Downloads: Media Alert
For Immediate Release
New York, NY — Jan. 24, 2012 — Two films presented on PBS’s POV (Point of View) series have received Academy Award® nominations, it was announced today by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Marshall Curry’s If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front, which premiered on POV in 2011, is nominated for Best Documentary (Feature), and Robin Fryday and Gail Dolgin’s The Barber of Birmingham: Foot Soldier of the Civil Rights Movement, premiering on POV in 2012, is nominated for Best Documentary (Short Subject). Celebrating its 25th season on PBS in June 2012, POV is American television’s longest-running independent documentary showcase.
The 84th Academy Awards for outstanding film achievements of 2011 will be presented on Sunday, Feb. 26, 2012, at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center, and televised live by the ABC Television Network. The Oscar® presentation also will be televised live in more than 225 countries worldwide.
If a Tree Falls explores two of America’s most pressing issues — environmentalism and terrorism — by lifting the veil on a radical environmental group the FBI calls America’s “No. 1 domestic terrorism threat.” Former Earth Liberation Front member Daniel McGowan faces life in prison for two multimillion-dollar arsons in Oregon. What turned this working-class kid from Queens into an eco-warrior? Director Marshall Curry (previously nominated for an Oscar for Street Fight, POV 2005) tells the provocative story. A co-production of ITVS, If a Tree Falls won the Best Documentary Editing Award at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival. Curry returns to POV on Tuesday, Feb. 23 with the award-winning Racing Dreams, a look at three young race car drivers with dreams of NASCAR careers.
Credits: Marshall Curry — Director, Producer, Editor, Writer; Sam Cullman — Co-director, Producer, Cinematographer; Steve Bannatyne — Executive Producer; Simon Kilmurry — Executive Producer for POV; Sally Jo Fifer — Executive Producer for ITVS; Nick Fraser — Executive Producer for the BBC.
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In The Barber of Birmingham, James Armstrong experiences the fulfillment of an unimaginable dream: the election of the first African-American president. This colorful and courageous activist of the Civil Rights era casts his vote, celebrates Obama’s victory and proudly unfurls the American flag as he is inducted into the Foot Soldiers Hall of Fame. The film was an Official Selection of the 2011 Sundance Film Festival.
Credits: Gail Dolgin, Robin Fryday — Directors; Gail Dolgin, Robin Fryday, Judith Helfand — Producers; Chicken & Egg Pictures, Julie Parker Benello, Wendy Ettinger, Judith Helfand — Executive Producers.
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POV films have won three Academy Awards, 27 Emmy Awards (including a Special News & Documentary Emmy for Excellence in Television Documentary Filmmaking), 13 George Foster Peabody Awards, 10 duPont-Columbia Awards, the Prix Italia, the Webby, two Independent Documentary Association IDA Awards for Best Continuing Series and the National Association of Latino Independent Producers’ Award for Corporate Commitment to Diversity. POV credits: Simon Kilmurry — Executive Producer; Cynthia López —Co-Executive Producer; Chris White — Vice President, Programming and Production; Yance Ford — Series Producer; Andrew Catauro — Coordinating Producer.
About POV
Produced by American Documentary, Inc. and beginning its 25th season on PBS in 2012, the award-winning POV is the longest-running showcase on American television to feature the work of today’s best independent documentary filmmakers. POV has brought more than 300 acclaimed documentaries to millions nationwide and has a Webby Award-winning online series, POV’s Borders. Since 1988, POV has pioneered the art of presentation and outreach using independent nonfiction media to build new communities in conversation about today’s most pressing social issues. Visit www.pbs.org/pov.
Major funding for POV is provided by PBS, The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, The Educational Foundation of America, New York State Council on the Arts, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, FACT and public television viewers. Special support provided by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Funding for POV’s Diverse Voices Project is provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Project VoiceScape is a partnership of Adobe Youth Voices, PBS and POV. POV is presented by a consortium of public television stations, including KQED San Francisco, WGBH Boston and THIRTEEN in association with WNET.ORG.
Contacts:
POV Communications: 212-989-7425.
Emergency contact: 646-729-4748
Cathy Fisher, cfisher@pov.org
Cynthia López, clopez@pov.org
POV online pressroom: www.pbs.org/pov/pressroom
