POV airs new independent documentaries on Thursday nights during the summer and fall. Dates and times below reflect the national PBS broadcast and online streaming schedules.
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.
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Remind mePOV 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 — including an Academy Award nominee, a Student Academy Award winner and the return of StoryCorps.
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.
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* 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 »
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* 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.
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* 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.
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* Note: Not all PBS stations choose to rebroadcast encore presentations. Please check local listings to see whether this show will be airing.
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.
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* Note: Not all PBS stations choose to rebroadcast encore presentations. Please check local listings to see whether this show will be airing.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Girl Model
by A. Sabin and David Redmon
Broadcast: Winter Special Presentation
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.
Past Programs
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.
The City Dark
by Ian Cheney
Broadcast: Thursday, July 5, 2012 at 10:00 PM (60 minutes)
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.
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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