

You can also bring these films to your communities with the relaunched POV Community Network. Explore more than 90 titles that are available for free for community organizations, librarians, teachers, PBS stations and engaged individuals who wish to screen these films to the public. Films also come with educational materials to further engage audiences with the topics explored in our documentaries.

Tough Love by Stephanie Wang-Breal
What makes a good parent? How do you prove you are responsible after you’ve been deemed unfit? Having lost custody of their children to Child Protective Services, two parents — one in New York City and one in Seattle — fight to win back the trust of the courts and reunite their families in Stephanie Wang-Breal’s moving film. Acknowledging their past parenting mistakes due to poverty, poor choices and addiction, both Hannah and Patrick contend with a complex bureaucracy to prove they deserve a second chance. A co-production of ITVS. A co-presentation with the Center for Asian American Media (CAAM).
Screen the film | Lesson Plan | Discussion Guide | Reading List

From This Day Forward by Sharon Shattuck
From This Day Forward is a moving portrayal of an American family coping with one of life’s most intimate transformations. When director Sharon Shattuck’s father came out as transgender and began living as Trisha, Sharon was in the awkward throes of middle school. Her father’s transition to female was difficult for her straight-identified mother, Marcia, to accept, but her parents stayed together. As the Shattucks reunite to plan Sharon’s wedding, she seeks a deeper understanding of how her parents’ marriage, and their family, survived intact.
Screen the film | Watch the film online | Lesson Plan | Discussion Guide | Reading List

StoryCorps Shorts: The Last Viewing by Mike Rauch and Tim Rauch
When Army 1st Lt. Nainoa K. Hoe died in Iraq in 2005, his family was left to mourn without much information about his final moments. Years later, his father, Allen Hoe, traveled to Washington, D.C. and happened upon a stranger who recognized his son’s picture: the army nurse who prepared his body for burial. Part of the 2015 StoryCorps series on POV. Since 2010, POV and StoryCorps have brought over 30 animated shorts to PBS and online audiences. Founded by Dave Isay, StoryCorps records and preserves the voices of everyday people, one conversation at a time.
Screen the film | Watch the film online

William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe by Emily Kunstler and Sarah Kunstler
William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe examines the life of this radical attorney from a surprising angle. Kunstler’s two daughters from his second marriage grew up lionizing a man already famous for his historic civil rights and anti-war cases. Then, in their teens, they began to be disillusioned by a stubborn man who continued representing some of the most reviled defendants in America — this time accused rapists and terrorists. In this intimate biography, Emily Kunstler and Sarah Kunstler seek to recover the real story of what made their late father one of the most beloved, and hated, lawyers in America. Winner of the L’Oreal Paris Women of Worth Vision Award, 2009 Sundance Film Festival. A co-production of ITVS.
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StoryCorps Shorts: A Family Man by Mike Rauch and Tim Rauch
For decades, John L. Black, Sr. worked as a janitor in Cincinnati Public Schools to provide for his son Samuel and ten other children. In this conversation with his wife Edda, Samuel recalls a few memories of his late father, who worked 16-hour days to support his family and asked for nothing but foot rubs in return. Part of the 2015 StoryCorps series on POV. Since 2010, POV and StoryCorps have brought over 30 animated shorts to PBS and online audiences. Founded by Dave Isay, StoryCorps records and preserves the voices of everyday people, one conversation at a time.
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Incredible access, bravery and signs of life in a city under siege

The year is 2015. Syria’s brutal civil war has been ravaging the country since the government responded with force to civil protests during the Arab Spring in 2011. Regime, Kurdish, ISIS and rebel forces all occupy various parts of the city of Aleppo in northwestern Syria. A volunteer group called the White Helmets provides emergency services to traumatized residents in the rebel-occupied areas of the city. A crucial part of their efforts is rescuing survivors: After air attacks reduce buildings to rubble, the men of the White Helmets dig through the debris and pull survivors to safety. They are nothing short of heroes.

The White Helmets are the subject of Last Men in Aleppo, the searing documentary directed by Feras Fayyad that won the World Documentary Grand Jury Prize at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival. The film has its national broadcast premiere on July 10 at 10 p.m. (check local listings) on the PBS documentary series POV (Point of View). POV is American television’s longest-running independent documentary series, now in its 30th season. Last Men in Aleppo is the final film in this season’s special series highlighting the Syrian conflict and refugee crisis.

Captured with incredible intimacy and urgency, Last Men in Aleppo shows the White Helmets at work in the wake of bombing raids. The film provides exceptional access. Volunteers wear microphones for the filming, and viewers can hear them as they share information, give directions and pray. When they learn of a raid, they speed through chaotic streets full of rubble. They dig through piles of concrete and metal, sometimes using construction equipment, other times their bare hands.

The viewing is often visceral and difficult. Fayyad’s cameras are unflinching as they document the extraction of dead bodies, including those of children. Survivors are badly injured and covered in blood. There is grim talk of body parts, of how many survived and how many died. “I’m 100 percent sure we will find his head on the roof,” a White Helmet says of a victim at the site of a bombing.

In these painful moments, the men of the White Helmets reveal their resilience and bravery in the face of daily carnage. In addition to showing the men at work, Last Men in Aleppo follows a few of them as they go about their daily lives. One, Khaled, is the father of young children. In a heartbreaking scene, he takes his little girl to a pharmacist, who examines her hands and declares she is not getting adequate nutrition.

The documentary also follows Mahmoud, a young man who performs his work as a White Helmet with grave precision. With other White Helmets, Mahmoud and his brother Ahmed race to the scene of a missile attack on a car, now in flames. They begin trying to put out the fire so they can extract the bodies, but another air strike hits, and the men scatter.

In yet another searing moment, Mahmoud is troubled when he visits with young children he has rescued. “Was my head stuck in the rubble when you got me out?” a young boy asks Mahmoud. “I can’t do a visit like this again,” Mahmoud says later. “It’s so difficult.”

As the volunteers monitor the news and perform their arduous work, they contemplate the future. There is talk of escaping to Turkey, to Germany. Midway through the film, a friend asks Mahmoud about his dreams. “I dream that my brother will be safe,” Mahmoud says. “What are your dreams?” The friend replies, “To live a stable and secure life.”

“This film is a story about hope, and it is an attempt to study our humanity and shared responsibility when faced with mindless, irrational killing,” said Fayyad. “I saw this with the White Helmets, whose heroism did not discriminate between civilians and aggressors. Covering their efforts also allows us to show the world the devastating toll of the Syrian civil war. The White Helmets’ rescue efforts cannot be a permanent solution to this crisis. It is our hope that this film motivates people to stop this tragedy altogether, begin peace talks in Syria and help those civilians out of these disaster zones.”

“War brings out the worst in human beings, but it also brings out the best in us. The White Helmets are a living example of that. I hope this film will compel audiences abroad to follow that example.”

“Last Men in Aleppo soberly concludes this season’s special series on the Syrian war,” said POV executive director Justine Nagan. “At times agonizing to witness, the film leaves viewers awestruck at the bravery of volunteers like Mahmoud and Khaled and the resilience of civilians caught in the violence. With this film and the others in the series, we hope to have provided the American public a holistic view of the Syrian war and refugee crisis. In times of competing and sometimes conflicting narratives, this special series aimed to showcase the intimate viewpoints of filmmakers at every vantage point of these events.”

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About the Filmmakers:
Feras Fayyad, Director
Feras Fayyad is an award-winning filmmaker who has worked as a film editor and cinematographer on several documentary and narrative films. He has participated in international film festivals and received recognition for his work with contemporary Syrian issues and political transformation in the Arab world.

Steen Johannessen, Co-Director, Editor
Steen Johannessen is an experienced editor of a number of internationally acclaimed documentaries, including Motley’s Law, Miners Shot Down and Warriors from the North. Last Men in Aleppo marks his debut as a co-director

Søren Steen Jespersen, Producer
Søren Steen Jespersen has produced several award-winning documentaries and directed Warriors from the North, winner of Best Mid-length Documentary at Hot Docs 2015.

Kareem Abeed, Producer
Kareem Abeed is a Syrian producer and one of the founders of the Aleppo Media Center. Abeed has worked as a producer for video features on Syria with several international outlets, including CNN, BBC and Channel 4.

Credits:
Director: Feras Fayyad; Co-Director, Editor: Steen Johannessen; Producers: Søren Steen Jespersen, Kareem Abeed; Cinematographers: Thaer Mohammed, Mojahed Abo Al Joud