This week, we take a look back at William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe, a look forward to The Beaches of Agnès, and catch up on some news from the documentary world.

William Kunstler

We kicked of the 2010 summer POV season (our 23rd season on PBS!) with William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe on Tuesday night. The film was made by radical attorney William Kunstler‘s daughters, Emily and Sarah Kunstler, and the New Yorker talked to the pair about life with their father and gives us a glimpse of their personal lives. The sisters also took part in a live chat with POV viewers after the East Coast broadcast of the film; you can read the transcript to find out about their thoughts on the Central Park Jogger case, what their favorite things to do with their father were and much more. If you missed the film, you can watch it online from now through September 21.

Coming up next Tuesday on POV is The Beaches of Agnès, a delightful memoir by the award-winning French filmmaker Agnès Varda. The 81-year-old artist is truly an inspiration. In her film she revisits her Belgian youth, her association with the French New Wave, her marriage to director Jacques Demy and the making of her movies. Check out a multimedia timeline of Varda’s (very long) career, watch an interview with Varda herself and don’t forget to tune in next Tuesday. We promise that you’ll be amazed and inspired.



Documentary festival Silverdocs was held this week in Silver Spring, Maryland, and many of the 2010 POV films screening at the festival landed in the news. Popmatters took a look at the festival’s offerings and highlighted Wo Ai Ni Mommy and Presumed Guilty, two films that will air later this summer on POV. The Washington Post also pointed to Wo Ai Ni Mommy as a film worth checking out.

And finally, in a situation that affects the entire documentary filmmaking community, filmmaker Joe Berlinger spoke at a fundraiser for his legal bills this week. Berlinger had made the documentary Crude: The Real Price of Oil, and Chevron sued him to use the outtakes from his film to defend itself against a class action lawsuit. A coalition of filmmakers have united behind Berlinger in his battle against Chevron. Read more about the case at IndieWire.

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Ruiyan Xu
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.