POV’s MAYOR Receives A Peabody Award Nomination
Overview
New York, N.Y. – April 13, 2022 – POV, America’s longest-running independent documentary series, has received a nomination for a George Foster Peabody Award for David Osit's Mayor, announced today by the Board of Jurors. This is the ninth year in a row a POV film has been nominated for a Peabody.
Exploring the dynamics of public service and international politics, Mayor, offers a nuanced perspective of the Palestinian struggle for autonomy through the eyes of former civil engineer-turned-mayor, Musa Hadid. Hadid has been the mayor of Ramallah, home to 60,000 people and located in the central West Bank, since 2012. He approaches his duties with practicality, paving sidewalks, cleaning sewage spills, approving city advertising campaigns, building a new fountain, and making sure local school buildings are built so children can play in the sunshine.
Yet, not even the most mundane of Hadid's responsibilities is left untouched by the Israeli occupation, with raids and government strictures casting a continual shadow over the city. Balancing the deadpan, bureaucratic humor of his everyday job with the continued encroachments of global and regional politics, Mayor highlights the constant, less-publicized injustices of the occupation on the public servant as well as on the city he serves.
Mayor presents a counter-narrative against the narrow representations of Palestine and Palestinians in the media. A historically Christian city in the Middle East, Ramallah is surrounded by greenery, snows in the winter, and its residents enthusiastic celebrators of Christmas. Hadid’s mayoralty is beset by the same problems that plague public servants around the world, but what separates Hadid’s job from so many of his fellow officials is best captured by the Israeli patrols that bombard his city with teargas during dinner time.
Funny, tragic and compassionate, Mayor captures Hadid and the citizens of Ramallah as they struggle to move forward under difficult circumstances, ultimately asking the question: how do you run a city if you don’t have a country?
Named a New York Times Critics' Pick, Mayor part of POV’s 34th season, made its national broadcast premiere on July 27, 2021.
David Osit is an Emmy Award-winning director, editor and composer. David is a co-director of Thank You For Playing which premiered at the 2015 Tribeca Film Festival, broadcast on POV in 2016, and was nominated for three Emmy awards, winning for Outstanding Arts & Culture Documentary. He also edited and produced Off Frame, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and Berlinale in 2016. His first film, Building Babel, premiered at the True/False Film Festival in 2012. David is an alumnus of Berlinale Talents and the Sundance Nonfiction Director's Lab.
David Osit is the director, producer and cinematographer and co-editor of Mayor. Maxyne Franklin and Teddy Leifer are the executive producers. Erika Dilday, Justine Nagan and Chris White are executive producers for American Documentary | POV. Abigail E. Disney and Laura Durningare the co-executive producers and Eric Daniel Metzgar is the co-editor.
Peabody award winners will be announced in a virtual ceremony in late June 2022.
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, American Promise and Minding The Gap and innovative filmmakers including Jonathan Demme, Laura Poitras and Nanfu Wang. In 2018, POV Shorts launched as one of the first PBS series dedicated to bold and timely short-form documentaries. All POV programs are broadcast nationally on PBS, POV.org and the PBS Video app.
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 Snapchat and Instagram.
POV films and projects have won 45 Emmy Awards, 26 George Foster Peabody Awards, 15 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 American Documentary, Inc.
American Documentary, Inc. (AmDoc) is a multimedia company 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, Sage Foundation, Nancy Blachman and David desJardins, Chris and Nancy Plaut, Abby Pucker, Ann Tenenbaum and Thomas H. Lee 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.