American Documentary

Overview

New York, N.Y. — August 22, 2022 – POV has returned to PBS this July for its 35th Season, a curated selection of films that reconfirm public media’s essential role in sparking national dialogue on contemporary and historical social issues and that once again position POV as a champion for U.S. Latinx and Latin American nonfiction cinema.

On the tail of last year’s landmark majority focus on Latin American and U.S. Latinx stories, POV’s Season 35 is set to bring audiences the broadcast premieres of two powerful and critically-acclaimed documentaries with Latin American connections and one Latinx nonfiction short: Mexican-Ethiopian director Jessica Beshir’s Oscar®- shortlisted film Faya Dayi, and Academy-Award nominee Sami Khan and Michael Gassert’s The Last Out. POV Shorts Season 5, premiering October 31, will include William D. Caballero’s touching animation Chilly and Milly, recent Jury Prize winner at the 2022 PBS Short Film Festival.

America’s longest-running documentary series' newest season builds upon its decades-long commitment to representation and inclusion, with over half of this season’s films directed by women, and two thirds by filmmakers of color. In addition, half come from filmmakers of Asian descent, and several titles are by and about people with disabilities. A major platform for global nonfiction in the U.S, the series will feature stories from China, Cuba, Ethiopia, Greenland, Myanmar, Norway, the Philippines, Zimbabwe, and feature contemporary Muslim perspectives from both outside and within the U.S.

Marking a historic moment for Latinx narrative representation on PBS and public television in general, the majority of the titles in last year’s thirteen-film program were by Latin American or U.S. Latinx filmmakers. This year’s lineup represents a broader assortment of global regions and narratives with the selected Latin American and U.S. Latinx documentaries and shorts continuing this decades-long legacy and reaffirming POV as one of the foremost advocates for U.S. Latinx and Latin American documentary storytelling and its makers.

As the premier destination for provocative, critically acclaimed, international non-fiction films, POV’s Season 35 is set to present the broadcast premiere of Mexican- Ethiopian director Jessica Beshir’s Oscar®-shortlisted film and debut feature Faya Dayi on August 29, 2022. A hypnotic immersion into the Oromo and Harari communities of Hararghe, Ethiopia, where khat, a euphoria-inducing plant, holds sway over the rituals and rhythms of everyday life, Faya Dayi unfolds to become a living record of everyone from the harvesters of the crop to people lost in its narcotic haze, to a desperate but determined younger generation searching for an escape from political strife.

Drawing from her joint Mexican and Ethiopian heritage, Beshir offers an exciting revitalization to Third Cinema, the influential aesthetic and political cinematic movement that emerged in the late sixties and early seventies to decry the effects of neocolonialism and global capitalism. The transcontinental movement created powerful creative connections between Latin America and Africa through the work of celebrated directors such as Fernando Solanas, Jorge Sanjinés, and Ousmane Sembène, forging cinematic relationships that continue through Beshir’s own practice.

With the intention of examining systemic inequity in U.S. institutions and the true costs of the American Dream for Black and Brown communities, POV will also present the broadcast premiere of Sami Khan and Michael Gassert’s The Last Out on October 3, 2022. A moving chronicle of three Cuban baseball players who risk exile to chase their dream of playing in the U.S. major leagues, The Last Out explores the shadowy nexus of the migrant trail and pro sports as it follows the trio on a harrowing journey from immigration obstacles to the broken promises of dubious agents. Against all odds, these young athletes try to hold onto their hope while fighting for a better life for their families. Check out the trailer and poster for the vérité documentary, which were recently premiered in anticipation of the film’s upcoming theatrical and broadcast release.

In addition to the above feature-length releases, the current 5th Season of POV Shorts will host the broadcast premiere of Los Angeles-based filmmaker and multimedia storyteller William D. Caballero’s touching animated Oscar®-qualifying documentary short Chilly and Milly, which had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival. Eleven years after filming a documentary about his family, Caballero returns home to revisit scenes from his documentary with his parents, Chilly and Milly. Chilly, William's father, is a diabetic with kidney failure whose illness detrimentally affects the lives of him and his family. Milly, William's mother, is the matriarchal caretaker of the family. When Chilly passes during the pandemic, William and Milly must come to terms with their loss. With Chilly's passing, Milly is tasked with finding a new purpose in life.

All films in this season, as in years past, are accompanied by educational resources and will be available to stream on all PBS platforms including pbs.org, and the PBS Video app. Premieres continue through fall 2022 with primetime specials in early 2023. In addition to standard closed captioning, POV, in partnership with audio description serviceDiCapta, provides real time audio interpretations for audiences with sensory disabilities

Throughout its history, POV has reaffirmed its longstanding commitment to Latinx and Latin American stories and filmmakers, having hosted the broadcast premiere of landmark films including Señorita Extraviada by Lourdes Portillo, the 2002 chilling documentary that investigates, with visual poeticism and an unflinching gaze, the kidnapping, rape and murder of over 350 young women in the border city of Juárez, Mexico; Patricio Guzmán’s 2010 gorgeous masterpiece Nostalgia for the Light, the first film in his monumental landscape and memory trilogy, which investigates the relationship between historical memory, political trauma and geography in his native country of Chile; and the 2018 magical realist documentary 306 Hollywood, in which Venezuelan-American directors Elan and Jonathan Bogarín become archeologists and reconstruct their grandmother’s life, transforming her cluttered New Jersey home of 71 years into a visually exquisite ruin.

Other key Latinx and Latin American titles that had their broadcast premiere on POV include Presumed Guilty by Roberto Hernández, Layda Negrete and Geoffrey Smith in 2010; El Velador (the Night Watchman) by Natalia Almada in 2012; Reportero by Bernardo Ruiz in 2013; Memories of a Penitent Heart by Cecilia Aldarondo in 2017; and the Oscar® nominated film The Mole Agent by Maite Alberdi in 2021.

Last year’s lineup included the broadcast premieres of other recent and multi-award-winning Latin American and U.S. Latinx titles including Cecilia Aldarondo’s Landfall, Michèle Stephenson’s Stateless, Núria Frigola Torrent’s The Song of the Butterflies, Emily Cohen Ibañez’s Fruits of Labor, Oscar Molina’s La Casa de Mama Icha, Bruno Santamaría’s Things We Dare Not Do, and Maya Cueva and Leah Galant’s On the Divide.

"Throughout its history, POV has championed Latin American and U.S. Latinx filmmakers and their stories by providing a space for them to showcase their work, engage in conversations with diverse audiences, and join a network of prestigious POV alumni," said Erika Dilday, executive director/executive producer of American Documentary | POV. "We're proud to support Latin American and U.S. Latinx directors in this and past seasons, many of whom have become international leaders in world cinema."

POV is one of the most highly-acclaimed non-fiction series on television. This year POV and POV Shorts received four News & Documentary Emmy Awards nominations across a variety of platforms including The Neutral Ground (historical documentary), Mayor (politics & government), A Broken House with The New Yorker (shorts) and the groundbreaking POV Spark project The Changing Same: American Pilgrimage, Episode 1 (interactive media). Last year, the series received seven News & Documentary Emmy Awards nominations, and won Best Documentary forAdvocate (POV Season 33). This marked the second year in a row that a POV film took home that honor; POV earned the 2020 Best Documentary award for The Silence of Others (POV Season 32). POV won two Alfred I. duPont – Columbia University Awards for Through the Night (POV Season 33) by Afro-Dominican filmmaker Loira Limbal and Softie (POV Season 33). In addition to its Academy Award® nomination for Best Documentary Feature, The Mole Agent (POV Season 33) by Chilean director Maite Alberdi was also shortlisted for Best International Feature. Recently, Mayor (POV Season 34) won a Peabody Award and four POV films were awarded Peabody Awards in 2020: The Distant Barking of Dogs, Inventing Tomorrow, Midnight Traveler, and The Silence of Others.

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 45 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 POV Shorts
POV Shorts launched in 2018 as one of the first PBS series dedicated to bold and timely short-form documentaries.The series is known for its curation, and for broadcasting award-winning titles, including: Emmy® nominated Earthrise, Water Warriors, The Changing Same, the Emmy® winner The Love Bugs and the Oscar® shortlisted A Broken House and Aguilas. It won Best Short Form Series at the IDA Documentary Awards in 2020.

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 120 million people through television and 26 million people online, inviting them to experience the worlds of science, history, nature and public affairs; to hear diverse viewpoints; 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 for digital content and services that help bring classroom lessons to life. Decades of research confirm that PBS’s premier children’s media service, PBS KIDS, helps children build critical literacy, math and social-emotional skills, enabling them to find success in school and life. Delivered through member stations, PBS KIDS offers high-quality educational content on TV – including a 24/7 channel, online at pbskids.org, via an array of mobile apps and in communities across America. More information about PBS is available at www.pbs.org, one of the leading dot-org websites on the internet, or by following PBS on Twitter, Facebook 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 Twitter.

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 Dicapta
Dicapta Corporation is a communications technology company focused on making media accessible for people with visual and hearing disabilities. It has been offering high quality audio description, captioning, and language customization services since 2004. Dicapta has served the TV industry, media companies, educational institutions, and variety of organizations in making communications accessible to everyone. Dicapta has also been funded by the United States Department of Education and the United States Department of Health and Human Services to work in the creation of accessibility assets and the development of technology to improve access to media for people with sensory disabilities.