Downloads: Press Release
Eight Collaborative Projects Aim to Reinvent the Way Nonfiction Stories Unfold Online
POV (Point of View), PBS’ award-winning independent documentary series currently in its 25th season, is challenging eight teams of filmmakers and developers to “hack” their projects at POV Hackathon 2, a workshop taking place Saturday-Sunday, Jan. 12-13, 2013 in Brooklyn, N.Y. The two-day event is an opportunity for filmmakers to work with developers and designers to create unique interactive prototypes — be they mobile sites, apps, widgets, games or something we’ve never seen before — for the Web.
The projects are: Cpm-703; Empire; Faith in the Five Boroughs; The Human Experiment / Stop the Experiment; How to Lose Your Virginity; and The Whiteness Project; plus two projects from POV’s Hackathon 1 — Data Docs and Feed Me a Story — returning to develop new aspects of their storytelling.
Visit www.pbs.org/pov/hackathon/, Facebook and Twitter for live updates.
“At the first POV Hackathon in August 2012, we saw the amazing potential of filmmakers, developers and designers combining their talents and insights,” said Adnaan Wasey, POV’s digital director. “We are organizing this second Hackathon to nurture new partnerships, increasing the capacity for innovation within the documentary world.”
Journalists interested in attending POV Hackathon 2: Please email communications@pov.org.
Location: Huge, Inc. 45 Main Street #220, Brooklyn, NY
Saturday, Jan. 12
9:30-10 a.m. – Check In & Orientation
10-10:30 a.m. – Strategy Session
10:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m. – Hacking!
5:30-6:30p.m. – Show & Tell of Works in Progress
6:30 p.m.-dawn – Hacking!
Sunday, Jan. 13
10-10:30 a.m. – Check-in & Orientation
10:30-11 a.m. – Strategy Session (For participants only)
11 a.m.-6 p.m. – Hacking!
6-7 p.m. – Break and Preparation for Screening
7-11 p.m. – Public Screening & Reception
Hackathon 2 Projects (in alphabetical order):
1.Cpm-703
A Fukushima-born artist journeys into Japan’s nuclear winter, revealing the warmth and strength of survivors coping with the effects of the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami.
2.Data Docs
The Data Docs project aims to spread data literacy by telling short stories about the most important datasets in the world. Each is a meld of linear storytelling and animation with live, evergreen data and choice interactive elements.
3.Empire
Empire consists of five documentary installations that tell stories about people and communities whose lives are still in some ways defined by the Dutch colonial endeavor of the 17th-20th century.
4.Faith in the Five Boroughs
Faith in the Five Boroughs documents the role that faith and religious communities play in the lives of immigrants and their children in New York. documents the role that faith and religious communities play in the lives of immigrants and their children in New York.
5.Feed Me a Story
Feed Me a Story is a transmedia project that encourages the sharing of secret family recipes in a documentary-style food truck, video cookbook and Web application.
6.How to Lose Your Virginity
How to Lose Your Virginity is an eye-opening feature documentary about the
myth and meaning of virginity in American culture. Bridging the chasm
between what we’re told our first times should be – and what they’re really
like – will be a digital crowd-sourced storytelling project.
7.The Human Experiment / Stop the Experiment
The Human Experiment is a documentary about the high-stakes battle to protect our health from the thousands of untested chemicals found in our everyday products. Stop the Experiment is its accompanying mobile app.
8.The Whiteness Project
The Whiteness Project is a cross-platform investigation into how white Americans experience their ethnicity. It will live primarily on the Internet and will also have film and art-installation components.
About POV
Produced by American Documentary, Inc. and celebrating 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 325 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, New York State Council on the Arts, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, the desJardins/Blachman Fund and public television viewers. Funding for POV’s Diverse Voices Project is provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Special support provided by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. POV is presented by a consortium of public television stations, including KQED San Francisco, WGBH Boston and THIRTEEN in association with WNET.ORG.
POV Digital (www.pbs.org/pov)
POV’s award-winning website extends the life of our films online with interactive features, interviews, updates, video and educational content, as well as listings for television broadcasts, community screenings and films available online. The POV Blog is a gathering place for documentary fans and filmmakers to discuss films and get the latest news.
Contacts:
POV Communications: 212-989-7425. Emergency contact: 206-790-8697
Communications@pov.org; Cathy Fisher, cfisher@pov.org; Amanda Nguyen, anguyen@pov.org
POV online pressroom: www.pbs.org/pov/pressroom
