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Think you know about the people who square dance? Think again. Not So Square follows as community of dancers who realize that square dance is a fading art form.
Four Filipino women leave their families and schools to teach in the U.S. The women bring idealistic visions of the teacher’s craft and of American life.
Biblioburro: The Donkey Library
Colombian grade-school teacher Luis Soriano brings books, via two hard-working donkeys, to the children of Magdalena Province’s poor and violence-ridden interior.
Sweetgrass follows the last modern-day cowboys to lead their flocks of sheep up into the breathtaking and often dangerous mountains for summer pasture.
Pastry chefs whip up the most gravity-defying concoctions and edge-of-your-seat drama as they deliver their desserts for the Meilleurs Ouvriers de France competition.
David Wilson offers a glimpse into the world of competitive birdwatching, as three friends attempt to see as many species as possible in 24 hours.
The story of a long-distance relationship with a man whose profession - plastic surgery - gives the woman plenty of fodder.
Made in collaboration with documentary filmmaker Michael Angus, SALT is the film extension of Murray Fredericks’ photography at the desolate yet beautiful Lake Eyre.
This is the story of a man and his records. Paul Mawhinney has amassed what has become the world's largest record collection.
Charles Curtis Blackwell, a semi-blind artist, lost most of his eyesight in an accident during his youth, but this adversity has only heightened his artistic gifts.
Filmmakers Tina DiFeliciantonio and Jane Wagner talk about their collaborative process and DiFeliciantonio's first film, Living With AIDS, which premiered on POV in 1988.
In this delightful memoir, the award-winning French filmmaker employs all the magic of cinema to juxtapose the real and the imagined, the past and the present, pain and joy.
Shot over 11 years by renowned fashion photographer Steven Sebring, this is an intimate portrait of the legendary rocker, poet and artist Patti Smith.
Ella Es el Matador (She Is the Matador)
Two women matadors in Spain have a passion for bullfighting and are determined to pursue their dreams. What is it like for women to enter into this male-dominated arena?
When a guitarist suffers a brain hemorrhage onstage, doctors doubt he will emerge from a coma. The story of a family's astonishing struggle in the face of tragedy.
Filmmaker Stewart Copeland explores his relationship with his late mother and the distance spaces between memory and history. (Short film shown with Bronx Princess.)
"Ars Magna," which means "great art" in Latin, is an anagram of the word "anagrams." This Emmy-nominated short enters the obsessive and fascinating world of anagrams. (8 minutes)
The story of Alexander Pushkin, whose audacious, comical exploits against totalitarianism find him facing the hostility of the police and the consternation of his family.
Johnny Cash: The Man, His World, His Music
Fresh on the heels of his Folsom Prison album, Cash revealed the dark intensity and raw talent that made him a country music star and cultural icon.
In Japan, baseball is not a pastime — it's an obsession epitomized by the national high school baseball tournament known simply as "Koshien."
Renowned sculptor John Houser has a dream: to build the world's tallest bronze equestrian statue for the city of El Paso, Texas.
The proud Mexican tradition of corrido music provides both heartbeat and backbone to this rich examination of songs, drugs and dreams along the U.S./Mexico border.
Tony Kushner, whose epochal Angels in America begins a revival run in New York this week, is one of the country's leading playwrights — and one of its fiercest moral critics.
Global Recordings Network (GRN), founded in Los Angeles in 1939, has produced audio versions of Bible stories in over 5,500 languages. GRN aims to record in every language on earth. They distribute the recordings, along with ultra-low-tech hand-wind players, in isolated regions and among displaced migrant workers. GRN calls their target audience "the tailenders" because they are the last to be reached by worldwide evangelism.
Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars
Traumatized by physical injuries and brutal losses in Sierra Leone's civil war, a group of refugees fight back with the only means they have — music.
Alan Lomax was "the song hunter," devoting his life to recording the world's folk tunes before they would permanently disappear with the rise of the modern music industry.
Why does the comic strip The Adventures of Tintin, about an intrepid boy reporter, continue to fascinate us decades after its publication? "Tintin and I" highlights the potent social and political underpinnings that give Tintin's world such depth, and delves into the mind of Hergé, Tintin's work-obsessed Belgian creator, to reveal the creation and development of Tintin.
The Hobart Shakespeareans discovers how one teacher's uncommon commitment and resourcefulness have opened up worlds of opportunity for his "disadvantaged" students — and perhaps have demonstrated a way forward for America's beleaguered public education system.
A Vietnam veteran who has suffered a stroke tries to recapture his war experience for his children through photography and moving images.
Reclusive janitor by day, visionary artist by night, outsider artist Henry Darger moved through life virtually unnoticed. But after his death, a treasure trove was discovered in his one-room Chicago apartment: a staggering 15,000-page novel and hundreds of illustrations that continue to inspire artists around the world.
P.O.V. brings back the cult favorite Wattstax, the 1973 documentary directed by Mel Stuart. In August 1972, seven years after the Watts riots, the legendary Stax recording label staged a benefit concert in Los Angeles for 90,000 people. As time went by, it became known as the Black Woodstock.
Trapped in a failing marriage, demolition-derby driver Ed "Speedo" Jager channels life's frustrations onto the track, hoping to parlay his talents into a "real" racing career.
What I Want My Words To Do To You
What I Want My Words To Do To You focuses on a writing group led by playwright and activist Eve Ensler at the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility. Ensler's classes have given birth to a powerful writing community in which women from strikingly different strata of society, all of whom are serving long sentences, help each other tell their stories.
Few American icons are as well known for their popular kitsch as the hula dance. From old Hollywood movies to entertainment for tourists, the hip-swaying girls in grass skirts and colorful lei have long masked an ancient cultural tradition.
When the Khmer Rouge took over Cambodia in 1975, Arn Chorn-Pond was nine years old. He was separated from his family and thrust into the darkness of Cambodia's ghastly Killing Fields for four years. Now, after living in the U.S. for 20 years, Arn returns to Cambodia to save its once outlawed traditional music from extinction.
Ninety-one year old Howard 'Louie Bluie' Armstrong has two great loves: his music and artist Barbara Ward. Their stories are captured in Mahan's engaging film.
These women want to play professional football. Make that full contact, NFL-style, smash-mouth football.
This riveting film takes us through KPFA's passionate 50-year history, including its founding by pacifists and poets, through its defiance of Cold War conformity, to the present day challenges that confront this on-going experiment in democratic media.
Tejana singer Selena was on the brink of blockbuster crossover fame when her murder at age 23 catapulted her into mainstream celebrity. Filmmaker Lourdes Portillo gazes beyond the tabloids and points a sensitive lens on the cultural sensation that emerged around Selena's life and death.
When filmmaker David Zeiger decides to film his son Danny's high school band for a year, he gets a crash course in love, life and marching in formation. This poignant portrait celebrates the hormones, havoc and hope of the teen years and ultimately allows Zeiger to deepen his connection with one son, while paying tribute to the loss of another.
Obsessively confusing and abusing the lines between life and art, writer-director Henry Jaglom challenges the boundaries of filmmaking and viewer endurance.
The Vietnam War Memorial was one of the most controversial monuments of its time. Thrust in to the eye of the storm was architect-sculptor Maya Lin, whose design for the memorial was chosen when she was a 21-year-old college student. Withstanding bitter attacks, she held her ground with clarity and grace.
A startling expose of General Motors' role in dismantling street car transportation in the 1930's and in catapulting the automobile to the center of our national culture.
Poet, lover, mother, warrior — Audre Lorde wrote passionately of love and anger, civil rights and sexuality, family politics and the glories of nature.
A bowl of soup and the freedom to sing is all Carmen Miranda wanted in life. Helena Solberg's song-filled movie reveals how Hollywood transformed a talented entertainer into a Latin Lollapalooza.
Filmmaker Gaylen Ross takes us inside the virtually impenetrable world of diamond and precious stone trading.
Francis Ford Coppola nearly lost his fortune — and his sanity — making Apocalypse Now. Martin Sheen nearly lost his life. A celebrated behind-the-scenes look at Coppola's struggle to finish his epic film — from cajoling an irascible Marlon Brando to negotiating shots amid hurricanes and a Filipino rebel war.
J.S.G. Boggs makes money the artistic way. He draws it. Then, to complete the process, he spends it. Is it art or is it counterfeit? Inquiring minds — at the Secret Service — want to know.
In tribute to the late Christian Blackwood, a special reprise of one of his most memorable films. Behind the faded signs of three motels in the American Southwest, Blackwood's film reveals entire worlds of passion, loyalty, adventure and fate.
Three American nuns, inspired by the Civil Rights movement and encouraged by the internal reforms of Vatican II, accuse the Catholic Church of racism and sexism. A revealing portrait of a 2,000 year old organization struggling to reconcile authority and conscience, tradition and the need for change.
In 1995, a teenager claimed the heavy metal music of Judas Priest prompted him to attempt suicide. The drama of the ensuing trial provides the framework for David Van Taylor's disturbing look at teenagers today.
From Amos 'n' Andy to Nat King Cole, from Roots to The Cosby Show, blacks have played many roles on primetime television. Brilliantly weaving clips from classic TV shows with commentary from TV producers, black actors and scholars, Marlon Riggs blends humor, insight, and thoughtful analysis to explore the evolution of black/white relations as reflected by America's favorite addiction.
Whether the subject is sex, death, madness or God, The Big Bang never lets up in its weird and wonderful search for the meaning of it all.
Romance novels comprise nearly half the paperback books sold in America. Chiffon-shrouded, jewel-laden, flower-bedecked Barbara Cartland has written hundreds of them. And filmmaker George Csicsery has given his heart to this fascinating subculture where all the women are beautiful, all the men are mysterious and all the endings are happy.
"Plena" is in Puerto Rico what the blues are in the U.S.: a musical expression abounding with romance, daily news and personal sagas. As the Puerto Rican community grows on the mainland, the infectious rhythms of Puerto Rico's most original contribution to Caribbean urban music are celebrated with gusto.
Legendary filmmaker Les Blank's toe-tapping film treats us to a portrait of a musical Louisiana couple committed to celebrating and preserving Cajun culture.
Founded by a Jesuit priest from St. Louis, a grassroots theatre company takes its shows on the unpaved roads of Honduras to enlighten and inspire villagers in the impoverished countryside.
Behind the faded signs of three motels in the American Southwest lay entire worlds of passion, loyalty, adventure and fate. Veteran filmmaker Christian Blackwood winds his way into the soul of remarkable people in uniquely American subculture.
In Going Up, the creation of a skyscraper is transformed by director Gary Pollard into a breathtaking visual experience as time-lapse photography, hard hat banter and construction worker choreography are set to a score by 15 new music composers in an urban ballet forty stories above New York harbor.
Golub is more than a portrait of the socially committed painter Leon Golub, whose massive canvases are intended to provoke viewers. It is about media and contemporary society, social responsibility and creativity, art and information.
With a subway platform as his stage and a plastic can as his instrument, 14-year-old Larry Wright is a self-taught drummer with astonishing talent. Larry Wright is a rousing tribute to the Harlem youth and the rich culture of the urban streets.
In Doug And Mike, Mike And Doug, Cindy Kleine probes the inner and outer lives of identical twins Doug and Mike Starn, whose collaborative painting and photographic work is rapidly gaining acclaim in the art world.
For more than a hundred years cowboys have written with feeling about the life and land they love. Kim Shelton's Cowboy Poets is a fascinating portrait of several contemporary poet lariats who keep that tradition alive — even on the Johnny Carson show.
Whatever Happened to Zworl Quern?
"Zworl Quern" was a stage name for Janet Wolfe, whose brief but bizarre acting career including being sawed in half by Orson Wells. Friends and family tell stories about this irrepressible woman who has fearlessly traveled the world in search of love, art and adventure.
David Sutherland's bold and unconventional film portrait reveals one of America's leading Social Realist painters doing what he does best: skewering corrupt politicians, raging over social injustices, and satirizing the petty foibles of humankind.
Watching The Family Album is like coming across a long-lost box of family photos: it's enchanting, humorous and sometimes even eerie. Director Alan Berliner spent years blending home movies and tape recordings collected from 60 different American families to assemble a composite lifetime which moves from childhood to adulthood, from innocence to experience.
In Wise Guys!, a stamp dealer from Los Angeles, a former school teacher form Miami, a born again Christian from Las Vegas and a whiz kid law student square off in the Jeopardy! $100,000 Tournament of Champions.
A lively portrait of 76-year-old Harold "Louie Bluie" Armstrong, musician, artist, raconteur and rogue.
Rich in humor and regional color, this sometimes hilarious film uses the prism of language to reveal our attitudes about the way other people speak. From Boston Brahmins to Black Louisiana teenagers, from Texas cowboys to New York professionals, American Tongues elicits funny, perceptive, sometimes shocking, and always telling comments on American English in all its diversity.
Explore
Interactive Map: Where are the MOFs?
Explore the whereabouts of the Meilleurs Ouvriers de France ("Best Craftsmen in France") who specialize in pastry making and find out more about their restaurants and backgrounds.
Related Film: Kings of Pastry
Upcoming POV Community Screenings
Need an escape from the holiday stress? Catch a POV film and discussion at one of our last screenings in 2011!
A Recap of the Doc U "Can Your Doc Really Change the World?" Panel at POV
POV recently hosted IDA's Doc U on the Road to examine the question "Can Your Doc Really Change the World?" with a panel of documentary heavyweights.
IDA's Doc U Comes to POV with the Panel "Can Your Documentary Make a Difference?"
POV is proud to welcome the International Documentary Association (IDA)'s Doc U on the Road to Brooklyn on Monday, December 12, 2012.
A Holiday Gift Guide for Documentary Fans and Documentarians
Watch, Make, Learn! This year give the gift of documentaries. For once, we mean it literally!
'Indie Game: The Movie' Rides $100,000 in Kickstarter Donations to Sundance 2012 Premiere
With Sundance's 2012 lineup announced, guest blogger Edward J. Delaney highlights the unconventional approach of one of the selected docs and its filmmakers, Lisanne Pajot and James Swirsky.
On the Road: From Jihlava to Prague
POV Coordinating Producer Andrew Catauro reports on events presented by the Institute of Documentary Film in Jihlava, Czech Republic.