American Documentary

Overview

Brooklyn, N.Y. — August 8, 2024 — POV, the multi-Emmy® and Peabody award-winning documentary series, answers the question if a documentary filmmaker can record history while serving as a reformist in the gut-wrenching, yet subtle war documentary In the Rearview by Polish director Maciek Hamela. When Russia escalated its war against Ukraine in 2022, Hamela bought a van and volunteered to drive Ukrainian refugees to safety in Poland. Filmed almost entirely inside his vehicle, Hamela turned his camera on the passengers in the backseat as they attempt to process the effects of war.

Produced by Hamela and Piotr Grawender, In the Rearview, marks Hamela’s feature-length directorial debut. The documentary was among 15 films shortlisted in the category of Best Documentary Feature Film for the 96thAcademy Awards® in the Best Documentary Feature Film, and was featured on the International Documentary Association’s, (IDA), Feature Documentary shortlist.

In the Rearview, will make its national broadcast premiere on POV Monday, October 7, 2024 at 10PM/9C (check local listings) on PBS Television, and available to stream until November 6, 2024, at pbs.org, and the PBS App.

In addition to standard closed captioning for the films, POV, in partnership with audio description serviceDiCapta, provides real-time audio interpretations for audiences with sensory disabilities.

Now in its 37th season, POV continues to mark its place as America’s longest running non-fiction series.

POV’s Executive Producer, Chris White says, “Maciek’s camera gives viewers a profound and devastating lens into what this war has wrought, through the faces and reflections of families like yours and mine: grandparents, mothers and fathers with their children and pets, forced to flee their homes.”

“It’s an enormous privilege to be part of the POV showcase and share In the Rearview with the American audience,” said Maciek Hamela, director of In the Rearview. “I feel it’s important now, more than ever, to talk about displacement and occupation through intimate and personal stories, as the global refugee crisis intensifies and we’re witnessing an unprecedented dehumanization of war victims.”

In the initial days of Russia’s full scale invasion of the Ukraine, Polish aid worker-turned-filmmaker Maciek Hamela purchased a minivan and began evacuating Ukrainian civilians — mostly women and children, now all refugees — to Poland. Filmed over many trips, In the Rearview eschews depictions of carnage in order to capture the psychological costs and tragic consequences of the Russian invasion. Squashed in Hamela’s backseat, a family sheds tears over abandoning their cow. A young man speaks stoically about being tortured by Russian soldiers. Five-year-old Sanya has stopped speaking. Using dark humor, a husband en route to meet his wife in Poland complains that despite the destruction, she kept sending him “Honey Do Lists.” As Hamela’s taxi navigates checkpoints, minefields, and Russian attacks, In the Rearview displays faces — young and old, devastated and resilient — offering a moving and sublime reflection of humanity in the midst of war. The film is a co-production between Poland, France and Ukraine.

In the Rearview made its world premiere at the 76th Cannes Film Festival, and its North American premiere at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival. An official selection of over 90 film festivals worldwide, winning more than 30 awards, including the Grand Jury Prize in the International Competition at the 2023 Sheffield DocFest, Best Polish Film Award at the 2023 Millennium Docs Against Gravity Film Festival, recognized by the International Documentary Association with the IDA Pare Lorentz Award 2023.

In the Rearview is a co-production between Poland, France and the Ukraine. The co-producers are Affinity Cine and Pemplum. Maciek Hamela is the director. Piotr Grawender and Maciek Hamela are the producers; Yura Dunay, Wawrzyniec Skoczylas, Marcin Sierakowski and Piotr Grawender and are the cinematographers; and Piotr Oginski is the editor. Original score was composed by Antoni Komasa-Łazarkiewicz. Erika Dilday and Chris White are the executive producers for American Documentary | POV.

In the Rearview will be available for streaming concurrently 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. PBS station members can view many series, documentaries and specials via PBS Passport. For more information about PBS Passport, visit the PBS Passport FAQ website.

Photos

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Click In the Rearview Press Kit to access the theatrical press notes

Credits

In the Rearview

Director: Maciek Hamela

Producers: Maciek Hamela, Piotr Grawender
Editor: Piotr Ogiński
Cinematographers: Yura Dunay, Wawrzyniec Skoczylas, Piotr Grawender, Marcin Sierakowski
Composer: Antoni Komasa-Łazarkiewicz

Language: English, Ukrainian, Polish, Russian, French
Countries: Poland, France, Ukraine

Year: 2023

About the Filmmakers

Maciek Hamela, Director, Producer, In the Rearview
Film and radio producer, director, scriptwriter, Maciek Hamela, was born in Warsaw, Poland. He received a master's degree from the Sorbonne University (Paris IV) in French literature. He worked in renovations and as a tour guide, while studying film directing at École Internationale de Création Audiovisuelle et de Réalisation (EICAR). He is a longtime BBC Channel collaborator. A co-creator and a producer of the documentary short film, Bless You, for which he received a Doc Alliance Award within the Cannes Docs program (Cannes FF 2021), the short was also presented at Millennium Docs Against Gravity Film Festival. He produced films such as Convictions (MDR Film Prize for an outstanding Eastern European documentary film at Dok Leipzig IFF 2016), Gatherers of Sea Grass and Polonaise or Parquet. A director and producer of various radio works he received the Silver Melchior Radio Award for the Premiere of the Year 2018 in the Polish Radio Reporters National Competition. In addition, he produced and co-directed Plan B, a documentary podcast series for Audioteka.

Piotr Grawender, Producer, In the Rearview
Cinematographer, producer of series and documentaries. He received his education at the cinematography department of Columbia College Chicago. Cinematographer for the feature film Dustclouds (directed by Filip Jan Rymsza). For years he has been cooperating with Polish television stations - TVN, TVN Style, TVN Turbo, TTV, Discovery Channel, Travel Channel, creating documentary programs. His portfolio includes projects for clients such as Nokia, Open'er Festival, Gosia Baczyńska, HBO, Kayax, WWF, PGE. In his work, he uses technological innovations according to the idea of ​​"less is more". He learned this way of thinking from traveling around the world and working in difficult conditions, where heavy and complicated equipment is an obstacle, not a help.

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 (1989), Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse (1992), Rabbit in the Room (1999), Of Civil Wrongs & Rights: The Fred Korematsu Story (2001), Made in L.A. (2007), American Promise (2013), Not Going Quietly (2021), While We Watched (2022), A House Made of Splinters (2022) and the mini-series And She Could be Next (2020). Throughout its history POV has featured the work of award-winning, innovative filmmakers including Jonathan Demme, Laura Poitras, Nanfu Wang, Frederick Wiseman, Emiko Omori, Janus Metz Pedersen and Ava DuVernay. In 2018, POV Shorts launched as one of the first PBS series dedicated to bold and timely short-form documentaries. In 2024, Indiewire named seven POV films in its roundup of “The 50 Best Documentaries of the 21st Century”: Faya Dayi (2021), The Mole Agent (2020), Minding The Gap (2018), Cameraperson (2016), The Look of Silence (2015), The Act of Killing (2013) and After Tiller (2013). All POV programs are available for streaming concurrent with broadcast on all station-branded PBS platforms, including PBS.org and the PBS 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 47 Emmy Awards, 28 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 organization 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.

American Documentary, Inc. (AmDoc) is a multimedia organization 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, Chris and Nancy Plaut, Ann Tenenbaum and Thomas H. Lee, Acton Family Giving, 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 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.