- POV's Project VoiceScape Submissions Now Under Review
Project VoiceScape is a partnership with Adobe Youth Voices, PBS and POV to mentor today’s best young documentary filmmakers. Our 2011 Project VoiceScape call for entries closed last week and we would like to thank the hundreds of talented youth filmmakers across the country who submitted their great documentary ideas for funding consideration! We received […]
- Doc Soup: Teens and the Impact of MTV's 'Teen Mom'
What impact do documentaries have on today’s youth? Do kids even know what a documentary is? These questions came to mind when I recently saw that the Sheffield Doc/Fest was asking for applicants for its Youth Jury for the UK event in June. Initially, I was skeptical. But, when you think about it, teens do […]
- Host a Free Screening for National Adoption Month
During the month of November, people across the country are hosting events in celebration of adoptive families. Learn more about National Adoption Day at NationalAdoptionDay.org. POV is encouraging community groups, educators and librarians to host a local screening of our Adoption Stories films First Person Plural by Deann Borshay Liem, In the Matter of Cha […]
- This is My Family – Defining Family
We were excited this week to see the launch of This is My Family pull in our first video submissions. The range of style was as eclectic as the perspectives and individuals posting the videos. Already we have children of LGBTQ parents, extended-family-families, foster families, adoptive parents, adoptees — singing songs, recording from their computer’s […]
- POV Filmmaker Jesse Epstein's 'Films in Action' Videos
Over on the Fledgling Fund blog, we came across these great videos by POV filmmaker Jesse Epstein that show the power of documentary film to change people’s minds and inspire them. The first video takes place at Greenpoint, Brooklyn’s Fade to Famous barbershop, the location of Jesse’s short film Wet Dreams and False Images. She […]
- 'New Muslim Cool' Producers Speak at U.S. State Department
New Muslim Cool co-producers Kauthar Umar and Hana Siddiqi wrote in to tell us about “Generation Change,” a U.S. State Department event held last week in Washington, D.C. toasting some of the best and most innovative American Muslim leaders under the age of 30. With much excitement and anticipation we arrived in Washington, D.C. last […]
- Whatever Happened To… Shelby Knox?
Remember Shelby Knox, the subject of our 2005 film, The Education of Shelby Knox? Shelby was a feisty teenager from Lubbock, Texas that filmmakers Marion Lipschutz and Rose Rosenblatt followed in their amazing documentary. The self-described “good Southern Baptist girl” who had pledged abstinence before marriage became an unlikely advocate for comprehensive sex education when […]
- Doc Soup: The Tribeca Institute: More Than Just a Film Festival
As the curtain closes on another hectic festival — the Tribeca Film Festival — it’s worth taking a peek at some of the work that continues to go on after the red carpets get rolled up and put away. Ryan Harrington, who works with the Tribeca Film Institute’s Gucci Tribeca Documentary Fund and I spoke […]
- 'Bronx Princess' in the News
Rocky Otoo, 17, center, stands with her father, Nii Adjedu, left, and her mother “Auntie” Yaa Otoo, right, in the Bronx, NY. Credit: Photo by Yoni Brook/Highbridge Pictures POV aired the last film of our 2009 season last night on PBS. Bronx Princess is the story of Rocky Otoo, the Bronx-bred teenage daughter of Ghanaian […]
- PBS Teachers Live Webinar: Transforming Schools
PBS Teachers and Classroom 2.0 are delighted to have PBS producers and educators join them to share POV’s The Principal Story in a live webinar on Tuesday, September 1 from 8 to 9 pm ET. The film paints two dramatic portraits of the challenges facing America’s public schools and the great difference a dedicated principal […]
- Yo!TV Interviews Hamza Pérez
POV’s premiere film of our 2009 season is New Muslim Cool, the story of a young Muslim hip-hop artist confronting the realities of the post-9/11 world — and himself. New Muslim Cool had its world-premiere screening last month at the San Francisco Film Festival. Director Jennifer Maytorena Taylor, Hamza Pérez and others associated with the […]
- Update to “The Double Life of Ernesto Gomez Gomez”
Filmmaker Gary Weimberg is a two-time POV alum. His film, Soldiers of Conscience, premiered on POV in 2008. An earlier film, The Double Life of Ernesto Gomez Gomez, was on POV in 1999. Gary writes in with a moving update on the lives of the characters from that film and reminds us about the power […]
- POV Interactive Receives a Parents' Choice Award
We were excited to find out that POV Interactive has been named a Parents’ Choice Recommended award winner. We’ve always known that POV is a great resource for kids who want to learn more about a particular subject through our documentaries and our website, but it’s always nice to get a pat on the back, […]
- Run For — Not From — “The Hills”!
In honor of this week’s premiere of season four of MTV’s “The Hills,” I’d like to ruminate a bit on the end of the world. Not really, but you’ll get what I mean. The show, in case you’re over 25 and/or don’t subscribe to a magazine other than The Nation, is a reality (I use […]
- Doc Soup: Major Marketing for 'American Teen'
Every Monday, independent journalist Tom Roston checks in and writes about the world of documentaries in his column, Doc Soup. This past weekend, American Teen hit theaters. I’d put it up there with about five other docs (Standard Operating Procedure, Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden?, Young@Heart, Man on Wire and Religulous) as […]
- What's Your POV about '9 Star Hotel'?
9 Star Hotel is the facetious name that Palestinian construction workers give to the pile of rocks that marks their clandestine nightly abode — a group of cardboard enclosures and tin-covered huts hidden in the brush-covered hills above the Israeli town of Modi’in. It is also the name of this week’s POV film about the […]
- POV Awards Film Your Issue Prize in L.A.
Robert Bahar was the producer and writer of Made in L.A. (POV 2007). He represented POV recently at the Film Your Issue awards ceremony in Los Angeles to present the prize to the winner of the POV award. Last week I had the privilege of presenting the POV Award at the Film Your Issue awards […]
- An International Conversation About Youth & Media Literacy
Irene Villaseñor is POV’s Youth Views manager. She was recently inspired by some presentations at a conference on youth media and education around the world. She writes in to share her thoughts. Last weekend I attended Media: Overseas Conversations 5, an International Conference on Media, Education and Youth. Media educators from the Middle East, Asia, […]