Parents' Choice logoWe were excited to find out that POV Interactive has been named a Parents’ Choice Recommended award winner. We’ve always known that POV is a great resource for kids who want to learn more about a particular subject through our documentaries and our website, but it’s always nice to get a pat on the back, especially from the nation’s oldest non-profit guide to quality children’s media!

Part of the Parents’ Choice Foundation‘s mission is to provide parents with the tools to help children learn outside the classroom. Awards are given out in categories like books, DVDs and toys, and each winner receives a full write-up so parents can figure out why the material might be of interest to their kids. Parents’ Choice says that our site is “…the best of documentary form, delivered in an interactive frame, direct to your nearest computer.” Aw, shucks. Thanks, guys!

Here are some special features on the POV website that might be of particular interest to young people:

Campaign (POV 2008) takes a look at democracy — Japanese style. What happens when a man is plucked from obscurity by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party of Japan to run for a critical seat on a suburban city council? Watch this funny and eye-opening film in its entirety online.
Screenshot of POV's 'Election Day' website

POV’s Election Day website

Do you have a question about U.S. election law? In 2008, POV aired Election Day, which takes a look at the street-level experience of voters in America today. Check out our Voting FAQ, where an expert answered questions about what you can do if you suspect your vote isn’t being counted, how to become a poll watcher, and more.
Think you know all about immigration? Are immigrants dramatically less educated than native-born Americans? Does immigration cause unemployment to increase? In conjunction with 2007’s Made in L.A., POV took a look at some of the most repeated myths about immigration and delved deeper to discover the realities underlying the immigration debate in Immigrations: Myths and Realities.

Make your own music video! In 2007, POV aired Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars, and we teamed up with video-mixing website Eyespot.com so that our users could mix and mash footage from the film and the All Stars’ music. The resulting videos look great, and you can still show us what you’ve got by making your own music video today!

Tintin and I, a 2006 POV film, focused on Belgian cartoonist Hergé, whose “Tintin” books are beloved by children all over the world. We asked six contemporary comic artists to talk to us about why comics get no respect, how to adapt comics to the movie screen, and more. Check out the responses from Daniel Clowes, Chris Ware, Phoebe Gloeckner, Jason Lutes, Seth and Jessica Abel in On Cartooning.
In addition to those features, we’ve got a lot more content for kids, parents and teachers. So sit back, let your mouse do the walking, and browse through the POV website for more recommended materials!

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Former POVer Ruiyan Xu worked on developing and producing materials for POV's website. Before coming to POV, she worked in the Interactive and Broadband department at Channel Thirteen/WNET. Ruiyan was born in Shanghai and graduated from Brown University with a B.A. in Modern Culture and Media.