POV Receives Three Webby Awards Nominations

New York, N.Y. — April 14, 2022 — POV, currently celebrating its 35th anniversary as television’s longest running documentary series, received three Webby Awards nominations from the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences. The Changing Same, Ep.1, directed by Yasmin Elayat, Joe Brewster and Michèle Stephenson, received the “Best Narrative Experience (Immersive, Virtual & Remote)” nomination. Otherly, a collection of films by women, non-binary and genderqueer creators, received the “Art, Culture, Lifestyle (Social - General)” nomination, and the POV Short, Le Frère, directed by Jérémie Battaglia, garnered the “Documentary: Longform (Video - General Video)” nod.

The Changing Same, Ep.1, a co-production of Rada Film Group and Scatter is an immersive, room-scale virtual reality experience where the participant travels through time and space to witness the connected historical experiences of racial injustice in the United States. A haunting story infused with magical realism and afrofuturism, The Changing Same, Ep.1 examines the uninterrupted cycle of the history of racial oppression, past and present.

Otherly, a series of seven short documentaries about finding one’s place in the 21st century, is the first POV Spark and National Film Board of Canada co-production. Using universal themes like love, inclusion, and loss as entry points, three U.S.-based and four Canadian-based female, non-binary, and genderqueer creators crafted films that are at once timeless and yet by definition of their form, ephemeral. The series, which premiered on Instagram Stories, features the following titles: Joanne Lam’sA Portrait of Tracy, explores the echoes of childhood memory from an immigrant’s perspective: what is lost to time and distance, and what remains (Canada); Elaine Is Almost, by Em Yue, looks at coming out and the unconditional love between siblings (U.S.); FaceTime by Emmy-nominee Jackie! Zhou follows Andy and Farrah Su as they navigate their individual identities, chosen family and relationship as bi-coastal siblings (U.S.); Tristan Angieri’sIntegrate.Me explores the use of an experimental therapy to treat Tristan’s PTSD, as they learn to navigate being queer and trans (U.S.); Love Is the First Sacred Lesson is a first-person documentary that follows director Jess Murwin’s journey to connect and reconcile the different parts of their identity: queer, trans, Mi’kmaw (Canada); Mirusha Yogarajah’s Parked: Seeking Refuge in Our Cars, is about a generation of Tamil youth finding freedom and community (Canada); and Papier Accordéon, by character-maker and multidisciplinary artist Grace An captures two friends in different cities spending their time together from a distance (Canada).

Le Frère, a POV Short directed by Jérémie Battaglia, is a story of familial sacrifice and the bonds of brotherhood. Living with an illness that is causing him to lose the use of his body, Kaïs is awoken every morning by a different member of his family. Though paralyzed, he dreams he is the hero of his favorite manga, along with his brothers: Fehd, the bodybuilder and Zaïd, the ninja.

All Webby and Webby People’s Voice Award voting is open from April 5th to Thursday, April 21st, at 11:59 pm PDT, at vote.webbyawards.com; POV titles can be voted for here, here, and here. Winners will be announced on Tuesday, April 26th, 2022 and honored at the in-person 26th Annual Webby Awards on Monday, May 16, 2022 at Cipriani Wall Street.