To make Election Day, filmmaker Katy Chevigny fielded 14 crews to capture the action on November 2, 2004, all over the country. Election Day is as fast-paced and suspenseful as a thriller, with vote counts and political activism substituting for shootouts and car chases. The heroes of the day are ordinary Americans determined to vote,
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POV 2008 Preview: ‘In the Family’
On October 7, 2008, POV will air Joanna Rudnick‘s In the Family. When Joanna tested positive for the “breast cancer gene” at age 27, she knew the information could save her life. She also knew that she would have to make heart-wrenching decisions about whether or not to remove her breasts and ovaries, or risk
Continue reading this entry »Raising Voter Rights Awareness around ‘Election Day’ and APA Heritage Month
Irene Villaseñor is POV’s Youth Views manager. Youth Views is a project that works with youth, educators, and youth-serving organizations to use POV films as a tool for youth engagement. Irene writes in today to talk about how communities can organize around the 2008 POV film Election Day to reduce voter disenfranchisement, and her own
Continue reading this entry »Why Vote? 2008: Tell Us What Issues Matter Most to You
Did you know that Earth Day was first officially observed throughout the United States in 1970? Thanks to Senator Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin, more than 20 million Americans organized massive rallies and demonstrations for a healthier, sustainable environment, protesting against massive oil spills, industrial pollution, and the loss of wilderness areas in what would become
Continue reading this entry »POV Flashback: An Update to ‘Street Fight’
One of the things that always strikes me as I watch documentaries is that the stories don’t end as the credits start to roll. After they’ve given us a glimpse into their lives, documentary subjects go on living, usually out of the spotlight — and we, the viewers who have come to care about them,
Continue reading this entry »2008 POV Preview: ‘Election Day’
Now that it’s mid-April, we’re finally beginning to get a taste of spring here in New York. And that means that summer — and POV’s 21st season — are just around the corner. Today we’re taking a sneak peek at Election Day, which will have its broadcast premiere on Tuesday, July 1 at 10 PM
Continue reading this entry »A Night at the Museum: ‘Campaign’ Plays at MoMA, With a Surprise Guest
Cathy Fisher, POV’s senior manager of communications, attended a screening of the upcoming POV film Campaign at The Museum of Modern Art in New York City this past week. She writes in to tell us about her night. “People only listen to you for three seconds, so make sure you mention the candidate’s name in
Continue reading this entry »Doc Roundup: March 6, 2008
IN THEATERS From The Unforeseen Laura Dunn‘s The Unforeseen, executive produced by Terrence Malick and Robert Redford, tells the story of massive real estate developments near Austin, Texas and their impact on the environment. The film, called “part straight-ahead land-war documentary and part elegiac contemplation of the earth and what humans do to it” by
Continue reading this entry »From the Archives: Documentaries for Women’s History Month
March is National Women’s History Month, so why not curl up with some films from the POV archives that celebrate amazing, courageous women from around the country? The women showcased in these three POV films — an African-American Congresswoman running for president; a Christian teenager from Lubbock, Texas; and an Asian-American architect — are very
Continue reading this entry »What We’re Watching, What We’re Reading: Week of February 29, 2008
Watching Henry Louis Gates, Jr. hosts African American Lives 2 on PBS. Reading The Color of PoliticsNew Yorker article about Cory Booker, a “mayor of the post-racial generation” and the history of Newark politics. Variety reports that Agnes Varda is working on a new “autobiographical docu feature”, Les Places d’Agnes, that will be ready for
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