We were thrilled to wake up to the news that POV has received a record 10 nominations for the 30th Annual News and Documentary Emmy Awards! We’re also excited to hear that PBS received 41 nominations, more than any other network. Congratulations to all our filmmakers and all the nominated programs! The nominated films from […]

Kieran Fitzgerald is the director of The Ballad of Esequiel Hernández. After the film aired on July 8, viewers wrote in with questions for Kieran on the POV Blog. Read on as he answers questions about the equipment used in making the film, the decision to include President George W. Bush in the story and […]

Kieran Fitzgerald was only 17 years old in 1997 when a team of Marines shot and killed an innocent American citizen on the Texas-Mexico border. The film, narrated by Tommy Lee Jones, recounts the shooting and killing of a young American named Esequiel Hernández in 1997 by U.S. Marines patrolling the border as part of […]

The Ballad of Esequiel Hernández tells a frightening and cautionary tale about the dangers of using military as domestic law enforcement — a role that the military, under the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878, had been prohibited from taking. In 1997, U.S. Marines patrolling the Texas-Mexican border as part of the U.S. war on drugs […]

We’re preparing for another great season here at POV — and now, we’re less than two months away from the first broadcast of the summer. Today, we’re taking a sneak peek at The Ballad of Esequiel Hernández by Kieran Fitzgerald. In 1997, U.S. Marines patrolling the Texas-Mexico border as part of the War on Drugs […]