POV presents an array of groundbreaking and distinctive perspectives on contemporary life as chronicled by some of America’ s and Europe’s most visionary non-fiction filmmakers.
When the Taliban puts a bounty on Afghan director Hassan Fazili’s head, he is forced to flee with his wife and two young daughters. Fazili shows firsthand the dangers facing refugees seeking asylum and the love shared between a family on the run.
airs 12/30 at 10 p.m.
Double Take: The Art of Elizabeth King illuminates the aesthetic and engineering questions sculptor Elizabeth King puzzles over with an acute sensitivity to both life, and the life-like. She has created her own genre at the intersection of the classical and automata. An accomplished artist with an eye for the intimate meaning of gesture, King obsessively manipulates her materials to produce pieces that both approximate and challenge the viewer. Newly retired from 40 years of teaching, King is more than ever able to focus on her work, and examine her motives and making. With major solo shows driving her, King seems poised to get her due. In studio visits, conversations with peers and art world figures, Double Take: The Art of Elizabeth King invites the viewer to consider what looking and seeing one another means in our increasingly visual world.
airs 12/31 at 2 a.m.
airs Mondays 3 a.m. beginning 12/9 (600 series has 5/30 minute programs) (500 series has 6/30 minute programs) – Top Black Studies scholars engage with projects and research focused on education, performance and youth empowerment.
Hoberman details the hidden world of police steroid use. Lewis and Nicole Conway explore successful reentry from mental and physical incarceration. Dr. Gerstenblatt confronts her own racism in the journey of raising mixed race kids.
airs 12/30 at 3 a.m.
Featuring over 20 different lighthouses along the shores of the Seaway Trail, from the Barcelona Lighthouse on Lake Erie to the Ogdensburg Harbor Light on the St. Lawrence River. Discover the first lighthouse on the Great Lakes the lighthouse destroyed by a collision with a ship… the lighthouse tended by a former pirate and the lighthouse that disappeared for nearly 60 years!
airs 12/29 at 4 p.m.
Three young people explore Indiana to see how their state is moving into the future. In this new Roadtrip Nation special, follow the journeys of three post-secondary students from Indiana on a life-changing road trip to see how Indiana-grown ingenuity is keeping their home state at the cutting edge of rapid technological change. They’re spending two weeks exploring some of the exciting industries powering Indiana’s growth-including healthcare services, advanced manufacturing, biosciences, and technology-and connecting with the Hoosiers working at the forefront of these fields. Follow along with their journey, and see how the state nicknamed the “Crossroads of America” is driving the future forward for us all.
airs 12/30 at 1 a.m.
Miriam Beerman: Expressing The Chaos is the retrospective of a remarkable artist whose personal demons and empathy for human suffering colored a lifetime of her work.
airs 12/31 at 1 a.m.
Through His Own Eyes – This revealing biography, told in Count Basie’s own words, uncovers for the first time the private passions and ambitions that inspired the world-famous bandleader and pianist. Until recently, little was known about Basie’s private and family life, but this documentary uncovers a treasure-trove of home movies and photo albums that expose Basie’s remarkable relationship with his wife Catherine, whose pioneering support for African-American causes placed her at the side of Martin Luther King. Through Basie’s intimate footage and letters -and interviews with Quincy Jones and former band members – the film discovers the Count’s protective love for his disabled daughter Diane who ‘was never out of his heart and mind: the hidden core of his creative life’. Basie’s musical achievements were remarkable: the first African-American to win a Grammy, he brought the Blues to the big band podium. He was ‘the King of the Swing Kings’. We see rare performances with Frank Sinatra, Billie Holiday, Sammy Davis Jr. and many others. But this film digs deeper, uncovering the inner motivation and passions that drove Basie’s career as he became a unique link between jazz and America’s turbulent social history. Airs 12/29 at 2:30 p.m.
Disabilities Today is a positive, informative, resource for persons with disabilities, by providing current information regarding rehabilitation trends, technological advances, travel, recreation, and community based opportunities for persons or families with disabilities. It is estimated that 80% of American families will acquire some type of disability at some point in their lifetime.
#2009 airs 12/28 at 9:30 a.m. – Learn how a dentist is helping people with Sleep Apnea.
Food Delicious Science (3/60 minute programs) airs Friday at 3 a.m. beginning 12/20 – – Food – Delicious Science is the thrilling science story of the food on your plate and the physics, chemistry and biology that lies hidden inside every bite. Across three episodes we use the latest imaging techniques to reveal this inner world of food and we reveal along the way why such a variety of foods have ended up in our diet and how they affect our lives. When viewed at the microscopic level, food resembles a vast range of alien landscapes that shift in remarkable ways as we cook them. Each time we eat, a cascade of biological reactions is set off inside our bodies: from flavor explosions in the mouth; to an energy rush; to occasionally triggering waves of disgust and how these ingrained human reactions and cravings for food have deep evolutionary roots that offer a whole new way of thinking about our relationship to the modern diet. The science is set against sumptuous location photography shot across the world: from the oldest rice terraces in the Philippines to an ancient variety of potato in the Andes Mountains of Peru; from the corn fields of Mexico to the milk dairies of Bulgaria as we seek the origins of some our favorite foods to deepen our understanding of why we eat them. This is food as you’ve never seen it before.
Curious Crew (400) (10/30 minute programs) airs Fridays at 1 a.m. beginning 12/20 – – Rob Stephenson and inquisitive kids take a hands-on approach to scientific exploration.