Introduction
Series creator Marc Weiss describes why he created the POV series on PBS, highlighting the difference between journalism and filmmaking and why there is a need for both in society.Watch now »
For over 35 years, Alvarez and Kolker have produced critically praised documentaries for their production companies, Kingfish Productions and The Center for New American Media. (15 minutes) Watch now »
Berliner's uncanny ability to combine experimental cinema, artistic purpose and popular appeal in compelling film essays has made him one of America's most acclaimed independent filmmakers. Berliner talks about his work, the meaning of family and the importance of serendipity. (22 minutes) Watch now »
Their collaboration began at Stanford University's masters film program, where DiFeliciantonio made her directing debut with the student Oscar-winning Living With AIDS, which was one the first films on the subject to be nationally broadcast on PBS in 1988. (15 minutes) Watch now »
This filmmaking team has produced two POV films, including The Education the Shelby Knox (POV 2005) and Live Free or Die (POV 2000). In this interview, the filmmakers talk about feminism and film, their collaborative filmmaking process and share their advice with young filmmakers. Watch now »
Freida Lee Mock is an Academy and Emmy Award-winning filmmaker who won the Oscar for the feature documentary Maya Lin: A Strong Clear Vision, which premiered on POV in 1996. Mock talks about her motivations and her process and what she thinks makes a good character. (14 minutes) Watch now »
Always in pursuit of affirming the image and stories of Hispanic culture, crisis and identity, Lourdes Portillo has made metaphorical and poetic documentaries such as Las Madres, Corpus and Señorita Extraviada (all POV films). Portillo talks about women's stories, Hispanic culture and the influence of documentary. (15 minutes) Watch now »
Emotional and honest, Judith Helfand's documentaries inspire her audiences to get involved with social issues. Helfand discusses her career making and producing films, what inspired her to become a documentary filmmaker and what she finds compelling about telling personal stories on film. (20 minutes) Watch now »
Documentary legend George Stoney talks with one of his collaborators about why he collaborates on docs, what first brought him to the genre, and why he keeps making films. Commonly called a filmmaker activist, Stoney responds to the title as well as the role of the documentary filmmaker in the context of society. (20 minutes) Watch now »
Michael Camerini and Shari Robertson, two documentary filmmakers whose work has shown multiple times on POV, reflect on what first got them into the game, why they enjoy filmmaking, and how they adjust their filmmaking process with each production.(20 minutes) Watch now »
Iconic filmmakers Richard Wormser and Bill Jersey take a look back at their careers as documentarians and the role of the documentarian in society.Watch now »
How have documentaries changed our conception of politics? Throughout its illustrious history POV has been committed to dissecting political issues and illuminating the electoral process. At the Paley Center for Media, filmmakers Marshall Curry, Shola Lynch, Laura Poitras and Marco Williams, along with critic Caryn James, discussed how to cover the politcal system and gain access to it.Watch now »
Louis Alvarez and Andrew Kolker
Season 1 - American Tongues - POV Premiere Episode - July 5, 1988
Season 5 - Louisiana Boys: Raised on Politics - Premiered August 31, 1992
Louis Alvarez and Andrew Kolker won their first Peabody in 1988 for American Tongues, a film about the differences in the way Americans speak and the attitudes people have about regional and social accents. It was the very first film broadcast on POV and since then has become something of a classic. The Washington Post described it as "celebratory and swell, right down to the closing credits" and The Los Angeles Times wrote that "this is the perfect example of a film that begins with a simple-enough subject and expands it seductively - it's enthralling."
In 1993, Alvarez and Kolker received the duPont-Columbia Journalism Award for their documentary Louisiana Boys - Raised on Politics, a rollicking look at Bayou State politics that The Washington Post called "as insightful as it is entertaining... the first documentary within memory to see the American political process for what it really is - cultural anthropology." Louisiana Boys was produced with Paul Stekler and broadcast on POV.
Twice winners of both the Peabody Award and the duPont-Columbia Journalism Award, Alvarez and Kolker have produced critically praised documentaries for their production companies, Kingfish Productions and The Center for New American Media, for over 35 years.
For the past year they have been developing Past/Present, an innovative 3-D history game (formerly known as American Dynasties) to help teach American history to middle schoolers. A detailed prototype has been produced and funds are being sought to bring the game to market.
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Louisiana Boys
Filmmaker Interview: Louis Alvarez and Andrew Kolker
In Louisiana, Mardi gras and elections run neck and neck as the number one pastime. Louisiana Boys: Raised on Politics presents a cast of characters only the Bayou State could produce: Huey P. Long, his excellency, the dictator of Louisiana; Uncle Earl K. Long, committed to an asylum while he was still governor; and Jimmie Davis singing his farewell speech to the state legislature. Filmmakers Louis Alvarez and Andrew Kolker talk about Louisiana politics, their hopes for the film and the state of documentary filmmaking in the early 1990s in this 1992 Behind the Lens interview. (6 minutes) Watch now »
American Tongues
Rich in humor and regional color, this 1998 classic is 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. (60 minutes) Watch now »
For more about Alvarez and Kolker, including a list of all of their films, visit their website at www.cnam.com.
Freida Lee Mock
Season 8 - Maya Lin: A Strong, Clear Vision
1995 Academy Award for Best Documentary
Premiered on POV: November 27, 1996
Season 21 - Wrestling with Angels: Playwright Tony Kushner
Premiered on POV: December 12, 2007
Freida Lee Mock is an Academy and Emmy Award-winning filmmaker who won the Oscar for the feature documentary Maya Lin: A Strong Clear Vision, which premiered on POV in 1996. Her next feature documentary, Wrestling with Angels: Playwright Tony Kushner, premiered on POV in 2007. Her new film is Return with Honor, about American fighter pilots surviving as POWs in North Vietnam for almost nine years. The film was presented theatrically by Tom Hanks and Playtone after its Sundance premiere. She has been nominated for an Oscar for the short documentaries Sing!, Rose Kennedy: A Life to Remember, Never Give Up and To Live or Let Die.
Mock graduated with a degree in history from the University of California at Berkeley and attended UC Berkeley's Hastings College of Law. She lives in Santa Monica, California.
In this Behind the Lens episode, Mock talks about her motivations and her process as a filmmaker, what she thinks makes a good character and the evolution of the documentary genre.
RELATED VIDEO
Wrestling with Angels: Tony Kushner
Filmmaker Interview: Freida Lee Mock (2007)
Tony Kushner, whose epochal Angels in America, which won a Pulitzer Prize and a Tony Award, is one of the country's leading playwrights -- and one of its fiercest moral critics. Director Freida Lee Mock followed Kushner for three tumultuous years, from September 11, 2001, up to the 2004 presidential election, to delve into the passions that keep him reaching for the great American play. In this interview, Mock talks about why she decided to film Kushner and what she learned from his writing, lectures and life. (11 minutes) Watch now »
Maya Lin: A Strong Clear Vision
Filmmaker Interview: Freida Lee Mock (1996)
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. In this interview recorded in 1996, Mock talks about her portrait of an artist dealing with war and history, and how she feels art has the power to heal. (12 minutes) Watch now »
For more about Freida Lee Mock, including a list of all of their films, view her filmography.
Tina DiFeliciantonio and Jane C. Wagner
Season 1 - Living With AIDS
1988 Student Academy Award for Best Documentary
Premiered on POV: July 19, 1988
Season 9 - Girls Like Us
Premiered on POV: July 22, 1997
Season 10 - Two or Three Things But Nothing For Sure
Premiered on POV: August 4, 1998
From cinema vérité to impressionistic documentaries, Tina DiFeliciantonio and Jane C. Wagner's critically acclaimed work has been screened and broadcast in countries throughout the world.
Their collaboration began at Stanford University's masters film program, where DiFeliciantonio made her directing debut with the student Oscar-winning Living With AIDS, which was one of the first films on the subject to be nationally broadcast on PBS. Since then, Wagner and DiFeliciantonio have tackled a wide range of subjects -- such as sustainable energy, teenage sexuality, child abuse, war time rape, LGBT civil rights, social justice, art and science -- garnering dozens of top honors, including two National Emmy Awards and the Sundance Grand Jury Prize for Best Documentary.
RELATED VIDEO
Two or Three Things But Nothing For Sure
Filmmaker Interview: Tina DiFeliciantonio and Jane C. Wagner (1998)
Wagner and DiFeliciantonio talk about Two or Three Things But Nothing For Sure, their short film about Dorothy Allison which premiered on POV in 1998 as part of the She Shorts series. Allison is a writer from Greenville, NC. Her first book "Bastard Out of Carolina" was a finalist for the 1992 National Book Award. The filmmakers talk about how her writing inspired them to make the film. (7 minutes) Watch now »
For a complete list of all of their films, visit the Naked Eye Productions website.
Marion Lipshutz and Rose Rosenblatt
Season 12 - Live Free or Die
Premiered on POV: September 26, 2000
Season 19 - The Education of Shelby Knox
Premiered on POV: June 21, 2005
Marion Lipschutz and Rose Rosenblatt are filmmaking partners whose films include The Education the Shelby Knox (POV 2005), about a Baptist Texas teenager fighting for comprehensive sex education in her school, and Live Free or Die (POV 2000), the story of Wayne Goldner, a New Hampshire doctor who was banned from teaching in his children's schools because he provides abortions. They have also produced Fatherhood USA, a PBS miniseries exploring contemporary fatherhood, and The Abortion Pill, about the history and controversy over the French drug RU486. In this interview, the filmmakers talk about feminism and film, their collaborative filmmaking process and share their advice with young filmmakers.
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Live Free or Die
Filmmaker Interview: Marion Lipshutz and Rose Rosenblatt (2000)
Live Free or Die follows the story of a doctor who provides abortions as his standard OB-GYN practice and the controversy it incites in a small New Hampshire town. Lipschutz and Rosenblatt describe how their film portrays American free speech and democracy, and how it can inspire or discourage courage and fear in a community. (3 minutes) Watch now »
The Education of Shelby Knox
Filmmaker Interview: Rose Rosenblatt and Marion Lipshutz (2005)
Rosenblatt and Lipschutz talk about their experience making The Education of Shelby Knox, and about what they themselves learned through the process. (2 minutes) Watch now »
Alan Berliner
Season 2 - The Family Album
Premiered on POV: July 30, 1989
Season 5 - Intimate Stranger
Premiered on POV: June 22, 1992
Season 10 - Nobody's Business
Premiered on POV: June 3, 1997
Season 14 - The Sweetest Sound
Premiered on POV: June 26, 2001
Alan Berliner's uncanny ability to combine experimental cinema, artistic purpose and popular appeal in compelling film essays has made him one of America's most acclaimed independent filmmakers. His award-winning documentary films, Nobody's Business, Intimate Stranger, and The Family Album (all featured on POV) have been broadcast all over the world and have been honored at top international film festivals. In this interview, Berliner talks with POV Series Producer Yance Ford about the meaning of family, and the importance of collage and serendipity in his work.
RELATED VIDEO
The Sweetest Sound
Filmmaker Interview: Alan Berliner (2001)
In his film, The Sweetest Sound, Alan Berliner investigates the meaning of names in relation to our identity and those around us. Berliner talks about the making of the film and what inspired him to use his own name as a working example of the relationship between a person's identity and their name. (1 minute) Watch now »
The Sweetest Sound
What's in a name? Names are the opening words to our life stories. With intimacy, humor and his own inimitable style, Alan Berliner dives headfirst into the American name pool in search of the treasures and traps hidden in names -- especially his own. (60 minutes) Watch now »
Lourdes Portillo
Season 1 - Las Madres: The Mothers of Plaza de Mayo
Premiered on POV: August 2, 1988
Season 12 - Corpus: A Home Movie for Selena
Premiered on POV: July 13, 1999
Season 15 - Señorita Extraviada
Premiered on POV: August 20, 2002
Always in pursuit of affirming the image and stories of Hispanic culture, crisis and identity, Lourdes Portillo has made metaphorical and poetic documentaries such as Las Madres: The Mothers of Plaza de Mayo, Corpus: A Home Movie for Selena, and Señorita Extraviada (all featured on POV). In this 2010 interview, Portillo sits down with POV Series Producer Yance Ford to discuss the filmmaking and storytelling process as well as common subjects in Portillo's work such as the stories of women, the equitable affirmation of Hispanic culture and the influence of documentary films.
RELATED VIDEO
Corpus: A Home Movie For Selena
Filmmaker Interview: Lourdes Portillo (1999)
Lourdes Portillo explains the the cultural significance and legacy of Selena. (3 minutes) Watch now »
Señorita Extraviada
Filmmaker Interview: Lourdes Portillo (2002)
In this 2002 interview, filmmaker Lourdes Portillo describes the fear and silence she encountered during the making of Señorita Extraviada. (1 minute) Watch now »
Judith Helfand
Season 8 - The Uprising of '34
Premiered on POV: June 25, 1995
Season 10 - A Healthy Baby Girl
Premiered on POV: June 17, 1997
Emotional and honest, Judith Helfand's documentaries inspire her audiences to get involved with social issues. Two of her documentaries The Uprising of '34 and A Healthy Baby Girl were featured on POV and received critical acclaim. In this exclusive interview, Helfand sits down with POV Series Producer Yance Ford to discuss her career making and producing films, what inspired her to become a documentary filmmaker and what she finds compelling about telling personal stories on film.
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The Uprising of '34
Filmmaker Interview: George Stoney and Judith Helfand (2002)
Producer George Stoney and filmmaker Judith Helfand explain that getting their subjects to talk about the events of 1934 was their biggest challenge in making the film. (1 minute) Watch now »
George Stoney
Season 8 - The Uprising of '34
Premiered on POV: June 25, 1995
Documentary legend George Stoney talks with one of his collaborators about why he collaborates on docs, what first brought him to the genre, and why he keeps making films. Commonly called a filmmaker activist, Stoney responds to the title as well as the role of the documentary filmmaker in the context of society.
Michael Camerini and Shari Robertson
Season 3 - Kamala And Raji
Premiered on POV: August 7, 1990
Season 13 - Well-Founded Fear
Premiered on POV: August 7, 1990
Michael Camerini and Shari Robertson, two documentary filmmakers whose work has shown multiple times on POV, reflect on what first got them into the game, why they enjoy filmmaking, and how they adjust their filmmaking process with each production.
Marc Weiss
Series creator Marc Weiss describes why he created the POV series on PBS, highlighting the difference between journalism and filmmaking and why there is a need for both in society.
Richard Wormser and Bill Jersey
Season 2 - The Fighting Ministers
Premiered on POV: September 3, 1989
Iconic filmmakers Richard Wormser and Bill Jersey take a look back at their careers as documentarians and the role of the documentarian in society.