POV Celebrates its Ninth Year of ‘Our America’ Supporting PBS Stations with National Film and Dialogue Initiative
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Overview
Brooklyn, N.Y. – October 9, 2025 – Multi Peabody and Emmy® award-winning American Documentary (AmDoc) | POV today named three recipients of the 2025 ‘Our America: Documentaries in Dialogue’ grants. Now in its ninth iteration, the initiative deepens POV’s system-wide commitment to durable partnerships with PBS stations nationwide by investing directly in regional teams. By pairing funding with strategic support and hands-on resources, ‘Our America’ empowers grantees to design intentional high-impact programs that meet audiences where they are and connect them more deeply to their communities.
Since its inception, ‘Our America’ has provided over a quarter of a million dollars to PBS stations and community partners and this funding pipeline comes at a critical time for public media. With stations strapped for resources but committed to providing a platform for community building and topics-driven events, ‘Our America’ furthers PBS’s mission to provide access to quality programming, educational resources and enhance the quality of life for national audiences.
This year’s cohort of grantees represent a cross-section of PBS member stations that include: KYUK (Tribal Radio & TV, Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, Alaska), Rocky Mountain PBS (Denver, CO) and WXXI (Rochester, NY). Each station brings their own priorities and approaches to engage with their communities, and are developing strategies to use POV films to further dialogue around issues that matter locally.
Across the United States, public media stations are navigating rapid changes in technology, audience behavior, persistent concerns about misinformation, and heightened political polarization at both local and national levels. In July 2025, Congress enacted the Recissions Act of 2025, eliminating approximately $1.07 billion in previously approved appropriations to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, leaving many stations without much-needed resources to engage closely with their communities. PBS stations offer more than just news, educational programming, and entertainment – they are an essential part of the local media ecosystem, integral to both rural and urban areas.
‘‘’Our America’ was established in the wake of the 2016 presidential election and with the goal to collaborate with PBS stations in developing community engagement events and activities to bridge political, social and cultural divides. Since its inaugural cohort, ‘Our America’ continues to create opportunities to carry forth the PBS mission to the public and empowers stations to adapt to challenges they face and enable valuable platforms for connection. This initiative, which has been led since 2021 by documentary industry veteran Robert Salyer, POV’s Manager of Outreach & Impact, has evolved over the years to include mission-aligned community media organizations as well as PBS stations. Grantees represent a coast-to-coast network ranging from Hawai’i and the U.S. Virgin Islands, the Midwest, stretches of the Southwest, and coastal areas of South Carolina and Georgia. The initiative builds upon sustained relationships between POV and PBS stations around a shared belief that documentary film can be a powerful tool to connect viewers of different cultural backgrounds and find common ground in an ever changing social, economic, and political landscape.
This year’s cohort includes returning grantee Denver, Colorado’s Rocky Mountain PBS and welcomes two new ones: in upstate NY, Rochester’s WXXI and KYUK, based in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta of southwestern Alaska. Salyer will work closely with the cohort throughout the year to support stations in developing meaningful community events around films from POV’s current season, including Porcelain War and The Bitter Pill.
Since its inaugural program in 2016, the direct funding provided by the ‘Our America’ initiative has bolstered PBS stations and mission-aligned partner organizations' capacity to design influential and effective programming that underscores their specific priorities and values while addressing local challenges. By taking a community first approach, ‘Our America’ events are designed to encourage active listening, energize social change and consider possible futures. One of last year’s programmatic highlights was organized by cohort WHUT @ Howard University – the nation's only Public Broadcasting Television station licensed to and operated by a historically Black University. The evening featured a screening of The Body Politic, and was followed by panel discussion between Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott, the film’s protagonist, and gun violence prevention advocates from the DC area. Mayor Scott shared community-based solutions that have led to an historic reduction in gun violence in Baltimore, and spoke about how these efforts could provide a pathway for others working to bring peace to their communities. The conversation underscored the intrinsic value of civic engagement, youth outreach and building community trust in public media.
“Each year I am reminded that ‘Our America’ evolves thanks to the station staff who bring creativity and deep local knowledge to the work. They shape this initiative through innovative approaches to engagement and expertise gained by listening, learning, and collaborating within their communities. These stations exemplify the very best of what public media has to offer,” said Robert Salyer, Manager of Outreach and Impact.
“Whether it's a Denver high school student getting a better understanding of state legislation or an abuela in Alaska sharing that Yup'ik is the second most spoken indigenous language in America - our film events will add to reinforcing community bonds during a time when so many of our neighbors are struggling with isolation and grief." said Asad Muhammad, Vice President of Impact and Engagement Strategy.
This year’s cohort of stations each receive up to $8000 to support their community programming endeavors, exclusive digital access to POV films, and educational resources including film discussion guides that can support screenings, marketing, participant fees and workshops. ‘Our America’ is made possible with the generous support of the Open Society Foundations and the National Endowment for the Arts.
‘Our America’ 2025 Grantees
KYUK: Based in Bethel, Alaska, KYUK is dedicated to serving the rural Alaska and Alaska Native communities of the southwestern region and responding to issues that affect the people of the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta. KYUK AM has been on the air since 1971, and KYUK television began broadcasting in 1972 and is a PBS member station through the Alaska One Public Television Network. Their mission is to educate and inform as well as provide cultural enrichment, entertainment, and opportunity for public access and language maintenance for cultural survival. Additionally, they partner with tribes, village corporations, and schools to serve another 9,500 people through village-based, FM repeaters. Many elder residents in the region are monolingual Yup’ik speakers or speak English as a second language. KYUK broadcasts approximately one hour a day of local news in the Yup’ik language and five and one-half hours a week of Yup’ik public affairs and talk shows. Some of their public affairs shows are in English with Yup’ik translation. KYUK radio is a conduit for critical weather and search and rescue information and the primary Emergency Alert System originator for the region. KYUK also maintains an archive of their programs and productions and has over 5,000 audio and video recordings from the mid-1970s to the present. The mission of the Archive is to preserve, organize, store, and make accessible moving image and sound recordings produced by KYUK Television and Radio about the culture, language, history, and contemporary life of Yup'ik people and residents of the region.
Rocky Mountain Public Media: Rocky Mountain PBS began in Denver in 1956 as Colorado's first public television station. It is now Colorado's only statewide television network, with stations in Denver, Pueblo/Colorado Springs, Steamboat Springs, Grand Junction, and Durango. Rocky Mountain Public Media is Colorado’s largest statewide, member-supported, multimedia organization. The station’s goal is to strengthen the civic fabric of Colorado through public media. Statewide operations provide informative and educational content via television, radio, and digital platforms to five million Coloradans each year. The Rocky Mountain PBS newsroom aims to create a Colorado where everyone feels seen and heard. Maintaining a presence in underserved rural counties helps the Journalism Team achieve that mission.
WXXI: With 60+ years of serving the greater Rochester, NY community, WXXI has a strong legacy of community engagement and programming that not only informs but also inspires and empowers. WXXI expanded significantly, growing from a single television station and two radio stations to multiple television and radio channels, The Little Theatre, and CITY Magazine. It is also home to Move to Include TM, an award-winning national initiative to promote disability inclusion, representation, and accessibility in public media. Built on the principle of “Nothing About Us Without Us”, Move to Include spotlights the lived experience of people with disabilities and highlights important issues around disability, including education, healthcare, housing, employment, and more – through television, radio, news, education, community events, and digital media. This initiative has its roots in “Dialogue on Disability”, a now 20+ year partnership between WXXI and the Al Sigl Community of Agencies’ Herman and Margaret Schwartz Community Series. In 2014, they formally launched a year-round initiative that became Move to Include. Today, the Move to IncludeTM network includes PBS stations throughout the United States, led by the team at WXXI.
About
About POV
Produced by American Documentary, POV is the longest-running independent documentary showcase on American television. Since 1988, POV has presented films on PBS that capture the full spectrum of the human experience, with a long commitment to centering women and people of color in front of, and behind, the camera. The series is known for introducing generations of viewers to groundbreaking works like Tongues Untied (1989), Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse (1992), Rabbit in the Room (1999), Of Civil Wrongs & Rights: The Fred Korematsu Story (2001), Made in L.A. (2007), American Promise (2013), Not Going Quietly (2021), While We Watched (2022), A House Made of Splinters (2022) and the mini-series And She Could be Next (2020). Throughout its history POV has featured the work of award-winning, innovative filmmakers including Jonathan Demme, Laura Poitras, Nanfu Wang, Frederick Wiseman, Emiko Omori, Janus Metz Pedersen and Ava DuVernay. In 2018, POV Shorts launched as one of the first PBS series dedicated to bold and timely short-form documentaries. In 2024, Indiewire named seven POV films in its roundup of “The 50 Best Documentaries of the 21st Century”: Faya Dayi (2021), The Mole Agent (2020), Minding The Gap (2018), Cameraperson (2016), The Look of Silence (2015), The Act of Killing (2013) and (2013). All POV programs are available for streaming concurrent with broadcast on all station-branded PBS platforms, including PBS.org and the PBS App, available on iOS, Android, Roku streaming devices, Apple TV, Android TV, Amazon Fire TV, Samsung Smart TV, Chromecast and VIZIO. For more information about PBS Passport, visit the PBS Passport FAQ website.
POV goes “beyond the broadcast” to bring powerful nonfiction storytelling to viewers wherever they are. Free educational resources accompany every film and a community network of thousands of partners nationwide work with POV to spark dialogue around today’s most pressing issues. POV continues to explore the future of documentary through innovative productions with partners such as The New York Times and The National Film Board of Canada and on platforms including Instagram.
POV films and projects have won 48 Emmy Awards, 28 George Foster Peabody Awards, 16 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Awards, three Academy Awards® and the first-ever George Polk Documentary Film Award.
Learn more at pbs.org/pov and follow @povdocs on social media.
About PBS
PBS, with more than 330 member stations, offers all Americans the opportunity to explore new ideas and new worlds through television and digital content. Each month, PBS reaches over 36 million adults on linear primetime television, more than 16 million users on PBS-owned streaming platforms, 53 million viewers on YouTube, and 60 million people view PBS content on social media, inviting them to experience the worlds of science, history, nature, and public affairs and to take front-row seats to world-class drama and performances. PBS’s broad array of programs has been consistently honored by the industry’s most coveted award competitions. Teachers of children from pre-K through 12th grade turn to PBS LearningMedia for digital content and services that help bring classroom lessons to life. As the number one educational media brand, PBS KIDS helps children 2-8 build critical skills, enabling them to find success in school and life. Delivered through member stations, PBS KIDS offers high-quality content on TV — including a PBS KIDS channel — and streaming free on pbskids.org and the PBS KIDS Video app, games on the PBS KIDS Games app, and in communities across America. More information about PBS is available at PBS.org, one of the leading dot-org websites on the internet, Facebook, Instagram, or through our apps for mobile and connected devices. Specific program information and updates for press are available at pbs.org/pressroom or by following PBS Communications on X.
About American Documentary, Inc.
American Documentary, Inc. (AmDoc) is a multimedia organization dedicated to creating, identifying and presenting contemporary stories that express opinions and perspectives rarely featured in mainstream media outlets. AmDoc is a catalyst for public culture, developing collaborative strategic engagement activities around socially relevant content on television, online and in community settings. These activities are designed to trigger action, from dialogue and feedback to educational opportunities and community participation.
Major funding for POV is provided by PBS, the Open Society Foundations, The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Wyncote Foundation, Reva & David Logan Foundation, Park Foundation, and Perspective Fund. Additional funding comes from the National Endowment for the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts, public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, Chris and Nancy Plaut, Ann Tenenbaum and Thomas H. Lee, Acton Family Giving, and public television viewers. POV is presented by a consortium of public television stations, including KQED San Francisco, WGBH Boston and THIRTEEN in association with WNET.ORG.