We just applied for a Youtopia Grant, which is a grant that is open to both socially-responsible business and non-profit organizations, providing up to $30,000 worth of Free Range's design and/or strategic services. The twist? Unlike most grants, this one is being crowd sourced! Votes decide the top 50 finalists, and then Free Range picks the 2 winners. What do you say? Want to head over to their site and vote for POV?
POV will be airing Food Inc. in 2010, and the idea we proposed for the Youtopia Grant is to create an interactive feature called "What Are You Bringing to the Table?"
Read more after the jump.
In 1990, my last name — the prosaic-in-China but seemingly obscure-in-America "Xu" — was the 10,540th most common name in America. In 2000, my last name had made an incredible leap — it climbed more than 7,000 spots to become the 2,701st most common name in America. What a difference a decade makes! How common is your last name? And has it moved up or down according to the census? Find out in POV's 
If you missed the first two POV films of this season, Jennifer Maytorena Taylor's 
Filmmaker and POV alum Joanna Rudnick writes in with an update about the ACLU's recent lawsuit against Myriad Genetics, which challenges Myriad's patent on the breast cancer genes.
Coverage of the fantastic Kim Longinotto (
Freelance writer Amanda Hirsch, former editorial director of PBS Interactive, blogs about documentaries and the Web in her column, Outside the Frame. 
POV alum Sam Kauffman, whose thoughtful and provocative short film, 
Filmmaker Alex Rivera's first feature documentary, 
We are so excited to announce that we've been nominated for a 2009 Webby Award in the Movies and Film category! We're also thrilled to have been nominated alongside stellar sites for Coraline, Pangea Day, IFC and Sundance. Check out the 
Helene Klodawsky: In 2006, while editing Family Motel (an alternative fiction film on a Somali refugee family's journey into homelessness), I heard about a new project being developed by Instinct Films, a Montreal company. Writer Harold Crooks and researcher Terri Foxman — both of whom I hold in high esteem — were working closely with producer Ina Fichman on her idea about the global spread of shopping malls. I read the preliminary research and became very intrigued. Malls seemed such a potent symbol of how people imagine the "good life." Now that this "dream" is being spread around the globe, there was much to question, both culturally and environmentally. The original research contained lots of gems. For example, I was fascinated by the story of Jon Jerde, one of the most celebrated and gifted retail architects in the world, who couldn't stop saying how much he hated shopping. I read about 
So it turns out, to the surprise of very few people, that Man on Wire IS the 
Another member of the POV family, filmmaker Megan Mylan, took home the best documentary short prize last night for her film, Smile Pinki. Along with Jon Shenk, Megan directed 
Yung Chang's 
Man on Wire is about Philippe Petit's high-wire routine between the two towers of the World Trade Center in 1974. Petit planned the stunt for month, figuring out how to bypass security, and then smuggle and rig the cable between the towers. Through interviews with Petit himself and his accomplices, Marsh paints an exhilarating portrait of Petit's zeal, idealism and mischief. The New York Times called the film "
Maybe on some level, I was looking for insight into what almost every one of my friends is going through. Yes: one by one I've seen them marching off into mommyhood, and in some cases, I'm still waiting for them to return. In other cases — thank God — mommyhood turned out to be a place where non-moms like myself are welcome. 
When 
Monika never knew her father and grew up believing that he had died during the war. But when she was 11 years old, her mother, in a moment of anger, said "You are like your father and you will die like him!" Monika was stunned; as she learned more about her father, she was horrified by his legacy. Amon Goeth is the Nazi commander of the Plaszow concentration camp (portrayed by Ralph Fiennes in Schindler's List) who oversaw the death of thousands of Jews.
Helen Jonas was 15 years old when she arrived with other Jews at the Plaszow camp in Poland, which was both a work camp and a death camp. One day, an imposing SS officer pointed at her and ordered, "I want her in my house." That officer was Amon Goeth. Helen lived in the basement of the "beautiful villa" that he had built for himself and his wife. She worked as a house servant for Goeth, who would beat her while hurling vulgar invectives. She witnessed innumerable acts of murder and brutality. Her mother, her boyfriend, and thousands of others died in Plaszow.
It's almost the end of the year, which means that film award season is in full swing. The 
Loree asks: You must have made a deep emotional connection with all the people in your movie for them to be so honest. How does that affect you after the film is finished?
Margo asks: What can I and others really do to help change this antiquated system we call health care?
Joshua Casteel is a conscientious objector who was raised as a deeply religious, highly engaged Evangelical Christian. He asks, "When are there situations in which loyalty to a nation-state comes into conflict with loyalty to the kingdom of god?"
Lt. Col. Pete Kilner is a West Point professor of ethics, and a former infantry commander. He has studied the morality of killing, but for him, "The million people who are out defending our country fighting our wars, and the millions who have done it throughout history are not immoral people. No one likes to kill — no healthy person. . . . It may be nasty, it may be unpleasant, but the alternative's worse."
With 
When Yu Shui gets upset on her last night at home because she has to quit school to work on the cruise boat, her mother tells her the heartbreaking truth that she doesn't want to hear: "We don't even have enough to eat! Where can we find the money for rent? You should consider that your parents' lives are not easy... In this world, it's not like any parent wants to exploit their child for labor."
Chen Bo Yu takes a very different attitude about money. After working on the boat for awhile, he points out, "I earn the most [in my family] ... so I'm very very happy! Make more money ... is my dream."
For filmmaker Yung Chang, the different strata of Chinese society was one of the inspirations for the film. He says, "[I wanted to make] a movie about tourists on this Yangtze cruise boat — a kind of 'Gosford Park' idea that shows the social hierarchy, the lives above and below the decks. I realized that the people working on the boat were all from the Yangtze area and that many of their families were affected by the dam."
Susan Dentzer, the editor of Health Affairs journal and the host of NewsHour's 
"It's your money or your life," Carlos Benitez says during the film. Carlos is an uninsured chef at a French restarurant. He has had a severe back deformity that has caused him 15 years of unbearable pain and taken seven inches off his height. Unable to afford a surgical procedure or the time away from work, Carlos resigns himself to a life of pain.
Dr. Patrick Dowling is the Chief of the Department of Family Medicine at UCLA. After meeting Carlos at a local health fair, Dr. Dowling arranges for a private orthopedic hospital and a team of surgeons to waive their $300,000 fees for Carlos's operation. Dr. Dowling is "very pleased that we could help this one individual out," but laments that "we can't do endless surgery on uninsured patients; it begs a national solution." 
Karen Dove's deteriorating health forces her to quit her job as an apartment manager; she loses her health insurance as a result. She begins to have severe, recurring abdominal pains, but the doctors she contacts refuses to treat uninsured patients. A year later, after she finally finds a gynecologic oncologist willing to treat her, she is diagnosed with Stage 3 ovarian cancer, which is almost always fatal. Karen says, "It shouldn't matter if you got a $20,000-a-year job, your life is just as important as somebody else's that makes a lot of money." Unfortunately, her story, as well as the stories of Joe, Hector and Carlos, make it clear that being uninsured in America when you're sick makes life extremely difficult, if not impossible.
One of the women Joanna meets is Linda Pedraza of Boston, who was ten when her mom died of ovarian cancer. Linda was diagnosed with ovarian cancer at age 42, and she tested positive for BRCA. In the film, Linda is undergoing another round of treatment for metastatic breast cancer. She tells Joanna, "In spite of how awful it is to feel less than female, being alive is what matters. In retrospect... I would have had all those surgeries. It may not be the ideal life that you want, but it's life."
Poet Martha Haley of Chicago is a three-time breast cancer survivor and founder of Celebrating Life, a breast cancer support group for African-American women. She confronts head-on the fact that black women are much less likely to get genetic testing for BRCA, not only because of disparities in wealth and health care, but also because of the distrust many African Americans feel toward the medical establishment. Martha speaks out, urging women to get tested. "When you get diagnosed with breast cancer and you are part of a poverty-stricken community, it can be like, 'Why should I even bother?' I want to address that," she says.
Joanna herself is struggling with her relationship with her boyfriend Jimmy and trying to navigate how the mutation affects her life, her future and her health. How long can she wait before taking action? At the same time, Joanna visits Myriad Genetics, who own the patent for the BRCA gene, to try to understand how a corporation can patent a gene.
When Chicago filmmaker Joanna Rudnick tested positive for the "breast cancer gene" at age 27, she set out to make 
Armando, the family bookwork (and filmmaker Renee Tajima-Peña's husband), is anxious to find out what happened to Pedro Peña, Rosa's first husband, who disappeared decades ago. Was Pedro swept up in the notorious 1954 government deportation program, "Operation Wetback"? And what happens when Armando gets confronted with the possibility that Pedro wasn't his birth father?
Filmmaker Evangeline Griego says, "The joke in the editing room was that this is a movie where every man cries. It's so poignant when they each talk about how they knew or didn't know how to be fathers, and they said things that not a lot of men would cop to...for me, this film is about masculinity, about family, about fatherhood."
Renee talked about the unique experience of filming her own husband and family in her POV 
And Evangeline chimed in with her observations:
Filmmaker Jamie Stobie says, "We want viewers to ask questions like, 'How do I get that?' and to seek out more information about particular technologies. There are tools out there that can really make a difference in people's lives."
Elizabeth Farnsworth, along with Patricio Lanfranco, directed 
For Judge Juan Guzmán, a man who says that his investigations "opened the eyes of my soul," there is one clear choice: "A wounded country needs to know the truth."
Patricio Lanfranco says: "One of the hopes I had for the film was to encourage the same kind of transformation in Chilean society. The Pinochet regime was a huge mistake that we committed as a society, and it is important for Chileans to see the truth and make sure this situation could never happen again."
Because my previous doc list — 
While we see Pushkin fighting against the totalitarian system in Belarusian Waltz, we also seehis cruelty to his ex-girlfriend, and his abandonment of his daughter. Is it possible to reconcile the brave artist with the man who seems indifferent to the hurt he has caused to his ex-girlfriend and daughter?
Filmmaker Fidyk says "Pushkin is a complicated man. On the one hand, he is a hero, fighting for freedom in Belarus. On the other hand, he is not as good a person as everyone wants him to be...He has destroyed his former lover, and he doesn't feel sorry for her at all. He never wanted to meet his daughter and acts like his daughter doesn't exist. That scene reveals that as a man, he turned out to be a different person than he was as a political hero."
Ido Haar is the director of 
Yama-San's wife, Sayuri, objects to the role that she has to take in the campaign. She is told that she must refer to herself as a "housewife" instead of a "wife" to appeal to the conservative supporters of the LDP. Do you think Sayuri was right to be upset? What roles do candidates' spouses play in the American political process?
Filmmaker Kazuhiro Soda is also mystified by parts of the American political process. He says that in Japan, "election law prohibits candidates from spending too much money," and he feels uneasy because in America, "only people who are rich can be elected." Do you agree with him? Should American politics have more restrictive laws on how much money candidates can spend on their campaigns?
John Valadez, along with Cristina Ibarra, is the co-director of 
Katy Chevigny is the director of 
Filmmaker Katy Chevigny says that the American election system can often fall short and fail its voters. She says that "improving our election system is not going to happen on its own; people would need to get involved to reform the system so that everyone gets an opportunity for their vote to be counted." Do you think the American election system needs to be reformed?
In New York City, ex-felon Leon Batts has just regained the right to vote. He sees his vote as one representing all ex-convicts denied the right to vote, despite having served their time. But voting turns out to be harder than anticipated for Leon. States differ on whether ex-felons can vote. Do you think that ex-felons should be granted the right to vote across the country?
In POV's roundtable discussion, 
Tom DeWolf is filmmaker Katrina Browne's cousin and the author of Inheriting the Trade, the unique story of his experiences during the making of 
When Katrina Browne discovered that her New England ancestors were the largest slave-trading family in U.S. history, she embarked on a journey with nine fellow descendants to retrace the Triangle Trade, from Rhode Island to Ghana to Cuba and back. They uncover the vast extent of Northern complicity in slavery while also stumbling through the minefield of contemporary race relations. 
Eric Daniel Metzgar, along with Nell Carden Grey, directed 
First, to 
Finally, seminal documentarian Errol Morris has been all over the internet. As his film about Abu Ghraib and photography, 
We were excited to find out this morning that we've been nominated for a Webby Award! POV's website was nominated in the Movies and Film category — winners will be announced on May 6 and honored at a ceremony in New York on June 10. In the meantime, if you'd like, you can show your support by voting for POV in the 
Howard Rheingold
Blue Vinyl
New Hampshire Primary 2008
For documentary filmmakers, having a film selected for the prestigious documentary competition or the world cinema documentary competition is an exciting opportunity to showcase their work to a film-loving audience. Here's a roundup of interviews with some of the documentary filmmakers at Sundance '08. Stayed tuned to the POV Blog for more coverage from Park City and exclusive interviews from the festival.
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Beyond the Multiplex: The Year's Best Docs
Chuck Close — painter, photographer, printmaker — is the subject of a new documentary film by Marion Cajori, Chuck Close: An Elegant Portrait of the Art World's Leading Portraitist. Previously, Ms. Cajori had made a short film that aired on PBS in 1998 called Chuck Close: A Portrait in Progress. The new feature-length film, which is an expansion of the earlier short, focuses on Close's laborious artistic process and his artist friends — including Phillip Glass, Robert Rauschenberg and Kiki Smith — many of whom have also served as his subjects. The film was the last work by Cajori, who died in 2006. Variety calls Chuck Close a "
Half-kidding but half-serious, many of our filmmakers cry, "Don't do it!" and burst into laughter. Ross McElwee, the filmmaker behind Sherman's March and 
What's in a name? Alan Berliner — whose films, including Nobody's Business and Wide Awake, have always focused on his own family and identity — tackles the subject of his own name in 
Amazon.com's 
To the cinephile, the Criterion Collection's stamp of approval carries far greater weight than an Academy Award. The collection is a series of important classic and contemporary films on DVD. Each film chosen for inclusion is remastered and lovingly packaged with special extra features into a beautiful collector's item. 
Andy Blubaugh: The Internet is a crucial tool for independent filmmakers. I use my website to promote my work to people who have never seen my films before, to provide background information to people who might want to cover me in their newspaper or blog, and to connect with people who want to continue the conversation I am trying to spark in my filmmaking.
MIT academic Henry Jenkins weighs in
Academy Award-winning filmmaker Freida Lee Mock returns to POV on December 12th with her new film 
Independent Lens' 
For two decades, POV has been the beacon for the independent documentary spirit. This event will explore how the series has nurtured personal storytelling with three filmmakers who embody the independent vision, Ralph Arlyck, Alan Berliner, and Anne Makepeace. Each filmmaker will screen clips from their work and will be joined by executives from POV to discuss how the series and the independent documentary have evolved over twenty years. 
