American Documentary
Toggle menu
Watch
Engage
Create
Donate
POV
America ReFramed
Interactive
Toggle search
Clear search
Media
Resources
Search
✕
American Documentary
Close modal
Bullet Proof Vest
POV Season 20
Short Film
2007
5 Mins
Nine-year old Jyeshria wants a bullet proof vest — and she's dead serious. Welcome to Richmond, California, where children neither walk to school, nor go to the park; not if they want to live past the age of 18.
Watch
More from this film
Bullet Proof Vest
More Info
Info
Short Film
2007
Nine-year old Jyeshria wants a bullet proof vest — and she's dead serious. Welcome to Richmond, California, where children neither walk to school, nor go to the park; not if they want to live past the age of 18.
Based on similar topics
Family & Society
Criminal Justice
Voices of the Sea
Watch Interview
Interview
More Info
Info
Feature Film
2018
Interview
Revealing stark realities for the poorest of rural Cubans with unique access and empathy, this is the story of a 30-something mother of four longing for a better life. The tension between wife and aging husband—one desperate to leave ...
Still Tomorrow
Watch Interview
Interview
More Info
Info
Feature Film
2018
Interview
A village woman with no high school diploma becomes China's most famous poet, and her book of poetry the best-selling such volume in China in the past 20 years. Still Tomorrow follows Yu Xiuhua, a 39-year-old woman living with cerebral ...
Whose Streets?
Watch Clip
Clip
More Info
Info
Feature Film
2018
Clip
When unarmed teenager Michael Brown is killed by police and left lying in the street for hours, it marks a breaking point for the residents of the St. Louis area and beyond. Whose Streets? is an unflinching look at the ...
Lindy Lou, Juror Number 2
Watch Trailer
Trailer
More Info
Info
Feature Film
2018
Trailer
For 20 years, Lindy has lived with an unbearable feeling of guilt. Committed to fulfilling her civic duty, Lindy sat with 11 other people on a jury that handed down the death penalty to a Mississippi man convicted of a ...
Singing With Angry Bird
Watch Trailer
Trailer
More Info
Info
Feature Film
2018
Trailer
Jae-Chang Kim runs a children's choir in Pune, India. Although his quick temper earned him the nickname "Angry Bird," he has made significant changes in the lives of the choir children. But skeptical of the practical value of music ...
StoryCorps Shorts: The Temple of Knowledge
More Info
Info
Short Film
2018
Short Film
Ronald Clark's father was a custodian of a branch of the New York Public Library at a time when caretakers, along with their families, lived in the buildings. With his daughter, Jamilah, Ronald remembers literally growing up in a library ...
A Conversation with My Black Son
More Info
Info
Short Film
2018
Short Film
For generations, parents of black boys across the U.S. have rehearsed, dreaded and postponed The Conversation. But when their boys become teenagers, parents must decide how to handle discussions about race. In this short film originally published by The ...
Mother's Day
More Info
Info
Short Film
2018
Short Film
Once a year on Mother's Day, a charity bus service takes children to visit their mothers in prison across California. Nearly one in ten of the state's children have a parent in prison. Many are unable to regularly visit their ...
StoryCorps Shorts: Driven
More Info
Info
Short Film
2016
Short Film
Wendell Scott was the first African American inducted in the NASCAR Hall of Fame. His son, Frank, remembers what it took for his father to cross the finish line at racetracks throughout the South in the '60s and '70s.
StoryCorps Shorts: School's Out
More Info
Info
Short Film
2016
Short Film
Following the federal mandate to integrate schools in the 1950's, Reverend James Seawood recalls how African Americans were forced out of Sheridan, Arkansas, the fate of his beloved school, and the human cost of "urban renewal."
Stay Close
More Info
Info
Short Film
2019
Short Film
Stay Close
blends home videos and animation in an expressionistic montage to tell the underdog story of Keeth Smart, an African American fencer from Brooklyn who overcomes a gauntlet of hardships on his road to the Olympics.
Crisanto Street
More Info
Info
Short Film
2020
Short Film
In the shadow of Silicon Valley, a hidden community thrives despite difficult circumstances. For one resident, eight-year-old Geovany Cesario, impending change is bittersweet.
Edgecombe
More Info
Info
Short Film
2020
Short Film
Through the deeply personal truths of three local residents,
Edgecombe
examines the ways trauma repeats and reinvents itself in rural black communities.
Reluctantly Queer
More Info
Info
Short Film
2020
Short Film
A young gay man from Ghana struggles to reconcile his sexuality and love for his mother through a series of letters in this deceptively simple yet powerful piece.
All Inclusive
More Info
Info
Short Film
2020
Short Film
Under the spell of mass entertainment on the high seas.
Gentlemen of Vision
Watch Trailer
Trailer
More Info
Info
Feature Film
2018
Trailer
Gentlemen of Vision
follows a year in the life of coach, counselor and founder Marlon Wharton, and his 2015-2016 class of young Black males as he strives to rewrite future prospects for his students. While striving for excellence in school ...
For Ahkeem
Watch Trailer
Trailer
More Info
Info
Feature Film
2018
Trailer
Expelled from high school, Daje Shelton is only 17 years old when she is sentenced by a judge – not to prison, but to an alternative school, the Innovative Concept Academy. It offers Daje one last chance to earn a high ...
The Invisible Patients
Watch Trailer
Trailer
More Info
Info
Feature Film
2018
Trailer
Through the story of Jessica Macleod, Ph.D., a dedicated nurse practitioner in Evansville, Indiana, and her four homebound and marginalized patients,
The Invisible Patients
sheds light on some of the most urgent healthcare issues facing our nation today: from ...
MILWAUKEE 53206
Watch Trailer
Trailer
More Info
Info
Feature Film
2018
Trailer
MILWAUKEE 53206
introduces viewers to a community with the highest rate of incarcerated African American men in the U.S. The unvarnished film unfolds through the stories of postal code 53206 residents directly impacted by imprisonment: Beverly Walker and her ...
Beyond the Wall
Watch Trailer
Trailer
More Info
Info
Feature Film
2018
Trailer
Beyond the Wall
revolves around one central figure, a former prisoner named Louie Diaz, as he works to guide five formerly incarcerated men safely through the minefield of life outside of jail. Too often, prisoner reentry becomes a setup for ...
SVG/POV
Created with Sketch.
89 Steps
More Info
Info
Interactive
2014
In the late 1950s, Marta's mother found refuge for her family in Williamsburg after leaving her village in Puerto Rico and enduring homelessness and hunger elsewhere in New York. When Marta became a single mother, she fought hard to stay ...
SVG/POV
Created with Sketch.
Immigrant Nation
More Info
Info
Interactive
2014
Immigrant Nation
is an interactive storytelling project designed to document the United States' diverse immigrant narratives and experiences and share them with the world. Through short documentary films, live events and an online Story Hub, the project aspires to shift ...
Film Credits
May Lin Au Yong
Press Room
POV, WHUT / Howard University Television, and From Prison Cells to PHD Host Event on Gun Violence Reduction Featuring THE BODY POLITIC Featuring Brandon Scott, Mayor of Baltimore, MD
‘POV Shorts’ Seventh Season Puts Center Stage Ten Short Acquisitions Telling Big Stories in an Arthouse Setting Beginning November 12, 2024 on the PBSApp and POV.org
POV Announces the ‘Our America: Documentaries in Dialogue’ PBS Station 2024 Grantees
More from The Press Room
Broadcast schedule
Check your local PBS station
for upcoming airings of POV
More from this series
Learn more about POV