Buried Above Ground

America ReFramed Season 4
  • Feature Film
  • 2016
  • 80 Mins

Meet three Americans who are fighting ongoing battles with PTSD -- Luis, a combat veteran; Erundina, a lifelong survivor of domestic violence who fights addiction issues; and Ashley, a New Orleanian who lived through Hurricane Katrina and returns to confront the aftermath. One powerful narrative plays, whereby the personal becomes polemic.

More from this film

Buried Above Ground

  • Feature Film
  • 2016

Trailer

Meet three Americans who are fighting ongoing battles with PTSD -- Luis, a combat veteran; Erundina, a lifelong survivor of domestic violence who fights addiction issues; and Ashley, a New Orleanian who lived through Hurricane Katrina and returns to confront the ...

Based on similar topics

Nowhere to Hide

  • Feature Film
  • 2018

Clip

Nowhere to Hide follows nurse Nori Sharif through five years of dramatic change in one of the world's most dangerous and inaccessible areas: the "triangle of death" in central Iraq. Initially filming stories of survivors and the hope of a ...

Still Tomorrow

  • Feature Film
  • 2018

Interview

A village woman with no high school diploma becomes China's most famous poet, and her book of poetry the best-selling such volume in China in the past 20 years. Still Tomorrow follows Yu Xiuhua, a 39-year-old woman living with cerebral ...

Almost Sunrise

  • Feature Film
  • 2017

Feature Film

In an attempt to put haunting combat experiences behind them, two friends embark on an epic 2,700-mile trek on foot across America, seeking redemption and healing as a way to close the moral chasm opened by war. Almost Sunrise ...

Motherland

  • Feature Film
  • 2017

Feature Film

Motherland is an absorbingly intimate, vérité look at the busiest maternity hospital on the planet, in one of the world's most populous countries: the Philippines. Women share their stories with other mothers, their families, doctors and social workers. In a ...

Swim Team

  • Feature Film
  • 2017

Feature Film

Parents of a boy on the autism spectrum form a competitive swim team, recruiting other teens on the spectrum and training them with high expectations and zero pity. Swim Team chronicles the extraordinary rise of three diverse young athletes, capturing ...

The Caretaker

  • Short Film
  • 2014

Short Film

The Caretaker is a portrait of two women who are outsiders in the place they call home. Haru is a 95-year-old Japanese-American migrant who was interned during World War II. Joesy is an undocumented worker from Fiji who cares for ...

StoryCorps Shorts: The Last Viewing

  • Short Film
  • 2014

Short Film

Allen Hoe tells the story of a chance encounter with a stranger who knew his son, Army 1st Lt. Nainoa K. Hoe, who died in Iraq.

StoryCorps Shorts: The Road Home

  • Short Film
  • 2013

Short Film

Eddie Lanier struggled with alcoholism for over 40 years, until his 28th stint in rehab finally led to sobriety. Homeless and hungry, Eddie found a friend in David Wright, a passerby whose frequent donations stood out. Four years after they ...

StoryCorps Shorts: The Germans in the Woods

  • Short Film
  • 2010

Short Film

Joseph Robertson was an infantryman in the U.S. Army during World War II, and he fought in the Battle of the Bulge. The stark black and white images in this short haunt the viewer — just as Robertson is ...

StoryCorps Shorts: Q&A

  • Short Film
  • 2010

Short Film

The groundbreaking public radio project StoryCorps will enter into the world of television for the first time with a series of animated shorts that will air on POV later this summer. Q&A is a three-minute film featuring the audio recording ...

For Ahkeem

  • Feature Film
  • 2018

Trailer

Expelled from high school, Daje Shelton is only 17 years old when she is sentenced by a judge – not to prison, but to an alternative school, the Innovative Concept Academy. It offers Daje one last chance to earn a high ...

The Invisible Patients

  • Feature Film
  • 2018

Trailer

Through the story of Jessica Macleod, Ph.D., a dedicated nurse practitioner in Evansville, Indiana, and her four homebound and marginalized patients, The Invisible Patients​ sheds light on some of the most urgent healthcare issues facing our nation today: from ...

Beyond the Wall

  • Feature Film
  • 2018

Trailer

Beyond the Wall​ ​revolves around one central figure, a former prisoner named Louie Diaz, as he works to guide five formerly incarcerated men safely through the minefield of life outside of jail. Too often, prisoner reentry becomes a setup for ...

Finding Kukan

  • Feature Film
  • 2018

Trailer

Filmmaker Robin Lung documents her 7-year journey to uncover the efforts of Li Ling-Ai, the visionary but uncredited producer of Kukan. Lung discovers a damaged film print of Kukan, and pieces together the untold tale of the two renegades behind ...

Random Acts of Legacy

  • Feature Film
  • 2018

Trailer

Filmmaker Ali Kazimi finds a rare cache of deteriorating 16mm home movies spanning from 1936 to 1951, and deftly crafts a story of history and memory in Random Acts of Legacy. The family archive that Kazimi discovers was the work ...

My Love, Don't Cross That River

  • Feature Film
  • 2017

Feature Film

89-year-old Kang Gye-Yeol and 98-year-old Jo Byeong-Man are married and have lived together for 76 years. While Kang and Jo spend every day like a newlywed couple, they now must face the reality of their aging romance. My Love, Don't ...

Memories of a Penitent Heart

  • Feature Film
  • 2017

Feature Film

Filmmaker Cecilia Aldarondo suspected that there was something ugly in her family's past. Memories of a Penitent Heart excavates a buried conflict around her uncle Miguel, who died at a time when AIDS was synonymous with sin. As she searches ...

Last Men in Aleppo

  • Feature Film
  • 2017

Feature Film

After five years of war in Syria, the remaining citizens of Aleppo are getting ready for a siege. Through the eyes of volunteer rescue workers called the White Helmets, Last Men in Aleppo allows viewers to experience the daily life ...

The War Show

  • Feature Film
  • 2017

Feature Film

Radio host Obaidah Zytoon captures the fate of Syria through the intimate lens of a small circle of friends and journalists. Beginning with peaceful Arab Spring protests in 2011, The War Show offers a four-year, ground-level look at how the ...

Seven Songs for a Long Life

  • Feature Film
  • 2017

Feature Film

Hospice care is rarely associated with singing and laughter, but at Strathcarron it's different. At this remarkable Scottish hospice center, patients face pain, uncertainty and the possibility of life's end with song and humor. Four years in the ...

A Healing Art

  • Short Film
  • 2010

Short Film

What could be good about losing an eye? Nothing can make up for this tragic loss, but artificial eye makers Christy Erickson and Todd Cranmore combine artistry, skill and compassion to rekindle hope for their patients and families. Each eye ...

StoryCorps Shorts

  • Short Film
  • 2010
Since 2010, POV and StoryCorps have brought over 30 animated shorts to PBS and online audiences. Founded by Dave Isay, StoryCorps records and preserves the voices of everyday people, one conversation at a time. For more information visit www.storycorps ...

Bye

  • Short Film
  • 2010

Short Film

Follow Jayden, a two and half year old diagnosed with autism, through his first months of school in the Bronx. Byewas supported by Cinereach through the Reach Film Fellowship.

Notes on Milk

  • Short Film
  • 2010

Short Film

Notes on Milk is a short variation of the 2007 feature documentary Milk in the Land: Ballad of an American Drink. Ariana Gerstein and Monteith McCollum, whose Hybrid aired on POV in 2002, take a quirky and poetic look at ...

Massacre at Murambi

  • Short Film
  • 2007
During the genocide in Rwanda in 1994, a newly built secondary school on a hill named Murambi was the site of one of the world's most horrifying mass murders. This film informs us about the events at Murambi and ...

Vegas Baby

  • Feature Film
  • 2017

Trailer

The Sher Institute in Las Vegas is holding a contest. First prize: a free round of in vitro fertilization – but even for the winners, there’s no guarantee of success. News & Documentary Emmy® nominated Vegas Baby follows the journeys ...

Deej

  • Feature Film
  • 2017

Trailer

Deej is the story of DJ Savarese (“Deej”), a gifted, young writer and advocate for non-speaking autistics. Once a “profoundly disabled” foster kid on a fast track to nowhere, DJ is now a first-year college student who insists on standing ...

We Breathe Again

  • Feature Film
  • 2017

Trailer

Suicide - one of the leading causes of death for Alaska Natives. Almost every family has lost brothers, sisters, parents, and children to it. We Breathe Again introduces four Alaska Natives who are trying to break free from histories of trauma ...

Unbroken Glass

  • Feature Film
  • 2017

Trailer

Things happen to you when you're a kid, says filmmaker Dinesh Sabu, "and you make sense of it after." Sabu is ruminating on his parents' deaths, which came when he was 6 years old. Two decades later, worried that ...

Good Luck Soup

  • Feature Film
  • 2017

Trailer

For filmmaker Matthew Hashiguchi, growing up half Japanese/half Italian in a white Irish-Catholic neighborhood in Cleveland, Ohio, was a difficult experience. In Good Luck Soup, Hashiguchi sets out on a journey to discover how the rest of his multi-racial ...

Film Credits

  • Ben Selkow Writer, Director, Co-Producer
  • Marc Smolowitz Co-Producer
  • Flavia de Souza Editor
  • James Lester Editor
  • Tim Kvasnosky Music

Critical Acclaim

Powerful. Buried Above Ground will contribute to reshaping the way our society thinks about mental health issues. It will help move viewers and help dispel the myths and misconceptions about PTSD.

Rosalyn Carter, Former First Lady, The Carter Center

Press Room

American Documentary Celebrates Social Justice Filmmaker & LGBTQ+ AANHPI Community Advocate PJ Raval with the Creative Visionary Award at Fall GalaFest American Documentary, UFO, Chicken & Egg Pictures Announce “Shorts In-Session,” a New Work-in-Progress Initiative to Support Short-form Documentary Filmmakers ‘POV’ Follows Young Mayor Brandon Scott, Who Risks it All to Save Baltimore From Chronic Gun Violence in The Body Politic
More from The Press Room

Broadcast schedule

Check your local PBS station
for upcoming airings of America ReFramed

More from this series

Learn more about America ReFramed