Downloads: Press Release
Acclaimed Documentaries Include ‘Big Men,’ ‘Koch’ and Special Fall Presentation of Academy Award® Nominee ‘The Act of Killing’
New York, NY, March 26, 2014 – POV (Point of View), American television’s longest-running independent documentary series, recently announced the first part of its 27th season on PBS (June 23-Aug. 18, 2014). Today, POV unveils the second part of its regular season, Aug. 25-Sept. 22, along with a special broadcast of the Academy Award®-nominated The Act of Killing in fall 2014 (date/time to be announced). POV airs Mondays at 10 p.m. on PBS (check local listings).
The regularly scheduled films are Big Men, a tour of the high-powered world of African oil deals that The New York Times described as “astonishing”; After Tiller, which goes inside the lives of physicians providing late abortions; The Genius of Marian, where a family confronts early-onset Alzheimer’s; and Koch, about the New York mayor people loved and loathed–often in equal measure–the one and only Ed Koch. In the fall, POV presents the most honored documentary of 2013, The Act of Killing, in which Indonesian paramilitary leaders are challenged to dramatize their roles in genocide, resulting in a shocking cinematic fever dream that goes deep into the imaginations of mass murderers.
POV 2014 Schedule, August 25-Fall 2014
(Programs air Mondays at 10 p.m.; check local listings):
Aug. 25 – Big Men by Rachel Boynton
Over five years, director Rachel Boynton and her cinematographer film the quest for oil in Ghana by Dallas-based Kosmos. The company develops the country’s first commercial oil field, yet its success is quickly compromised by political intrigue and accusations of corruption. As Ghanaians wait to reap the benefits of oil, the filmmakers discover violent resistance down the coast in the Niger Delta, where poor Nigerians have yet to prosper from decades-old oil fields. Big Men, executive produced by Brad Pitt, provides an unprecedented inside look at the global deal making and dark underside of energy development–a contest for money and power that is reshaping the world. Official Selection of the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival.
Sept. 1 – After Tiller by Martha Shane and Lana Wilson
After Tiller is a deeply humanizing and probing portrait of the four doctors in the United States still openly performing third-trimester abortions in the wake of the 2009 assassination of Dr. George Tiller in Wichita, Kansas–and in the face of intense protest from abortion opponents. It is also an examination of the desperate reasons women seek late abortions. Rather than offering solutions, After Tiller presents the complexities of these women’s difficult decisions and the compassion and ethical dilemmas of the doctors and staff who fear for their own lives as they treat their patients. Official Selection of the 2013 Sundance Film Festival.
Sept. 8 – The Genius of Marian by Banker White and Anna Fitch
The Genius of Marian is a visually rich, emotionally complex story about one family’s struggle to come to terms with Alzheimer’s disease. After Pam White is diagnosed at age 61 with early-onset Alzheimer’s, life begins to change, slowly but irrevocably, for Pam and everyone around her. Her husband grapples with his role as it evolves from primary partner to primary caregiver. Pam’s adult children find ways to show their love and support while mourning the gradual loss of their mother. Her eldest son, Banker, records their conversations, allowing Pam to share memories of childhood and of her mother, the renowned painter Marian Williams Steele, who had Alzheimer’s herself and died in 2001.
POV is preempted on Sept. 15 and returns the following week.
Sept. 22 – Koch by Neil Barsky
New York City mayors have a world stage on which to strut, and they have made legendary use of it. Yet few have matched the bravado, combativeness and egocentricity that Ed Koch brought to the office during his three terms from 1978 to 1989. As Neil Barsky’s Koch recounts, Koch was more than the blunt, funny man New Yorkers either loved or hated. Elected in the 1970s during the city’s fiscal crisis, he was a new Democrat for the dawning Reagan era–fiscally conservative and socially liberal. Koch finds the former mayor politically active to the end (he died in 2013)–still winning the affection of many New Yorkers while driving others to distraction.
In fall 2014 POV presents a special broadcast (date and time to be announced):
The Act of Killing by Joshua Oppenheimer
Nominated for an Academy Award®, The Act of Killing is as dreamlike and terrifying as anything that Werner Herzog (one of the executive producers) could imagine. This film explores a horrifying era in Indonesian history and provides a window into modern Indonesia, where corruption reigns. Not only is the 1965 murder of an estimated one million people honored as a patriotic act, but the killers remain in power. In a mind-bending twist, death-squad leaders dramatize their brutal deeds in the style of the American westerns, musicals and gangster movies they love–and play both themselves and their victims. As their heroic facade crumbles, they come to question what they’ve done. Winner, 2014 BAFTA Film Award, Best Documentary.
(All programs air Mondays at 10 p.m.; check local listings.)
June 23 When I Walk
June 30 American Revolutionary: The Evolution of Grace Lee Boggs
July 7 My Way to Olympia
July 14 Getting Back to Abnormal
July 21 Dance for Me
July 28 Fallen City
Aug. 4 15 to Life: Kenneth’s Story
Aug. 11 Neurotypical (Encore)
Aug. 18 A World Not Ours
Aug. 25 Big Men
Sept. 1 After Tiller
Sept. 8 The Genius of Marian
Sept. 22 Koch
Fall 2014 (Date/time TBA) The Act of Killing
Media Partner: WNYC
WNYC is the most listened-to public radio station in the United States, reaching more than one million New York City-area terrestrial radio listeners a week, and almost 2 million online listeners each month. WNYC produces award-winning local programs including The Brian Lehrer Show and The Leonard Lopate Show, and nationally distributed shows including Radiolab, On the Media and Freakonomics Radio. WNYC also provides New Yorkers with the best programming from NPR, Public Radio International, American Public Media and the BBC. For more information, visit www.wnyc.org.
POV
Produced by American Documentary, Inc. and beginning its 27th season on PBS in 2014, 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 365 acclaimed documentaries to millions nationwide. Its films have won 32 Emmys,
15 George Foster Peabody Awards, 12 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Awards, three Academy Awards® and the Prix Italia. 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.
POV Community Engagement and Education(www.pbs.org/pov/outreach)
POV’s Community Engagement and Education team works with educators, community organizations and PBS stations to present more than 650 free screenings every year. In addition, we distribute free discussion guides and standards-aligned lesson plans for each of our films. With our community partners, we inspire dialogue around the most important social issues of our time.
POV Digital (www.pbs.org/pov)
Since 1994, POV Digital has driven new storytelling initiatives and interactive production for POV. The department created PBS’s first program website and its first web-based documentary (POV’s Borders) and has won major awards, including a Webby Award (and six nominations) and an Online News Association Award. POV Digital continues to explore the future of independent nonfiction media through its digital productions and the POV Hackathon lab, where media makers and technologists collaborate to reinvent storytelling forms. @povdocs on Twitter.
American Documentary, Inc.(www.amdoc.org)
American Documentary, Inc. (AmDoc) is a multimedia company dedicated to creating, identifying and presenting contemporary stories that express opinions and perspectives rarely featured in mainstream media outlets. AmDoc is a catalyst for public culture, developing collaborative strategic engagement activities around socially relevant content on television, online and in community settings. These activities are designed to trigger action, from dialogue and feedback to educational opportunities and community participation.
Major funding for POV is provided by PBS, Corporation for Public Broadcasting, The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, the Wyncote Foundation, Ann Tenenbaum and Thomas H. Lee, The Educational Foundation of America and public television viewers. Special support provided by The Fledgling Fund. POV is presented by a consortium of public television stations, including KQED San Francisco, WGBH Boston and THIRTEEN in association with WNET.ORG.
