POV's 2017 Season
View AllShort Film
PBS Premiere: June 26, 2017
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.
Feature Film
PBS Premiere: June 26, 2017
Dalya's Other Country tells the nuanced story of members of a family displaced by the Syrian conflict who are remaking themselves after the parents separate. A co-presentation with the Center for Asian American Media (CAAM).
Short Film
PBS Premiere: June 26, 2017
Filmmaker Daphne Matziaraki follows a day in the life of Kyriakos Papadopoulos, a captain in the Greek coast guard who is caught in the middle of the refugee crisis in which Europe is embroiled. Nominated, 2017 Academy Award for Best Documentary Short Subject.
Feature Film
PBS Premiere: July 3, 2017
Radio host Obaidah Zytoon captures the fate of Syria through the intimate lens of a small circle of friends and journalists. Official Selection of the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival.
Feature Film
PBS Premiere: July 10, 2017
Through the eyes of volunteer rescue workers called the White Helmets, Last Men in Aleppo allows viewers to experience the daily life, death, and struggle in the streets, where they are fighting for sanity in a city where war has become the norm. Winner, 2017 Sundance World Cinema Grand Jury Prize for Documentary.
Feature Film
PBS Premiere: July 17, 2017
Presenting Princess Shaw is the extraordinary story of an aspiring musician, down on her luck, who inspired internationally famous musician, composer and video artist Ophir "Kutiman" Kutiel to create a magical collaboration that would introduce her talent to a whole new audience. Nominated, 2017 Critics' Choice Award for Best Music Documentary. A co-presentation with the National Black Programming Consortium (NBPC).
Short Film
PBS Premiere: July 24, 2017
In the Oscar-nominated Joe's Violin, a donated musical instrument forges an improbable friendship. Nominated, 2017 Academy Award for Best Documentary Short Subject.
Feature Film
PBS Premiere: July 24, 2017
Three Italian Jewish brothers set off on a journey through Tuscany, in search of a cave where they hid as children to escape the Nazis.
Feature Film
PBS Premiere: July 31, 2017
Memories of a Penitent Heart excavates a buried conflict around filmmaker Cecilia Aldarondo's uncle Miguel, who died at a time when AIDS was synonymous with sin. A co-presentation with Latino Public Broadcasting (LPB).
Feature Film
PBS Premiere: Aug. 21, 2017
In Tribal Justice, two Native American judges reach back to traditional concepts of justice in order to reduce incarceration rates, foster greater safety for their communities, and create a more positive future for their youth. A co-production of Vision Maker Media and American Documentary | POV.
Feature Film
PBS Premiere: Aug. 28, 2017
Raising Bertie is an intimate portrait of three African American boys as they face a precarious coming of age in rural Bertie County, North Carolina. This powerful vérité film weaves the young men's narratives together as they work to define their identities and grow into adulthood while navigating complex relationships, institutional racism, violence, poverty, and educational inequity. A co-presentation with the National Black Programming Consortium (NBPC).
Feature Film
PBS Premiere: Sept. 4, 2017
In a school for individuals with Down Syndrome, four middle-aged friends yearn for a life of greater autonomy in a society that marginalizes them as disabled. Winner, Best Female-Directed Film at the 2016 International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam. A co-presentation with Latino Public Broadcasting (LPB).
Feature Film
PBS Premiere: Sept. 11, 2017
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 Cross that River captures the fleeting moments of their twilight days.
Feature Film
PBS Premiere: Oct. 2, 2017
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. A co-presentation with the Center for Asian American Media (CAAM).
Feature Film
PBS Premiere: Oct. 9, 2017
On the isolated North Atlantic archipelago of the Faroe Islands, the longtime hunting practices of the Faroese are threatened by dangerously high mercury levels in the whales, decimated seabird populations, and anti-whaling activists. The Faroe islanders consider themselves a canary in the mine, their tale a warning to the rest of the world. Winner, 2016 DOC NYC Grand Jury Prize.
Streaming Now
View AllFeature Film
PBS Premiere: Oct. 10, 2016
When director Sharon Shattuck's father came out as transgender, Sharon was in the awkward throes of middle school. As the Shattucks reunite to plan Sharon's wedding, she seeks a deeper understanding of how her parents' marriage, and their family, survived intact.
Feature Film
PBS Premiere: Aug. 17, 2015
One teacher prepares his students for their new life in Switzerland as they struggle to learn a new language, prepare themselves for employment and reveal their innermost hopes and dreams.
Short Film
Digital Premiere: March 5, 2014
In 1968 Roger Smith ate a peach during a break from work and carved the pit into a pig.
Short Film
Digital Premiere: March 5, 2014
Wood follows the journey of timber from the forest through the sawmill and presents a portrait of the working men we find along the way.
Feature Film
PBS Premiere: Sept. 28, 2004
Follow two young refugees from the Dinka tribe, Peter and Santino, through their first year in America. Nearly 4,000 'lost boys' have emigrated to the United States.
Short Film
PBS Premiere: Oct. 10, 2016
An intimate portrait of a gender-nonconforming child growing up in conservative rural Florida.
Short Film
PBS Premiere: Sept. 19, 2016
In Theo Rigby and Kate McLean's short film Marathon, an undocumented immigrant, Julio Sauce, competes in the New York City Marathon. This film is part of Immigrant Nation, an interactive storytelling project designed to collect immigrant narratives and share them with the world.
Short Film
PBS Premiere: Oct. 24, 2016
Reverend James L. Seawood remembers what happened to his elementary school after the last African American family was forced out of Sheridan, Arkansas, in the 1950's.
Short Film
Digital Premiere: July 11, 2016
On her 90th birthday, Rosemarie and Ray celebrate with a trip to In-N-Out.
Feature Film
Digital Premiere: Sept. 11, 2015
Since 2010, POV and StoryCorps have brought over 30 animated shorts to PBS and online audiences.
Short Film
Digital Premiere: April 13, 2016
Storm Reyes found hope the day a bookmobile arrived at her migrant camp near Tacoma, Washington in the 1960's.
Short Film
Digital Premiere: Feb. 1, 2016
Wendell Scott was the first African American inducted in the NASCAR Hall of Fame. His son, Frank, remembers what it took for his father to cross the finish line at racetracks throughout the South in the '60s and '70s.
Short Film
Digital Premiere: Feb. 1, 2016
Since 2010, POV and StoryCorps have brought over 30 animated shorts to PBS and online audiences.
Short Film
Digital Premiere: Oct. 11, 2015
Patrick Haggerty remembers his father's unexpected advice to his gay son in rural Washington during the 1950s.
Short Film
PBS Premiere: Sept. 21, 2015
Each night in Silicon Valley, the Line 22 transforms from a public bus into an unofficial shelter for the homeless in one of the richest parts of the world. Hotel 22 captures a single, dramatic night on the Line 22 route.
Short Film
PBS Premiere: June 29, 2015
Theresa Burroughs recalls her persistence to claim her right to vote during the Jim Crow era in the rural South.
Short Film
PBS Premiere: June 29, 2015
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 her.
Short Film
PBS Premiere: Sept. 21, 2015
Alex Landau, who is African American, recalls how he nearly lost his life following a traffic stop with the Denver police. He and his mother, Patsy, who is white, remember that night and how it changed them both forever.
Short Film
PBS Premiere: Sept. 11, 2015
New York City sanitation worker Angelo Bruno and his long-time partner, Eddie Nieves, talk about becoming a part of the community they served on their route.
Short Film
PBS Premiere: Nov. 11, 2014
In August 2005, Travis Williams and his squad were sent on a rescue mission in Iraq.
Short Film
Digital Premiere: Nov. 10, 2014
StoryCorps' Military Voices Initiative aims to bridge the gap between veterans and civilians.
Short Film
Digital Premiere: Nov. 10, 2014
In 2005, Specialist Justin Cliburn deployed to Iraq with the Oklahoma Army National Guard. While serving in Baghdad, Justin formed an unlikely friendship with two Iraqi boys who lived nearby. At StoryCorps, Justin speaks with his wife, Deanne, about the lasting impression the boys left on his life.
Short Film
PBS Premiere: June 29, 2015
Allen Hoe tells the story of a chance encounter with a stranger who knew his son.
Short Film
Digital Premiere: Oct. 13, 2014
20/Nothing follows Evan Smith, a man who lost his left eye many years ago. This experimental film takes a look at life from a different view.
Short Film
Digital Premiere: Sept. 25, 2014
At the height of the Cold War, sixty-five indigenous Greenlandic families were forcibly relocated from their homes to make way for an American military base. More than fifty years later in Qaanaaq, the town created 100 kilometers away, filmmaker Nicole Paglia talks to some of the people who remember their old village, the homes and the traditional lifestyle they were forced to abandon.
Popular Films
Feature Film
PBS Premiere: March 24, 2013
The provocative film is a lyrical exploration of youth, beauty and ambition, seen through the eyes of a conflicted American modeling scout and the 13-year-old girl she discovers.
Feature Film
Encore Broadcast: Aug. 9, 2011
This 2010 Oscar-nominated film lifts the veil on our nation's food industry, exposing the highly mechanized underbelly that's been hidden from the American consumer.
Feature Film
PBS Premiere: Sept. 28, 2004
Follow two young refugees from the Dinka tribe, Peter and Santino, through their first year in America. Nearly 4,000 'lost boys' have emigrated to the United States.
Feature Film
PBS Premiere: Feb. 3, 2014
In American Promise, African-American parents Joe Brewster and Michèle Stephenson film their son and his friend, who attend one of the country’s most prestigious private schools.
Feature Film
Encore Broadcast: Aug. 5, 2013
Every spring, China's cities are plunged into chaos as 130 million migrant workers journey to their home villages for the New Year in the world’s largest human migration.
Feature Film
PBS Premiere: Sept. 21, 2015
In a community where silence is seen as necessary for survival, immigrant activist Angy Rivera joins a generation of Dreamers ready to push for change in the only home she's ever known — the United States. A co-presentation with Latino Public Broadcasting.
Feature Film
PBS Premiere: Sept. 12, 2016
Accompany two African-American teens from the South Side of Chicago on their journey to achieve their dream of graduating from college. A co-production of American Documentary | POV; Part of American Graduate: Let's Make It Happen, made possible by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
Feature Film
PBS Premiere: Aug. 21, 2001
Life and Debt is an unapologetic look at the "new world order," from the point of view of Jamaican workers, farmers, government and policy officials who see the reality of globalization from the ground up.
Feature Film
PBS Premiere: Aug. 17, 2004
In the late 1990s, three victims of police brutality made headlines around the country: Amadou Diallo, the young West African man whose killing sparked intense public protest; Anthony Baez, killed in an illegal choke-hold; and Gary (Gidone) Busch, a Hasidic Jew shot and killed outside his Brooklyn home. Every Mother's Son tells of the victims' three mothers who came together to demand justice and accountability.
Feature Film
PBS Premiere: Feb. 7, 2005
In 1972, Shirley Chisholm became the first black woman to run for president. Her wit, spirit and charisma reminds all Americans of their power as citizens.
Feature Film
PBS Premiere: July 11, 2016
Florida Justice Transitions trailer park is home to 120 sex offenders, all battling their own demons as they work toward rejoining society. This film considers how the destructive cycle of sexual abuse — and the silence surrounding it — can be broken.
Feature Film
PBS Premiere: Aug. 29, 2000
There are over one million Gypsies living in America today, and most people don't know anything about them. It is one man's obsessive pursuit of justice and dignity that led filmmaker Jasmine Dellal into their hidden thousand-year-old culture.
Feature Film
PBS Premiere: Dec. 13, 2001
What is it really like to live in Jerusalem? Promises offers touching and fresh insight into the Middle East conflict through the eyes of seven Palestinian and Israeli children.
Feature Film
PBS Premiere: Aug. 29, 2006
The term "working poor" should be an oxymoron. For 30 million Americans, it's reality. Waging a Living chronicles the day-to-day battles of four low-wage earners.
Feature Film
PBS Premiere: May 23, 2016
In 2012, California amended its "Three Strikes" law, shortening the sentences of thousands of "lifers." See this unprecedented reform through the eyes of those on the front lines — prisoners suddenly freed, families turned upside down and attorneys and judges wrestling with an untested law. A co-production of American Documentary | POV and ITVS. A co-presentation with the National Black Programming Consortium (NBPC). Official Selection of the 2016 Tribeca Film Festival.