This semester I will be interning at POV, a television program that runs on PBS (accessed locally on channel 13). Out of over 800 yearly submissions, POV showcases the best 14 – 16 non-fiction documentary films to run prime-time on PBS.

POV has been in the documentary film business since 1988. And they have screened over 300 films earning 32 Emmys, 15 George Foster Peabody Awards, 12 Alfred I. duPoint-Columbia Broadcast Journalism Awards, 2 Academy Awards, and the Prix Italia.

POV’s massive collection of awards as seen from the entrance.

The following are a selection of the movies that POV has released in previous seasons. You can view their trailers by clicking on the title in the descriptions under the posters.

Herman’s House – Herman Wallace may be the longest-serving prisoner in solitary confinement in the United States—he’s spent more than 40 years in a 6-by-9-foot cell in Louisiana. Imprisoned in 1967 for a robbery he admits, he was subsequently sentenced to life for a killing he vehemently denies. Herman’s House is a moving account of the remarkable expression his struggle found in an unusual project proposed by artist Jackie Sumell. Imagining Wallace’s “dream home” began as a game and became an interrogation of justice and punishment in America. The film takes us inside the duo’s unlikely 12-year friendship, revealing the transformative power of art. A documentary film by Angad Singh Bhalla

My Way to Olympia – Who better to cover the Paralympics, the international sporting event for athletes with physical and intellectual disabilities, than Niko von Glasow, the world’s best-known disabled filmmaker? Unfortunately—or fortunately for anyone seeking an insightful and funny documentary—this filmmaker frankly hates sports and thinks the games are “a stupid idea.” Born with severely shortened arms, von Glasow serves as an endearing guide to London’s Paralympics competition in My Way to Olympia. As he meets a one-handed Norwegian table tennis player, the Rwandan sitting volleyball team, an American archer without arms and a Greek paraplegic boccia player, his own stereotypes about disability and sports get delightfully punctured.

Pov also produces a “Behind the Lens” series where they interview some of the filmmakers of the films that they have released.

Filmmaker Nicole Opper and producer Sharese Bullock talk about “Off and Running,” a coming-of-age tale about Avery Klein-Cloud, a teenage adoptee with who lives in Brooklyn with two Jewish moms and two adopted brothers. The film follows her search for her birth family and her identity. Click on the image to learn more.

POV as a “business” selects which films will air on PBS, they further promote these films by engaging with the community in terms of  facilitating movie screening and social media efforts, providing in depth post movie information including interviews with the directors, and discussion guides and lesson plans for teachers that would like to bring the topics raised in these films into their classrooms.

“PBS is a private, nonprofit corporation, founded in 1969, whose members are America’s public TV stations — noncommercial, educational licensees that operate more than 350 PBS member stations and serve all 50 states, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam and American Samoa.

PBS’ mission is to create content that educates, informs and inspires. To do this, PBS offers programming that expands the minds of children,documentaries that open up new worlds, non-commercialized news programs that keep citizens informed on world events and cultures and programs that expose America to the worlds of music, theater, dance and art. ” This was taken from PBS’ website. It’s easy to see how POV feats seamlessly with that mission statement.

I will be working as a graphic design intern working in the community engagement department (I’ll provide more specifics on my role in a later post).

So thats what they do and what I will do, but where will I do it? Their offices are located at 20 Jay Street in Brooklyn more colorfully known as Dumbo.

The neighborhood sits under the shadow of the Brooklyn Bridge. with original cobblestone streets and cool river breezes, it’s a great place to be in the summer.

Unfortunately for me, I will be working there during what has been called the fourth coldest winter that New York City has seen since it started keeping record around 140 years ago.

Luckily, it’s not far from both school and where I live that it will make the cold weather bearable.