POV Delivers a Revolutionary Approach to Storytelling with Six New Interactive Documentary Shorts

Viewers can interact and engage online with compelling short films dealing with timely social issues

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Sep 15, 2014, 09:00 ET

NEW YORK, Sept. 15, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- POV, American television's longest-running showcase for independent nonfiction films, is taking a bold leap into new forms of storytelling with the launch of six new interactive shorts at www.pbs.org/pov/digital/shorts. Delving into topics about contemporary social issues, these web-native documentaries allow audiences to engage with documentaries on a deeper level using new technologies and new paradigms in storytelling.

Audiences will experience Marta Aviles' Brooklyn neighborhood and climb the 89 steps to her apartment as she walks them through her 30-year story, a personal account of a rapidly gentrifying community.
Award-winning director Whitney Dow investigates ethnicity and what it means to be white through candid perspectives on the polarizing subject of race in America.
Photographer Jake Price's exploration of post-nuclear disaster Japan weaves together art, artifacts and data to highlight the resilience of one survivor who has remained in Fukushima.
A global examination of the unintended consequences of Dutch colonialism pushes the boundary of what's possible online with web video that flips, spins, fragments and reconnects stories.
America's story is the story of its people, of its immigrants, now told in a new crowdsourced platform from Student Academy Award^®-winning documentary filmmaker Theo Rigby.
In Greenland, a community is uprooted, but this interactive documentary asks viewers to look into the sights and sounds of the town and then ask themselves what happened.

Four of the six projects—89 Steps: A Chapter of Living Los Sures; Empire; Fukushima: The Eternal Season; and Whiteness Project: Inside the White Caucasian Box—were created by alumni of POV Hackathon, pov.org/hackathon, POV's weekend laboratory series that since 2012 has provided matchmaking and mentorship for inventive nonfiction media makers and technologists. In addition to premiering the projects online, POV will also present three of the projects at the New York Film Festival's Convergence program (Sept. 27-28, 2014), a premier showcase for new storytelling. The release of POV's interactive films concludes a summer of independent short films distributed online and supported by the National Endowment for the Arts under the "PBS Indies" banner.

"Documentaries are no longer confined by conventional linear narratives," said Adnaan Wasey, executive producer of POV Digital. "By leveraging digital technology, we are able to elevate nonfiction content into a creative art form to connect with more audiences and tell stories on an entirely new level. And the short interactive documentary format gives creators more room for experimentation as this nascent field develops."

Five films premiere today, and Whiteness Project: Inside the White Caucasian Box premieres Sept. 29:

"89 Steps: A Chapter of Living Los Sures"
The 1984 documentary Los Sures featured Marta Aviles, a single mother of five struggling to make ends meet. 89 Steps is a chapter from Living Los Sures, a mixed-media documentary project from alumni of POV Hackathon about the south side of the Williamsburg, Brooklyn neighborhood, known as "Los Sures," and its Latino community.

"Empire"
An investigation into the aftershocks of the first global capitalist endeavor, Dutch colonialism, shot in 10 countries over four years.

"Fukushima: The Eternal Season"
Chronicling the ongoing recovery of the Tohoku region of Japan after the devastating earthquake, tsunami and nuclear meltdown in 2011.

"Immigrant Nation"
A storytelling platform to watch, share and connect our personal stories of immigration. Filmmaker Theo Rigby won a Student Academy Award^® for the short film Sin Pais (Without Country), which premiered on POV in 2012.

"The Most Northern Place"
A simple but powerful web documentary about a small town in Northern Greenland.

"Whiteness Project: Inside the White Caucasian Box" (Online: Monday, Sept. 29, 2014)
A cross-platform exploration of how white Americans experience their ethnicity. POV Hackathon alum Whitney Dow is the co-director of Two Towns of Jasper, a landmark 2003 POV documentary that examined race in the aftermath of the shocking murder of James Byrd, Jr. in Jasper, Texas.

For complete press release and descriptions of the projects, visit pbs.org/pov/

About POV
Produced by American Documentary, Inc. and now in its 27th season on PBS, the award-winning POV is the longest-running showcase on American television to feature the work of today's best independent documentary filmmakers. POV has brought more than 365 acclaimed documentaries to millions nationwide. POV films have won every major film and broadcasting award, including 32 Emmys, 17 George Foster Peabody Awards, 10 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Awards, three Academy Awards® and the Prix Italia. Since 1988, POV has pioneered the art of presentation and outreach using independent nonfiction media to build new communities in conversation about today's most pressing social issues. Visit www.pbs.org/pov.

POV Digital
Since 1994, POV Digital has driven new storytelling initiatives and interactive production for POV. The department created PBS's first program website and its first web-based documentary (POV's Borders) and has won major awards, including a Webby Award (and six nominations) and an Online News Association Award. POV Digital continues to explore the future of independent nonfiction media through its digital productions and the POV Hackathon lab, where media makers and technologists collaborate to reinvent storytelling forms. @povdocs on Twitter.

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