PBS Series P.O.V. Launches 11th Season

by Mark Rabinowitz

The venerable PBS television series, P.O.V. embarks on its second decade of quality documentary programming this Summer, with the June 2nd airing of Anne Makepeace's "Baby It's You." An inside look at the modern practices of fertility science, experienced when the filmmaker realizes that she "can't get pregnant the fun way," this film screened at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival in the documentary competition.

Other highlights of the coming season include a 60-minute version of Arthur Dong's 1997 Sundance award winning film "Licensed To Kill," a film which probes the minds of men in prison for killing homosexuals; 1997 Sundance award winner Macky Alston's "Family Name," in which he examines his family's slave-owning past and investigates his link to back families that share his name; and Christine Fugate and Eren McGinnis' look at the lives of four family-owned tobacco farms in Kentucky and how they are caught between anti-tobacco activists ad tobacco-industry lobbyists, "Tobacco Blues."

August 4th brings a series of three short films by women directors, entitled "She Shorts." The selections include Elizabeth Schub's award- winning festival fave, "Cuba 15"; Ellie Lee's "Repetition Compulsion," and Tina DeFeliciantonio and Jane C. Wagner's portrait of author Dorothy Allison ("Bastard Out of Carolina"), "Two or Three Things But Nothing For Sure." In all, of eight of the thirteen films in the season, were directed by women.

P.O.V.'s outreach doesn't stop at the broadcast level, however, encouraging viewer feed back through letters, e-mail, a toll-free hotline, and the new "Talking Back: Video Letters to P.O.V.," a program inviting viewers to video tape their reactions to P.O.V. programming. In addition, P.O.V. Interactive 's use of the World Wide Web to provide non-broadcast related content hit a high point with their web site detailing the transfer of power in Hong Kong.

The schedule for this Summer's season of P.O.V. is as follows (all shows are at 10:00pm EDT -- check local listings for the PBS station in your area):
June 2 -- "Baby, It's You" by Anne Makepeace
June 9 -- "Tobacco Blues" by Eren McGinnis and Christine Fugate
June 16 -- "The Band" by David Zeiger
June 23 -- "Licensed To Kill" by Arthur Dong
June 30 -- "Kelly Loves Tony" by Spencer Nakasano
July 7 -- "If I Can't Do It" by Walter Brock
July 14 -- "Barbie Nation: An Unauthorized Tour" by Susan Stern
July 21 -- "The Vanishing Line" by Maren Monsen
July 28 -- "Sacrifice" by Ellen Bruno
August 4 -- "She Shorts" Short films by Elizabeth Schub, Ellie Lee, and Tina DeFeliciantonio and Jane C. Wagner
September (Date TBA) -- "Family Name" by Macky Alston

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Some productions are co-presentations of: the Independent Television Service, the National Asian American Telecommunications Association, Kentucky ETV and the National Education Telecommunications Association. [For more information on PO.V., visit their web site at: www.pov.org] Login to recommend this article » posted on April 29, 1998 Films to Snag Login to Leave a Comment »