In 2008, POV aired Roger Weisberg‘s Critical Condition, which put a human face on the nation’s growing health care crisis by capturing the harrowing struggles of four critically ill Americans. Viewers were introduced to Joe, Karen, Hector and Carlos, and watched as they discovered that being uninsured could mean losing your job, health, home, savings, […]

Tonight’s Bill Moyers Journal will focus on the health care debate, featuring a substantial portion of POV’s Critical Condition, a documentary by Roger Weisberg, that was originally broadcast last October in the lead up to the 2008 presidential election. (Watch a preview.) Critical Condition follows a group of ordinary hard-working Americans struggling to survive serious […]

Last summer I wrote a post riffing off of a Bill Moyers Journal blog post asking you what one documentary you thought the next president should screen in the White House. Responses included Sicko, An Incovenient Truth and Our Brand is Crisis, among others. Earlier this month, Politico.com offered a glimpse at some of the […]

Last September, POV broadcast Critical Condition, a film by Roger Weisberg about four critically ill Americans and their struggle to survive without health insurance. We chose to air the film shortly before the election because health care reform was such a major issue in the 2008 presidential election. In conjunction with that broadcast, we produced […]

As we prepare to ring in the new year, we thought we’d take this opportunity to look back on the Web features that POV viewers liked most and to create a year-end list of our own. In 2008, the most popular features on the POV website were the ones that followed the characters featured in […]

Roger Weisberg is the director of Critical Condition, which aired on POV on September 30, 2008 and is streaming in its entirety online until November 11, 2008. After the broadcast, many viewers wrote with questions for Roger. Read on for Weisberg’s responses to some of the questions he received. Margo asks: What can I and […]

If you missed the premier of two great P.O.V films this week, you have a chance to watch the full films online! In the Family is streaming online until October 31, 2008 while Critical Condition is streaming until November 11, 2008. Both films document intensely personal journeys and stories, and both are engaged with the […]

In conjunction with the September 30, 2008 broadcast of Critical Condition, POV has partnered with NewsHour to learn more about health care in America, and what presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama are proposing for medical coverage. Susan Dentzer, the editor of Health Affairs journal and the host of NewsHour‘s Rx for Change, answered […]

Joe, Karen, Hector and Carlos are just four of the 47 million Americans who do not have health insurance. Their harrowing stories of battling critical illnesses without health insurance are portrayed in Roger Weisberg‘s film Critical Condition, which dramatizes how being uninsured can cost someone his job, health, home, savings and even his life. Critical […]

Veteran filmmaker Roger Weisberg, who also made the 2006 POV film Waging a Living, turns his lens on uninsured Americans in Critical Condition to give us a powerful, eye-opening look at the health care crisis in America. In an election season in which health care reform has become one of the nation’s most hotly debated […]

With the Oscar deadline for submissions now long passed by (September 2; in order to be eligible, a film had to show for one week in Los Angeles and Manhattan), I figured it’s time to stick my head out the window and check who’s in the running for an Academy Award for this year. I […]

According to a recent poll conducted by the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, Americans say that health care is one of the most important issues in the 2008 presidential election. Roger Weisberg’s film Critical Condition paints a disturbing and gripping portrait of what happens when you’re sick and uninsured in America. As health care becomes […]

Two major festivals have been taking place over the past two weeks, making June a time for a real feast for documentary lovers in the New York and Washington, D.C. areas. The Human Rights Watch International Film Festival runs through June 26 at Lincoln Center. The festival showcases films from the U.S. and around the […]

IN THEATERS Werner Herzog‘s Encounters at the End of the World opened in limited release on June 11. The film follows Herzog’s travels in Antarctica, from the 1,100-person community of McMurdo Station, to the Ross Sea, to the Erebus volcano, capturing as many of nature’s sights as possible. Encounters at the End of the World […]

Roger Weisberg‘s Critical Condition, which airs this fall on POV, answers the question with the stories of four individuals who struggle with health problems without insurance: together with their loved ones, they are forced to confront difficult financial and emotional decisions as they fight for their lives. It’s a problem that faces a sixth of […]

The Oscars are taking place this Sunday, so I’ll do my best to break down who has the best shot at winning in the Documentary Feature category. First, let’s just do away with Operation Homecoming and War/Dance. You know it hurts me to say it, after having advocated so strongly for both films, but their […]

With Critical Condition, Roger Weisberg takes an unflinching look at what it’s like to be sick and uninsured in America. He took a few minutes to answer some questions about his film and why health care and universal health insurance should be a critical issue during this election year. Critical Condition will have its broadcast […]

Now that Sundance is over, I thought I’d take a moment to reflect on the Oscar nominees for Best Documentary: No End In Sight Charles Ferguson and Audrey Marrs Operation Homecoming: Writing The Wartime Experience Richard E. Robbins Sicko Michael Moore and Meghan O’Hara Taxi To The Dark Side Alex Gibney and Eva Orner War/Dance […]