POV: Faya Dayi | American Documentary

Faya Dayi

POV

Feature Film
2022
120 Mins

A hypnotic immersion in the world of Harar, Ethiopia, where khat, a euphoria-inducing plant, holds sway over the rituals and rhythms of everyday life, Faya Dayi captures moments in the lives 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. Official selection 2021 Sundance Film Festival. Shortlisted, 94th Academy Awards. A co-presentation with Black Public Media.

Faya Dayi

Feature Film
2022

Trailer

A hypnotic immersion in the world of Harar, Ethiopia, where khat, a euphoria-inducing plant, holds sway over the rituals and rhythms of everyday life, Faya Dayi captures moments in the lives of everyone from the harvesters of the crop to ...

93Queen

Feature Film
2018

Interview

Set in the Hasidic enclave of Borough Park, Brooklyn, 93Queen follows a group of tenacious Hasidic women who are smashing the patriarchy in their community by creating the first all-female volunteer ambulance corps in New York City. With unprecedented and ...

Whose Streets?

Feature Film
2018

Clip

When unarmed teenager Michael Brown is killed by police and left lying in the street for hours, it marks a breaking point for the residents of the St. Louis area and beyond. Whose Streets? is an unflinching look at the ...

The War to Be Her

Feature Film
2018

Trailer

In Waziristan, "one of the most dangerous places on earth", Maria Toorpakai defies the Taliban, disguising herself as a boy so she can play sports freely. But when she becomes a rising star, her true identity is revealed and death ...

Brimstone & Glory

Feature Film
2018

Interview

The National Pyrotechnic Festival in Tultepec, Mexico, is a site of festivity unlike any other in the world. Conflagrant revelry engulfs the town, while artisans show off their technical virtuosity. For the three-quarters of Tultepec residents who work in pyrotechnics ...

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 ...

From Damascus to Chicago

Short Film
2017

Short Film

In the documentary short From Damascus to Chicago, two young Syrian siblings recently resettled in Chicago enroll in a dance class, while the film follows their family's experiences in navigating a new city and country.

Pink Boy

Short Film
2016

Short Film

An intimate portrait of a gender-nonconforming child growing up in conservative rural Florida.

StoryCorps Shorts: Eyes on the Stars

Short Film
2012

Short Film

Carl McNair tells the story of his brother Ronald, an African-American kid in the 1950s who set his sights on the stars.

StoryCorps Shorts: Facundo the Great

Short Film
2012

Short Film

Ramòn "Chunky" Sanchez recounts how the new kid at school became a hero when his teachers could not find a way to anglicize his name.

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 ...

Joe's Violin

Short Film
2017

Short Film

In the Oscar-nominated Joe's Violin, a donated musical instrument forges an improbable friendship. 91-year-old Holocaust survivor Joe Feingold and 12-year-old Bronx school girl Brianna Perez show how the power of music can bring light in the darkest of times, and ...

Stay Close

Short Film
2019

Short Film

Stay Close blends home videos and animation in an expressionistic montage to tell the underdog story of Keeth Smart, an African American fencer from Brooklyn who overcomes a gauntlet of hardships on his road to the Olympics.

Crisanto Street

Short Film
2020

Short Film

In the shadow of Silicon Valley, a hidden community thrives despite difficult circumstances. For one resident, eight-year-old Geovany Cesario, impending change is bittersweet.

The Velvet Underground Played At My High School

Short Film
2020

Short Film

This animated short recounts the Velvet Underground's first gig in 1965: in front of a crowd of shocked kids at a suburban New Jersey high school.

Gentlemen of Vision

Feature Film
2018

Trailer

Gentlemen of Vision follows a year in the life of coach, counselor and founder Marlon Wharton, and his 2015-2016 class of young Black males as he strives to rewrite future prospects for his students. While striving for excellence in school ...

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 ...

Agents of Change

Feature Film
2018

Trailer

Agents of Change examines the racial conditions on college campuses across the U.S. in the late 1960’s, focusing on student demands at two seminal protests: San Francisco State in 1968 and Cornell University in 1969. Many of the ...

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 ...

Who is Arthur Chu?

Feature Film
2018

Trailer

Who is Arthur Chu? follows 11-time Jeopardy! winner Arthur Chu, who won almost $300,000. By using an unconventional game strategy, the former insurance analyst amassed tens of thousands of fans and haters on Twitter. In an effort to put ...

Critical Acclaim

A nonfiction work of sensory immersion that's part anthropology, part poetry.
Sheri Linden, Hollywood Reporter

Press Room

POV’s While We Watched Receives a Peabody Awards Nomination America ReFramed Acquires the Compelling Documentary A Woman on the Outside to Open WORLD’s Newest Content Theme “Liberated Lives” Beginning March 28, 2024 POV Acquires Who I am Not, a Thoughtful Documentary About What it Means to be Intersex in a Binary World, Will Debut as Part of POV’s 37th Season Launching Summer 2024

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