American Documentary to develop new innovations in digital storytelling through its award-winning PBS series, POV

Knight Foundation invests $250,000 to help filmmakers, journalists and media makers explore fresh digital territory

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Apr 10, 2014, 09:00 ET

NEW YORK, April 10, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- American Documentary, Inc. (AmDoc) today announced a plan to further expand its nonfiction series, POV, beyond television into the digital space with new innovations in storytelling. With $250,000 from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, POV will increase its digital co-productions, hire a technology fellow and continue its successful nonfiction media lab, POV Hackathon.

Since the 1990s, PBS's award-winning nonfiction broadcast series POV (a cinema term for "point of view") has built a reputation for digital innovation. POV built PBS's first program website and created PBS's first interactive storytelling project, the Webby Award-winning "POV's Borders"; POV has also continually created companion film websites and apps. Recently, POV and The New York Times announced a collaboration to premiere new documentaries on the organizations' websites. The first film, "The Men of Atalissa," produced by The New York Times, can be seen on pbs.org/pov and www.nytimes.com.

Building on POV's digital track record, $75,000 of the Knight Foundation funding will go to two promising media projects that push the boundaries of nonfiction media in the digital age. The projects will receive technical and creative support to take them from idea to prototype to a finished product.

With the balance of the support, POV will offer a yearlong fellowship to a technologist and continue its nonfiction media hackathon labs. The chosen fellow will develop digital and mobile tools for nonfiction media makers. Since 2012, the POV Hackathon labs have gathered media makers and technologists to collaborate and develop new innovations in documentary for the Web. In 2014, POV will organize two labs in New York and for the first time hold a lab in Los Angeles.

"While newsrooms have seen significant pick up in media innovation in recent years there is a need for more digital breakthroughs in the television and broadcast arena; POV is helping fill this gap by innovating with new technologies across multiple media platforms," said Michael Maness, Knight Foundation vice president of journalism and media innovation. "Videos and documentaries have a great power to engage the public and capture in-depth stories. We can strengthen their reach by supporting innovation in this area."

"We're excited that Knight is supporting digital media across the spectrum, from the experimentation that comes out of POV Hackathon to creating new works that forward the field of digital journalism and Web documentary," said Cynthia López, POV co-executive producer. "As POV continues exploring what's possible, we will also see how nonfiction media makers can find new ways to use mobile platforms for storytelling and engagement."

POV is now seeking projects for digital co-production at pov.org/submit, and applications are now being accepted for the POV Digital Technologist Fellowship at pov.org/jobs.

For the complete press release, visit www.pbs.org/pov/pressroom/2014/pov-knight-foundation-digital-storytelling-innovation-grant.php.

SOURCE American Documentary