American Documentary

Overview

Tiffany Hsiung’s Sing Me A Lullaby now streaming on POV.org and the PBS App; Matt Wolf’s Another Hayride to world premiere on January 19 withThe New York Times Op-Docs

New York, N.Y., January 11, 2021 -- Award-winning PBS documentary series POV Shorts has acquired the broadcast and streaming rights for Sing Me a Lullaby, directed by Tiffany Hsiung, and Another Hayride, directed by Matt Wolf. The critically-acclaimed films will be released online this month and broadcast as part of the upcoming fourth season of POV Shorts later this year.

Sing Me a Lullaby, which begins streaming today on POV.org and the PBS app, is an intimate story about Hsiung’s fourteen-year journey to connect with her mother’s birth family. In 1965, Tiffany’s mother was separated from her parents; she never saw them again. 40 years later, Tiffany flies to Taiwan to try & find her grandparents--armed only with two names scribbled on a napkin. Told through the intertwined journeys of daughters and their mothers, this is a story about recovering familial history, healing inherited pain, and understanding that love comes in many forms.Sing Me a Lullaby is a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation production in association with American Documentary | POV. The film won the Shorts Grand Jury Prize at DOC NYC and is also available streaming on The New Yorker.

Another Hayride will have its world premiere on January 19, available streaming on POV.org and the PBS app as well as on the NYTimes.com through The New York Times Op-Docs series. As the AIDS epidemic took hold in the early 1980s, self-help guru Louise Hay created a space for healing called the Hayride. Drawing hundreds of gay men confronting a deadly pandemic, Louise promised that they could overcome AIDS through self-love. Some said this early new age wellness movement was harmful quackery. Others who were suffering said that Louise healed them. Using all archival materials, director Matt Wolf invites viewers to travel back to 1988 Los Angeles and attend a Hayride. Another Hayride was produced by Polari Pictures and Park Pictures in association with The New York Times Op-Docs and American Documentary | POV. An award-winning filmmaker, Wolf is a Guggenheim Fellow and was Co-Curator of the 2019 Whitney Biennial.

"It's a distinct pleasure to present these outstanding titles to our POV streaming audiences, and via PBS broadcast in 2021. Sing Me a Lullaby premiered in September of 2020 and has been garnering accolades ever since. We are proud to debut Another Hayride, which transports us to another time in American history where connection and inspiration were as needed as they are now," said POV Shorts Producer, Opal H. Bennett. "NYT Op-Docs and The New Yorker have been long-time collaborators and we're honored to partner with them again on these films. The selection of Sing Me a Lullaby marks our first POV Shorts collaboration with the CBC and we can't imagine a better film with which to begin."

About the Filmmakers

Tiffany Hsiung: Tiffany Hsiung is a Peabody award-winning filmmaker based in Toronto, Canada and is listed as one of DOC NYC’s 40 under 40 this year. She recently won the inaugural Toronto International Film Festival ‘Share Her Journey Short Cuts Award’ after the world premiere of her recent film Sing Me a Lullaby (2020) As well as a DGC award for Best Short Film. Tiffany received the prestigious Peabody award for her debut feature The Apology (2018) along with the DuPont Columbia Award and the Allan King Memorial Award.

Matt Wolf: Matt Wolf is a filmmaker in New York. His critically acclaimed and award-winning documentary films have played widely in festivals and have been distributed internationally in theaters and on television. Matt’s features include Wild Combination about the cult cellist and disco producer Arthur Russell, and Teenage about early youth culture and the birth of teenagers. His recent film Recorder is about the activist Marion Stokes, who secretly recorded television 24 hours a day for 30 years. Matt’s newest film Spaceship Earth is about Biosphere 2, a controversial experiment where 8 people lived quarantined inside a replica of the planet. The film premiered at Sundance, was released by Neon, and is now streaming on Hulu.

Credits

Sing Me a Lullaby

Written and Directed by Tiffany Hsiung

Produced by Tiffany Hsiung

Co-Produced by Priscilla Galvez

Executive Produced by Tiffany Hsiung, Jean Tsien

Edited by Ricardo Acosta, Xi Feng

Original Music by Tom Third

Cinematography by Jason Lee Wong [2019], Eugene Weis [2005], Tiffany Hsiung [2006]

Sound Design Supervisor / Re-Recording Mix by Daniel Pellerin

Run Time: 29:04

Another Hayride

Matt Wolf - Director, Producer, and Editor

Sam Bisbee - Producer

Jackie Kelman Bisbee - Executive Producer

Lance Acord - Executive Producer

Danielle Massie - Co-producer

Lori Scacco - Music By

Dan Timmons - Supervising Sound Editor & Re-recording Mixer

Alex Stuart - Sound Editor

Brian Boyd - Colorist

Run Time: 17:49

About POV

Produced by American Documentary, Inc., POV is public television’s premier showcase for nonfiction films. Since 1988, POV has been the home for the world’s boldest contemporary filmmakers, celebrating intriguing personal stories that spark conversation and inspire action. Always an innovator, POV discovers fresh new voices and creates interactive experiences that shine a light on social issues and elevate the art of storytelling. With our documentary broadcasts, original online programming and dynamic community engagement campaigns, we are committed to supporting films that capture the imagination and present diverse perspectives.

POV films have won 38 Emmy® Awards, 26 George Foster Peabody Awards, 15 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Awards, three Academy Awards®, the first-ever George Polk Documentary Film Award and the Prix Italia. The POV series has been honored with a Special News & Documentary Emmy Award for Excellence in Television Documentary Filmmaking, three IDA Awards for Best Curated Series and the National Association of Latino Independent Producers (NALIP) Award for Corporate Commitment to Diversity. In 2013, American Documentary | POV was one of 13 nonprofit organizations around the world to win a MacArthur Award for Creative and Effective Institutions. Learn more at www.pbs.org/pov.

Major funding for POV is provided by PBS, The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Open Society Foundations, the Wyncote Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. Additional funding comes from Acton Family Giving, Nancy Blachman and David desJardins, Bertha Foundation, Reva & David Logan Foundation, Chicago Media Project, Sage Foundation, New York State Council on the Arts, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, Chris and Nancy Plaut, 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.