P.O.V.
(1988)Streaming Episode Guide
Season 36 | Season 35 | Season 34 | Season 33 | Season 32 | Season 31 | Season 30 | Season 29 | Season 28 | Season 27 | Season 26 | Season 25 | Season 24 | Season 23 | Season 22 | Season 21 | Season 20 | Season 19 | Season 18 | Season 17 | Season 16 | Season 15 | Season 14 | Season 13 | Season 12 | Season 11 | Season 10 | Season 9 | Season 8 | Season 7 | Season 6 | Season 5 | Season 4 | Season 3 | Season 2 | Season 1 | Specials | Top 5 Episodes
Season 36
While We Watched
Episode 7 - 9-04-2023
A timely depiction of a newsroom in crisis, While We Watched follows tormented journalist Ravish Kumar for two years as he battles a barrage of fake news, falling ratings and the resulting cutbacks. Are there viewers for fact-based analyses anymore? Will his show survive or become a swan song of reason – drowning out in sensationalism, misinformation, and ratings-driven editorial decisions?
Where to watch
Haven't Seen
Let the Little Light Shine
Episode 6 - 12-12-2022
Haven't Seen
Midwives
Episode 5 - 11-21-2022
Where to watch
Haven't Seen
A House Made of Splinters
Episode 4 - 7-17-2023
In the shadow of war by the frontlines in Eastern Ukraine, a safe haven provides refuge for children who have been temporarily separated from their parents. A House Made of Splinters chronicles three displaced kids who, despite the perils surrounding them, find moments of joy, friendship, and childhood wonder, with the aid of dedicated social workers who work tirelessly to protect them from harm.
Where to watch
Haven't Seen
Liquor Store Dreams
Episode 3 - 7-10-2023
In Liquor Store Dreams, two Korean American children of liquor store owners reconcile their own dreams with those of their immigrant parents. Along the way, they confront the complex legacies of LA's racial landscape, including the 1991 murder of Latasha Harlins and the 1992 uprisings sparked by the police beating of Rodney King, while engaged in current struggles for social and economic justice.
Where to watch
Haven't Seen
A Story of Bones
Episode 2 - 7-03-2023
As Construction Environmental Officer for St. Helena's troubled airport project, Annina van Neel learns about an unmarked mass burial ground of an estimated 9,000 formerly enslaved Africans. Haunted by this historical injustice, she and African American preservationist Peggy King Jorde fight for their proper memorialization, exposing the UK's colonial past and present.
Where to watch
Haven't Seen
After Sherman
Episode 1 - 6-26-2023
Filmmaker Jon-Sesrie Goff returns to the coastal South Carolina land that his family purchased after emancipation. His desire to explore his Gullah/Geechee roots leads to a poetic investigation of Black inheritance, trauma, and generational wisdom, amidst the tensions that have shaped American history. In the wake of recent Southern violence, After Sherman is a reclamation of Black life and space.
Where to watch
Haven't Seen
Season 35
I Didn't See You There
Episode 12 - 1-09-2023
Spurred by the spectacle of a circus tent outside his Oakland apartment, a disabled filmmaker launches into a meditative journey exploring the history of freakdom, vision, and (in)visibility. Shot from director Reid Davenport's physical perspective - mounted to his wheelchair or handheld - I Didn't See You There serves as a clear rebuke to the norm of disabled people being seen and not heard.
Where to watch
Haven't Seen
Let the Little Light Shine
Episode 11 - 12-12-2022
National Teachers Academy (NTA) is considered a beacon for Black children: a top-ranked, high-performing elementary school in the fastest growing neighborhood on Chicago's South Side. As the neighborhood gentrifies, a wealthy parents’ group seeks to close NTA and replace it with a high school campus. How will NTA's community fight to save their beloved institution?
Haven't Seen
Midwives
Episode 10 - 11-21-2022
Midwives chronicles two women who run a makeshift medical clinic in a region torn apart by violent ethnic divisions. Hla, the owner, is a Buddhist in western Myanmar, where the Rohingya, a Muslim minority, are persecuted and denied basic rights. Nyo Nyo is a Muslim and an apprentice. Encouraged and challenged by Hla, Nyo Nyo is determined to become a steady health care provider for her people.
Haven't Seen
The Last Out
Episode 9 - 10-03-2022
Three Cuban baseball players leave their families and risk exile to train in Central America and chase their dreams of playing in the United States. At the shadowy nexus of the migrant trail and pro sports, The Last Out chronicles their difficult journey, from multi-step immigration obstacles and learning English to the broken promises and dubious motives of agents.
Haven't Seen
Delikado
Episode 8 - 9-26-2022
Palawan is a tropical island paradise and one of Asia's tourist hotspots. But for a tiny network of environmental crusaders struggling to protect its spectacular forests and seas, it is a battlefield. Delikado follows three land defenders as they brave violence, death threats and murder while trying to stop politicians and businessmen from destroying the Philippines’ last ecological frontier.
Where to watch
Haven't Seen
Season 33
Our Time Machine
Episode 10 - 9-28-2020
When artist Maleonn realizes that his father suffers from Alzheimer’s disease, he creates “Papa’s Time Machine,” a magical, autobiographical stage performance featuring life-size mechanical puppets. Through the production of this play, the two men confront their mortality before time runs out and memories are lost forever.
Where to watch
Haven't Seen
In My Blood It Runs
Episode 9 - 9-21-2020
Ten-year-old Aboriginal Dujuan is a child-healer, a good hunter and speaks three languages.Yet Dujuan is ‘failing’ in school and facing increasing scrutiny from welfare and the police. As he travels perilously close to incarceration, his family fight to give him a strong Arrernte education alongside his western education. We walk with him as he grapples with these pressures and shares his truths.
6.2/10Where to watch
Haven't Seen
About Love
Episode 6 - 8-10-2020
Three generations of the Phadke family live together in their home in Mumbai. When the youngest daughter turns the camera towards her family, the personal becomes political as power structures within the family become visible, and eventually unravel. Cruel and comic in equal measure, the film examines the vagaries of affection across generations, tied together by something stranger than love.
8/10Where to watch
Haven't Seen
Chez Jolie Coiffure
Episode 5 - 8-03-2020
In this captivating documentary filmed in a single tiny room, viewers step inside an underground hair salon with its charismatic proprietor, a Cameroonian immigrant named Sabine. Here, she and her employees style extensions and glue on lashes while watching soaps, dishing romantic advice, sharing rumors about government programs to legalize migrants, and talking about life back home in Cameroon.
Where to watch
Haven't Seen
Advocate
Episode 4 - 7-27-2020
Meet Israeli lawyer Lea Tsemel, a political firebrand who is known by her opponents as "the devil's advocate" for her decades-long defense of Palestinians who have been accused of resisting the occupation, both violently and non-violently.
7/10Where to watch
Haven't Seen
We Are the Radical Monarchs
Episode 3 - 7-20-2020
Meet the Radical Monarchs, a group of young girls of color on the frontlines of social justice. Follow the group as they earn badges for completing units on such subjects as being an LGBTQ ally, preserving the environment and disability justice.
5.1/10Where to watch
Haven't Seen
And She Could Be Next, Part 2
Episode 2 - 6-30-2020
1h 21m
The story of a defiant movement of women of color, transforming politics from the ground up by fighting for a truly reflective democracy. Filmed during the historic 2018 midterm elections, the documentary features organizers and candidates (including Rashida Tlaib and Stacey Abrams) as they fight for a truly reflective government, asking whether democracy can be preserved—and made stronger—by those most marginalized
6.4/10Where to watch
Haven't Seen
And She Could Be Next, Part 1
Episode 1 - 6-29-2020
1h 52m
The story of a defiant movement of women of color, transforming politics from the ground up by fighting for a truly reflective democracy. Filmed during the historic 2018 midterm elections, the documentary features organizers and candidates (including Rashida Tlaib and Stacey Abrams) as they fight for a truly reflective government, asking whether democracy can be preserved—and made stronger—by those most marginalized.
7.2/10Where to watch
Haven't Seen
Season 30
The Grown-Ups
Episode 11 - 9-04-2017
1h 30m
In a school for individuals with Down Syndrome, four middle-aged friends yearn for a life of greater autonomy in a society that marginalizes them as disabled. The Grown Ups is a humorous and at times sad and uncomfortable look at the tragic limbo of 'conscious adults.'
Where to watch
Haven't Seen
Raising Bertie
Episode 10 - 8-28-2017
An intimate portrait of three African American boys as they face a precarious coming of age in rural Bertie County, North Carolina. Like many rural areas, Bertie County struggles with a dwindling economy, a declining population, and a high school graduation rate below the state average.
Haven't Seen
Tribal Justice
Episode 9 - 8-21-2017
Two Native American judges reach back to traditional concepts of justice in order to reduce incarceration rates, foster greater safety for their communities, and create a more positive future for their youth. By addressing the root causes of crime, they are modeling restorative systems that are working. Mainstream courts across the country are taking notice.
Haven't Seen
Memories of a Penitent Heart
Episode 8 - 7-31-2017
Filmmaker Cecilia Aldarondo suspected that there was something ugly in her family's past. Memories of a Penitent Heart excavates a buried conflict around her uncle Miguel's death at a time when having AIDS was synonymous with sin. As she searches for Miguel's partner decades later, the film – both a love story and a tribute – is a cautionary tale of how faith is used and abused in times of crisis.
Where to watch
Haven't Seen
Joe's Violin
Episode 7 - 7-24-2017
A donated musical instrument forges an improbable friendship. 91-year-old Holocaust survivor Joe Feingold and 12-year-old Bronx school girl Brianna Perez show how the power of music can bring light in the darkest of times, and how a small act can have a significant impact.
Where to watch
Haven't Seen
Shalom Italia
Episode 6 - 7-24-2017
In Shalom Italia, three Italian Jewish brothers set off on a journey through Tuscany, in search of a cave where they hid as children to escape the Nazis. Their quest, full of humor, food and Tuscan landscapes, straddles the boundary between history and myth – a profound, funny, and endearing exploration of individual and communal memory.
Where to watch
Haven't Seen
Presenting Princess Shaw
Episode 5 - 7-17-2017
Samantha Montgomery placed her dreams on YouTube. Then they became a reality. Presenting Princess Shaw is the extraordinary story of an aspiring musician, down on her luck, who inspired internationally famous musician, composer and video artist Ophir "Kutiman" Kutiel to create a magical collaboration that would bring her talent to a whole new audience.
Haven't Seen
Last Men in Aleppo
Episode 4 - 7-10-2017
After five years of war in Syria, the remaining citizens of Aleppo are getting ready for a siege. Through the eyes of volunteer rescue workers called the White Helmets, Last Men in Aleppo allows viewers to experience the daily life, death, and struggle in the streets, where they are fighting for sanity in a city where war has become the norm.
Haven't Seen
The War Show
Episode 3 - 7-03-2017
Radio host Obaidah Zytoon captures the fate of Syria through the intimate lens of a small circle of friends and journalists. Beginning with peaceful Arab Spring protests 2011, The War Show offers a four-year, ground-level look at how the country spiraled into bloody civil war.
Where to watch
Haven't Seen
4.1 Miles
Episode 2 - 6-26-2017
Daphne Matziaraki follows a day in the life of Kyriakos Papadopoulos, a captain in the Greek Coast Guard who is caught in the middle of the biggest refugee crisis since WWII. Despite limited resources, the captain and his crew attempt to save thousands of migrants from drowning in the Aegean Sea.
Where to watch
Haven't Seen
Dalya's Other Country
Episode 1 - 6-26-2017
The nuanced story of a family displaced by the Syrian conflict and remaking themselves after the parents separate. Effervescent teen Dalya goes to Catholic high school and her mother Rudayana enrolls in college as they both walk the line between their Muslim values and the new world they find themselves in.
Where to watch
Haven't Seen
Season 29
What Tomorrow Brings
Episode 13 - 10-31-2016
Inside the very first girls' school in a small Afghan village, education goes far beyond the classroom as the students discover the differences between the lives they were born into and the lives they dream of leading.
Haven't Seen
Thank You For Playing
Episode 12 - 10-24-2016
When Ryan Green, a video game programmer, learns that his young son Joel has cancer, he and his wife begin documenting their emotional journey with a poetic video game. Follow Ryan and his family over two years creating "That Dragon, Cancer," which evolves from a cathartic exercise into a critically acclaimed work of art that sets the gaming industry abuzz.
Haven't Seen
Hooligan Sparrow
Episode 11 - 10-17-2016
The danger is palpable as intrepid young filmmaker Nanfu Wang follows maverick activist Ye Haiyan (aka Hooligan Sparrow) and her band of colleagues to southern China as they seek justice in the case of six elementary school girls allegedly sexually abused by their principal.
Haven't Seen
From This Day Forward
Episode 10 - 10-10-2016
When director Sharon Shattuck's father came out as transgender, Sharon was in the awkward throes of middle school. As the Shattucks reunite to plan Sharon's wedding, she seeks a deeper understanding of how her parents' marriage, and their family, survived intact.
Haven't Seen
Kingdom of Shadows
Episode 9 - 9-19-2016
Emmy®-nominated filmmaker Bernardo Ruiz takes an unflinching look at the hard choices and destructive consequences of the U.S.-Mexico drug war. Witness the human side of the conflict through the eyes of a U.S. drug enforcement agent, an activist nun in Mexico and a former Texas smuggler.
Haven't Seen
All the Difference
Episode 8 - 9-12-2016
The largely invisible and often crushing struggles of young African-American men come vividly--and heroically--to life in All the Difference, which traces the paths of two teens from the South Side of Chicago who dream of graduating from college.
Haven't Seen
The Birth of Saké
Episode 7 - 9-05-2016
Go behind the scenes at Japan's Yoshida Brewery, where a brotherhood of artisans, ranging from 20 to 70, spend six months in nearly monastic isolation as they follow an age-old process to create saké, the nation's revered rice wine.
Where to watch
Haven't Seen
EXIT: A Mobile Guide to the Post Apocalypse
Episode 6 - 9-05-2016
An escape from the doomsday thinking that is ruining our collective imaginations. An experience for smartphones composed of a suite of interconnected nonfiction stories, EXIT dares users to entertain a shocking possibility: that mankind may survive (and even thrive) beyond the challenges that await us in the future.
Haven't Seen
Iris
Episode 5 - 8-01-2016
1h 19m
Iris pairs the late documentarian Albert Maysles, then 87, with Iris Apfel, the quick-witted, flamboyantly dressed 93-year-old style maven who has had an outsized presence on the New York fashion scene for decades.
Haven't Seen
Pervert Park
Episode 4 - 7-11-2016
Florida Justice Transitions trailer park is home to 120 sex offenders, all battling their own demons as they work toward rejoining society. This film considers how the destructive cycle of sexual abuse - and the silence surrounding it - can be broken.
Haven't Seen
The Look of Silence
Episode 3 - 6-27-2016
1h 55m
An optometrist identifies the men who killed his brother in the horrific 1965 Indonesian genocide. He confronts them while testing their eyesight and demands they accept responsibility.
8.7/10Haven't Seen
Of Men and War
Episode 2 - 5-30-2016
1h 25m
At a first-of-its-kind PTSD treatment center in California, follow Iraq and Afghanistan veterans and their families on their paths to recovery as they attempt to make peace with their pasts, their loved ones and themselves.
7.2/10Haven't Seen
The Return
Episode 1 - 5-23-2016
1h 25m
An unprecedented reform to California's "Three Strikes" law seen through the eyes of those on the front lines – prisoners suddenly freed, families turned upside down, reentry providers helping navigate complex transitions, and attorneys and judges wrestling with an untested law.
7.2/10Where to watch
Haven't Seen
Season 28
Ai Weiwei: The Fake Case
Episode 14 - 10-02-2015
How the government's attempts to silence Ai Weiwei have turned him into China's most powerful artist and an irrepressible voice for free speech and human rights around the globe.
Haven't Seen
Art and Craft
Episode 13 - 9-25-2015
A cat-and-mouse caper told with humor and compassion, Art and Craft uncovers the universal in one man's search for connection and respect.
Haven't Seen
Don't Tell Anyone (No Le Digas a Nadie)
Episode 12 - 9-21-2015
In a community where silence is seen as necessary for survival, immigrant activist Angy Rivera joins a generation of Dreamers ready to push for change in the only home she’s ever known — the United States.
Where to watch
Haven't Seen
Cutie and the Boxer
Episode 11 - 9-18-2015
An Oscar-nominated reflection on love, sacrifice and the creative spirit, this candid New York tale explores the chaotic 40-year marriage of famed “boxing” painter Ushio Shinohara and artist Noriko Shinohara.
Haven't Seen
The Storm Makers
Episode 10 - 8-31-2015
More than half a million Cambodians work abroad, and a staggering third of those become slaves. Many are young women, held prisoner and forced to work in horrific conditions, sometimes as prostitutes. French-Cambodian filmmaker Guillaume Suon presents an eye-opening look at the cycle of poverty, despair and greed that fuels this brutal modern slave trade.
Haven't Seen
Point and Shoot
Episode 9 - 8-24-2015
Ride shotgun with Matt VanDyke, who films his self-transformation from a timid 26-year-old to a motorcycle-driving rebel, fighting in the Libyan revolution. Two-time Oscar nominee Marshall Curry tells his amazing story.
Haven't Seen
Neuland
Episode 8 - 8-17-2015
Meet the young migrants in a Swiss integration class, who have made long and arduous journeys for a new life. Separated from their families, they struggle to learn a new language, prepare for employment and reveal their innermost hopes and dreams.
Haven't Seen
Beats of the Antonov
Episode 7 - 8-03-2015
A look at life along the Sudan-South Sudan border, where many who fought to create South Sudan found themselves on the wrong side of the border once it was established in 2011. They harvest crops, raise cattle, try to avoid air raids—and make music on instruments made from found objects.
Haven't Seen
Tea Time
Episode 6 - 7-27-2015
Five Chilean women meet each month for tea and pastries, a tradition they've maintained for 60 years. Through the decades, they've experienced many personal and societal changes; and weathered disagreements amongst themselves.
Where to watch
Haven't Seen
Return to Homs
Episode 5 - 7-20-2015
The transformation of a one-time goalie for the Syrian national soccer team from peaceful protester to armed opponent of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad's regime is chronicled. In 2011, when the documentary begins, 19-year-old Abdul Basset Saroot—once voted the second best goalie in Asia—is singing protest songs to like-minded people in Homs. The regime responds to the protests, however, with artillery fire, tanks, jets and snipers. Assad and his friends see no option but one: take up arms.
Haven't Seen
Web Junkie
Episode 4 - 7-13-2015
1h 14m
A look at Internet addiction in China via the experiences of teens at Daxing Boot Camp in Beijing, one of some 400 rehabilitation centers created by the government to treat the disorder. Patients, who are kept under constant surveillance, take part in rigorous exercise, group therapy, brain scans and classroom instruction. "It is an abyss swallowing my son," says one mother of why she sought help for her son. It's also not cheap. Parents, many at their wits' end, often borrow money to pay.
7.4/10Haven't Seen
Tough Love
Episode 3 - 7-06-2015
A single dad in Seattle and a mother of two in NYC navigate the child welfare system in hopes of regaining custody of their children, who were removed from their care due to neglect. Patrick lost his daughter after he alerted CPS about her meth-addicted mother; he was addicted, too, but is now recovering. Hannah lost her kids after leaving them with her mom for nights on end. She's since married and is again pregnant; and her husband supports her in her quest to put her family back together.
Haven't Seen
The Overnighters
Episode 2 - 6-29-2015
"The Overnighters," about the North Dakota oil boom, details the goings-on at a Williston church whose pastor turned it into a makeshift dorm for folks unable to find housing. The emigres moved to the region in hopes of finding work. Some have, some haven't, but a housing shortage means they have nowhere to live. Not all in the community welcome the arrangement, however. Also: the Immigrant Nation short "The Caretaker"; and StoryCorps shorts "A More Perfect Union" and "The Last Viewing."
Haven't Seen
Out in the Night
Episode 1 - 6-22-2015
Season 28 opens with "Out in the Night," about four African-American lesbian friends who became embroiled in a melee with a man who had verbally and physically attacked them in 2006 NYC. He was stabbed; and they were eventually convicted of gang assault. The case spurred sensationalized press coverage, with headlines labeling them a "Gang of Killer Lesbians." Included: remarks from the women, their families and one of the arresting officers; and surveillance-camera footage of the confrontation.
6.9/10Haven't Seen
Season 27
The Act of Killing
Episode 13 - 10-07-2014
1h 54m
Joshua Oppenheimer visits men accused of playing a key role in the killing of over one-million Indonesians in 1965. Initially, the men explain their actions as patriotic and necessary. But over time, some question their actions. 2013 Oscar nominee. 2014 BAFTA Best Documentary.
8.8/10Haven't Seen
Koch
Episode 12 - 9-22-2014
The mayor of New York City from 1978 to 1989, Ed Koch fought crime and financial difficulties during a difficult period for the City of New York.
Haven't Seen
The Genius of Marian
Episode 11 - 9-08-2014
1h 30m
Pam White and her family struggle to retain her memories and life by recording their interactions in the face of an Alzheimer diagnoses.
Haven't Seen
After Tiller
Episode 10 - 9-01-2014
1h 28m
The story of the four abortion doctors that remained in Wichita, Kansas after the assassination of George Tiller in 2009.
5.8/10Haven't Seen
Big Men
Episode 9 - 8-25-2014
Explorers the world of backroom negotiations and deal making in Ghana's oil business.
Haven't Seen
A World Not Ours
Episode 8 - 8-18-2014
A family's experience living in a Lebanese refugee camp for multiple generations. Love and family are tinged with desperation. Official Selection of the 2013 Berlin International Film Festival.
Haven't Seen
15 to Life: Kenneth's Story
Episode 7 - 8-04-2014
55m
The story of a 15-year old sentenced to four life sentences. Does society benefit from incarcerating young teens to a lifetime in prison?
6.9/10Haven't Seen
Fallen City
Episode 6 - 7-28-2014
After Beichuan, China was destroyed in an earthquake, buildings are rebuilt more quickly than the community. Official Selection of Sundance 2013.
Haven't Seen
Dance for Me
Episode 5 - 7-21-2014
The world of professional ballroom dancing in Denmark, where participants often look beyond the country's borders for the perfect partner, is examined. The documentary follows Egor, a 15 year old from Russia, as he adjusts to life in Denmark and to his 14-year-old Danish partner, Mie.
7.2/10Haven't Seen
Getting Back to Abnormal
Episode 4 - 7-14-2014
The changed realities of post-Katrina New Orleans, including a population that is less African-American and less poor than before the storm, are examined in this documentary, which focuses on the 2010 re-election campaign of city councilwoman Stacy Head, a polarizing figure, and her aide, Barbara Lacen-Keller.
Where to watch
Haven't Seen
My Way to Olympia
Episode 3 - 7-07-2014
Filmmaker Niko von Glasow profiles participants at the 2012 Paralympic Games in London, including a one-handed Norwegian table tennis player, the Rwandan sitting volleyball team, an American archer who uses his feet and a Greek paraplegic boccia player. Along the way, von Glasow—who was born with severely shortened arms—sees his preconceptions and stereotypes about the Paralympics and sports in general upended.
7.2/10Haven't Seen
American Revolutionary: The Evolution of Grace Lee Boggs
Episode 2 - 6-30-2014
A profile of 98-year-old Grace Lee Boggs, a Chinese-American social activist in Detroit who has spent much of her adult life fighting for civil rights and female equality.
7/10Haven't Seen
When I Walk
Episode 1 - 6-23-2014
1h 27m
The Season 27 premiere features Jason DaSilva's "When I Walk," in which the filmmaker chronicles his life for five years after being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis at age 25. By happenstance, a family member records the moment when the diagnosis hits home: while vacationing in the Caribbean, his legs give out. Yet, not all is bad: he meets Alice Cook, whose mother also has MS, at a support group. The two fall in love, marry and collaborate on completing the documentary.
6.9/10Where to watch
Haven't Seen
Season 26
American Promise
Episode 16 - 2-03-2014
American Promise spans 13 years as Joe Brewster and Michèle Stephenson, middle-class African-American parents in Brooklyn, N.Y., turn their cameras on their son, Idris, and his best friend, Seun, who make their way through one of the most prestigious private schools in the country. Chronicling the boys' divergent paths from kindergarten through high school graduation at Manhattan's Dalton School, this provocative, intimate documentary presents complicated truths about America's struggle to come of age on issues of race, class and opportunity
Where to watch
Haven't Seen
Listening Is an Act of Love: A StoryCorps Special
Episode 15 - 11-28-2013
Celebrate the transformative power of listening with this animated special from the oral history project StoryCorps, which captures intimate conversations among everyday people.
7.6/10Haven't Seen
56 Up
Episode 14 - 10-14-2013
In 1964 a group of 7-year-old children were interviewed for the groundbreaking documentary Seven Up. Michael Apted has been back to film them every seven years since. Now they are 56.
7.1/10Haven't Seen
Brooklyn Castle
Episode 13 - 10-07-2013
Brooklyn public school I.S. 318, serving mostly minority students from working-class families, has won more than 30 national chess championships, the country’s best record.
Where to watch
Haven't Seen
Best Kept Secret
Episode 12 - 9-23-2013
A Newark, N.J. public high school teacher races against the clock to find a place in the world for her students with autism before they graduate and "age out" of a unique and caring support system.
Haven't Seen
The World Before Her
Episode 11 - 9-16-2013
The World Before Her is a tale of two Indias: In one, a small-town girl competes in the Miss India pageant. In the other, a militant woman leads a fundamentalist Hindu camp for girls.
Haven't Seen
Ping Pong
Episode 10 - 9-09-2013
57m
Seven players with 620 years between them compete in the Over 80 World Table Tennis Championships. Ping Pong is a meditation on mortality and a joyous tribute to the human spirit.
Haven't Seen
5 Broken Cameras
Episode 9 - 8-26-2013
Oscar®nominee 5 Broken Cameras depicts life in a West Bank village where a security fence is being built. The film was shot by a Palestinian and co-directed by an Israeli.
Haven't Seen
The Law in These Parts
Episode 8 - 8-19-2013
For the first time, Israeli military and legal professionals who devised the legal framework behind the occupation are interviewed about this system, which mirrors the country’s toughest moral quandaries.
8.1/10Haven't Seen
Neurotypical
Episode 7 - 7-29-2013
A 4-year-old, a teenager and an adult, all on the autism spectrum and at pivotal moments in their lives, work with their perceptual and behavioral differences in a "neurotypical" world.
Haven't Seen
High Tech, Low Life
Episode 6 - 7-22-2013
57m
High Tech, Low Life follows two of China’s first citizen-reporters, bloggers who are fighting censorship to document the underside of the country’s rapid economic development.
Haven't Seen
xoxosms
Episode 5 - 7-15-2013
1h 30m
The modern-day love story of a guy from small-town Illinois who reaches out to a beautiful New York City art student from Korea. They meet in the only place that such different people might ever find each other—online.
Where to watch
Haven't Seen
Only the Young
Episode 4 - 7-15-2013
1h 27m
Three teens in a Southern California town wrestle with questions of love and friendship along with adult realities of financial uncertainty.
Where to watch
Haven't Seen
Herman's House
Episode 3 - 7-08-2013
1h 26m
Herman Wallace has spent more than 40 years in a 6’ x 9’ prison cell. He works with artist Jackie Sumell to imagine his "dream home," questioning justice and punishment in America.
Where to watch
Haven't Seen
Special Flight
Episode 2 - 7-01-2013
Special Flight is a dramatic account of the plight of undocumented foreigners at the Frambois detention center in Geneva, Switzerland, and of the wardens who struggle to reconcile humane values with the harsh realities of a strict deportation system. The 25 Frambois inmates featured are among the thousands of asylum seekers and illegal immigrants imprisoned without charge or trial and facing deportation to their native countries, where they fear repression or even death. The film, made in Switzerland, is a heart-wrenching exposé of the contradictions between the country's compassionate social policies and the intractability of its immigration laws.
Haven't Seen
Homegoings
Episode 1 - 6-24-2013
55m
Season 26 opens with "Homegoings," which profiles Harlem funeral director Isaiah Owens, the son of a South Carolina sharecropper whose fascination with burials began as a boy, while also examining the traditions of African-American funerals. Owens' fascination with burials dates to his childhood: He buried matchsticks at age 5, then progressed to actual dead things, including chickens, dogs and even a mule. He moved to NYC at age 17 to learn the craft and, in time, opened his own funeral home.
Where to watch
Haven't Seen
Season 25
Girl Model
Episode 14 - 3-24-2013
A lyrical exploration of youth, beauty and ambition, seen through the eyes of a conflicted American scout and a 13-year-old she discovers.
8/10Haven't Seen
Reportero
Episode 13 - 1-07-2013
A veteran reporter and his colleagues at an independent newsweekly defy powerful drug cartels and corrupt officials to continue publishing the news in Mexico.
Haven't Seen
Nostalgia for the Light
Episode 12 - 10-25-2012
Patricio Guzmán's Nostalgia for the Light is a remarkable meditation on memory, history and eternity. Chile’s remote Atacama Desert, 10,000 feet above sea level, provides stunningly clear views of the heavens for astronomers. But it also holds secrets from the past: human remains, from pre-Columbian mummies to the bones of political prisoners "disappeared" during the Pinochet dictatorship.
7.5/10Haven't Seen
Sun Kissed
Episode 11 - 10-18-2012
When a Navajo couple uncovers a hidden link between their children’s rare genetic disorder and the American government’s conquest of their tribe, their lives are changed forever.
Haven't Seen
Give Up Tomorrow
Episode 10 - 10-04-2012
Exposing shocking corruption within the judicial system of the Philippines in one of the most sensational trials in the country’s history. Two grieving mothers, entangled in a case that ends a nation’s use of capital punishment but fails to free an innocent man, dedicate more than a decade to executing or saving him.
Haven't Seen
El Velador (The Night Watchman)
Episode 9 - 9-27-2012
From dusk to dawn, 'El Velador' accompanies Martin, a guard who watches over the extravagant mausoleums of some of Mexico’s most notorious drug lords. In the labyrinth of the cemetery, this film about violence without violence reminds us that, amid the turmoil of a drug war that has claimed more than 50,000 lives, ordinary existence persists in Mexico and quietly defies the dead.
Haven't Seen
I'm Carolyn Parker: The Good, the Mad, and the Beautiful
Episode 8 - 9-20-2012
Jonathan Demme’s portrait of post-Katrina New Orleans tells the story of Carolyn Parker, a lifelong resident of the Lower Ninth Ward, who is fighting for the right to rebuild her home and community.
Haven't Seen
POV Short Cuts
Episode 7 - 8-09-2012
Five shorts, including "The Barber of Birmingham: Foot Soldier of the Civil Rights Movement," about an octogenarian Alabama barber and WWII veteran who carried the American flag across the bridge on the first Selma to Montgomery march of 1965; and "Sin País (Without Country)," about illegal immigrants from Guatemala who, 20 years after arriving in the U.S., are deported to their home country. Also: three StoryCorps animations, including "Eyes on the Stars," about astronaut Ronald McNair.
Haven't Seen
Up Heartbreak Hill
Episode 6 - 7-26-2012
Up Heartbreak Hill chronicles the lives of three high school seniors living on the Navajo Nation and struggling to shape their identities as both Native American and modern American. They must decide whether to stay in their community - a place inextricably woven into the fiber of their beings - or leave in pursuit of educational and economic opportunities.
Haven't Seen
The Light in Her Eyes
Episode 5 - 7-19-2012
Houda al-Habash, a conservative Muslim preacher, founded a Qur’an school for girls in Damascus, Syria, 30 years ago. Every summer, her students immerse themselves in a rigorous study of Islam. A surprising cultural shift is underway - women are claiming space within the mosque. Shot right before the uprising in Syria erupted, 'The Light in Her Eyes' offers an extraordinary portrait of a leader.
Haven't Seen
Guilty Pleasures
Episode 4 - 7-12-2012
Every four seconds a romance novel published by Harlequin or its British counterpart, Mills & Boon, is sold somewhere in the world. Julie Moggan’s 'Guilty Pleasures' takes an amusing and touching look at this global phenomenon. Ironies abound in the contrasts between the everyday lives of the books’ readers and the fantasy worlds that offer them escape.
Where to watch
Haven't Seen
The City Dark
Episode 3 - 7-05-2012
Is darkness becoming extinct? A meditation on the human relationship to the stars.
7.1/10Haven't Seen
Granito: How to Nail a Dictator
Episode 2 - 6-28-2012
1h 22m
In a stunning milestone for justice in Central America, a Guatemalan court recently charged former dictator Efraín Rios Montt with genocide for his brutal war in the 1980s — and Pamela Yates’ 1983 documentary, When the Mountains Tremble, provided key evidence for bringing the indictment. Granito: How to Nail a Dictator tells the extraordinary story of how a film helped tip the scales of justice.
7.7/10Haven't Seen
My Reincarnation
Episode 1 - 6-21-2012
High Tibetan Buddhist Master Chögyal Namkhal Norbu teaches in the West, while his son, Yeshi, breaks from tradition and embraces the modern world.
Haven't Seen
Season 24
American Gypsy
Episode 17 - 5-26-2012
There are over one million Gypsies living in America today, and most people don’t know anything about them. It is one man’s obsessive pursuit of justice and dignity that led filmmaker Jasmine Dellal into their hidden thousand-year-old culture. Charming and outspoken, Spokane resident Jimmy Marks defies widely held stereotypes–and his own people’s code of secrecy–to unlock a Romani world in America.
Haven't Seen
American Tongues
Episode 16 - 5-16-2012
Haven't Seen
Racing Dreams
Episode 15 - 2-23-2012
'Racing Dreams' chronicles a year in the life of three "tweens" who dream of becoming NASCAR drivers. Though they aren't old enough for driver's licenses, Brandon, Josh, and Annabeth race extreme go-karts at speeds of up to 70 miles per hour in the World Karting Association's national series. The film is a humorous and heartbreaking portrait of racing, young love and family struggle.
Haven't Seen
Where Soldiers Come From
Episode 14 - 11-10-2011
From a small town in northern Michigan to the mountains of Afghanistan, "Where Soldiers Come From" follows the journey of childhood friends who join the National Guard after graduating from high school. It chronicles the young men's transformation from teenagers to soldiers to 23-year-old combat veterans. The film offers an intimate look at the young men who fight our wars.
Haven't Seen
Last Train Home
Episode 13 - 9-27-2011
Every spring, China’s cities are plunged into chaos as 130 million migrant workers journey to their home villages for the New Year in the world’s largest human migration. Last Train Home takes viewers on a heart-stopping journey with the Zhangs, a couple who left infant children behind for factory jobs 16 years ago, hoping their wages would lift their children to a better life. They return to a family growing distant and a daughter longing to leave school for unskilled work. As the Zhangs navigate their new world, Last Train Home paints a rich, human portrait of China’s rush to economic development. An EyeSteelFilm production in association with ITVS International. An Official Selection of the 2010 Sundance Film Festival. Winner of Best Feature-Length Documentary Award, 2009 International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam. (90:00)
8.1/10Haven't Seen
The Learning
Episode 12 - 9-20-2011
One hundred years ago, American teachers established the English-speaking public school system of the Philippines. Now, in a striking turnabout, American schools are recruiting Filipino teachers. The Learning is the story of four Filipino women who reluctantly leave their families and schools to teach in Baltimore. They hope to use their higher salaries to transform their families’ impoverished lives back home. But the women bring idealistic visions of the teacher’s craft and of life in America, which soon collide with Baltimore’s tough realities.
4.9/10Haven't Seen
If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front
Episode 11 - 9-13-2011
If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front explores two of America’s most pressing issues — environmentalism and terrorism — by lifting the veil on a radical environmental group the FBI calls America’s “number one domestic terrorism threat.” Former Earth Liberation Front member Daniel McGowan faces life in prison for two multimillion-dollar arsons against Oregon timber companies. What turned this working-class kid from Queens into an eco-warrior? Marshall Curry (Oscar®-nominated Street Fight, POV 2005) provides a nuanced and provocative account that is part coming-of-age story, part cautionary tale and part cops-and-robbers thriller.
8.2/10Haven't Seen
Better This World
Episode 10 - 9-06-2011
The story of Bradley Crowder and David McKay, who were accused of intending to firebomb the 2008 Republican National Convention, is a dramatic tale of idealism, loyalty, crime and betrayal. Better This World follows the radicalization of these boyhood friends from Midland, Texas, under revolutionary activist Brandon Darby. The results: eight homemade bombs, multiple domestic terrorism charges and a high-stakes entrapment defense hinging on the actions of a controversial FBI informant. The film goes to the heart of the war on terror and its impact on civil liberties and political dissent in post-9/11 America.
Haven't Seen
Armadillo
Episode 9 - 8-30-2011
In 2009, Janus Metz and cameraman Lars Skree accompanied a platoon of Danish soldiers to Armadillo, a combat operations base in southern Afghanistan. For six months, often while under fire, they captured the lives of the young soldiers fighting the Taliban in a hostile and confusing environment, where official rhetoric about helping civilians too often met the unforgiving reality of being a foreign occupier. Winner of the Critics’ Week Grand Prix at Cannes, Armadillo is one of the most dramatic and candid accounts of combat to come out of Afghanistan.
Haven't Seen
POV Short Cuts
Episode 8 - 8-23-2011
A one-hour collection of documentary shorts by established and emerging filmmakers, including:
Big Birding Day – David Wilson offers a glimpse into the world of competitive birdwatching, as three friends attempt to see as many species as possible in 24 hours.
Flawed – Artist/filmmaker Andrea Dorfman's drawings burst colorfully into life as she animates the story of her longdistance relationship with a man whose profession — plastic surgery — gives her plenty of fodder.
StoryCorps – StoryCorps brings its Peabody Award-winning storytelling to POV for a second season. POV’s animated shorts use original recordings that have become beloved public-radio “driveway moments.” Funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
Miss Devine – Cousins James Ransom and Cherie Johnson recall their inimitable Sunday school teacher, Miss Lizzie Devine. This animation, set in the small Florida town of the cousins’ memories, will have you laughing as the cousins remember the fearsome Miss Devine.
No More Questions – Strong-willed grandmother Kay Wang allowed her son and granddaughter to drag her into a StoryCorps booth. Though Kay was reluctant, she had stories to tell — from disobeying her mother and rebuffing suitors while growing up in China to late-life adventures as a store detective for Bloomingdale’s.
Six Weeks – Six weeks is the period in which parents of newborn babies in Poland may decide to give up a child for adoption. Marcin Janos Krawczyk looks at one child’s fate through the eyes of the mother who must make her irreversible decision and the joyful parents who adopt her baby.
Tiffany – Beverly Morris tells of her ongoing struggle to hold on to the most contested object in her divorce — the Tiffany lamp, in this animated short.
Haven't Seen
Steam of Life
Episode 7 - 8-02-2011
From a land of long, dark winters comes Steam of Life, a moody, comic and moving study of Finnish men as framed by the national obsession with the sauna. There, they come together to sweat out not only the grime of contemporary life, but also their grief, hopes, joys and memories. Beautifully and hauntingly shot, the acclaimed film provides a surprising glimpse into the lives of Finnish men and a remarkable depiction of the troubled and often reticent hearts of contemporary Western men. (60:00)
Haven't Seen
Mugabe and the White African
Episode 6 - 7-26-2011
Mugabe and the White African, much of which was filmed clandestinely, tells an alarming story from one of the world’s most troubled nations. In Zimbabwe, de facto dictator Robert Mugabe has unleashed a “land reform” program aimed at driving whites from the country through violence and intimidation. One proud “white African,” however, has challenged Mugabe with human rights abuses under international law. The courage Michael Campbell and his family display as they defend their farm — in court and on the ground — makes for a film as inspiring as it is harrowing. (90:00)
Haven't Seen
Biblioburro: The Donkey Library
Episode 5 - 7-19-2011
The Donkey Library is the story of a librarian — and a library — like no other. A decade ago, Colombian teacher Luis Soriano was inspired to spend his weekends bringing a modest collection of precious books, via two hard-working donkeys, to the children of a poor and violence-ridden province. As Soriano braves armed bands, drug traffickers, snakes and heat, his library on hooves carries an inspirational message about education and a better future for Colombia. His efforts have attracted worldwide attention — and imitators — but his story has never been better told than in this heartwarming yet unsentimental film. (60:00)
Haven't Seen
Enemies of the People
Episode 4 - 7-12-2011
The Khmer Rouge slaughtered nearly two million people in the late 1970s. Yet the “killing fields” of Cambodia have remained largely unexplained. Until now, in Enemies of the People. Enter Thet Sambath, an unassuming, yet cunning, investigative journalist who lost his family in the conflict and spends a decade gaining the trust of the men and women who perpetrated the massacres. Sambath and co-director Rob Lemkin record shocking testimony, never before seen or heard, from the foot soldiers who slit throats and from Pol Pot’s right-hand man, the notorious Brother Number Two. Winner of the 2010 Sundance World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Prize. (90:00)
7.8/10Haven't Seen
Sweetgrass
Episode 3 - 7-05-2011
Sweetgrass presents a riveting and poetic portrait of the American West just as one of its traditional ways of life dies out. Shot amidst the grandeur of Montana’s Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness, the film follows the last modern day cowboys to lead their flocks of sheep up into the breathtaking and often dangerous mountains for summer pasture. Magnificently photographed and unsparingly candid, Sweetgrass discovers a world of harsh beauty and arduous labor, where humans still work in rugged intimacy with nature. An Official Selection of the 2010 New York Film Festival. (90:00)
Haven't Seen
My Perestroika
Episode 2 - 6-28-2011
My Perestroika is an intimate look at the last generation of Soviet children. Five classmates go from living sheltered childhoods to experiencing the hopes of Gorbachev’s reforms and the confusion of the USSR’s dissolution, to searching for their places in today’s Moscow. With candor and humor, the punk rocker, single mother, entrepreneur and married teachers paint a picture of the challenges, dreams and disappointments of those raised behind the Iron Curtain. Through first-person testimony, vérité footage and vintage home movies, this beautifully crafted documentary reveals a Russia rarely seen on film. A co-production of Red Square Productions/Bungalow Town Productions and ITVS International in association with American Documentary | POV. An Official Selection of the 2010 Sundance Film Festival. (90:00)
Haven't Seen
Kings of Pastry
Episode 1 - 6-21-2011
When Chris Hegedus and D A Pennebaker, award-winning filmmakers of The War Room, Startup.com and Don’t Look Back, turn their sights on the competition for the Meilleurs Ouvriers de France awards, the country’s Nobel Prize for pastry, you’re in for a treat. In Kings of Pastry, 16 chefs, including Jacquy Pfeiffer, co-founder of Chicago’s French Pastry School, whip up the most gorgeous, delectable, gravity-defying concoctions and edge-of-your-seat drama as they deliver their spun-sugar desserts to the display table. The inevitable disasters and successes prove both poignant and hilarious. (90:00)
Haven't Seen
Season 23
The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers
Episode 14 - 10-05-2010
The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers is a 2009 documentary film directed by Judith Ehrlich and Rick Goldsmith. The film follows Daniel Ellsberg and explores the events leading up to the publication of the Pentagon Papers, which exposed the top-secret military history of the United States involvement in Vietnam.
8.8/10Haven't Seen
The Oath
Episode 13 - 9-21-2010
Filmed in Yemen and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, The Oath interweaves the stories of Abu Jandal, Osama bin Laden’s former bodyguard, and Salim Hamdan, a prisoner at Guantanamo facing war crimes charges. Directed by Laura Poitras (Flag Wars, POV 2003; the Oscar®-nominated My Country, My Country, POV 2006), The Oath unfolds via a narrative rife with plot reversals and betrayals that ultimately leads to Osama bin Laden, 9/11, Guantanamo and the U.S. Supreme Court. Winner of the 2010 Sundance Film Festival Excellence in Cinematography Award: Documentary. A co-production of ITVS in association with American Documentary/POV. (90:00)
6.8/10Haven't Seen
In the Matter of Cha Jung Hee
Episode 12 - 9-14-2010
Her passport said she was Cha Jung Hee. She knew she was not. So began a 40-year deception for a Korean adoptee who came to the United States in 1966. Told to keep her true identity secret from her new American family, the 8-year-old girl quickly forgot she had ever been anyone else. But why had her identity been switched? And who was the real Cha Jung Hee? In the Matter of Cha Jung Hee is the search to find the answers, as acclaimed filmmaker Deann Borshay Liem (First Person Plural, POV 2000) returns to her native Korea to find her “double,” the mysterious girl whose place she took in America. A co-production of ITVS in association with the Center for Asian American Media and American Documentary/POV. (60:00)
Haven't Seen
Off and Running
Episode 11 - 9-07-2010
Off and Running is the story of Brooklyn teenager Avery, a track star with a bright future. She is the adopted African-American child of white Jewish lesbians. Her two brothers are black and Puerto Rican and Korean. Though it may not look typical, Avery’s household is like most American homes — until Avery writes to her birth mother and the response throws her into crisis. She struggles over her “true” identity, the circumstances of her adoption and her estrangement from black culture. Just when it seems as if her life will unravel, Avery begins to make sense of her identity, with inspiring results. A co-production of ITVS in association with American Documentary/POV and the Diverse Voices Project, with funding provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. (90:00)
Haven't Seen
Wo Ai Ni (I Love You) Mommy
Episode 10 - 8-31-2010
What is it like to be torn from your Chinese foster family, put on a plane with strangers and wake up in a new country, family and culture? Wo Ai Ni (I Love You) Mommy is the story of Fang Sui Yong, an 8-year-old orphan, and the Sadowskys, the Long Island Jewish family that travels to China to adopt her. Sui Yong is one of 70,000 Chinese children now being raised in the United States. Through her eyes, we witness her struggle with a new identity as she transforms from a timid child into someone that no one — neither her new family nor she — could have imagined. A co-production of American Documentary/POV and the Diverse Voices Project, presented in association with the Center for Asian American Media, with funding provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. (90:00)
Haven't Seen
The Edge of Dreaming
Episode 9 - 8-24-2010
Scottish filmmaker Amy Hardie has built a career making science documentaries that reflect her rational temperament. When she dreamed one night that her horse was dying, only to wake and find the horse dead, she dismissed the incident as coincidental. Then she dreamed she would die at age 48 — the next year. When Hardie does get ill, just as the dream predicted, her search takes her to neuroscience experts and finally a shaman. The Edge of Dreaming is an evocative, intimate chronicle of that year and a fascinating investigation into the human subconscious. (90:00)
Haven't Seen
Salt
Episode 8 - 8-17-2010
In his search for “somewhere I could point my camera into pure space,” award-winning photographer Murray Fredericks began making annual solo camping trips to remote Lake Eyre and its salt flats in South Australia. These trips have yielded remarkable photos of a boundless, desolate yet beautiful environment where sky, water and land merge. Made in collaboration with documentary filmmaker Michael Angus, Salt is the film extension of Fredericks’ work at Lake Eyre, interweaving his photos and video diary with time-lapse sequences to offer viewers the liberating and disorienting experience of being thrown into an infinite dimension of mind and spirit. (60:00)
Haven't Seen
Presumed Guilty
Episode 7 - 7-27-2010
Imagine being picked up off the street, told you have committed a murder you know nothing about and then finding yourself sentenced to 20 years in jail. In December 2005 this happened to Toño Zúñiga in Mexico City and, like thousands of other innocent people, he was wrongfully imprisoned. This is the story of two young lawyers and their struggle to free Zúñiga. With no background in film, Roberto Hernández and Layda Negrete set about recording the injustices they were witnessing, enlisting acclaimed director Geoffrey Smith to tell this dramatic story.
Haven't Seen
El General
Episode 6 - 7-20-2010
Past and present collide as award-winning filmmaker Natalia Almada (Al Otro Lado, POV 2006) brings to life audio recordings she inherited from her grandmother, daughter of Plutarco Elias Calles, a revolutionary general who became Mexico’s president in 1924. In his time, Calles was called El Jefe Maximo (Foremost Chief). Today he is remembered as El Quema-Curas (Priest Burner) and as a dictator who ruled through puppet presidents until his exile in 1936. Airing during the centennial of the Mexican Revolution, El General moves between a daughter’s memories as she grapples with history’s portrayal of her father and the weight of his legacy on Mexico today. Winner of the 2009 Sundance Film Festival U.S. Directing Award: Documentary. A co-production of ITVS in association with Latino Public Broadcasting. A co-presentation with Latino Public Broadcasting. (90:00)
Haven't Seen
Good Fortune
Episode 5 - 7-13-2010
Good Fortune is a provocative exploration of how massive international efforts to alleviate poverty in Africa may be undermining the very communities they aim to benefit. In Kenya’s rural countryside, Jackson’s farm is being flooded by an American investor who hopes to alleviate poverty by creating a multimillion-dollar rice farm. Across the country in Nairobi, Silva’s home and business in Africa’s largest shantytown are being demolished as part of a U.N. slum-upgrading project. The gripping stories of two Kenyans battling to save their homes from large-scale development present a unique opportunity see foreign aid through eyes of the people it is intended to help. (90:00)
Haven't Seen
Promised Land
Episode 4 - 7-06-2010
Though apartheid ended in South Africa in 1994, economic injustices between blacks and whites remain unresolved. As revealed in Yoruba Richen’s incisive Promised Land, the most potentially explosive issue is land. The film follows two black communities as they struggle to reclaim land from white owners, some of whom who have lived there for generations. Amid rising tensions and wavering government policies, the land issue remains South Africa’s “ticking time bomb,” with farreaching consequences for all sides. Promised Land captures multiple perspectives of citizens struggling to create just solutions. A co-production of the National Black Programming Consortium, American Documentary/POV and the Diverse Voices Project, with funding provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. (60:00)
Haven't Seen
The Beaches of Agnès
Episode 3 - 6-29-2010
The Beaches of Agnès is a 2008 French documentary film directed by Agnès Varda. The film is an autobiographical essay where Varda revisits places from her past, reminisces about life and celebrates her 80th birthday on camera. She has said that it will most likely be her last film.
8.5/10Haven't Seen
William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe
Episode 2 - 6-22-2010
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. (90:00)
6.4/10Where to watch
Haven't Seen
Food, Inc.
Episode 1 - 4-21-2010
20m
How much do we know about the food we buy at our local supermarkets and serve to our families? Though our food appears the same as ever — a tomato still looks like a tomato — it has been radically transformed. In the Academy Award®-nominated blockbuster Food, Inc., producer-director Robert Kenner and investigative authors Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation) and Michael Pollan (The Omnivore’s Dilemma) lift the veil on the U.S. food industry, revealing surprising and eye-opening facts about what we eat, how it’s produced, who we have become as a nation and where we may go from here. (120:00)
Haven't Seen
Season 22
Patti Smith: Dream of Life
Episode 14 - 12-30-2009
Take a remarkable plunge into the life, art, memories and philosophical reflections of the legendary rocker, poet and artist.
Haven't Seen
The Way We Get By
Episode 13 - 11-11-2009
On call 24 hours a day for the past five years, a group of senior citizens has made history by greeting over 900,000 American troops at a tiny airport in Bangor, Maine. The Emmy-nominated film, The Way We Get By, is an intimate look at three of these greeters as they confront the universal losses that come with aging and rediscover their reason for living. Bill Knight, Jerry Mundy and Joan Gaudet find the strength to overcome their personal battles and transform their lives through service. This inspirational and surprising story shatters the stereotypes of today's senior citizens as the greeters redefine the meaning of community. A co-production of Dungby Productions and ITVS in association with WGBH and Maine Public Broadcasting Network (MPBN) with funding provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB).
Haven't Seen
Bronx Princess
Episode 12 - 9-22-2009
Rocky Otoo is the Bronx-bred teenage daughter of Ghanaian parents, and she's no pushover. She is a sassy high-achiever bound for college. With freedom in sight, Rocky rebels against her mother's rules. When their relationship reaches a breaking point, Rocky flees to her father, a chief in Ghana. What follows is captured in Bronx Princess, a tumultuous coming-of-age story set in a homeland both familiar and strange. Her precocious — and very American — ideas of a successful, independent life conflict with her father's traditional African values. Reconciling her dual legacies becomes an unexpected chapter in this unforgettable young woman's education.
5.8/10Haven't Seen
The Principal Story
Episode 11 - 9-15-2009
Two stories that paint a dramatic portrait of the challenges facing America's public schools — and of the great difference a dedicated principal can make. Tresa Dunbar is a second-year principal at Chicago's Nash Elementary, where 98% of students come from low-income families; in Springfield, Illinois, Kerry Purcell has led Harvard Park Elementary, with similar demographics, for six years. Tod Lending (Omar & Pete, POV 2005) and David Mrazek followed both women over the course of a school year, discovering each one's unique styles yet similar passions. The Principal Story takes the viewer along for an emotional ride that reveals what effective educational leadership looks like in the 21st century.
Haven't Seen
English Surgeon
Episode 10 - 9-08-2009
What is it like to have power over life and death, and yet to struggle with your own humanity? This is the story of acclaimed British neurosurgeon Henry Marsh, who has traveled to Ukraine for 15 years to treat patients who have been left to die; of his friend and medical colleague in Kyiv who carries on the fight despite official hostility and archaic surgical conditions; and of a young patient who hopes that Henry can save his life. Tense, heartbreaking and humorous, The English Surgeon is a remarkable depiction of one doctor's commitment to relieving suffering and of the emotional turmoil he undergoes in bringing hope to a desperate people.
Haven't Seen
Ella es el Matador (She Is the Matador)
Episode 9 - 9-01-2009
For Spaniards — and for the world — nothing has expressed their country's traditionally rigid gender roles more powerfully than the image of the male matador. So sacred was the bullfighter's masculinity to Spanish identity that a 1908 law barred women from the sport. Ella Es el Matador reveals the surprising history of the women who made such a law necessary and offers fascinating profiles of two female matadors currently in the arena: the acclaimed Mari Paz Vega and neophyte Eva Florencia. These women are gender pioneers by necessity. But what emerges as their truest motivation is their sheer passion — for bullfighting and the pursuit of a dream.
Haven't Seen
This Way Up
Episode 8 - 8-25-2009
This is a story about a wall - the separations it's meant to enforce, and the unintended ones it creates. The security wall being constructed by Israel on the West Bank has divided Palestinian families and communities. It has also isolated the Catholic-run Our Lady of Sorrows nursing home, leaving its feisty residents to face old age in the throes of one of the world's most bitter conflicts.
8.2/10Haven't Seen
Shorts Program
Episode 7 - 8-18-2009
A collection of short documentaries, including "Utopia, Part 3: The World's Largest Shopping Mall," about the 7-million-square-foot South China Mall, which was built in 2005 and is virtually empty; "Nutkin's Last Stand," about the attempt of Britons to save their red squirrels from an influx of North American gray squirrels; "34x25x36," about the Patina V mannequin factory near L.A.; and "City of Cranes," which explores the world of crane operators
Haven't Seen
Hold Me Tight, Let Me Go
Episode 6 - 7-28-2009
One of Britain's leading documentary filmmakers takes a vérité look at Oxford's Mulberry Bush School for emotionally disturbed children. Mulberry's heroically forbearing staff greets extreme, sometimes violent behavior with only consolation and gentle restraint. Kim Longinotto's unblinking camera captures an arduous process and a nearly unhinged environment, but it also records the daily dramas of troubled kids trying to survive and the moments of hope they achieve with Mulberry's clear-eyed staff.
Haven't Seen
The Betrayal (Nerakhoon)
Episode 5 - 7-21-2009
Filmed over 23 years, The Betrayal is the Academy Award-nominated directorial debut of renowned cinematographer Ellen Kuras in a unique collaboration with the film's subject and co-director, Thavisouk ("Thavi") Phrasavath. After the U.S. government waged a secret war in Laos during the Vietnam War, Thavi's father and thousands of other Laotians who had fought alongside American forces were abandoned and left to face imprisonment or execution. Hoping to find safety, Thavi's family made a harrowing escape to America, where they discovered a different kind of war. Weaving ancient prophecy with personal testimony and stunning imagery, The Betrayal is a story of survival and the resilient bonds of family.
9.2/10Haven't Seen
The Reckoning: The Battle for the International Criminal Court
Episode 4 - 7-14-2009
The International Criminal Court is the first permanent court to prosecute perpetrators of crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide.
Haven't Seen
Life.Support.Music
Episode 3 - 7-07-2009
In 2004, Jason Crigler's life was taking off. He was one of New York's hottest young guitarists, his new CD was due for release and his wife, Monica, was pregnant with their first child. Then, at a gig in Manhattan, Jason suffered a near-fatal brain hemorrhage. His doctors doubted he would ever emerge from his near-vegetative state. The astonishing journey that followed, documented by friend and filmmaker Eric Daniel Metzgar (The Chances of the World Changing, POV 2007), is a stirring family saga and a portrait of creative struggle in the face of overwhelming tragedy.
7.8/10Haven't Seen
Beyond Hatred
Episode 2 - 6-30-2009
In September 2002, three skinheads were roaming a park in Rheims, France, looking to "do an Arab," when they settled for a gay man instead. Twenty-nine-year-old François Chenu fought back fiercely, but he was beaten unconscious and thrown into a river, where he drowned. The acclaimed French vérité film Beyond Hatred is the story of the crime's aftermath; above all, of the Chenu family's brave and heartrending struggle to seek justice while trying to make sense of such pointless violence and unbearable loss. With remarkable dignity, they fight to transcend hatred and the inevitable desire for revenge.
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New Muslim Cool
Episode 1 - 6-23-2009
Puerto Rican-American rapper Hamza Pérez pulled himself out of drug dealing and street life 12 years ago and became a Muslim. Now he's moved to Pittsburgh's tough North Side to start a new religious community, rebuild his shattered family and take his message of faith to other young people through hard-hitting hip-hop music. But when the FBI raids his mosque, Hamza must confront the realities of the post-9/11 world, and himself. New Muslim Cool takes viewers on Hamza's ride through streets, slums and jail cells — following his spiritual journey to some surprising places in an America that never stops changing.
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Season 21
Inheritance
Episode 15 - 12-10-2008
Imagine watching Schindler's List and knowing the sadistic Nazi camp commandant played by Ralph Fiennes was your father. Inheritance is the story of Monika Hertwig, the daughter of mass murderer Amon Goeth. Hertwig has spent her life in the shadow of her father's sins, trying to come to terms with her "inheritance." She seeks out Helen Jonas, who was enslaved by Goeth and who is one of the few living eyewitnesses to his unspeakable brutality. The women's raw, emotional meeting unearths terrible truths and lingering questions about how the actions of our parents can continue to ripple through generations.
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Soldiers of Conscience
Episode 14 - 10-16-2008
When is it right to kill? In the midst of war, is it right to refuse? Eight U.S. soldiers today, some who killed and some who said no, reveal their inner moral dilemmas in Soldiers of Conscience. Made with official permission of the U.S. Army, the film transcends politics to explore the tension between spiritual values and military orders. Soldiers follows the stories of both conscientious objectors and those who criticize them. Through this clash of views, the film discovers a surprising common ground: all soldiers are "soldiers of conscience," torn between the demands of duty and the call of conscience.
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Up the Yangtze
Episode 13 - 10-08-2008
Nearing completion, China's massive Three Gorges Dam is altering the landscape and the lives of people living along the fabled Yangtze River. Countless ancient villages and historic locales will be submerged, and 2 million people will lose their homes and livelihoods. The Yu family desperately seeks a reprieve by sending their 16-year-old daughter to work in the cruise ship industry that has sprung up to give tourists a last glimpse of the legendary river valley. With cinematic sweep, Up the Yangtze explores lives transformed by the biggest hydroelectric dam in history, a hotly contested symbol of the Chinese economic miracle. An official selection of the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. An EyeSteelFilm/National Film Board of Canada production in association with American Documentary | P.O.V. A co-presentation with the Center for Asian American Media (CAAM).
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In the Family
Episode 12 - 10-01-2008
How much would you sacrifice to survive? When Chicago filmmaker Joanna Rudnick tested positive for the "breast cancer gene" at age 27, she knew the information could save her life. And she knew she was not only confronting mortality at an early age, but also was going to have to make heart-wrenching decisions about the life that lay ahead of her. Should she take the irreversible preventive step of having her breasts and ovaries removed or risk developing cancer? What would happen to her romantic life, her hopes for a family? In the Family documents Rudnick's efforts to reach out to other women while facing her deepest fears. A co-production of Joanna Rudnick, Kartemquin Films and Independent Television Service (ITVS).
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Critical Condition
Episode 11 - 9-30-2008
What happens if you fall sick and are one of 47 million people in America without health insurance? Critical Condition by Roger Weisberg (Waging a Living, POV 2006) puts a human face on the nation's growing health care crisis by capturing the harrowing struggles of four critically ill Americans who discover that being uninsured can cost them their jobs, health, home, savings, even their lives. Filmed in vérité style, Critical Condition offers a moving and invaluable expose at a time when the nation is debating how to extend health insurance to all Americans. A production of Public Policy Productions in association with Thirteen/WNET New York and American Documentary | POV
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Calavera Highway
Episode 10 - 9-16-2008
When brothers Armando and Carlos Peña set off to carry their mother's ashes to south Texas, their road trip turns into a quest for answers about a strangely veiled past. As they reunite with five other brothers, the two men try to piece together their family's shattered history. Why was their mother cast out by her family? What happened to their father, who disappeared during the notorious 1954 U.S. deportation program Operation Wetback? Calavera Highway is a sweeping story of seven Mexican-American men grappling with the meaning of masculinity, fatherhood and a legacy of rootless beginnings. Produced in association with American Documentary | P.O.V. A co-presentation of Latino Public Broadcasting. Funded in part by Center for Asian American Media with funds provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
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The Judge and the General
Episode 9 - 8-19-2008
When in 1998 Chilean judge Juan Guzmán was assigned the first criminal cases against the country's ex-dictator, General Augusto Pinochet, no one expected much. Guzmán had supported Pinochet's 1973 coup — waged as an anti-Communist crusade — that left the democratically elected president, Salvador Allende, and thousands of others dead or "disappeared." The filmmakers trace the judge's descent into what he calls "the abyss," where he uncovers the past — including his own role in the tragedy. The Judge and the General reveals one of the 20th century’s most notorious episodes and tells a cautionary tale about violating human rights in the name of "higher ideals." A co-production of Independent Television Service (ITVS) in association with Latino Public Broadcasting.
Where to watch
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Belarusian Waltz
Episode 8 - 8-12-2008
Belarus has been called "Europe's last dictatorship." Since 1994, Alexander Lukashenko has ruled the ex-Soviet republic with a despotic hand, jailing the opposition, shutting down the press and refusing to investigate the assassinations of dissidents. He has virtually silenced his critics — but not one lone performance artist who stages public stunts mocking the dictator's pretensions. Belarusian Waltz is the story of Alexander Pushkin, whose audacious, comical exploits find him facing the hostility of the police and the consternation of his family. An offbeat tale of post-modern street theater meeting 1930s-style authoritarianism, the film offers a surprising window into the soul of the Belarusian people.
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Johnny Cash: The Man, His World, His Music
Episode 7 - 8-05-2008
In this classic 1969 documentary, the Man in Black is captured at his peak, the first of many in a looming roller-coaster career. Fresh on the heels of his Folsom Prison album, Cash reveals the dark intensity and raw talent that made him a country music star and cultural icon. Director Robert Elfstrom got closer than any other filmmaker to Cash, who is seen performing with his new bride June Carter Cash, in a rare duet with Bob Dylan, and behind the scenes with friends, family and aspiring young musicians. Johnny Cash: The Man, His World, His Music paints an unforgettable portrait that endures beyond the singer's 2003 death.
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Campaign
Episode 6 - 7-29-2008
This is democracy — Japanese style. Campaign provides a startling insider's view of Japanese electoral politics in this portrait of a man plucked from obscurity by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) to run for a critical seat on a suburban city council. Kazuhiko "Yama-san" Yamauchi's LDP handlers are unconcerned that he has zero political experience, no charisma, no supporters and no time to prepare. What he does have is the institutional power of Japan's modern version of Tammany Hall pushing him forward. Yama-san allows his life to be turned upside down as he pursues the rituals of Japanese electioneering — with both tragic and comic results. A co-presentation with the Center for Asian American Media (CAAM).
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9 Star Hotel
Episode 5 - 7-22-2008
A group of young Palestinian men work illegally as construction laborers in the Israeli city of Modi'in. Caught between Israeli security laws and a Palestinian Authority they see as having failed them, they work for Israeli contractors by day while hiding from police by night. Like youths everywhere, they pass their idle hours talking about love, marriage and future hopes. Israeli filmmaker Ido Haar has crafted a powerful vérité film that illuminates the plight of young men questioning their own culture while struggling to survive in the midst of bitter conflict.
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The Last Conquistador
Episode 4 - 7-15-2008
Renowned sculptor John Houser has a dream: to build the world's tallest bronze equestrian statue for the city of El Paso, Texas. He envisions a stunning monument to Spanish conquistador Juan de Oñate that will honor the contributions Hispanic people made to building the American West. But as the project nears completion, troubles arise. Native Americans are outraged — they remember Oñate as the man who brought genocide to their land and sold their children into slavery. As El Paso divides along lines of race and class in The Last Conquistador, the artist must face the moral implications of his work.
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The Ballad of Esequiel Hernández
Episode 3 - 7-08-2008
In 1997, U.S. Marines patrolling the Texas-Mexico border as part of the War on Drugs shot and killed Esequiel Hernández Jr. Mistaken for a drug runner, the 18-year-old was, in fact, a U.S. citizen tending his family's goats with a .22 rifle. He became the first American killed by U.S. military forces on native soil since the 1970 Kent State shootings. The Ballad of Esequiel Hernández, narrated by Tommy Lee Jones, explores Hernandez's tragic death and its torturous aftermath. His parents and friends, the Marines on patrol, and investigators discuss the dangers of militarizing the border and the death of one young man.
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Election Day
Episode 2 - 7-01-2008
Forget the pie charts, color-coded maps and hyperventilating pundits. What's the street-level experience of voters in today's America? In a triumph of documentary storytelling, Election Day combines 11 stories — shot simultaneously on November 2, 2004, from dawn until long past midnight — into one. Factory workers, ex-felons, harried moms, Native American activists and diligent poll watchers, from South Dakota to Florida, take the process of democracy into their own hands. The result: an entertaining, inspiring and sometimes unsettling tapestry of citizens determined on one fateful day to make their votes count.
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Traces of the Trade: A Story From the Deep North
Episode 1 - 6-24-2008
The 21st-season opener features "Traces of the Trade: A Story From the Deep North," an exploration of filmmaker Katrina Brown's slave-trading ancestors, the Rhode Island DeWolfs. She and nine relatives (including Tom DeWolf, author of "Inheriting the Trade") retrace the old slave-trading route, including stops in Bristol, R.I., Ghana and Cuba.
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Season 20
Wrestling with Angels: Playwright Tony Kushner
Episode 14 - 12-12-2007
Tony Kushner, whose epochal Angels in America won a Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award, has emerged as one of the country’s leading playwrights – and one of its fiercest moral critics. In the film Wrestling With Angels: Playwright Tony Kushner, Oscar-winning director Freida Lee Mock (P.O.V.’s Maya Lin: A Strong Clear Vision) followed Kushner for three tumultuous years, from Sept. 11, 2001 to the 2004 presidential election, to delve into the passions that keep him reaching for the great American play. Actors Marcia Gay Harden, Meryl Streep, Tonya Pinkins and Emma Thompson, directors Mike Nichols and George C. Wolf, and writer/artist Maurice Sendak are seen collaborating with Kushner on such landmark works as Angels in America; Caroline, or Change; and Homebody/Kabul. (packaged to 116:46)
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49 Up
Episode 13 - 10-09-2007
In one of documentary cinema’s more remarkable enterprises, 49 Up makes its U.S. broadcast premiere as the seventh in a series of films that has profiled a group of English children every seven years, beginning in 1964. Renowned director Michael Apted (Coal Miner’s Daughter, Gorky Park, Gorillas in the Mist) has doggedly pursued the series as the children have grown into adults, navigating the divide between childhood dreams and adult realities. 49 Up revisits questions of love, marriage, career, class and prejudice – discovering unexpected turns in individual lives, and surprising views of the Up film series itself. (packaged to 146:46)
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Lumo
Episode 12 - 9-18-2007
1h 26m
The agonies of present-day Africa are deeply etched in the bodies of women. In eastern Congo on the Rwanda border, vying militias, armies and bandits use rape as a weapon of terror. Lumo Sinai was just over 20 when marauding soldiers attacked her. A fistula, common among victims of violent rape, rendered her incontinent and threatens her ability to bear children. Rejected by her fiancé and cast aside by her family, Lumo awaits reconstructive surgery. Lumo is her story, tragic for its cruelties but also inspiring for the struggle she wages and the dignity she displays, with the help of an extraordinary African hospital, to overcome shame, fear, and the affliction that robs her of a normal life. (packaged to 56:46)
7/10Haven't Seen
The Camden 28
Episode 11 - 9-11-2007
How far would you go to stop a war? The Camden 28 recalls a 1971 raid on a Camden, N.J., draft board office by “Catholic Left” activists protesting the Vietnam War and its effects on urban America. Arrested on site in a clearly planned sting, the protesters included four Catholic priests, a Lutheran minister, and 23 others. The Camden 28 reveals the story behind the arrests – a provocative tale of government intrigue and personal betrayal – and the ensuing legal battle, which Supreme Court Justice William Brennan called "one of the great trials of the 20th century." Thirty-five years later, the participants take stock of the motives, fears and costs of their activism – and its relevance to America today. (packaged to 86:46)
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Made in L.A.
Episode 10 - 9-04-2007
Los Angeles is now the country’s center for apparel manufacturing, but many of its factories bear an eerie resemblance to New York’s early 20th century sweatshops. Made in L.A. follows the remarkable journey of three Latina immigrants working in L.A.’s garment factories and their struggle for self-empowerment as they wage a three-year battle to bring a major clothing retailer to the negotiating table. This intimate film offers a rare and poignant glimpse into this “other” California, where immigrants in many industries toil long hours for sub-minimum wages, fighting for an opportunity in a new country. A co-production with the Independent Television Service (ITVS). A Diverse Voices Project co-production. A co-presentation with Latino Public Broadcasting. (packaged to 86:46)
7.8/10Haven't Seen
Libby, Montana
Episode 9 - 8-28-2007
1h 12m
Nestled below the rugged peaks of the Northern Rockies in Montana—as iconic a representation of America’s “purple mountain majesties” as one can find—lies the worst case of community-wide exposure to a toxic substance in U.S. history. In the small town of Libby, many hundreds of people are sick or have already died from asbestos exposure. Libby, Montana takes a long working day’s journey into a blue-collar community, and finds a different reality—one where the American Dream exacts a terrible price. (packaged to 86:46)
7.6/10Haven't Seen
Arctic Son
Episode 8 - 8-21-2007
In Arctic Son, the clash of tradition and modernity puts a Native father and son at odds in the village of Old Crow, 80 miles above the Arctic Circle. Stanley, Jr., raised in Seattle, is drifting deeper into drinking and partying. Stanley, Sr., a remote, philosophical figure to his son, keeps the ways of his Gwitchin ancestors alive by hunting, fishing and living by his wits in the harsh arctic environment. After a lifetime apart, the two are reunited in the raw, quiet beauty of the Canadian Yukon in a story that captures the dialogue between a father and son from vastly different worlds. (packaged to 86:46)
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Following Sean
Episode 7 - 7-31-2007
Thirty years after making a celebrated student short about a four-year-old child of free spirits living in San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury district at the height of the 1960s, Ralph Arlyck attempts the kind of revelation only documentary film can provide. In Following Sean, he goes in search of the impish, barefoot kid who delighted or horrified audiences, reflecting the hopes and fears of a turbulent, utopian era. In discovering what has become of Sean, Arlyck finds a complex reality—and experiences pure cinematic surprise. As the filmmaker comes to grips with his own midlife conflicts, Following Sean may reveal as much about Arlyck and his generation as it does his subject. A co-presentation with KQED/Truly California. (packaged to 86:46)
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Prison Town, USA
Episode 6 - 7-24-2007
In the 1990s, at the height of the prison-building boom, a prison opened in rural America every 15 days. Prison Town, USA tells the story of Susanville, California, one small town that tries to resuscitate its economy by building a prison – with unanticipated consequences. Weaving the stories of a laidoff mill worker turned guard, a struggling dairy owner and an inmate’s family stranded in Susanville, the film sheds light on an industry that is transforming the social and economic landscape of rural America. A co-production of the Independent Television Service (ITVS) and KQED/Truly California.
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The Chances of the World Changing
Episode 5 - 7-17-2007
A decade ago, after an epiphany at a New York restaurant, Richard Ogust began dedicating his time and resources to rescuing endangered turtles – confiscating hundreds bound for Southeast Asian food markets. When the filmmakers catch up with the 50-year-old writer, he is sharing his Manhattan loft with 1,200 turtles, including five species extinct in the wild. But his growing “ark” and preservation efforts are threatening to exhaust him, both mentally and financially. With luminous images and a haunting musical score, The Chances of the World Changing documents two years in the life of a man who finds himself struggling to save hundreds of lives, including his own. (packaged to 86:46)
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Revolution '67
Episode 4 - 7-10-2007
Revolution ’67 is an illuminating account of events too often relegated to footnotes in U.S. history – the black urban rebellions of the 1960s. Focusing on the six-day Newark, N.J., outbreak in mid-July, Revolution ’67 reveals how the disturbances began as spontaneous revolts against poverty and police brutality and ended as fateful milestones in America’s struggles over race and economic justice. Voices from across the spectrum – activists Tom Hayden and Amiri Baraka, journalist Bob Herbert, Mayor Sharpe James, and other officials, National Guardsmen, and Newark citizens – recall lessons as hard-earned then as they have been easy to neglect since. A co-production of the Independent Television Service (ITVS ) and American Documentary | P.O.V. in association with WSKG. (packaged to 86:46)
Where to watch
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Standing Silent Nation
Episode 3 - 7-03-2007
What does a family have to endure to create a future for itself? In April 2000, Alex White Plume and his Lakota family planted industrial hemp on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota after other crops had failed. They put their hopes for a sustainable economy in hemp’s hardiness and a booming worldwide demand for its many products, from clothing to food. Although growing hemp, a relative of marijuana, was banned in the U.S., Alex believed that tribal sovereignty, along with hemp’s non-psychoactive properties, would protect him. But when federal agents raided the White Plumes’ fields, the Lakota Nation was swept into a Byzantine struggle over tribal sovereignty, economic rights and common sense. A co-presentation with Native American Public Telecommunications. (packaged to 56:46)
6.3/10Haven't Seen
Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars
Episode 2 - 6-26-2007
If the refugee is today’s tragic icon of a war-torn world, then Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars, a reggae-inflected band born in the camps of West Africa, represents a real-life story of survival and hope. The six-member Refugee All Stars came together in Guinea after civil war forced them from their native Sierra Leone. Traumatized by physical injuries and the brutal loss of family and community, they fight back with the only means they have – music. The result, as shown in Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars, is a tableau of tragedy transformed by the band’s inspiring determination to sing and be heard. A Diverse Voices Project co-production. (packaged to 86:46)
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Rain in a Dry Land
Episode 1 - 6-19-2007
How do you measure the distance from an African village to an American city? What does it mean to be a refugee in today's "global village?" Rain in a Dry Land provides eye-opening answers as it chronicles the fortunes of two Somali Bantu families, transported by relief agencies from years of civil war and refugee life to Springfield, Massachusetts and Atlanta, Georgia. As the newcomers confront racism, poverty and 21st-century culture shock, the film captures their efforts to survive in America and create a safe haven for their war-torn families. Their poetry, humor, and amazing resilience show us our own world through new eyes. A co-production of the Independent Television Service (ITVS). (packaged to 86:46)
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Season 19
Lawn
Episode 14 - 7-11-2006
Haven't Seen
My Country, My Country
Episode 13 - 10-24-2006
My Country, My Country is a 2006 documentary film about Iraq under U.S. occupation by the filmmaker Laura Poitras.
Haven't Seen
Maquilapolis: City of Factories
Episode 12 - 10-10-2006
1h 30m
Just over the border in Mexico is an area peppered with maquiladoras: massive factories often owned by the world's largest multinational corporations. Carmen and Lourdes work at maquiladoras in Tijuana, where each day they confront labor violations, environmental devastation and urban chaos. In this lyrical documentary, the women reach beyond the daily struggle for survival to organize for change, taking on both the Mexican and U.S. governments and a major television manufacturer. A co-production of the Independent Television Service (ITVS).
7.1/10Haven't Seen
No Bigger Than a Minute
Episode 11 - 10-03-2006
"My name is Steven, and I am a dwarf..." So begins No Bigger than a Minute, a stylishly eclectic documentary film that introduces viewers to four-foot-tall filmmaker, Steven Delano. For forty years Steven lived his life as a reluctant celebrity, disavowing his dwarf deviance and avoiding both the benefits and potential traumas of real self-discovery. In making this film Steven uses his license-of-stature and a healthy dose of irreverent humor to show first-hand how a genetic mutation marks a person for life. Brimming with bright colors, bold images, surreal reenactments, and an original score composed from Steven's very own mutated DNA sequence, No Bigger than a Minute finds the dignity of dwarfs in an exposé of the delightful, fulfilling and sometimes shocking realities that define a tip-toe life.
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Twelve Disciples of Nelson Mandela
Episode 10 - 9-19-2006
In the wake of his stepfather’s death, Thomas Allen Harris embarks on a journey of reconciliation with the man who raised him as a son but whom he could never call "father." As part of the first wave of black South African exiles, Harris’s stepfather, B. Pule Leinaeng, and his eleven comrades left their home in Bloemfontein in 1960. They told the world about the brutality of the apartheid system and raised support for the fledgling African National Congress and its leader, Nelson Mandela. Drawing upon the memories of the surviving disciples and their families, along with the talent of young South African actors who portray their harrowing experiences, Twelve Disciples of Nelson Mandela tells an intimate story of family and home against the backdrop of a global movement for freedom. A co-production of the Independent Television Service (ITVS), in association with P.O.V./American Documentary and the National Black Programming Consortium.
6.9/10Haven't Seen
The Boys of Baraka
Episode 9 - 9-12-2006
Devon, Montrey, Richard, and Romesh are just at that age — 12 and 13 years old — when boys start to become men. But in their hometown of Baltimore, one of the country’s most poverty-stricken cities for inner-city residents, African-American boys have a very high chance of being incarcerated or killed before they reach adulthood. The boys are offered an amazing opportunity in the form of the Baraka school, a project founded to break the cycle of violence through an innovative education program that literally removed young boys from low-performing public schools and unstable home environments. They travel with their classmates to rural Kenya in East Africa, where a teacher-student ratio of one to five, a strict disciplinary program and a comprehensive curriculum form the core of their new educational program. The Boys of Baraka follows along with their journey, and examines each boy’s transformation during this remarkable time. Winner of awards at the Newport, Chicago, Woodstock and SILVERDOCS Film Festivals. A co-presentation with the Independent Television Service (ITVS). Produced in association with P.O.V./American Documentary.
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Waging a Living
Episode 8 - 8-29-2006
The term "working poor" should be an oxymoron. If you work full time, you should not be poor, but more than 30 million Americans — one in four workers — are stuck in jobs that do not pay the basics for a decent life. Waging a Living chronicles the day-to-day battles of four low-wage earners fighting to lift their families out of poverty. Shot over a three-year period in the northeast and California, this observational documentary captures the dreams, frustrations, and accomplishments of a diverse group of people who struggle to live from paycheck to paycheck. By presenting an unvarnished look at the barriers that these workers must overcome to lift their families out of poverty, Waging a Living offers a sobering view of the elusive American Dream.
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Lomax the Songhunter
Episode 7 - 8-22-2006
Alan Lomax was "the song hunter." He devoted his life to recording the world's folk tunes before they would permanently disappear with the rise of the modern music industry. In Lomax the Songhunter, filmmaker Rogier Kappers seeks to tell Lomax's story by interviewing friends such as Pete Seeger, combining it with archival recordings of music greats Woody Guthrie and Leadbelly, and gathering footage of the cotton fields, rock quarries and prisons where Alan Lomax captured America’s quintessential music. Finally, Kappers followed the route that Lomax took so many years ago and traveled to remote villages in Spain and Italy, hearing memories and music from the farmers, shepherds and weavers whose songs Lomax recorded decades earlier.
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Al Otro Lado
Episode 6 - 8-01-2006
The proud Mexican tradition of corrido music—captured in the performances of Mexican band Los Tigres del Norte and the late Chalino Sanchez—provides both heartbeat and backbone to this rich examination of songs, drugs and dreams along the U.S./Mexico border. Al Otro Lado follows Magdiel, an aspiring corrido composer from the drug capital of Mexico, as he faces two difficult choices to better his life: to traffic drugs or to cross the border illegally into the United States. An Official Selection of the Tribeca Film Festival.
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The Tailenders
Episode 5 - 7-25-2006
Global Recordings Network (GRN), founded in Los Angeles in 1939, has produced audio versions of Bible stories in over 5,500 languages, and aims to record in every language on earth. They distribute the recordings, along with ultra-low-tech hand-wind players, in isolated regions and among displaced migrant workers. The Bible stories played by the missionaries are sometimes the first encounter community members have had with recorded sound, and, even more frequently, the first time they have heard their own language recorded. GRN calls their target audience "the tailenders" because they are the last to be reached by worldwide evangelism. Filmed in the Solomon Islands, Mexico, India and the United States, The Tailenders focuses on the intersection of missionary activity and global capitalism and raises questions about how meaning, carried by the simple sound of a human voice, changes as it crosses language and culture.
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The Fall of Fujimori
Episode 4 - 7-18-2006
1h 0m
In 1990, an unknown candidate named Alberto Fujimori rode a wave of popular support to become the president of Peru. He fought an allout war on terror against the guerilla organization Shining Path, and won. Ten years later, accused of kidnapping, murder and corruption, he fled Peru to his native Japan, where he was in exile for four years. Fujimori has remained virtually silent about the abrupt end of his controversial presidency, until now. He granted an unprecedented, in-depth interview to filmmaker Ellen Perry, who presents an intimate, chilling portrait of this enigmatic leader's rise and fall, interweaving neverbefore-seen footage from his regime with Fujimori's own words. As events unfold in his quest to return to Peruvian politics, The Fall of Fujimori offers a cautionary tale about power and corruption in an age of terrorism.
8/10Haven't Seen
Tintin and I
Episode 3 - 7-11-2006
Why do the comic-strip Adventures of Tintin, about an intrepid boy reporter, continue to fascinate us decades after their publication? "Tintin and I" highlights the potent social and political underpinnings that give Tintin's world such depth, and delve into the mind of Hergé, Tintin's work-obsessed Belgian creator, to reveal the creation and development of Tintin over time. Rare and surprisingly candid 1970s interviews reveal the profound insecurities and anxieties that drove Hergé to produce stories that have not only entertained millions of children but also helped to satisfy a personal longing for self-expression. With stunning visual effects, "Tintin and I" takes us on a fascinating journey into the psyche and brilliant work of Hergé, in his own words.
Haven't Seen
Kokoyakyu: High School Baseball
Episode 2 - 7-04-2006
In Japan, baseball is not a pastime — it's a national obsession. And for many of the country's youth, the sport has become a rite of passage, epitomized by the national high school baseball tournament known simply as "Koshien." Four thousand teams enter, but only 49 are chosen to compete in the championship that grips the nation for two weeks every August.
Haven't Seen
No More Tears Sister
Episode 1 - 6-27-2006
A story of love, revolution and betrayal, No More Tears Sister explores the price of truth in times of war. Set during the violent ethnic conflict that has enveloped Sri Lanka over decades, the film recreates the courageous and vibrant life of renowned human rights activist Dr. Rajani Thiranagama. Mother, anatomy professor, author and symbol of hope, Thiranagama's commitment to truth and human rights led to her assassination at the age of 35. This documentary recounts her dramatic story through rare archival footage, intimate correspondences, and poetic recreations, exposing the high price that this revolutionary woman paid for her pursuit of justice.
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Season 18
I Used to Be a Filmmaker
Episode 16 - 8-16-2005
Where to watch
Haven't Seen
A Song for Daniel
Episode 15 - 8-23-2005
Where to watch
Haven't Seen
A Thousand Words
Episode 14 - 8-16-2005
Where to watch
Haven't Seen
Omar & Pete
Episode 13 - 9-13-2005
Haven't Seen
The Hobart Shakespeareans
Episode 12 - 9-06-2005
The Hobart Shakespeareans of Hobart Boulevard Elementary School is a 2005 documentary film that tells the story of the inspirational inner-city Los Angeles school teacher Rafe Esquith whose rigorous fifth-grade curriculum includes English, mathematics, geography, and literature. The pinnacle of student achievement each year is the performance of a play by William Shakespeare; in the year of filming, that play was Hamlet.
The Hobart Shakespeareans drew the attention of renowned Shakespearean actors Ian McKellen and Michael York, who pay a visit to the class to watch their performance of Hamlet. Delighted with the students, York calls the Hobart Shakespeareans "one of the great Shakespeare troupes" in Los Angeles.
Rafe and the Hobart Shakespeareans work hard every year to achieve a beautiful Shakespeare play. The recent plays they have performed were As You Like It and The Merchant of Venice.
The Hobart Shakespeareans aired on PBS' P.O.V. series in 2005. It was produced and directed by Mel Stuart.
Haven't Seen
Hiding and Seeking: Faith and Tolerance After the Holocaust
Episode 11 - 8-30-2005
Hiding and Seeking: Faith and Tolerance After the Holocaust is 2004 documentary film about Menachem Daum, an Orthodox Jew and son of German Nazi Holocaust survivors who has spent his life interviewing survivors about the impact of the Holocaust on their lives. After hearing a disturbing tape of a rabbi openly preaching "hatred" of non-Jews, Daum attempts to raise an outcry in his Brooklyn Orthodox community. When ignored by the media and community leaders, Daum decides to fly to Israel to discuss the matter with his two sons, concerned with the "ethical legacy" he is responsible for leaving them.
Hiding and Seeking was produced, written, and directed by Menachem Daum and Oren Rudavsky and aired on PBS's Point of View series in 2005. It has been met with high critical praise, receiving a 90% "Fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Haven't Seen
Bright Leaves
Episode 10 - 8-23-2005
Bright Leaves is a 2003 documentary film by independent filmmaker Ross McElwee about the association his family had with the tobacco industry.
Bright Leaf is the name of a strain of tobacco. It was also the name of a 1949 novel and 1950 feature film about a struggle between two tobacco barons.
The struggle depicted in the film, according to McElwee family tradition, parallels the historical one between McElwee's great-grandfather and the patriarch of the Duke family who founded Duke University.
The documentary follows McElwee's usual style, where he gives voiceovers to apparently spontaneous footage, making the story more personal.
Haven't Seen
Hardwood
Episode 9 - 8-16-2005
Hardwood is a 2005 short documentary film about Canadian director Hubert Davis' relationship to his father, former Harlem Globetrotters member Mel Davis. Through interviews with his mother, his father's wife, his half-brother, and Mel Davis himself, Hubert Davis explores why Mel made the decisions that he did, and how that has affected his life.
Hardwood was met with high critical acclaim and received an Academy Award for Documentary Short Subject nomination. It also aired on PBS as part of its Point of View series in 2005.
Where to watch
Haven't Seen
In the Realms of the Unreal
Episode 8 - 8-02-2005
In the Realms of the Unreal is a 2004 documentary about outsider artist Henry Darger.
An obscure janitor during his life, Darger is known for the posthumous discovery of his elaborate 15,143-page fantasy manuscript entitled The Story of the Vivian Girls, in What is Known as the Realms of the Unreal, of the Glandeco-Angelinnian War Storm, Caused by the Child Slave Rebellion, along with several hundred watercolor paintings and other drawings illustrating the story.
Haven't Seen
The Self-Made Man
Episode 7 - 7-26-2005
Haven't Seen
The Brooklyn Connection
Episode 6 - 7-19-2005
Haven't Seen
The Fire Next Time
Episode 5 - 7-12-2005
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Street Fight
Episode 4 - 7-05-2005
Haven't Seen
Big Enough
Episode 3 - 6-28-2005
A follow-up to the 1982 Emmy-nominated film Little People, Big Enough is a 2004 documentary film about Anu Trombino, Karla and John Lizzo, Len and Lenette Sawisch, and Sharon and Ron Roskamp, who are all typical Americans in every respect, except that they are dwarfs. Twenty years after her first film, Jan Krawitz finds out what has happened to her subjects.
Big Enough was met with high critical acclaim, receiving an Independent Filmmaker Award from the Carolina Film & Video Festival and was aired as part of PBS's Point of View series in 2005.
Where to watch
Haven't Seen
The Education of Shelby Knox
Episode 2 - 6-21-2005
The Education of Shelby Knox is 2005 documentary film that tells the coming-of-age story of public speaker and feminist Shelby Knox, a teenager who joins a campaign for comprehensive sex education in the high schools of Lubbock, Texas. TEOSK was an official selection of the Sundance Film Festival in 2005 and aired on PBS’ P.O.V. series that same year. It was directed and produced by Marion Lipschutz and Rose Rosenblatt.
5.3/10Haven't Seen
Chisholm `72: Unbought & Unbossed
Episode 1 - 2-07-2005
Chisholm `72: Unbought Unbossed is a PBS P.O.V. documentary about Shirley Chisholm.
6.6/10Haven't Seen
Season 17
Lost Boys of Sudan
Episode 13 - 9-28-2004
Haven't Seen
A Panther in Africa
Episode 12 - 9-21-2004
Where to watch
Haven't Seen
Freedom Machines
Episode 11 - 9-14-2004
Freedom Machines is a 2004 PBS/P.O.V. documentary that looks at disability in the age of technology, presenting intimate stories of people ages 8-93, whose talents and independence are being unleashed by access to modern, enabling technologies. Nearly twenty years after the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, the film reflects on the gaps between its promise and the realities for our largest minority group – 54,000,000 Americans with disabilities. Whether mainstream tools or inventions such as a stair climbing wheelchair, Freedom Machines examines the power of technology to change lives.
Haven't Seen
Wattstax
Episode 10 - 9-07-2004
Wattstax is a 1973 documentary film by Mel Stuart that focused on the 1972 Wattstax music festival and the African American community of Watts in Los Angeles, California. The film was nominated for a Golden Globe award for Best Documentary Film in 1974. It was also screened at the 1973 Cannes Film Festival, but was not entered into the main competition.
Haven't Seen
Speedo: A Demolition Derby Love Story'
Episode 9 - 8-24-2004
Haven't Seen
Every Mother's Son
Episode 8 - 8-17-2004
Haven't Seen
A Family Undertaking
Episode 7 - 8-03-2004
1h 16m
Haven't Seen
Last Man Standing: Politics---Texas Style
Episode 6 - 7-20-2004
What is old is often new again. Most funerals today are part of a multimillion-dollar industry run by professionals. This increased reliance on mortuaries has alienated Americans from life's only inevitability — death. A Family Undertaking explores the growing home funeral movement by following several families in their most intimate moments as they reclaim the end of life, forgoing a typical mortuary funeral to care for their loved ones at home. Far from being a radical innovation, keeping funeral rites in the family or among friends is exactly how death was handled for most of pre-20th century America.
Prior to the Civil War, caring for and preparing the dead for burial on family farms or in local cemeteries was both a domestic skill and a family responsibility. The trauma of the Civil War created the need for a new profession: that of undertaker. The advent of the undertaker marked a sharp and negative shift in American attitudes toward death. For many, the death of a loved one became an alienating event, sanitized and institutionalized. Americans literally lost touch with death. Death also became more expensive. Today an average funeral-home memorial and interment costs as much as $7,000 – a burdensome expense many families feel pressured to meet in the name of honoring their dead.
A Family Undertaking makes clear that the heart of the home funeral movement is the desire to rescue funerals from the impersonality of a mass-market industry, and to reshape them according to personal beliefs or family and community traditions. The film introduces us to individuals like the Carr family of South Dakota, preparing for the death of 90-year-old family patriarch Bernard, and Anne Stuart and Dwight Caswell of California, preparing for the end of Anne's struggle with terminal cancer. Through their stories we see that "hands-on" care for the dead by family members, including children, can aid in grieving, bring a sense of fulfillment, and help loved ones to grasp the reality of a death. Their home funerals are remarkable documents of death made intimate, meaningful, and even joyful.
Haven't Seen
Thirst
Episode 5 - 7-13-2004
Haven't Seen
War Feels Like War
Episode 4 - 7-06-2004
57m
War Feels Like War is a 2004 British documentary film. It was broadcast in the United States as part of the P.O.V. series. For three months, Spanish filmmaker Esteban Manzanares Uyarra followed five reporters and photographers from Denmark, Norway, Poland, and the United States in Iraq. These journalists circumvented military media control to get access to a different perspective on the Iraq War. As the Coalition of the willing swept into Iraq, some journalists in Kuwait decided to travel in their wake, risking their lives to discover the impact of war on civilians.
The journalists include best-selling author P.J. O'Rourke, who was working for ABC Radio, as well as reporters and photographers for news operations ranging from Poland's Radio Zet to Stephanie Sinclair, a photographer for the Chicago Tribune.
7.3/10Haven't Seen
Bill's Run: A Political Journey in Rural Kansas
Episode 3 - 6-29-2004
Haven't Seen
Farmingville
Episode 2 - 6-22-2004
"In the current frigid national climate facing economic migrants, Carlos Sandoval and Catherine Tambini enter the traumatized world of Farmingville, a previously unassuming Long Island suburb that witnessed the beating and attempted murder of two Mexican day laborers. What the filmmakers find is the very dangerous, two-edged sword of a growing national crisis: on the one side, the community's increasing population of undocumented aliens, who are crowding into single-family dwellings and assembling on early morning street corners, hoping to grab a day's wage; on the other, Farmingville's home-owning families, many of whom have lived there for generations and are watching what they envision as a bucolic little village slipping away.
Amid a conflict pitting the providence of dreams against the privileges (and rights) of property, Sandoval and Tambini resist the urge to make agitprop, almost agonizingly presenting both sides of the conflict while, at the same time, chronicling how a small town in upheaval can get co-opted into a national nightmare. Anti-immigration groups, racist hatemongers and even local figures with specialized agendas rise and fall throughout the telling of the Farmingville tale. More than a story about suburbs, property values, immigration, and racism, Farmingville is ultimately about the conflicted concept of what being American means."
Quoting Diane Weyermann from the 2004 Sundance Film Festival site.
Haven't Seen
Season 16
What I Want My Words to Do to You
Episode 12 - 12-16-2003
Haven't Seen
State of Denial
Episode 11 - 9-16-2003
State of Denial is a 2003 documentary film about AIDS in Africa, produced and directed by Elaine Epstein. The film highlights the errors of President Mbeki's government, which insists that there isn't enough evidence to show that HIV causes AIDS and refuses vital life-saving drugs to their people because of unknown long-term risks. The film follows the stories of HIV positive Africans and activists as well as their careers, interspersed with the harrowing statistics of the AIDS epidemic in Africa. It features various HIV positive patients coping with the disease in times when the use of ARV medicine was strongly discouraged by the South African government.
The movie captures the desperation and growing discontent of average South Africans infected and affected by the disease. Some of the subjects interviewed make heartbreaking but inspirational statements about AIDS and how living with it is like. After the death of his brother who also succumbed to the disease, a young man is filmed saying the following:
For me, it was the most traumatic time in my life because I could see myself in him. You know, he didn’t really have to die as helplessly as he did. And not only him, but thousands and thousands of people are dying unnecessarily. It makes me sick.
Haven't Seen
Soldados: Chicanos in Viet Nam; The Sixth Section
Episode 10 - 9-02-2003
Haven't Seen
Family Fundamentals
Episode 9 - 8-26-2003
Haven't Seen
West 47th Street
Episode 8 - 8-19-2003
West 47th Street is a documentary film produced by Bill Lichtenstein and June Peoples of the Peabody Award-winning Lichtenstein Creative Media.
"West 47th Street" is an intimate cinéma vérité portrait of four people with serious mental illness as their lives naturally unfold over a three-year period beginning in spring 2001. The characters are all members of Fountain House, a psychiatric rehabilitation programme located on West 47th Street in a part of New York City once known as Hell's Kitchen.
At times hilarious and at other times tragic, West 47th Street provided an unprecedented window on the lives of people who are often feared and ignored, seldom understood. The film features Fitzroy Fredericks; Zeinab Wali; Nathanial "Tex" Gordon; and Frances Olivero. The film highlights the faith and courage with which these four people fight to regain control of their lives. Viewers see them on and off the streets, in and out of the hospital, on and off medication, at home and at work.
The film was the “Editors’ Choice – Pick of the Night," by TV Guide. The Cleveland Film Festival hailed the film as: “The most wrenching moments in the Cleveland International Film Festival belonged not to any scripted plot, but to a special preview of this vérité documentary masterpiece." Dennis King at Tulsa World wrote, "A life-altering cinema experience. Watch it and you'll no longer be able to pass those troubled souls on the street without noticing, without caring, without understanding that attention must be paid.
Haven't Seen
American Aloha: Hula Beyond Hawai'i
Episode 7 - 8-05-2003
Few American icons are as well known for their popular kitsch as the hula dance. From old Hollywood movies to entertainment for tourists, the hip-swaying girls in grass skirts and colorful lei have long masked an ancient cultural tradition. Now, after years of being shadowed by stereotypes, the hula is experiencing a rebirth that celebrates Hawaiian culture.
Haven't Seen
90 Miles
Episode 6 - 7-29-2003
90 Miles is a 2001 documentary film written and directed by Juan Carlos Zaldívar. The film is a recounting of the events that lead Zaldívar to become a Marielito and leave Cuba for a better life in Miami. It premiered in 2003 on PBS as part of its P.O.V. series. It won two awards: the Grand Coral, First Prize, for Documentary and the Memoria Documentary Award. 90 Miles recounts the strange twist of fate that took Juan Carlos Zaldívar across one of the world's most treacherous stretches of water. It is a journey of a family in search for healing and understanding. Probing and thoughtful, Zaldívar uncovers the emotional distance opened in thousands of families by the 90 miles between the U.S. and Cuba.
Haven't Seen
The Flute Player
Episode 5 - 7-22-2003
Haven't Seen
Discovering Dominga
Episode 4 - 7-08-2003
Haven't Seen
Larry v. Lockney
Episode 3 - 7-01-2003
Haven't Seen
Georgie Girl
Episode 2 - 6-22-2003
What are the chances that a former prostitute could be elected a Member of the Parliament of New Zealand by a conservative, rural district? What if that person were also a transsexual? The odds may seem daunting, but Georgina Beyer did it.
Haven't Seen
Love & Diane
Episode 1 - 4-21-2004
Flag Wars is a poignant account of the politics and pain of gentrification. Working-class black residents in Columbus, Ohio fight to hold on to their homes. Realtors and gay home-buyers see fixer-uppers. The clashes expose prejudice and self-interest on both sides, as well as the common dream to have a home to call your own.
Haven't Seen
Season 15
Two Towns of Jasper
Episode 12
Where to watch
Haven't Seen
Afghanistan 1380
Episode 10 - 9-10-2002
Haven't Seen
Senorita Extraviada
Episode 8 - 8-20-2002
Haven't Seen
Mai's America
Episode 7 - 8-06-2002
Haven't Seen
Sweet Old Song
Episode 6 - 7-30-2002
Sweet Old Song is a 2002 documentary film directed by Leah Mahan.
Haven't Seen
Fenceline: A Company Town Divided
Episode 5 - 7-23-2002
Haven't Seen
Refrigerator Mothers
Episode 4 - 7-16-2002
It is America of the 1950s and 1960s, when a woman's most important contribution to society is generally considered to be her ability to raise happy, well-adjusted children. But for the mother whose child is diagnosed with autism, her life's purpose will soon become a twisted nightmare. Looking for help and support, she encounters instead a medical establishment that pins the blame for her child's bizarre behaviors on her supposedly frigid and detached mothering. Along with a heartbreaking label for her child, she receives a devastating label of her own. She is a "refrigerator mother".Refrigerator Mothers paints an intimate portrait of an entire generation of mothers, already laden with the challenge of raising profoundly disordered children, who lived for years under the dehumanizing shadow of professionally promoted "mother blame."Once isolated and unheard, these mothers have emerged with strong, resilient voices to share the details of their personal journeys. Through their poignant stories, Refrigerator Mothers puts a human face on what can happen when authority goes unquestioned and humanity is removed from the search for scientific answers.
Haven't Seen
Hybrid
Episode 3 - 7-09-2002
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Boomtown
Episode 2 - 7-02-2002
Haven't Seen
Brother Outsider: The Life of Bayard Rustin
Episode 1 - 1-20-2003
Brother Outsider: The Life of Bayard Rustin is a 2003 documentary film written by Marc Weiss and directed by Nancy D. Kates and Bennett Singer.
Haven't Seen
Season 14
Promises
Episode 11 - 12-13-2001
Haven't Seen
5 Girls
Episode 10 - 10-02-2001
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High School
Episode 9 - 8-28-2001
Haven't Seen
Life and Debt
Episode 8 - 8-21-2001
Life and Debt is an unapologetic look at the "new world order," from the point of view of Jamaican workers, farmers, government and policy officials who see the reality of globalization from the ground up.
Haven't Seen
In the Light of Reverence
Episode 7 - 8-14-2001
A beautifully rendered account of the struggles of the Lakota in the Black Hills, the Hopi in Arizona and the Wintu in California to protect their sacred sites.
Haven't Seen
Take It from Me
Episode 6 - 7-24-2001
Haven't Seen
True-Hearted Vixens
Episode 5 - 7-17-2001
Haven't Seen
Of Civil Wrongs and Rights: The Fred Korematsu Story
Episode 4 - 7-10-2001
Haven't Seen
My American Girls: A Dominican Story
Episode 3 - 7-03-2001
Haven't Seen
The Sweetest Sound
Episode 2 - 6-26-2001
Haven't Seen
Scout's Honor
Episode 1 - 6-19-2001
Where to watch
Haven't Seen
Season 13
First Person Plural
Episode 10 - 12-18-2000
A Korean-American adoptee tries to forge relationships with her biological family as she sorts out her feelings toward her adoptive one in “First Person Plural,” an intensely introspective film by Deann Borshay Liem, who was born amid the chaos and poverty of mid-1950s Korea, and adopted in 1966 by Californians Alveen and Arnold Borshay. They assumed Deann was an orphan, but she wasn't---a fact she learned after growing up.
Where to watch
Haven't Seen
Live Free or Die
Episode 9 - 9-27-2000
Following abortion politics as they played out during the 1990s in one U.S. town, Bedford, N.H. It focuses on OB/GYN Wayne Goldner, who performs abortions. Not surprisingly, Goldner is a lightning rod for pro-life protesters, and he's also involved in two controversies: a hospital merger that imperiled abortion rights and a sex-education course he taught at Bedford's middle school.
Haven't Seen
KPFA on the Air
Episode 8 - 9-20-2000
A heartfelt history of KFPA, the nation's oldest alternative radio station, the Pacifica Foundation's eclectic flagship, based in Berkeley, Cal. Since KPFA signed on in 1949, it has broadcast everything from Soviet-press reviews to bird calls. Even conservatives have gotten airtime. Of course, KPFA has always been controversial, and recently, the controversy has been internecine. This hour doesn't shrink from that, but mostly it celebrates KPFA. Author Alice Walker narrates.
Haven't Seen
American Gypsy: A Stranger in Everybody's Land
Episode 7 - 8-29-2000
Exploring the secretive and largely unassimilated Romani culture as it follows one Spokane, Wash., Gypsy family. That family, the Markses, had a score to settle with the city of Spokane, which had their house raided in 1986 in search of stolen goods. The family later sued for improper police search, and writer-director Jasmine Dellal's film follows the case---and family head Jimmy Marks' obsession with it---closely.
Haven't Seen
Dreamland
Episode 6 - 8-22-2000
Gambling hits home in filmmaker Lisanne Skyler's perceptive profile of Las Vegas residents living with constant temptation. “The hardest part of living in Las Vegas is the gambling machines,” says one woman. “They're everywhere.” Adds Lou Gerard, a Los Angeles tailor who retired to Las Vegas (and is the film's primary focus), about his gambling: “Sometimes I feel sorry for myself but I get over it. There's always a next time.” (But Gerard did stop gambling in 1999).
Haven't Seen
Our House in Havana
Episode 5 - 7-25-2000
Following Cuban expatriate Silvia Moroni Heath, the daughter of a sugar planter, as she returns to her homeland after an absence of 37 years. First stop: the house in which she grew up. It's now a bank, and the guard outside won't let her in. The hour, which intersperses family stills and footage of prerevolutionary Cuba, also follows Moroni to the the Cuban countryside and to the Havana Yacht Club, where her debutante ball was held.
Haven't Seen
Blink
Episode 4 - 7-18-2000
Ex-white supremacist Ron Withrow, who founded the White Students Union at a California college, discusses why he became a racist and why he turned away from it in the late 1980s. Withrow is also seen in clips from “The Phil Donahue Show” (both before and after his conversion) and he's seen with his Hispanic wife. Also interviewed are Tom Metzger of the White Aryan Resistance and authors Matt Wray (“White Trash: Race and Class in America”) and Jessie Daniels (“White Lies”). Directed by Elizabeth Thompson.
Haven't Seen
Stranger With A Camera
Episode 3 - 7-11-2000
Stranger With A Camera is a 2000 documentary film by director Elizabeth Barret investigating the circumstances surrounding the 1967 death of Hugh O'Connor. Barret, who was born and raised in the region, explores questions concerning public image and the individual's lack of power to define oneself within the American media landscape. By contrasting multiple perspectives from locals and O'Connor's film crew, Barret weaves a tale of a complexly motivated crime with an insightful exploration of how the media affects the communities it chronicles. The film premiered at the 2000 Sundance Film Festival and later aired on the PBS series P.O.V.
Haven't Seen
La Boda
Episode 2 - 6-27-2000
“La Boda” (The Wedding) follows a Mexican-American migrant farmworker during the six days prior to her nuptials. Bride-to-be Elizabeth Luis, an American citizen, lives with her parents and seven siblings (six of them sisters) in Texas's Rio Grande Valley, but the family travels frequently to California fields and to their home town, Nuevo Leon, Mexico, where her wedding to Artemio Guerrero is to take place. “Destiny will take us,” he tells director Hannah Weyer, “and that's where we will go.” But he and Elizabeth both suspect that destiny will take them north again.
Haven't Seen
Butterfly
Episode 1 - 6-20-2000
Chronicling the two-year “tree-sit” by environmental activist Julia Hill, examining the controversy over clear-cutting in old-growth Northern California forests. Hill, who took the name Butterfly, is interviewed on a platform more than 100 feet off the ground in the redwood (she calls it “Luna”) she lived in from December 1997 to December 1999 as part of a protest organized by the environmental group Earth First! “By staying in the tree,” she says, “I am completely enwrapped and encased in nature's world.”
Haven't Seen
Season 12
Regret to Inform
Episode 10 - 1-24-2000
Regret to Inform is a 1998 American documentary film directed by Barbara Sonneborn. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.
The film was made over a span of ten years. The documentary features filmmaker Barbara Sonneborn as she goes to the Vietnamese countryside where her husband was killed. Her translator is a fellow war widow named Xuan Ngoc Nguyen and together try to understand their losses. The film includes interviews with Vietnamese and American widows.
Haven't Seen
The Double Life of Ernesto Gomez Gomez
Episode 9 - 7-27-1999
The Double Life of Ernesto Gomez Gomez is a TV episode/documentary film directed by Gary Weimberg and Catherine Ryan.
Haven't Seen
School Prayer: A Community At War
Episode 8 - 7-20-1999
Haven't Seen
Corpus: A Home Movie For Selena
Episode 7 - 7-13-1999
Corpus: A Home Movie about Selena is a film by filmmaker, Lourdes Portillo about Mexican American singer-songwriter Selena Quintanilla-Pérez. It places emphasis on the transformation of Selena from a popular entertainer into a modern-day saint and role model. This documentary uses authentic home videos, news stories, footage from concerts and a debate between intellectuals to analyze the effect of Selena and Selena’s murder at the hands of Yolanda Saldivar, the president of her fan club.
Haven't Seen
Rabbit In The Moon
Episode 6 - 7-06-1999
Haven't Seen
The Green Monster
Episode 5 - 6-29-1999
Haven't Seen
In My Corner
Episode 4 - 6-22-1999
Haven't Seen
Golden Threads
Episode 3 - 6-08-1999
Haven't Seen
Well-Founded Fear
Episode 2 - 6-05-1999
Well-Founded Fear is a 2000 documentary film from directors Shari Robertson and Michael Camerini. The film takes its title from the formal definition of a refugee under the UN Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, as a person who deserves protection, "owing to a well-founded fear of persecution for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion.” The film analyzes the US asylum process by following several asylum applicants and asylum officers through actual INS interviews.
Haven't Seen
The Legacy
Episode 1 - 6-01-1999
Haven't Seen
Season 11
Family Name
Episode 13 - 9-15-1998
Haven't Seen
She Shorts: Two or Three Things But Nothing For Sure
Episode 12 - 8-04-1998
Haven't Seen
She Shorts: Repetition Compulsion
Episode 11 - 8-04-1998
Haven't Seen
She Shorts: Cuba 15
Episode 10 - 8-04-1998
Haven't Seen
Sacrifice
Episode 9 - 7-28-1998
Haven't Seen
The Vanishing Line
Episode 8 - 7-21-1998
Haven't Seen
Barbie Nation: An Unauthorized Tour
Episode 7 - 7-14-1998
Haven't Seen
If I Can't Do It
Episode 6 - 7-07-1998
Haven't Seen
Kelly Loves Tony
Episode 5 - 6-30-1998
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Licensed to Kill
Episode 4 - 6-23-1998
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The Band
Episode 3 - 6-16-1998
Haven't Seen
Tobacco Blues
Episode 2 - 6-09-1998
Haven't Seen
Baby, It's You
Episode 1 - 6-02-1998
Haven't Seen
Season 10
A Perfect Candidate
Episode 10 - 8-05-1997
Disproving the adage that there are no second acts in American life, Iran/Contra legend Oliver North re-emerged to challenge incumbent Charles Robb in a hotly contested 1994 Virginia senatorial race. R.J. Cutler and David Van Taylor weave a modern-day parable about leadership in America and campaign culture in a cynical age. The result is a clear-eyed examination of the electoral process, where issues take a back seat to the machinations of spin doctors, and voter interests are lost in a media hall of mirrors.
Haven't Seen
Blacks and Jews
Episode 9 - 7-29-1997
Haven't Seen
Girls Like Us
Episode 8 - 7-22-1997
Haven't Seen
In Whose Honor?
Episode 7 - 7-15-1997
Takes a critical look at the long-standing practice of 'honoring' American Indians by using their names for mascots and sports teams and delves into the accompanying issues of racism, stereotypes, minority representation, and the powerful effects of media imagery. Follows the efforts of Native American Charlene Teters, a woman who went from graduate student to what some call the 'Rosa Parks of American Indians, ' and details her work to ban the sports usage of Indian designations and protect her people's cultural symbols and identity. In Whose Honor? looks at the issues of racism, stereotypes, minority representation and the powerful effects of mass-media imagery, and the extent to which one university will go to defend and justify its mascot.
Haven't Seen
Who Is Henry Jaglom?
Episode 6 - 7-08-1997
Who Is Henry Jaglom? is a 1997 documentary film directed by Henry Alex Rubin and Jeremy Workman.
Haven't Seen
Fear and Learning at Hoover Elementary
Episode 5 - 7-01-1997
Haven't Seen
Jesse's Gone
Episode 4 - 6-24-1997
Haven't Seen
A Healthy Baby Girl
Episode 3 - 6-17-1997
Haven't Seen
Battle for the Minds
Episode 2 - 6-10-1997
Haven't Seen
Nobody's Business
Episode 1 - 6-03-1997
Haven't Seen
Season 9
Maya Lin: A Strong Clear Vision
Episode 13 - 11-27-1996
Haven't Seen
Taken for a Ride
Episode 12 - 8-06-1996
This documentary exposes the role of General Motors' in the "Great American Street Car Scandal" of the 1930s. The scandal involved the dismantling of the street car transportation system in an effort to create demand for more automobiles.
Haven't Seen
Xich-lo (Cyclo)
Episode 11 - 7-30-1996
Haven't Seen
Remembering Wei Yi-fang, Remembering Myself
Episode 10 - 7-30-1996
Haven't Seen
Just For The Ride
Episode 9 - 7-23-1996
Haven't Seen
The Women Outside
Episode 8 - 7-16-1996
Haven't Seen
The Transformation
Episode 7 - 7-09-1996
Haven't Seen
No Loans Today
Episode 6 - 7-02-1996
Haven't Seen
a.k.a. Don Bonus
Episode 5 - 6-25-1996
"Although Ny admits that it is very uncomfortable for a traditional Cambodian family to talk about its secrets publicly, Sokly “Don Bonus” Ny allows the audience access to his life during his senior year of high school in this simple, yet powerful video diary. After his father was murdered by Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge regime, Ny escaped to the United States with his mother, grandmother, and siblings. Ny’s family has faced hardship and disappointment in America —Ny struggles to finish high school after failing many classes, his family’s apartment in the projects is a frequent target of vandalism, and his troubled younger brother stands accused of attempted murder. This is not an uplifting story of triumph against the odds, but a harshly honest depiction of a troubled son of an immigrant family in crisis"
Quoting the synopsis from ExEAS
Haven't Seen
A Litany For Survival: the Life and Work of Audre Lorde
Episode 4 - 6-18-1996
A Litany For Survival: the Life and Work of Audre Lorde is a 1995 documentary film directed by Ada Gay Griffin and Michelle Parkerson.
Haven't Seen
Personal Belongings
Episode 3 - 6-11-1996
Haven't Seen
¡Palante Siempre Palante! The Young Lords
Episode 2 - 6-01-1996
Haven't Seen
Taking On The Kennedys
Episode 1 - 5-28-1996
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Season 8
Carmen Miranda: Bananas is My Business
Episode 10 - 10-06-1995
Haven't Seen
Dealers Among Dealers
Episode 9 - 7-25-1995
Dealers Among Dealers is a 1995 documentary film directed by Gaylen Ross.
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Home Economics: A Documentary of Suburbia
Episode 8 - 7-18-1995
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Twitch and Shout
Episode 7 - 7-11-1995
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Lighting the 7th Fire
Episode 6 - 7-04-1995
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Satya: A Prayer for the Enemy
Episode 5 - 6-14-1995
Satya: A Prayer for the Enemy is a 1995 short documentary film directed by Ellen Bruno.
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Out of Sight
Episode 4 - 6-20-1995
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No Place Like Home
Episode 3 - 6-13-1995
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Complaints of a Dutiful Daughter
Episode 2 - 6-06-1995
Complaints of a Dutiful Daughter is a 1994 documentary film directed by Deborah Hoffmann, with her wife, Frances Reid, as cinematographer. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. The film is about the struggle of Doris Hoffman, mother of the director and widow of Albert Einstein's associate Banesh Hoffmann, with Alzheimer's disease.
Haven't Seen
Leona's Sister Gerri
Episode 1 - 6-01-1995
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Season 7
Escape From China
Episode 10 - 6-21-1994
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The Times of a Sign: A Folk History of the Iran-Contra Scandal
Episode 9 - 8-09-1994
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Dialogues with Madwomen
Episode 8 - 8-02-1994
Dialogues with Madwomen is a 1993 documentary by Allie Light focusing on mental illness in women.
Haven't Seen
Hearts of Darkness
Episode 7 - 7-26-1994
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Passin' It On
Episode 6 - 7-19-1994
Passin' It On is a 1993 documentary film directed by Jon Valadez.
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The Heart of the Matter
Episode 5 - 7-12-1994
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The End of the Nightstick
Episode 4 - 7-05-1994
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Memories of Tata
Episode 3 - 6-28-1994
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One Nation Under God
Episode 2 - 6-14-1994
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Time Indefinite
Episode 1 - 6-07-1994
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Season 6
Sa-I-Gu
Episode 12 - 9-10-1993
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The Women Next Door
Episode 11 - 8-24-1993
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Cousin Bobby
Episode 10 - 8-24-1993
Cousin Bobby is a 1992 American documentary film directed by Jonathan Demme. The film focuses on Demme's cousin, Robert W. Castle, an Episcopalian minister in Harlem, New York.
It was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1992 Cannes Film Festival.
Haven't Seen
Miami-Havana
Episode 9 - 8-17-1993
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Building Bombs: The Legacy
Episode 8 - 8-10-1993
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Money Man
Episode 7 - 8-03-1993
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Motel
Episode 6 - 7-20-1993
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For Better Or For Worse
Episode 5 - 7-13-1993
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Compassion in Exile: The Story of the 14th Dalai Lama
Episode 4 - 7-06-1993
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When Your Head's Not A Head, It's A Nut
Episode 3 - 6-29-1993
Haven't Seen
Who's Going To Pay For These Donuts, Anyway?
Episode 2 - 6-22-1993
Haven't Seen
Silverlake Life: The View From Here
Episode 1 - 6-15-1993
Where to watch
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Season 5
Roger and Me
Episode 14 - 9-28-1992
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Pets or Meat
Episode 13 - 9-28-1992
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Louisiana Boys: Raised on Politics
Episode 12 - 8-31-1992
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Faith Even to the Fire
Episode 11 - 8-21-1992
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Takeover
Episode 10 - 8-10-1992
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Fast Food Women
Episode 9 - 8-10-1992
Haven't Seen
Dream Deceivers: The Story Behind James Vance Vs. Judas Priest
Episode 8 - 8-03-1992
Dream Deceivers: The Story Behind James Vance Vs. Judas Priest is a TV series.
Haven't Seen
Promise Not to Tell
Episode 7 - 7-27-1992
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A Season in Hell
Episode 6 - 7-20-1992
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The Longest Shadow
Episode 5 - 7-06-1992
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Last Images of War
Episode 4 - 7-06-1992
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Finding Christa
Episode 3 - 6-29-1992
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Intimate Stranger
Episode 2 - 6-22-1992
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Season 4
Casting The First Stone
Episode 17 - 9-03-1991
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Short Notice: A Series of Short Films
Episode 16 - 9-03-1991
Haven't Seen
Where the Heart Roams
Episode 15 - 7-30-1991
Romance novels comprise nearly half the paperback books sold in America. Chiffon-shrouded, jewel-laden, flower-bedecked Barbara Cartland has written hundreds of them. And filmmaker George Csicsery has given his heart to this fascinating subculture where all the women are beautiful, all the men are mysterious and all the endings are happy.
Haven't Seen
Homes Apart: The Two Koreas
Episode 14 - 8-20-1991
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Maria's Story: A Documentary Portrait of Love and Survival in El Salvador's Civil War
Episode 13 - 8-13-1991
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The Big Bang
Episode 12 - 8-06-1991
Haven't Seen
A Little Vicious
Episode 11 - 7-30-1991
A Little Vicious is a 1991 short documentary film directed by Immy Humes. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Short.
Haven't Seen
Berkeley In The Sixties
Episode 10 - 7-23-1991
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Tongues Untied
Episode 9 - 7-16-1991
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Turn Here Sweet Corn
Episode 8 - 7-09-1991
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Sea Of Oil
Episode 7 - 7-09-1991
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Chemical Valley
Episode 6 - 7-09-1991
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Honorable Nations
Episode 5 - 7-02-1991
Marlon Rigg' "Tongues Untied" rises above the 'deeply personal' - far above it - in exploring what it means to be black and gay. Angry, funny, erotic and poetic by turns ( and sometimes all at once), it jumps from interview to confession, music video to documentary to poem. Craig Seligman, San Francisco Examiner A daring, visionary work that speaks with the eloquence of barbed wire. Steve Dollar, Atlanta Journal Constitution
Where to watch
Haven't Seen
Twinsburg, OH: Some Kind of Weird Twin Thing
Episode 4 - 6-25-1991
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Plena Is Work, Plena Is Song
Episode 3 - 6-25-1991
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Marc And Ann
Episode 2 - 6-25-1991
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Absolutely Positive
Episode 1 - 6-15-1991
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Season 3
Letter To The Next Generation
Episode 16 - 7-17-1990
53m
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People Power
Episode 15 - 9-11-1990
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¡Teatro!
Episode 14 - 9-04-1990
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Ossian: American Boy, Tibetan Monk
Episode 13 - 9-04-1990
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Motel
Episode 12 - 8-28-1990
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Going Up
Episode 11 - 8-21-1990
The creation of a skyscraper is transformed by director Gary Pollard into a breathtaking visual experience as time-lapse photography, hard hat banter and construction worker choreography are set to a score by 15 new music composers in an urban ballet forty stories above New York harbor.
Haven't Seen
Green Streets
Episode 10 - 8-21-1990
If a tree can grow in Brooklyn, can an eggplant flourish in the Bronx? Maria De Luca's Green Streets charts the spontaneous emergence of community gardens in New York City and how they've helped to nourish neighborhood pride, racial tolerance and a budding sense of hope for hundreds of enthusiastic gardeners in the urban jungle.
Haven't Seen
Golub
Episode 9 - 8-14-1990
The role of art in America has been debated everywhere from the Halls of Congress to the local shopping mall. Golub is more than a portrait of the socially committed painter Leon Golub, whose massive canvases are intended to provoke viewers. It is about media and contemporary society, social responsibility and creativity, art and information.
Haven't Seen
Days of Waiting
Episode 8 - 8-15-1990
Artist Estelle Peck Ishigo went with her Japanese American husband into an internment camp during World War II, one of the few Caucasians to do so. Vividly recreated from Ishigo's own memoirs, photos and paintings, Days of Waiting reveals the shattering relocation experience from an "outsider's" perspective.
Haven't Seen
Kamala And Raji
Episode 7 - 8-07-1990
Haven't Seen
Police Chiefs
Episode 6 - 7-31-1990
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Salesman
Episode 5 - 7-24-1990
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On Ice
Episode 4 - 7-10-1990
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Larry Wright
Episode 3 - 7-10-1990
Haven't Seen
Metamorphosis: Man Into Woman
Episode 2 - 7-03-1990
Haven't Seen
Through the Wire
Episode 1 - 6-26-1990
Produced in association with Amnesty International, THROUGH THE WIRE examines a controversial, underground high security isolation unit located in the Federal prison in Lexington, Kentucky, built to house three female inmates convicted of politically-motivated crimes, and the international campaign to close the unit on humanitarian grounds.
Haven't Seen
Season 2
Lost Angeles
Episode 14 - 9-24-1989
A uniquely powerful and intimate look at the lives and struggles of a group of homeless people who've been moved into an "urban campground" in Los Angeles. Made by Tom Seidman with the help of a crew that included camp "residents," Lost Angeles graphically and unsentimentally portrays the complicated realities of life on the streets
Haven't Seen
Doug And Mike, Mike And Doug
Episode 13 - 9-17-1989
In Doug And Mike, Mike And Doug, Cindy Kleine probes the inner and outer lives of identical twins Doug and Mike Starn, whose collaborative painting and photographic work is rapidly gaining acclaim in the art world.
Haven't Seen
Cowboy Poets
Episode 12 - 9-17-1989
For more than a hundred years cowboys have written with feeling about the life and land they love. Kim Shelton's Cowboy Poets is a fascinating portrait of several contemporary poet lariats who keep that tradition alive — even on the Johnny Carson show.
Haven't Seen
Binge
Episode 11 - 9-17-1989
In Binge, videomaker Lynn Hershman places herself center-screen for an intimate, humorous and piercing narrative about her efforts to control her weight
Haven't Seen
The Fighting Ministers
Episode 10 - 9-03-1989
Moved by the growing desperation of thousands of laid-off steel workers, a group of ministers in Pittsburgh begins to confront the city's government and powerful corporations. Their passionate, controversial and unorthodox actions lead to profound soul-searching, Church rejection and imprisonment.
Haven't Seen
Partisans of Vilna
Episode 9 - 8-27-1989
This riveting film recounts the untold story of a handful of Jewish youth who organized an underground resistance against the Nazis in the Lithuanian ghetto of Vilna.
Haven't Seen
No Applause, Just Throw Money
Episode 8 - 8-20-1989
On the streets and subways of New York, 101 itinerant performers whirl firesticks, mimic passers-by, imitate Stevie Wonder, tap dance and perform classical music. Karen Goodman's No Applause, Just Throw Money is a delightful mixture of music and magic moments, celebrating some joyful encounters in New York City streets.
Haven't Seen
Jack Levine: Feast Of Pure Reason
Episode 7 - 8-13-1989
David Sutherland's bold and unconventional film portrait reveals one of America's leading Social Realist painters doing what he does best: skewering corrupt politicians, raging over social injustices, and satirizing the petty foibles of humankind.
Haven't Seen
Dark Circle
Episode 6 - 8-06-1989
The Bomb is killing ordinary Americans, even in the absence of a nuclear war. That's the thesis of this chilling — but ultimately hopeful — film which explores in evocative, personal and immediate terms how all of us have been affected by the nuclear age. Denounced by officials and shunned by broadcasters when it was first released, many of the issues it raised have become today's front page headlines.
Haven't Seen
The Family Album
Episode 5 - 7-30-1989
Watching The Family Album is like coming across a long-lost box of family photos: it's enchanting, humorous and sometimes even eerie. Director Alan Berliner spent years blending home movies and tape recordings collected from 60 different American families to assemble a composite lifetime which moves from childhood to adulthood, from innocence to experience.
Haven't Seen
Wise Guys!
Episode 4 - 7-23-1989
In Wise Guys!, a stamp dealer from Los Angeles, a former school teacher form Miami, a born again Christian from Las Vegas and a whiz kid law student square off in the Jeopardy! $100,000 Tournament of Champions. David Hartwell's fast-paced, sometimes poignant film is a peek behind the scenes and into the fact-filled minds of contestants in one of America's favorite game shows.
Haven't Seen
Coming Out
Episode 3 - 7-23-1989
Coming Out reveals that the debutante tradition is alive and well. Follow Miss Mary Stuart Montague Price, founder and chairman (sic) of the annual Debutante Cotillion in Washington, DC, through the meticulously planned ritual where networking and meeting people who can help you later are as important to todays debs as the style of the gown or the height of the escort.
Where to watch
Haven't Seen
Who Killed Vincent Chin?
Episode 2 - 7-16-1989
On a hot summer night in Detroit, Ronald Ebens, an autoworker, killed a young Chinese-American engineer with a baseball bat. Although he confessed, he never spent a day in jail. This gripping Academy Award-nominated film relentlessly probes the implications of the murder in the streets of Detroit, for the families of those involved, and for the American justice system.
Haven't Seen
Girltalk
Episode 1 - 7-15-1989
Girltalk is Kate Davis' heartbreaking yet hopeful portrait of three runaway girls with histories of abuse and neglect. The juvenile courts are after Pinky, a Puerto Rican girl who refuses to go to school. Mars, on the streets since age 13, now works as a stripper. Martha, who has lived in a dozen foster homes, now confronts teenage motherhood. Music, humor, and intimate conversations play against the disturbing reality of these girls' lives.
Haven't Seen
Season 1
Metropolitan Avenue
Episode 12 - 8-16-1988
Metropolitan Avenue is an inspiring contemporary story about women who strive to combine new roles and old values in our rapidly changing society. We are introduced to a lively Brooklyn neighborhood which, like many urban areas, faces problems caused by racial tensions and cuts in municipal services. But in this case, a group of "traditional" homemakers from varied ethnic backgrounds rise to the challenge and become leaders in the effort to save their community.
Haven't Seen
Rate It X
Episode 11 - 7-26-1988
Rate It X is a bitingly funny and disarming journey through the landscape of American sexism. Men only are interviewed by the two filmmakers in a witty montage of free-wheeling encounters. Pornographers, corporate executives, a funeral parlor director and Santa Claus are among those who reveal more than they intended. A surprisingly candid view of men's feelings towards women 15 years after the birth of the women's movement.
Haven't Seen
Best Boy
Episode 10 - 9-06-1988
Hailed by many critics as a classic, Best Boy is the moving story of Philly, a 53-year-old mentally-disabled man who adapts to an independent life as he prepares to move away form his elderly parents.
Haven't Seen
Gates of Heaven
Episode 9 - 8-30-1988
On the surface, this is a somewhat unusual film about pet cemeteries and their owners. But then it grows much more complicated and bizarre, until in the end it is about such large issues as love, immorality, failure, and the dogged elusiveness of the American Dream. Featured at major film festivals like New York, Cannes, and Berlin, Gates of Heaven was included in Roger Ebert's all time 10 best list.
Haven't Seen
Louie Bluie
Episode 8 - 8-23-1988
A lively portrait of 76-year-old Harold "Louie Bluie" Armstrong, musician, artist, raconteur and rogue.
Haven't Seen
The Good Fight
Episode 7 - 8-09-1988
Five years before the United States entered World War II, 3,200 Americans went off to Europe to fight the spread of fascism. At 18, 19 and 20 years old, they volunteered to risk their lives defending a democratically elected government in the Spanish Civil War. Fifty years later, in their own words, the survivors recount a vivid story of those years — and what's happened to them since.
Haven't Seen
Las Madres: The Mothers of Plaza de Mayo
Episode 6 - 8-02-1988
During the late 1970s, tens of thousands of men, women and even children were abducted by the right-wing military government in Argentina. While most of the population was terrorized by these actions, a small group of mothers of the disappeared began staging weekly demonstrations to demand that their children be released and the kidnappers be brought to justice. This is the dramatic story of their courageous struggle, which ultimately served as a catalyst for the toppling of the dictatorship. Las Madres has won multiple awards at film festivals around the world and was nominated for an Oscar.
Haven't Seen
Living with AIDS
Episode 5 - 7-19-1988
If Armageddon's Door is about the explosion of community, Living with AIDS is just the opposite. It's a graceful, moving film about a community that provides both compassion and care to someone with a debilitating disease, in this case a courageous 22-year-old man with AIDS.
Haven't Seen
Knocking on Armageddon's Door
Episode 4 - 7-19-1988
Half comedy, half horror story, this disturbing film focuses on several spokesmen for America's survivalist movement as they reveal the way they think, the way they play, and the way they prepare for the next world war.
Haven't Seen
Fire From the Mountain
Episode 3 - 7-12-1988
Based on the autobiography of Nicaraguan author Omar Cabezas, Fire From the Mountain is the lyrical, earthy, sometimes humorous account of the author's political journey from student activist to guerrilla to government official. Shaffer's last film, Witness to War: Dr. Charlie Clements, won an Oscar in 1985.
Haven't Seen
American Tongues
Episode 2 - 7-05-1988
Rich in humor and regional color, this sometimes hilarious film uses the prism of language to reveal our attitudes about the way other people speak. From Boston Brahmins to Black Louisiana teenagers, from Texas cowboys to New York professionals, American Tongues elicits funny, perceptive, sometimes shocking, and always telling comments on American English in all its diversity.
Haven't Seen
Acting Our Age
Episode 1 - 7-05-1988
"There's nobody that's not going to get old — unless they die," says Enola Maxwell at the beginning of this engaging and refreshing film. Through the eyes of six women, aged 65-75, we are treated to a variety of new perspectives on aging, along with such complex and emotional subjects as changing body image, sexuality, family life and dealing with death. Generous portions of insight and good humor provide clues to grappling with these issues that effect us all.
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Top 5 Highest Rated Episodes 9.2/10 8.8/10 8.8/10 8.7/10 8.5/10
The Betrayal (Nerakhoon)
Episode 5 - 7-21-2009
Filmed over 23 years, The Betrayal is the Academy Award-nominated directorial debut of renowned cinematographer Ellen Kuras in a unique collaboration with the film's subject and co-director, Thavisouk ("Thavi") Phrasavath. After the U.S. government waged a secret war in Laos during the Vietnam War, Thavi's father and thousands of other Laotians who had fought alongside American forces were abandoned and left to face imprisonment or execution. Hoping to find safety, Thavi's family made a harrowing escape to America, where they discovered a different kind of war. Weaving ancient prophecy with personal testimony and stunning imagery, The Betrayal is a story of survival and the resilient bonds of family.
9.2/10Haven't Seen
The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers
Episode 14 - 10-05-2010
The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers is a 2009 documentary film directed by Judith Ehrlich and Rick Goldsmith. The film follows Daniel Ellsberg and explores the events leading up to the publication of the Pentagon Papers, which exposed the top-secret military history of the United States involvement in Vietnam.
8.8/10Haven't Seen
The Act of Killing
Episode 13 - 10-07-2014
1h 54m
Joshua Oppenheimer visits men accused of playing a key role in the killing of over one-million Indonesians in 1965. Initially, the men explain their actions as patriotic and necessary. But over time, some question their actions. 2013 Oscar nominee. 2014 BAFTA Best Documentary.
8.8/10Haven't Seen
The Look of Silence
Episode 3 - 6-27-2016
1h 55m
An optometrist identifies the men who killed his brother in the horrific 1965 Indonesian genocide. He confronts them while testing their eyesight and demands they accept responsibility.
8.7/10Haven't Seen
The Beaches of Agnès
Episode 3 - 6-29-2010
The Beaches of Agnès is a 2008 French documentary film directed by Agnès Varda. The film is an autobiographical essay where Varda revisits places from her past, reminisces about life and celebrates her 80th birthday on camera. She has said that it will most likely be her last film.
8.5/10Haven't Seen
