Downloads: Press Release
POV (Point of View), American television’s longest-running independent documentary series, has acquired the U.S. broadcast rights to award-winning filmmakers David Osit and Malika Zouhali-Worrall’s Thank You for Playing, a co-production of ITVS. The film makes its World Premiere on Friday, April 17 at the Tribeca Film Festival, where the filmmakers will also speak on a Tribeca Talks panel, The Beauty of Angst on Saturday, April 18. The film will have its national broadcast premiere during POV’s 2016-2017 season on PBS.
Thank You for Playing tells the story of Ryan Green, an independent video game developer who is building an unusually poetic game about his terminally ill son, Joel. Following Ryan’s family through the creation of the game and the day-to-day realities of Joel’s treatment, the film is a moving testimony to the empathetic power of art, examining how we process grief through technology in the 21st century and the implications of documenting profound human experiences in a new artistic medium: the video game. Excerpts of the game “That Dragon, Cancer” will be available to play as part of Tribeca’s Interactive Playground on Saturday, April 18.
“David and Malika’s talent for crafting dynamic stories is clearly evident in their moving portrait of a father and son,” said POV Executive Producer Simon Kilmurry. “We couldn’t be more proud to bring Thank You for Playing to public television viewers on POV.”
David Osit’s first feature documentary, Building Babel, is a recipient of ITVS Open Call funding and was broadcast as the Season Two premiere of WORLD Channel’s America Reframed series in 2013. In addition, he was co-producer and composer for Where Heaven Meets Hell (IDFA), which won Best Feature Documentary at the 2012 Hawaii International Film Festival and opened the 2013 season of WORLD Channel’s Global Voices. He is also the editor of Live From New York!, the opening-night film at the 2015 Tribeca Film Festival. Malika Zouhali-Worrall is one of the directors and the producer of Call Me Kuchu, which premiered at the Berlin Film Festival in 2012 and was released theatrically in North America and Europe. The film has won 19 awards, including Berlin’s Teddy Award for Best Documentary. Malika is a Chaz and Roger Ebert Directing Fellow and an alumnus of the Film Independent Doc Lab, the Tribeca All Access program, the Firelight Producers’ Lab and the Garrett Scott Documentary Grant. In 2012, Filmmaker magazine named her one of its 25 New Faces of Independent Film.
Thank You for Playing Credits:
Directors/Screenwriters/Producers/Editors: David Osit and Malika Zouhali-Worrall
Cinematographer: David Osit
Executive Producers: Sally Jo Fifer; Simon Kilmurry
Composer: David Osit;
Consulting Editor: Eric Daniel Metzgar
POV kicks off its 28th season on PBS on Monday, June 22, 2015 at 10 p.m. (check local listings) with Out in the Night by blair dorosh-walther.
Produced by American Documentary, Inc., 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 380 acclaimed documentaries to millions nationwide. POV films have won every major film and broadcasting award, including 33 Emmys, 17 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.
Major funding for POV is provided by PBS, The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and National Endowment for the Arts. Additional funding comes from Nancy Blachman and David desJardins, Bertha Foundation, The Fledgling Fund, Marguerite Casey Foundation, Ettinger Foundation, New York State Council on the Arts, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, Ann Tenenbaum and Thomas H. Lee, and public television viewers. 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. Alternate contact: 206-790-8697.
Cathy Fisher, cfisher@pov.org; Brian Geldin bgeldin@pov.org
POV online pressroom: www.pbs.org/pov/pressroom
