Spring is in the air and summer is fast approaching, but you can count on it being a good season for documentary film all year-round at POV! Our new season launches on Monday, May 23, 2016 with The Return on PBS and a new a set of POV documentaries to stream at pov.org/video and the POV channel on your PBS app.
In addition to the 50+ short and feature films already streaming now, 21 feature films will be added to the collection on Monday, include a large collection of documentaries directed by female filmmakers. Here’s a preview:
Classic Documentaries From Women Make Movies
A Healthy Baby Girl (1997)
Battling personal grief, corporate power, and her mother’s guilt, Helfand turns the camera on herself and her family to document her battle with DES-related cancer.
Streaming May 23 – July 21, 2016
Ella es El Matador (2009)
Two women matadors in Spain have a passion for bullfighting and are determined to pursue their dreams. What is it like for women to enter into this male-dominated arena?
Streaming May 23 – July 21, 2016
Georgie Girl (2003)
What are the chances that a former prostitute could be elected a Member of the Parliament of New Zealand by a conservative, rural district? What if that person was also transgender? The odds may seem daunting, but Georgina Beyer did it.
Streaming May 23 – July 21, 2016
Love and Diane (2004)
Love & Diane is a frank and astonishingly intimate real-life drama of a mother and daughter desperate for love and forgiveness, but caught in a devastating cycle. During the 1980s, a crack cocaine epidemic ravaged and impoverished many inner city neighborhoods. As parents like Diane succumbed to addiction, a generation of children like Love entered the foster care system. Shot over ten years, the film centers on Love and Diane after the family is reunited and is struggling to reconnect.
Streaming May 23 – July 21, 2016
Even More Films by Women from POV’s Archive
15 to Life (2014)
Does sentencing a teenager to life without parole serve society? Following a Florida man who received four life sentences at age 15, this eye-opening film reveals a justice system that routinely condemns young Americans to die in prison.
Streaming May 23 – June 21, 2016
After Tiller (2014) Emmy winner!
Since the assassination of Dr. George Tiller in 2009, only four doctors in the country openly provide late abortions. With unprecedented access, After Tiller goes inside the lives of these physicians working at the center of the storm.
Streaming May 23 – June 21, 2016
Big Men (2014) Emmy nominee!
Big Men, executive produced by Brad Pitt, goes to Ghana to provide an unprecedented look at the global deal making and dark underside of oil development — a contest for money and power that is reshaping the world.
Streaming May 23 – June 21, 2016
Guilty Pleasures (2012)
Five heroes, four continents, one dream of true love. Because real life begins where romance novels end.
Streaming May 23 – June 14, 2016
My Reincarnation (2012)
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.
Streaming May 23 – June 14, 2016
Neuland (2015)
One teacher prepares his students for their new life in Switzerland as they struggle to learn a new language, prepare themselves for employment and reveal their innermost hopes and dreams.
Streaming May 23 – June 21, 2016
Out in the Night (2015)
A moving account of four women sensationalized by the media as a “Gang of Killer Lesbians” reveals the role that race, gender identity and sexuality play in our criminal justice system. A co-production of ITVS. A co-presentation with the National Black Programming Consortium (NBPC).
Streaming May 23 – June 20, 2016
Tea Time (2015)
A charming and poignant look at how a seemingly mundane routine of tea and pastries has helped five Chilean women commemorate life’s joys and cope with infidelity, illness and death. A co-production of ITVS International. A co-presentation with Latino Public Broadcasting.Official Selection of the 2014 International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam.
Streaming May 23 – June 21, 2016
Tough Love (2015)
Having lost custody of their children to Child Protective Services, two parents fight to win back the trust of the courts and reunite their families. A co-production of ITVS. A co-presentation with the Center for Asian American Media (CAAM).
Streaming May 23 – June 20, 2016
Recent Award-Winners from the Middle East
5 Broken Cameras (2013)
Oscar® nominee 5 Broken Cameras depicts life in a West Bank village where a security fence is being built. The film was shot by a Palestinian and co-directed by an Israeli. 2013 International Emmy Award for Best Documentary.
Streaming May 23 – June 21, 2016
The Law in These Parts (2013)
For the first time, Israeli military and legal professionals who devised the legal framework behind the occupation are interviewed about this system, which mirrors the country’s toughest moral quandaries. Winner, World Cinema Jury Prize: Documentary, 2012 Sundance Film Festival.
Streaming May 23 – June 14, 2016
Point and Shoot (2015)
In 2006, Matt VanDyke left his home in search of a “crash course in manhood” and ended up amidst a revolution in the Middle East. Winner, Best Documentary Feature Award, 2014 Tribeca Film Festival.
Streaming May 23 – June 21, 2016
Return to Homs (2015) Sundance winner!
A look behind the barricades of the besieged Syrian city of Homs, where, for 19-year-old Basset and his ragtag group of comrades, the audacious hope of revolution is crumbling like the buildings around them. Winner of the first George Polk Documentary Film Award.
Streaming May 23 – June 21, 2016
A World Not Ours (2014)
A passionate, bittersweet account of one family’s multi-generational experience living as permanent refugees at Ain el-Helweh refugee camp in southern Lebanon.
Streaming May 23 – June 21, 2016
Also Streaming…
Beats of Antonov (2015)
Sudanese civilians facing government bombing campaigns celebrate their heritage through music, finding hope and a common identity. Winner, Grolsch People’s Choice Documentary Award, 2014 Toronto International Film Festival.
Streaming May 23 – through June 21, 2016
Special Flight (2013)
The plight of undocumented immigrants at a detention center in Geneva, Switzerland, points up contradictions between compassionate social policies and intractable immigration laws.
Streaming May 23, 2016 – June 21, 2016
The Storm Makers (2015)
An eye-opening look at the cycle of poverty, despair and greed that fuels human trafficking in Cambodia.
Streaming May 23 – June 21, 2016
Note: POV’s license agreements may limit availability of films outside the United States.
See the full list of what’s streaming at any time at pov.org/video or on the POV channel in your PBS app.
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