POV airs new independent documentaries on Monday nights during the summer and fall. Dates and times below reflect the national PBS broadcast and online streaming schedules.
Homegoings
by Christine Turner
Broadcast: Monday, June 24, 2013 at 10:00 PM (60 minutes)
Through the eyes of Harlem funeral director Isaiah Owens, the beauty and grace of African-American funerals are brought to life. Homegoings paints a portrait of grieving families and a man who sends loved ones "home."
Watch trailerSpecial Flight
by Fernand Melgar
Broadcast: Monday, July 1, 2013 at 10:00 PM (60 minutes)
The plight of undocumented immigrants at a detention center in Geneva, Switzerland, points up contradictions between compassionate social policies and intractable immigration laws.
Herman's House
by Angad Singh Bhalla
Broadcast: Monday, July 8, 2013 at 10:00 PM (90 minutes)
Herman Wallace has spent more than 40 years in a 6’ x 9’ prison cell. He works with artist Jackie Sumell to imagine his "dream home," questioning justice and punishment in America.
Only the Young
by Jason Tippet and Elizabeth Mims
Broadcast: Monday, July 15, 2013 at 10:00 PM (70 minutes)
Three teens in a Southern California town wrestle with questions of love and friendship along with adult realities of financial uncertainty.
xoxosms
by Nancy Schwartzman
Broadcast: Monday, July 15, 2013 at 10:00 PM (14 minutes)
The modern-day love story of a guy from small-town Illinois who reaches out to a beautiful New York City art student from Korea. They meet in the only place that such different people might ever find each other—online.
High Tech, Low Life
by Stephen Maing
Broadcast: Monday, July 22, 2013 at 10:00 PM (90 minutes)
High Tech, Low Life follows two of China’s first citizen-reporters, bloggers who are fighting censorship to document the underside of the country’s rapid economic development.
Neurotypical
by Adam Larsen
Broadcast: Monday, July 29, 2013 at 10:00 PM (60 minutes)
A 4-year-old, a teenager and an adult, all on the autism spectrum and at pivotal moments in their lives, work with their perceptual and behavioral differences in a "neurotypical" world.
Last Train Home
by Lixin Fan
Broadcast: Monday, August 5, 2013 at 10:00 PM (90 minutes)This is an encore broadcast.*
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.
Read the full film description »
* Note: Not all PBS stations choose to rebroadcast encore presentations. Please check local listings to see whether this show will be airing.
Remind meThe City Dark
by Ian Cheney
Broadcast: Monday, August 12, 2013 at 10:00 PM (60 minutes)This is an encore broadcast.*
Is darkness becoming extinct? Exploring the physical and psychological effects of light pollution, The City Dark is a portrait of the world after dusk, and a meditation on the human relationship to the stars.
Read the full film description »
* Note: Not all PBS stations choose to rebroadcast encore presentations. Please check local listings to see whether this show will be airing.
The Law in These Parts
by Ra'anan Alexandrowicz and Liran Atzmor
Broadcast: Monday, August 19, 2013 at 10:00 PM (90 minutes)
For the first time, Israeli military and legal professionals who devised the legal framework behind the occupation are interviewed about this system, which mirrors the country’s toughest moral quandaries.
5 Broken Cameras
by Emad Burnat and Guy Davidi
Broadcast: Monday, August 26, 2013 at 10:00 PM (90 minutes)
Oscar®nominee 5 Broken Cameras depicts life in a West Bank village where a security fence is being built. The film was shot by a Palestinian and co-directed by an Israeli.
Ping Pong
by Hugh Hartford and Anson Hartford
Broadcast: Monday, September 9, 2013 at 10:00 PM (60 minutes)
Eight players with 703 years between them compete in the Over 80 World Table Tennis Championships. Ping Pong is a meditation on mortality and a joyous tribute to the human spirit.
The World Before Her
by Nisha Pahuja
Broadcast: Monday, September 16, 2013 at 10:00 PM (60 minutes)
The World Before Her is a tale of two Indias: In one, a small-town girl competes in the Miss India pageant. In the other, a militant woman leads a fundamentalist Hindu camp for girls.
Best Kept Secret
by Samantha Buck
Broadcast: Monday, September 23, 2013 at 10:00 PM (90 minutes)
A Newark, N.J. public high school teacher races against the clock to find a place in the world for her students with autism before they graduate and "age out" of a unique and caring support system.
Brooklyn Castle
by Katie Dellamaggiore
Broadcast: Monday, October 7, 2013 at 10:00 PM (90 minutes)
Brooklyn public school I.S. 318, serving mostly minority students from working-class families, has won more than 30 national chess championships, the country’s best record.
56 Up
by Michael Apted
Broadcast: Monday, October 14, 2013 at 10:00 PM (140 minutes)
In 1964 a group of 7-year-old children were interviewed for the groundbreaking documentary Seven Up. Michael Apted has been back to film them every seven years since. Now they are 56.
American Promise
by Joe Brewster and Michèle Stephenson
Broadcast: TBD
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.
StoryCorps Special
by Mike Rauch and Tim Rauch
Broadcast: TBD
Celebrate the transformative power of listening with this animated special from the oral history project StoryCorps, which captures intimate conversations among everyday people.
Past Programs
Girl Model
by A. Sabin and David Redmon
Broadcast: Sunday, March 24, 2013 at 10:00 PM (90 minutes)
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.
Reportero
by Bernardo Ruiz
Broadcast: Monday, January 7, 2013 at 10:00 PM (60 minutes)
A veteran reporter and his colleagues at an independent newsweekly defy powerful drug cartels and corrupt officials to continue publishing the news.
Nostalgia for the Light
by Patricio Guzmán
Broadcast: Thursday, October 25, 2012 at 10:00 PM (90 minutes)
In the Atacama Desert, earthly and celestial quests meld. Archaeologists dig for ancient civilizations, women search for their loved ones and astronomers scan the skies for new galaxies.
Sun Kissed
by Maya Stark and Adi Lavy
Broadcast: Thursday, October 18, 2012 at 10:00 PM (60 minutes)
When a Navajo couple uncovers a hidden link between their children’s rare genetic disorder and the American government’s conquest of their tribe, their lives are changed forever.
If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front
by Marshall Curry
Broadcast: Thursday, October 11, 2012 at 10:00 PM (90 minutes)This is an encore broadcast.*
This provocative film lifts the veil on a radical environmental group that the FBI calls America’s "number one domestic terrorism threat."
Read the full film description »
* Note: Not all PBS stations choose to rebroadcast encore presentations. Please check local listings to see whether this show will be airing.
Give Up Tomorrow
by Michael Collins and Marty Syjuco
Broadcast: Thursday, October 4, 2012 at 10:00 PM (90 minutes)
A riveting exposé of corruption and injustice in the Philippines, chronicling a sensational murder case that ends a nation’s use of capital punishment — but fails to free an innocent man.
El Velador (The Night Watchman)
by Natalia Almada
Broadcast: Thursday, September 27, 2012 at 10:00 PM (60 minutes)
From dusk to dawn, a guard watches over the extravagant mausoleums of some of Mexico’s most notorious drug lords.
I'm Carolyn Parker: The Good, the Mad, and the Beautiful
by Jonathan Demme
Broadcast: Thursday, September 20, 2012 at 10:00 PM (90 minutes)
Jonathan Demme’s portrait of post-Katrina New Orleans tells the story of Carolyn Parker, a lifelong resident of the Lower Ninth Ward, who is fighting for the right to rebuild her home and community.
Kings of Pastry
by Chris Hegedus and D A Pennebaker
Broadcast: Thursday, September 13, 2012 at 10:00 PM (90 minutes)This is an encore broadcast.*
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.
Read the full film description »
* Note: Not all PBS stations choose to rebroadcast encore presentations. Please check local listings to see whether this show will be airing.
Where Soldiers Come From
by Heather Courtney
Broadcast: Thursday, September 6, 2012 at 10:00 PM (90 minutes)This is an encore broadcast.*
From a snowy town in northern Michigan to the mountains of Afghanistan, follow the four-year journey of childhood friends who join the National Guard.
Read the full film description »
* Note: Not all PBS stations choose to rebroadcast encore presentations. Please check local listings to see whether this show will be airing.
Better This World
by Kelly Duane de la Vega and Katie Galloway
Broadcast: Thursday, August 30, 2012 at 10:00 PM (90 minutes)This is an encore broadcast.*
The story of two men who were accused of intending to firebomb the 2008 Republican National Convention, is a dramatic tale of idealism, loyalty, crime and betrayal.
Read the full film description »
* Note: Not all PBS stations choose to rebroadcast encore presentations. Please check local listings to see whether this show will be airing.
Presumed Guilty
by Roberto Hernández, Layda Negrete and Geoffrey Smith
Broadcast: Thursday, August 23, 2012 at 10:00 PM (60 minutes)This is an encore broadcast.*
Imagine being picked up off the street, told you have committed a murder you know nothing about and then finding yourself sentenced to 20 years in jail. Watch now »
Read the full film description »
* Note: Not all PBS stations choose to rebroadcast encore presentations. Please check local listings to see whether this show will be airing.
Steam of Life
by Joonas Berghäll and Mika Hotakainen
Broadcast: Thursday, August 16, 2012 at 10:00 PM (60 minutes)This is an encore broadcast.*
In Finland, the sauna is a national obsession - a place to come together and sweat out not only the grime of contemporary life, but also grief, hopes, joys and memories.
Read the full film description »
* Note: Not all PBS stations choose to rebroadcast encore presentations. Please check local listings to see whether this show will be airing.
POV Short Cuts
by Various Filmmakers
Broadcast: Thursday, August 9, 2012 at 10:00 PM (60 minutes)
Short is sweet as POV presents brief documentary encounters — the Academy Award-nominated The Barber of Birmingham, the Student Academy Award winner Sin País, and the return of StoryCorps.
Up Heartbreak Hill
by Erica Scharf
Broadcast: Thursday, July 26, 2012 at 10:00 PM (60 minutes)
Up Heartbreak Hill follows two Native teens torn between the lure of opportunities outside their remote reservation community and the cultural ties that bind them to home.
The Light in Her Eyes
by Julia Meltzer and Laura Nix
Broadcast: Thursday, July 19, 2012 at 10:00 PM (60 minutes)
Houda al-Habash, a conservative woman preacher in Damascus, Syria, calls girls to the practice of Islam, teaching them that pursuing their ambitions is a way of worshipping God.
Guilty Pleasures
by Julie Moggan
Broadcast: Thursday, July 12, 2012 at 10:00 PM (60 minutes)
Five heroes, four continents, one dream of true love. Because real life begins where romance novels end.
Granito: How to Nail a Dictator
by Pamela Yates, Paco de Onís and Peter Kinoy
Broadcast: Thursday, June 28, 2012 at 10:00 PM (90 minutes)
The extraordinary story of how a film, aiding a new generation of human rights activists, became a granito — a tiny grain of sand — that helped tip the scales of justice.
My Reincarnation
by Jennifer Fox
Broadcast: Thursday, June 21, 2012 at 10:00 PM (90 minutes)
As Chögyal Namkhai Norbu rises as a Buddhist teacher in the West, his son Yeshi, recognized as the reincarnation of a Buddhist master, breaks away to embrace the modern world.
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