About POV

POV's website showcases innovative and timeless documentaries that encourage dialogue and participation. Preview the slate of documentaries from POV's 29th season on PBS, including the News & Documentary Emmy Award winner for Best Documentary Cutie and the Boxer, the Academy Award nominee The Look of Silence and the Academy Award shortlisted Hooligan Sparrow.

Free Streaming Video

POV streams every documentary from its broadcast season on PBS for free online — on its website, mobile apps and on Internet-connected devices, and additionally makes video and informational content available on emerging communication platforms. In 2016, more than 100 films were available for free streaming, including the Emmy-winning StoryCorps Animated Short Traffic Stop and more exclusive short films, classic films from Women Make Movies, more award-winning films from across the Middle East (International Emmy Award for Best Documentary 5 Broken Cameras, Sundance Film Festival World Cinema Jury Prize for Documentary winner The Law in These Parts, Tribeca Film Festiva Best Documentary Feature Award winner Point and Shoot the winner of the first George Polk Documentary Film Award Return to Homs), and rare cinematic looks into stories from Africa and Asia, including Toronto International Film Festival People's Choice Documentary Award winner Beats of the Antonov.

To view POV's streaming films, visit POV's video portal or download or connect to PBS's mobile video apps for desktop computers, mobile devices and connected TV platforms.  For a full list of supported devices and platforms, visit pbs.org/anywhere/home.  POV's video portal also includes an archive of feature-length films, online-only shorts, extended filmmaker interviews, and video-based lesson plans for use in the classroom.

Highlights from 2016

In 2016, POV Digital broke new ground as the first producer of films for Snapchat Discover. The series signaled to filmmakers for the first time the potential of using Snapchat as a platform for a new kind of nonfiction cinematic storytelling and it continued POV's tradition of presenting contemporary stories that express perspectives rarely featured in mainstream media and in promoting dialogue around critical social issues.

POV also collaborated with The New York Times in 2016 to embed documentary filmmakers inside the news department, producing widely seen work such as the audience-driven "Racist Objects" series, a set of animated videos about "Implicit Bias," and an Instagram-based interrogation into "Awkward Race Questions," among others.

POV Digital co-productions in 2016 included Whiteness Project, an interactive investigation into how Americans who identify as white experience their race, and Exit, an interconnected set of documentary experiences about post-apocalyptic living that is optimized for touch- and motion-aware mobile devices.

Film Sites & Educational Resources

POV's website includes companion sites for each film and digital project it presents, along with exclusive filmmaker interviews that take viewers behind the lens, documentary film trailers and new video created by filmmakers for POV. For each film, POV's Community Engagement and Education team produces a suite of resources, including standards-aligned lesson plans with free streaming documentary video clips, discussion guides with background information, suggested questions and possible action steps and partner toolkits featuring a step-by-step guide to hosting film screenings. POV facilitates conversations at hundreds of local screenings organized annually through POV's online Community Network.

POV For Filmmakers

Another core part of POV's website is its "For Filmmakers" subsite, which encompasses a set of documentary filmmaking resources for film funding, film festivals, distribution technology, virtual reality filmmaking tools and engagement strategists, and our industry-leading documentary filmmaker's blog featuring columnists such as former Premiere editor Tom Roston and guest contributors. POV's social media accounts also share resources for filmmakers: On Twitter, @povdocs has more than 140,000 followers (as of December 2016), making it one of the Top 5 documentary brands on the platform, and POV's Facebook page is also home to public media's first bot, created for Facebook Messenger.

Awards for POV's Website

POV may be best known for its award-winning films and new media productions, but POV's website — online at pov.org since 1995 — has also been honored with W3 Awards, Horizon Interactive Awards and Telly Awards, among others, as well as three nominations from the Webby Awards (Best Television Site, and twice for Best Movie and Film Site).

The Technology Behind POV's Website

POV's website was built by POV Digital, based on WordPress as its primary content management system.

About POV Digital

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). POV Digital continues to explore the future of independent nonfiction media through its digital productions and the POV Digital Lab, where media makers and technologists collaborate to reinvent storytelling forms. @povdocs on Twitter.

About POV

POV (a cinema term for "point of view") is television's longest-running showcase for independent non-fiction films. POV premieres 14-16 of the best, boldest and most innovative programs every year on PBS. Since 1988, POV has presented over 300 films to public television audiences across the country. POV films are known for their intimacy, their unforgettable storytelling and their timeliness, putting a human face on contemporary social issues. Read more about POV »