Press Release

January 26 2023

American Documentary Awarded $25,000 Grant for POV Engage From the National Endowment for the Arts

Overview

January 26, 2023 — New York, N.Y. — American Documentary is pleased to announce it has been approved by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) to receive a Grants for Arts Projects award of $25,000 for POV Engage, the impact and engagement arm of POV. This grant is one of 1,251 Grants for Arts Projects awards totaling nearly $28.8 million that were announced by the NEA as part of its first round of fiscal year 2023 grants.

“The National Endowment for the Arts is proud to support arts projects in communities nationwide,” said NEA Chair Maria Rosario Jackson, PhD. “Projects such as American Documentary’s POV Engage strengthen arts and cultural ecosystems, provide equitable opportunities for arts participation and practice, and contribute to the health of our communities and our economy.”

“The continued support from the National Endowment for the Arts is crucial to our mission of providing meaningful storytelling to our audience,” said Erika Dilday, executive director/executive producer of American Documentary | POV. “We keep pushing the boundaries of how and where these stories are experienced to generate conversion and present art that elevates consciousness.”

"In serving communities of all kinds, we look forward to growing our partnerships with PBS stations, educators, and community groups to execute the impact visions of our brave storytellers and bring stories and discourse that ignite new possibilities,” said Asad Muhammad, vice president of impact and engagement strategy at American Documentary.

POV, America’s longest running non-fiction series, celebrated its milestone 35th anniversary season in 2022.

The POV Engage team partners with community-based organizations, educators, librarians and other engaged community members to spark conversation about the issues presented in our films and digital productions. Free screenings, panel discussions and public events are designed to spark action, support educational opportunities and invite community participation.

Two key initiatives featured in the program include:

  • The POV Community Network makes more than 50 POV feature films, shorts and digital initiatives available for free to over 13,000 local and national partners. Join the Network to discover films by title or topic, plus accompanying materials such as discussion guides, promotional tools and other resources to help shape the conversation and inspire action.

POV Engage collaborates with media educators to produce lesson plans for teachers interested in using POV films as a teaching tool. The initiative offers free resources for educators, including 200+ online film clips connected to standards-aligned lesson plans, discussion guides and reading lists.

  • POV launched the high-impact Our America: Documentaries in Dialogue as a response to growing political and regional division in the wake of the 2016 election. The main objective: to expand the mission of public media as a trusted resource for local communities and spark meaningful dialogue through events that serve audiences with different views and cultural backgrounds. Participating stations and community groups each receive up to $10,000 to support their event, exclusive digital access to POV films, and community and educational resources that can support virtual screenings, marketing and workshops.

For more information on other projects included in the NEA’s grant announcement, visitarts.gov/news.

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, 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 available for streaming concurrent with broadcast on all station-branded PBS platforms, including PBS.org and the PBS Video 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 Snapchat and Instagram.

POV films and projects have won 46 Emmy Awards, 27 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.