American Documentary

Overview

Brooklyn, N.Y. – October 2, 2024 – American Documentary (AmDoc) | POV announced today the six recipients of the 2024 ‘Our America: Documentaries in Dialogue’. This high-impact initiative empowers regional PBS stations and community organizations to envision their own programmatic designs, increase their capacity to organize and facilitate meaningful engagement events that are anchored by selections from POV’s current season of full-length, documentary films. Through intentional funding,‘Our America’ PBS cohorts are able to respond to and reflect the needs, interests and priorities of their stations and communities while using POV films to bring audiences together to promote healthy, civic dialogue, inspire action, and develop deeper understanding around the most critical issues of our time. The initiative builds upon sustained relationships between POV and PBS stations and a shared belief that documentary film can be a powerful tool to connect viewers of different cultural backgrounds and find common ground in an ever changing social, economic, and political landscape. Now entering its eighth year,‘Our America’ has provided nearly a quarter of a million dollars to PBS stations and community partners around the country.

Throughout the eight years of‘Our America’ the program has covered a wide geographical range; past and present ‘Our America’ grantees hail from Alaska and Hawai’i and the U.S. Virgin Islands to heartland states such as Nebraska and Wisconsin, including coastal areas of South Carolina and Georgia, and stretches of the Southwest. Similarly, this year’s group represents a coast-to-coast tapestry of regional PBS stations seeking to explore more fully the topics that resonate with their communities such as climate change, democracy, identity and economy. The initiative will support stations’ abilities to create and design unique programs and provide resources that underscore and advance their deep commitment to the audiences they serve.

The six grantees will co-organize events in partnership with local organizations to cultivate younger audiences, reach lifelong learners as well work with student groups in ways that reflect stations’ initiatives and priorities. Capital area stalwart, Howard University’s WHUT, the first public station in the U.S. licensed and operated by a historically black college and university (HBCU), reaches millions of D.C. metro residents through their distinctive programming. Representing one of the largest PBS stations in the nation, Georgia Public Broadcasting, a 2022‘Our America’ grantee, joins the cohort this year to enhance its mission to create, produce and distribute high quality programs and services that educate, inform and entertain its audiences and enrich the quality of their lives. West Virginia Public Broadcasting, shares stories reflective of Appalachian culture and history. Rocky Mountain PBS employs civic engagement projects to strengthen ties across Colorado. Returning‘Our America’ grantee Prairie Public Broadcasting offers its viewers across North Dakota, Montana, northwestern Minnesota including areas in South Dakota and Manitoba a “window on the world” with national and regional stories, events and forums to promote lifelong learning and civic discourse. PBS Utah is a second-time grantee and returns on the heels of their recent2024 NETA Public Media Award nomination. The station was recognized for their 2023‘Our America’ engagement events featuring the Peabody Award winning film While We Watched as the catalyst for critical conversations about media and misinformation within Utah and nationwide. Laura Durham, Director of Programming and Community Engagement for PBS Utah stated that “POV distributes some of the most compelling and poignant documentaries out there, and in this competitive media space, many can go unnoticed in the Utah market. Engagement funding from ‘Our America’ supports projects that bring these stories to the right audience and PBS Utah is dedicated to making sure the stories and subjects reach those who will be impacted the most.”

‘Our America’ was established in response to the polarizing repercussions resulting from the 2016 elections and lingering effects of the social and political chasms left in its wake. Aligning with a third U.S. presidential election, the‘Our America’ initiative is an opportunity and an invitation for stations to organize community programs where POV films provide an access point in which to navigate ideas of democracy, relationships between local, state and national politics as well as share stories of grassroots activist movements fighting for positive change. WHUT, the first HBCU to receive‘Our America’ funding support, will present a screening of The Body Politic (dir. Gabriel Francis Paz Goodenough) which follows Brandon Scott, an idealistic young leader pushing an ambitious plan to stop violence in Baltimore as he transforms from community activist to becoming the city’s first Millennial mayor. Following the screening Brandon Scott, Mayor of Baltimore, MD will participate in a discussion about community activism and holistic approaches to violence reduction with Jennifer Porter, Director, District of Columbia Office of Victims Service & Justice Grants and Erricka Bridgeford, the Baltimore Peace Movement. The conversation will be moderated by Dr. Bahiyyah Muhammad, Associate Professor of Sociology & Criminology at Howard University.

Since its inaugural program in 2016, the direct funding provided by the ‘Our America’ initiative has bolstered PBS stations and mission-aligned partner organizations' capacity to design influential and effective programming that underscores their specific priorities and values while addressing local challenges. Past grantees have brought communities together across rural towns and cities around timely topics such as for-profit detention centers in Florida, social unrest and global protests in response to the murder of George Floyd, representation in rural Appalachia, facing barriers in education as well as highlighting family’s caregiving for those living with age-related illnesses such as dementia.

This year’s granting program comes at a crucial moment for public media with stations strapped for resources but nonetheless eager to organize and provide a platform for community building and topics-driven events.‘Our America’ furthers PBS’s mission to provide access to quality programming, educational resources and enhance the quality of life for national audiences.

In addition to allowing stations to strengthen established community partnership, participants of these station-led programs continue to benefit from the experience in ways beyond measure. PBS Utah’s 2023 program on investigative journalism included a cross-campus student journalism initiative to engage college-age audiences that guided students through the creation of content grounded in fact-based, unbiased journalism. One attendee, a college student and Editor-in-Chief of the school’s independent newspaper, The Globe, shared that before “we began our reporting, we were asked by Laura Durham (Director of Programming and Community Engagement, PBS Utah) to watch the POV documentary, While We Watched, which impacted me specifically in the way it reinforced the duties of the job of being a journalist. Ravish Kumar, the journalist in the film, quickly became my new idol for his commitment despite the attempts at silencing him. It showed me the fortitude one must have, especially in a politically divided nation and while battling other news outlets wrought with disinformation, to maintain journalistic integrity and fight for the truth. It inspired and duly prepared me for my upcoming assignment.”

This year’s station-led programming promises another year-long investment in community dialogue, aiming to raise awareness of and bridging differences around critical issues with in-person events built around selected non-fiction films from Season 37 of POV.

“Every year, as ‘Our America’ continues to reach more communities across the country, we’re seeing the meaningful impact it’s having. PBS member stations are navigating significant challenges, and our cohort is responding by deepening their investment in local conversations and community engagement,” said Robert Salyer, Manager of Outreach and Impact who has led the program since 2021. “This project continues to play a key role in driving those important discussions forward and stations are using this initiative as an opportunity to help create spaces where people can come together, connect, and share their voices with their neighbors. Our films are a catalyst - the communities decide what’s next.”

“As we approach the 2024 presidential election, we are experiencing much division, provocations and contention in this country - both in real life and online. Therefore, this ‘Our America’ cohort has a very tall order to gather unique voices in one space, and create an environment ripe for healthy debates and ah-ha learning moments which inspire people to get involved alongside their neighbors and local, mission-minded organizations." said Asad Muhammad, Vice President of Impact and Engagement Strategy.

This year’s cohort of stations each receive up to $6000 to support their community programming endeavors, exclusive digital access to POV films, and educational resources including film discussion guides that can support screenings, marketing, participant fees and workshops. ‘Our America’ is made possible with the generous support of the Open Society Foundations and the National Endowment for the Arts.

‘Our America’ 2024 Grantees

Georgia Public Broadcasting: GPB strives to educate, entertain and enrich the lives of their viewers and community members with programming that includes, and responds to, local interests and affairs from the region and beyond. As a statewide public media station, they develop and provide expansive opportunities to explore current affairs, sports, provide educational resources for teachers and students and present enlightening community programs for a variety of audiences. They will organize collaborative events centered around season 37 POV films to bring their audiences and supporters together around timely topics.

PBS Utah: Two-time ‘Our America’ grantee PBS Utah plans to partner with Amplify Utah to execute grant activities. Amplify Utah facilitates dynamic journalistic storytelling to celebrate diverse points of view. They cultivate an environment that encourages stories to be shared widely and made easily accessible for communities to read, hear, watch and engage. For this project, PBS Utah will collaborate with Amplify Utah to facilitate a student-led journalistic project around the film Break the Game – focusing on the mental health and isolation of students during the pandemic and how it has affected their behaviors, motivations, and maturity as they graduated from high school and entered college.

Following up on the success of PBS Utah's 2023-2024 ‘Our America’ project the station aims to expand the opportunity to incorporate additional state colleges and universities and will support 16-20 students in this expanded initiative by coordinating a cross-campus student journalism initiative to engage college-age audiences. This initiative will guide students through creating content inspired by the film Break the Game. PBS Utah will also organize public screening events in collaboration with the Utah College Media Collaborative, featuring discussions on Break the Game and showcasing the work created by journalism students participating in the project. Potential Partners from the Utah System of Higher Education (USHE) include: University of Utah, Utah State University, Weber State University, Southern Utah University, Snow College, Utah Tech University, USU Eastern, Utah Valley University, Salt Lake Community College

Prairie Public Broadcasting: 2022 ‘Our America’ grantee has developed their strategic goal of reaching young adults for station engagement and audience development Prairie Public Broadcasting will use Break the Game to open and engage in conversation around themes presented in the film such as gamer culture, the realities of online harassment, and the mental health implications of living a digital life – with audiences that actively experience the subject material. In addition to screening the film, the station plans to curate a panel featuring competitive Esports student athletes and community gamers who can speak to these topics.

Rocky Mountain Public Media: RMPM plans to partner with Denver Film, a community cultural arts organization that, since 1978, has worked to promote film as both an art form and a civic forum. As the only nonprofit theater in Colorado, Denver Film is dedicated to engaging both its members and the public in a lifelong relationship with film. The organization operates the Sie FilmCenter, its year-round cinematic home, where it presents the annual award-winning Denver Film Festival each November and a series of spotlight festivals and series throughout the year.

Drawing on its strong, long-standing partnership with Denver Film, RMPM will work with the organization to screen a series of three Season 37 POV films—Hummingbirds, The Body Politic and Break the Game to collaborate on discussion sessions following each screening, including participation by staff members from each organization and invited panelists from the community. The two organizations will also cross-promote the events using outreach tools like digital platforms, newsletters, and social media.

West Virginia Public Broadcasting: The station plans to organize a screening of King Coal early in the 2025 Spring semester. The event seeks to draw in two broad categories of audience members, students of the film making program and students and community members from Appalachian backgrounds in general. For students, the goal is to stress the technical achievements of the film and its experimental nature. For community members at large, more emphasis is placed on the content of the film, and its mediation on the impacts extractive industries have made on the culture and landscape of the region. The presentation will take place in a theater on campus and will be followed up by conversation with the director to be facilitated by Marshall University film professor, Tijah Baumgartner.

WHUT Howard University: In addition to the film presentation, WHUT will also promote the completed packaging of the panel discussion as part of the series and will look to air this program immediately following The Body Politic program, when it airs on WHUT. WHUT plans to engage their sister radio station, WHUR 96.3FM, to invite the program producers on a radio segment to discuss the film and its relatable themes of reducing community violence and promoting positive youth engagement.

About

About POV

Produced by American Documentary, POV is the longest-running independent documentary showcase on American television. Since 1988, POV has presented films on PBS that capture the full spectrum of the human experience, with a long commitment to centering women and people of color in front of, and behind, the camera. The series is known for introducing generations of viewers to groundbreaking works like Tongues Untied (1989), Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse (1992), Rabbit in the Room (1999), Of Civil Wrongs & Rights: The Fred Korematsu Story (2001), Made in L.A. (2007), American Promise (2013), Not Going Quietly (2021), While We Watched (2022), A House Made of Splinters (2022) and the mini-series And She Could be Next (2020). Throughout its history POV has featured the work of award-winning, innovative filmmakers including Jonathan Demme, Laura Poitras, Nanfu Wang, Frederick Wiseman, Emiko Omori, Janus Metz Pedersen and Ava DuVernay. In 2018, POV Shorts launched as one of the first PBS series dedicated to bold and timely short-form documentaries. In 2024, Indiewire named seven POV films in its roundup of “The 50 Best Documentaries of the 21st Century”: Faya Dayi (2021), The Mole Agent (2020), Minding The Gap (2018), Cameraperson (2016), The Look of Silence (2015), The Act of Killing (2013) and After Tiller (2013). All POV programs are available for streaming concurrent with broadcast on all station-branded PBS platforms, including PBS.org and the PBS App, available on iOS, Android, Roku streaming devices, Apple TV, Android TV, Amazon Fire TV, Samsung Smart TV, Chromecast and VIZIO. For more information about PBS Passport, visit the PBS Passport FAQ website.

POV goes “beyond the broadcast” to bring powerful nonfiction storytelling to viewers wherever they are. Free educational resources accompany every film and a community network of thousands of partners nationwide work with POV to spark dialogue around today’s most pressing issues. POV continues to explore the future of documentary through innovative productions with partners such as The New York Times and The National Film Board of Canada and on platforms including Snapchat and Instagram.

POV films and projects have won 48 Emmy Awards, 28 George Foster Peabody Awards, 16 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Awards, three Academy Awards® and the first-ever George Polk Documentary Film Award. Learn more at pbs.org/pov and follow @povdocs on social media.