American Documentary

Overview

Brooklyn, N.Y. — August 15, 2024 — POV, the multi Emmy® and Peabody award-winning series, pulls back the curtain on local American politics to reveal what happens after an electoral victory and asks when does change begin in a city embroiled in a fight over justice and equity in the dynamic film, The Body Politic. Director Gabriel Francis Paz Goodenough, a proud third generation Baltimorean, spotlights young idealist Brandon Scott during his leadership campaign and first year as Mayor of Baltimore, a city plagued by chronic gun violence, funding shortages and escalating crime. Through unfettered, authentic access to Mayor Scott, as well as an inspired soundtrack, Goodenough provides what could be a brighter view of not just one city’s future, but reveal a path forward for cities across America. The Body Politic Goodenough’s feature directorial debut is produced by Dawne Langford and John Benam. The documentary is a co-production with ITVS, and a co-presentation with Black Public Media (BPM).

Hailed by The Washington Post’s Ann Hornaday as “a beautifully crafted piece of art,” The Body Politic will be screened at several venues prior to the POV broadcast. Upcoming events include:

• Martha’s Vineyard Film Festival Circuit Arts Summer Film Series on August 17, 2024. This is a screening followed by a panel discussion and Q&A moderated by Erika Dilday, Executive Director of American Documentary and Executive Producer of POV and America ReFramed. Film participants Mayor Brandon Scott, Erricka Bridgeford and Dante Johnson, director and producer Gabriel Francis Paz Goodenough, associate editor Jesse Goldstein will join the conversation.
• DCTV’s Firehouse Cinema in New York Theatrical Run & Opening Night Event on September 27, 2024. The Body Politic will have a one-week theatrical run beginning Tuesday, September 27, through October 3, 2024. Opening Night will entail a screening and panel discussion co-presented by New York Women in Film and Television (NYWIFT), Black Public Media (BPM), and POV. Katie Chambers, Senior Director of Community & Public Relations of NYWIFT, will moderate a panel featuring Mayor Brandon Scott and director Gabriel Francis Paz Goodenough.

The Body Politic will make its national broadcast premiere on POVMonday, November 25, at 10pmET/9C (check local listings) on PBS Television. The documentary will be available to stream until February 23, 2025 via pbs.org, and the PBS App. Now in its 37th season, POV continues to mark its place as America’s longest running non-fiction series.

The Body Politic is a harbinger of hope in a country plagued by gun violence. Brandon Scott, who grew up during Baltimore’s most troubling years and witnessed his first shooting as a child, sets out with dogged determination to free his beloved city from violence. In the midst of the George Floyd crisis, he becomes Baltimore’s first Millennial mayor. Goodenough’s cameras follow Scott and his team of young leaders throughout their first year in city hall. He dutifully captures the mayor as he navigates press conferences, deals with a variety of political opponents, reacts to the trial of George Floyd’s killer and works with Baltimore’s residents and groups with a vested interest in healing their city. The filmmakers are also present when Scott introduces an ambitious plan for violence reduction and police reform that he promises will lower the city’s murder rate. Pundits claim Scott’s political health and the city’s health are tied to the number 348 – the total murders Baltimore had the previous year, more homicides than NYC, a city 15 times its size. After entering office and barely getting a chance to enact his first safety reforms, violence surges to new highs. As the media & political foes attack his comprehensive approach, his commitment to his plan and principles put his political future in jeopardy. Will his holistic approach lead to healing and serve as a blueprint for the rest of the nation?

Featured in The Body Politic along with Mayor Brandon Scott are local activists Erricka Bridgeford, Baltimore Peace Movement Leader, and Dante Johnson, Site Director, Baltimore Safe Streets who work with the mayor’s office on devising enterprising solutions to gun violence.

“This film is the story of my home, the city where I was born and where I proudly continue to live,” said Gabriel Francis Paz Goodenough, director of The Body Politic. “I am honored to have partnered with a group of talented Baltimore-based filmmakers with equally deep connections to the city to give a voice to a new story about our hometown.

“Like many areas in the United States, the City of Baltimore has been plagued by decades of gun violence. We began making this film in 2019 hoping to make an election film about several candidates in the mayoral race in which gun violence reduction was the central issue. With violence on the rise in the city at that time, it was unclear who would win the election.

“Soon after we began filming, George Floyd was murdered, and everything changed. This brutal murder altered the conscience of our country and changed many things, including the outcome of the mayoral election and the focus of our film. In the wake of the turmoil and systemic shift occurring in the country, a new generation of leadership was emerging. It was clear to us that the core of the story that needed to be told was the story of what happens after this new leadership is elected and gets into office. We wanted to see this all from inside local government, inside the system. We ended up making a story about the healing of our city, a film that hopefully serves as a pathway to healing for the rest of the nation.”

“Despite what people hear about Baltimore from the media, residents love this city and fight every day to find a better way to beat the disease of gun violence, over-policing and poverty,” said Brandon Scott, Mayor of Baltimore. “From a personal perspective, people have to see their elected officials as human. I have the same lived experiences as them, as a Baltimorean, and a regular son of the city; I just happen to be the mayor.”

“The Body Politic is one of our most timely films this season,” said Erika Dilday, Executive Director, American Documentary and Executive Producer POV and America ReFramed. “As we are in the midst of an election year the film hits on many of the issues Americans are grappling with right now. Gun violence tops the list and Baltimore is on record as being one of the most dangerous cities in the U.S. Director and Baltimore native Gabriel Francis Paz Goodenough uses cinéma vérité, to focus on the young people of Baltimore and a new generation of politicians determined to curb gun violence in their city. He handily captures the stopgaps and adversity Mayor Brandon Scott and his team must work through, and the hopefulness and optimism that fuels their enthusiasm. The Body Politic is truly an important film and I am proud to have it in our catalog."

The Body Politic made its world premiere at the 2023 Sheffield DocFest where it was voted a “Top 10 Audience Favorite.” The film made its North American Premiere as a Spotlight Film at the 2023 DC/DOX Film Festival and its African Premiere at the 2023 Zanzibar International Film Festival where it received the “Chairperson’s Award for Feature Documentary.” The documentary won the “Audience Choice Award” at the 2023 Heartland International Film Festival, and was the Runner Up for the “Audience Award Winner Feature Documentary” at the 2023 Anchorage International Film Festival. Recently, the film won the Jury Award for “Best Documentary Feature,” was the 2nd Runner Up for “The Audience Award for Best Documentary, and director Gabriel Francis Paz Goodenough took home the “Emerging Filmmakers” Award at the 2024 Woods Hole Film Festival. The Body Politic was an official selection of numerous festivals including the 2023 New/Next Film Festival, 2023 Saint Louis International Film Festival, 2024 Big Sky Documentary Film Festival), 2024 Omaha Film Festival, 2024 Salem Film Fest, 2024 One World International Film Festival / jeden svět, and 2024 Movies That Matter Film Fest. In addition, the film was featured in the University of Wisconsin-Madison Havens Wright 2024 Social Cinema Series.

“The Body Politic is another great example of the new generation of politicians, young people who deeply care about their community, doing everything they can to improve it.”

-Film Carnage

The Body Politic is a co-production with ITVS, and a co-presentation with Black Public Media (BPM). The director is Gabriel Francis Paz Goodenough and the producers are Goodenough, Dawne Langford and John Benam. Cinematography and sound are by Gabriel Francis Paz Goodenough and John Benam, the editor is Thomas Niles, and the music composer is Caleb Stine. The executive producers are Rudy Valdez, Brock Williams, Jeffrey Pechter, Mark Grieco, Katy Chevigny, Marilyn Ness, Sally Jo Fifer, Erika Dilday and Chris White.

The Body Politic will be available for streaming concurrently with broadcast on all station-branded PBS platforms, including PBS.org and the PBS Video App, available on iOS, Android, Roku streaming devices, Apple TV, Android TV, Amazon Fire TV, Samsung Smart TV, Chromecast and VIZIO. PBS station members can view many series, documentaries and specials via PBS Passport. For more information about PBS Passport, visit the PBS Passport FAQ website.

Additionally to standard closed captioning, POV partners with DiCapta for audio description services to provide real time audio or text interpretations for audiences with sensory disabilities. Films are accompanied by free educational resources, with many available for local screenings through POV’s Community Network digital lending library.

Photos

Download The Body Politic photos.

Click The Body Politic Press Kit to access the theatrical press notes.

Credits

Director: Gabriel Francis Paz Goodenough

Producers: Gabriel Francis Paz Goodenough, Dawne Langford, John Benam

Executive producers: Rudy Valdez, Brock Williams, Jeffrey Pechter, Mark Grieco, Katy Chevigny, Marilyn Ness, Sally Jo Fifer, Erika Dilday, Chris White

Cast: Brandon Scott, Erricka Bridgeford, Dante Johnson, Shantay Jackson, Tater Barksdale

Cinematographers: Gabriel Francis Paz Goodenough, John Benam

Editor: Thomas Niles
Sound: Gabriel Francis Paz Goodenough, John Benam
Composer: Caleb Stine
Language: English
Country: USA
Year: 2023

About the Filmmakers

Gabriel Francis Paz Goodenough, Director, Producer, Cinematographer, Sound, The Body Politic

Gabriel is a proud third-generation resident of Baltimore, Maryland. He began his career as a production assistant on the TV series Homicide: Life on the Streets, later becoming a camera assistant on projects such as A Beautiful Mind, The Sopranos, and Oz. He served as a camera operator on the Steven Soderbergh-produced and George Clooney-directed HBO series Unscripted and has been a cinematographer on documentaries for PBS, Netflix, and HBO. In 2017, he co-produced the Mexican/United States co-production of the feature documentary Agave: The Spirit of a Nation (SXSW, 2018). From 2018-19, he worked in the Philippines photographing and co-producing Ramona Diaz’s Emmy® and Peabody Award-winning documentary A Thousand Cuts (Sundance, 2020) about Nobel Peace Prize-winning journalist Maria Ressa. After returning from the Philippines, Gabriel was diagnosed with a rare form of bone cancer. Treatment for the disease has left him disabled and without full mobility in his right leg. Physically unable to return to his previous career as a full-time vérité cameraperson, he has kept his passion for documentaries alive by shifting his focus to directing. The Body Politic represents his first time as a feature documentary director. Gabriel is a magna cum laude graduate of the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts and a 2018 Katherine Davis Fellow For Peace. He speaks Spanish and has worked on several projects in Latin America.

Dawne Langford, Producer, The Body Politic

Filmmaker Dawne Langford is a 2023 Sundance Women to Watch Adobe x Fellow and a 2022-23 Sundance Producers Lab Fellow. After years of working as a broadcast television editor, she expanded her role after her acceptance to the PBS Producers Academy in 2013. She shifted her focus to producing independent feature documentaries Check It, Kandahar Journals, and Finding Joseph I. Dawne collaborated on projects for CNN Films, CGTN, Discovery Channel, and Moxie Pictures in N.Y.C. with director Lee Hirsch. Currently she is producing The Body Politic with director/producer Gabriel Francis Paz Goodenough, and is in late post production on the documentary Who Killed Alex Odeh?, with directors Jason Osder and William Youmans. She’s also in production on You Don’t Know My Name with director Tommy Franklin. Her motivation and primary interest is amplifying traditionally suppressed narratives and presentations of historical events to deepen understanding, support learning, and stimulate community dialogue.

John Benam, Producer, Cinematographer, Sound, The Body Politic

Two-time Emmy® Award winner John Benam is a Baltimore-based filmmaker and cinematographer. He has over two decades of experience producing, directing, and shooting a wide variety of programming for an array of networks and collaborators. His latest documentary project Assassins had its World Premiere at the Sundance Film Festival. His passion for social justice is evident in his critically-acclaimed film Charm City which revealed the complex world of community-police relations. That same year at Sundance, This is Home chronicled the plight of a Syrian refugee family as they navigated a new life in the United States. As Director of Photography on Netflix’s 2017 Emmy®-nominated series The Keepers, John created an authentic connection with the courageous survivors of abuse who trusted him to help bring their truth to the screen.

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 47 Emmy Awards, 28 George Foster Peabody Awards, 15 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.

About American Documentary, Inc.

American Documentary, Inc. (AmDoc) is a multimedia organization dedicated to creating, identifying and presenting contemporary stories that express opinions and perspectives rarely featured in mainstream media outlets. AmDoc is a catalyst for public culture, developing collaborative strategic engagement activities around socially relevant content on television, online and in community settings. These activities are designed to trigger action, from dialogue and feedback to educational opportunities and community participation.

Major funding for POV is provided by PBS, the Open Society Foundations, The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Wyncote Foundation, Reva & David Logan Foundation, Park Foundation, and Perspective Fund. Additional funding comes from the National Endowment for the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts, public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, Chris and Nancy Plaut, Ann Tenenbaum and Thomas H. Lee, Acton Family Giving, 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.

About PBS

PBS, with more than 330 member stations, offers all Americans the opportunity to explore new ideas and new worlds through television and digital content. Each month, PBS reaches over 120 million people through television and 26 million people online, inviting them to experience the worlds of science, history, nature and public affairs; to hear diverse viewpoints; and to take front row seats to world-class drama and performances. PBS’s broad array of programs has been consistently honored by the industry’s most coveted award competitions. Teachers of children from pre-K through 12th grade turn to PBS for digital content and services that help bring classroom lessons to life. Decades of research confirm that PBS’s premier children’s media service, PBS KIDS, helps children build critical literacy, math and social-emotional skills, enabling them to find success in school and life. Delivered through member stations, PBS KIDS offers high-quality educational content on TV – including a 24/7 channel, online at pbskids.org, via an array of mobile apps and in communities across America. More information about PBS is available at www.pbs.org, one of the leading dot-org websites on the internet, or by following PBS on Twitter, Facebook or through our apps for mobile and connected devices. Specific program information and updates for press are available at pbs.org/pressroom or by following PBS Communications on Twitter.