American Documentary

Overview

BOSTON, MA – January 11, 2023 – America ReFramed, recent winner of the 2022 IDA Documentary Awards for the feature documentary, Fannie Lou Hamer’s America, announced today the acquisition of four new films debuting as part of its 11th season: The Death of My Two Fathers, Running With My Girls, A Decent Home and Blurring the Color Line. The documentaries focusing on a generation of filmmakers and artists using self expression to challenge the definition of culture in an ever-evolving America, include stories from Missouri, Louisiana, Washington State, Colorado and Georgia.

America ReFramed, a series co-produced by WORLD Channel and American Documentary, airs every Thursday at 8pmET/7C on WORLD Channel. America ReFramed is available on worldchannel.org, amdoc.org, WORLD Channel’s YouTube Channel and 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. Episodes of America ReFramed also roll out weekly on-air and online on Link TV (Direct TV channel 375 & Dish Network channel 9410).

​​“After more than a decade of curating impactful documentaries about our constantly changing nation, we continued to be inspired by the work of independent filmmakers, from emerging talent to industry veterans,” said Chris Hastings, executive producer for WORLD Channel at GBH in Boston. “As we head into a new year, we look forward to a slate of impressive films that will open viewers to America’s rich diversity and underrepresented communities.”

“We are excited to present the work of these filmmakers to our audience,” said Erika Dilday, executive director, American Documentary. “Good documentaries teach us to listen and really hear the stories of others without getting defensive and attempting to respond. Rather, they are a catalyst for protagonists to tell their own stories, and in the process help us consider our responsibilities to others.”

With the start of a new year, January serves as a moment to consider the current state of the American economy, social movements and country as a whole, and how we can continue to make our communities better. New season titles making their national broadcast premiere include Big Chief, Black Hawk, the feature-length directorial debut by Jonathan Isaac Jackson, which offers a unique look at the life of the youngest Mardi Gras Indian Big Chief and his "tribe" as they navigate the social and environmental issues facing "the culture,” airing February 16, 2023, and The Death of My Two Fathers directed by Sol Guy, is a touching exploration of how families must reconcile with their painful past if they hope to create a more hopeful future, airing February 23, 2023 as part of Black History Month celebration.Airing March 2023 in honor of Women’s History Month, are two films helmed by women directors: Running With My Girls, directed by Rebekah Henderson, follows five female activists as they take on the entrenched political establishment in Denver, Colorado, when they decide to run for office as part of a grassroots movement to take back their city and A Decent Home, directed by Sara Terry, addresses urgent issues of class and economic inequity through the lives of mobile home park residents who can’t afford housing anywhere else. Blurring the Color Line speaks to today's Afro-Asian tensions by trailing director Crystal Kwok's journey in uncovering how her grandmother and sisters navigated a restrictive and racialized life in the Black neighborhood of Augusta, Georgia during Jim Crow, and From Here, director Christina Antonakos-Wallace’s feature debut, is an inspiring, character driven story of four young artists and activists from immigrant families who are redefining the meaning of “belonging” in an era of rising nationalism across the globe, premiere spring 2023.

Throughout the season, America ReFramed will also host encore presentations of timely documentaries devoted to jobs and housing inequality and adult child/parent relationships: The Area directed by David Schalliol; The Place That Makes Us directed by Karla Murthy; For The Love of Rutland directed by Jennifer Maytorena Taylor, and Jaddoland directed by Nadia Shihab. America ReFramed will also bring back several titles in time for Black History Month: Where The Pavement Ends directed by Jane Gillooly and Vision Portraits by acclaimed director Rodney Evans (Brother to Brother and The Happy Sad). Check local listings as air times vary.

A tentpole program of public television’s WORLD Channel, America ReFramed brings to life compelling stories, personal voices and experiences that illuminate the contours of our ever-changing country. Since 2012, the anthology series has premiered 179 films from more than 380 filmmakers, including works from established artists like Shola Lynch, Deann Borshay Liem and Marshall Curry and featured broadcast debuts of Nicholas Bruckman, Ursula Liang and PJ Raval. More than half of these documentaries were helmed by female filmmakers and a third are credited to BIPOC filmmakers. The series has centered the stories of the LGBTQ community, people with disabilities, the incarcerated and formerly incarcerated, veterans, seniors, immigrants and people from a myriad of backgrounds.

America ReFramed Season 11 National Broadcast Premieres

Black History Month Celebration: Big Chief, Black Hawk
(Premieres February 16, 2023 at 8PM ET)
Director/Producer: Jonathan Isaac Jackson (Drvker: Infinity Room, American Gumbo)
Producer: Paul V. Fishback

A short and intimate look into the life of the youngest Mardi Gras Indian Big Chief and his "tribe" as they navigate the social and environmental issues facing "the culture." This film is a story about why tradition and culture are so important to the African American community in New Orleans today. Through interviews and storytelling, Big Chief, Black Hawk delves into the past to introduce the future, displaying how the past has been passed onto the present.

Black History Month Celebration: The Death of My Two Fathers
(Premieres February 23, 2023 at 8PM ET)
Director: Sol Guy (4REAL, Inside Out, ELLIS)
Producer: Stine Moisen

It took Sol Guy 20 years to watch the six tapes his father recorded shortly before his death in 1998. They detail how a Black man from Kansas City, Missouri arrived in a small town in British Columbia, Canada, determined to make a better life for his new family. The tapes prompt Sol to embark on his own journey to better understand the bi-racial family that raised him and his Black American roots as he confronts the impact of his father’s choices.

Honoring Women’s History Month: Running with My Girls
(Premieres March 9, 2023 at 8PM ET)

Director: Rebekah Henderson (What Makes A Mother?, All Mixed Up: Our Changing Racial Identities)

Tired of watching local government ignore their communities’ interests, five diverse female activists decide to run for municipal office in Denver — one of the fastest gentrifying cities in the country. Using an intimate and unfiltered style to tell each candidate’s story, filmmaker Rebekah Henderson honestly portrays the challenges faced by political outsiders, particularly women of color, while also revealing their tenacious commitment to justice and democracy. Ultimately, Running with My Girls is a lesson about an engaged community outrunning the deep pockets of the political establishment and a demonstration that building a new kind of political power is not just aspirational but possible.

Honoring Women’s History Month: A Decent Home
(Premieres March 16, 2023 at 8PM ET)
Director: Sara Terry

A Decent Home addresses urgent issues of class and economic inequity through the lives of mobile home park residents who can’t afford housing anywhere else. The film asks, Who are we becoming as Americans? — as private equity firms and wealthy investors buy up parks, making sky-high returns on their investments while squeezing every last penny out of the mobile home owners who lack rights and protections under local and state laws, and must pay rent for the land they live on.

Blurring the Color Line (Premieres Spring 2023)

Director: Crystal Kwok

Producers:

Blurring the Color Line follows director Crystal Kwok as she unpacks the history behind her grandmother’s family, who were neighborhood grocery store owners in the Black community of Augusta, Georgia during the Jim Crow era. This documentary serves to disrupt racial narratives and bridge divides.

From Here (Premieres Spring 2023)
Director/Producer: Christina Antonakos-Wallace

Producers: Canan Turan, Theresa Navarro

Set in Berlin and New York, From Here interweaves the stories of Tania, Miman, Sonny and Akim – artists and activists raised in the Global North to parents from the Global South. The film accompanies them as they move from their 20’s into their 30’s, facing major turning points: fighting for citizenship, creating a family, surviving violence, and finding creative expression. Beautifully shot over the course of ten years, the film captures their struggle to define belonging for themselves in societies increasingly hostile to their existence. 2020 Human Rights Watch Festival-London and New York

All America ReFramed programs air on Thursdays at 8PM ET

Encore Presentation Schedule

For The Love of Rutland (Encore Presentation January 12 at 8PM ET, Season 10)
Director: Jennifer Maytorena Taylor
In 2016 the mayor of Rutland, Vermont, a predominantly white town struggling with income inequality, the opioid epidemic and political polarization, devised a plan to bring one hundred Syrian refugees to invigorate his community. What followed was a deluge of deeply partisan rancor that threatened to split the small New England town in two. Despite a lifetime of feeling invalidated and shamed for her poverty and addiction, long-time Rutland resident, Stacie, emerges from the sidelines as an unexpected and resilient leader.

With nuance and compassion, For the Love of Rutland creates an intimate portrait of the challenges facing rural America today and delves into complex lives of the community members valiantly taking a stand to heal their hometowns. The film offers a sustained look into the normalization of “white rage” across the US, while also uncovering the stories of ordinary people who become extraordinary in their desire to challenge their deeply held beliefs and mend their divided communities.

The Place That Makes US (Encore Presentation January 19 at 8PM ET, Season 6)
Director: Karla Murthy
When the steel mills shut down in Youngstown, Ohio, it shattered a way of life. Over half the population left, leaving behind thousands of empty blighted homes and eroded the social fabric of this once mighty industrial base. Persistent joblessness, crime and poverty faced the families who stayed. Filmed over the course of three years, The Place That Makes Us follows the lives of a new generation of young leaders and activists who have chosen not to abandon their hometown, but to stay, rebuild and make a life for themselves. Together they rise up to restore homes, generate business and ignite their community.

Unlike their parents’ generation, haunted and traumatized by watching their way of life crumble around them, the younger generation grew up in a post-industrial world. Unbeholden to the memory of Youngstown’s heyday, they envision a new future. Interweaving archival footage and home movies of a prosperous forgone past, THE PLACE THAT MAKES US is a powerful and poetic testament of the resilience and dedication it takes to transform a community.

The Area (Encore Presentation January 26 at 8PM ET, Season 9)
Director: David Schalliol
When the train company representatives told Deborah Payne that her South Side Chicago neighborhood would be demolished to build a freight yard, she vowed to be “the last house standing.” A thirty-year resident of the Englewood community, she had raised generations of neighborhood children alongside her own, forging deep friendships and traditions in this Black American community surrounded by the tracks.

The Area is the five-year odyssey of her neighborhood, where more than 400 Black American families are being displaced by a multi-billion dollar freight company. As their community is literally being torn apart, residents maintain friendships and traditions while fighting for the respect they deserve. Through their experiences, the film weaves an all-too-real story about the disproportionate harm that structural racism has done to Black communities, while illustrating the hope and promise neighbors find in one another as they fight for their home. A Co-Presentation with Reel Midwest of WILL/Illinois Public Media

Where The Pavement Ends (Encore Presentation February 2 at 8PM ET, Season 8) Director: Jane Gillooly
Where The Pavement Ends transports viewers to Missouri towns Kinloch and Ferguson, examining the shared histories and deep racial divides affecting both. Through archival audio recordings, photographs and the recollections of residents from what was then all-Black Kinloch and the all-white community of Ferguson, director Jane Gillooly, a Ferguson native, draws parallels between a 1960s dispute over a physical barricade erected between the towns and the 2014 shooting death by police of Michael Brown which brought her town national attention.

A haunting and mesmerizing look at the deep and lasting wounds of segregation and racial injustice, the film shines a light on the pride and tragedy of Kinloch while also reminding viewers of the countless American neighborhoods, separated by mere blocks, whose residents live worlds apart.

Vision Portraits (Encore Presentation February 9 at 8PM ET, Season 8)
Director: Rodney Evans
Acclaimed director Rodney Evans (Brother to Brother and The Happy Sad) takes viewers on a personal journey as he ponders how the deterioration of his vision will impact his life and work as a filmmaker. Interviewing blind and low vision artists - a photographer, a dancer and a writer - Evans embarks on a quest to learn how other artists have continued to create art and how their journeys might serve as inspiration for his own. A Co-Production of Black Public Media

For full line-up, visit americareframed.com

About

About America ReFramed
America ReFramed is a co-production of WORLD Channel and American Documentary, Inc. The series curates a diverse selection of independent documentaries that brings to national audiences compelling stories which illuminate the changing contours of our ever-evolving country. Viewers will be immersed in stories that span the spectrum of American life, from the streets of towns big and small to its exurbs and country roads. The documentary series presents an array of personal voices and experiences through which we learn from our past, understand our present and are challenged to seek new frameworks for America’s future.

America ReFramed received a Peabody Award for Deej and an Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award for Class of ‘27. The series has earned several Christopher, GRACIE, Telly and Cine Golden Eagle Awards, as well as multiple nominations for Emmy, Independent Documentary Association and Imagen Awards.

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, Chris and Nancy Plaut, 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.

About WORLD Channel

WORLD shares the best of public media in news, documentaries and programming. WORLD’s original series examine the issues and amplify the voices of those often ignored by mainstream media. The multicast 24/7 channel helps audiences understand conflicts, movements and cultures from around the globe. Its original work has won a Peabody Award, an Alfred I. duPont-Columbia Award, a National News and Documentary Emmy Award, two Webby Awards and many others honoring diversity of content and makers. WORLD is carried by 191 member stations in markets representing 74% of US TV households. Funding for WORLD Channel is provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Wyncote Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts and Artworks. WORLD is produced by GBH in partnership with WNET and is distributed by American Public Television (APT). Find out more at WORLDChannel.org.