POV Short Cuts Press Release - PBS › pov › downloads › 2011 › pov... · 4"of"4"...

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1 of 4 Contacts: POV Communications: 2129897425. Emergency contact: 6467294748 Cathy Fisher, [email protected], Jillian Ayala, [email protected] POV online pressroom: www.pbs.org/pov/pressroom “POV Short Cuts” Showcases the Power of Brevity in Six New Short Films Premiering on PBS on Tuesday, Aug. 23, 2011 Animation, StoryCorps Oral Histories, Passionate Birders, an Adoption Story from Poland and One Delightfully Irascible Matriarch Make for a Wry and Touching Program of Inventive Shorts POV, public television’s awardwinning nonfiction film series, shows that innovation in documentary storytelling is not the province of longform filmmaking alone. Whether employing freewheeling animation or cinéma vérité, candid musings or fragmented recollections, the films on POV Short Cuts reveal the seriocomic depths of ordinary moments, memories and passions. Included are David Wilson’s Big Birding Day, Andrea Dorfman’s Flawed, Marcin Janos Krawczyk’s Six Weeks, Beverly Morris’s Tiffany, and two new animated pieces — Miss Devine and No More Questions! — from the award winning StoryCorps oralhistory project. The films of POV Short Cuts will have their national broadcast premieres on Tuesday, Aug. 23, 2011 at 10 p.m. on PBS as part of the 24th season of POV (Point of View), which runs through Sept. 27 on Tuesdays at 10 p.m. and continues with specials in November 2011 and winter/spring 2012. (Check local listings.) American television’s longestrunning independent documentary series, POV is the winner of a Special Emmy Award for Excellence in Television Documentary Filmmaking, an IDA Award for Best Continuing Series and NALIP’s 2011 Award for Corporate Commitment to Diversity. POV Short Cuts: Big Birding Day by David Wilson Marty and Chris, best friends since childhood, travel to Mexico to try and break the record for number of bird species sighted in a 24hour period — pushing the boundaries of their passion for bird watching, the most popular pastime in the United States. Length: 12:00 Flawed by Andrea Dorfman Artist Andrea Dorfman’s drawings burst colorfully into life as she animates the story of her long distance relationship with a man whose profession — plastic surgery — gives her plenty of fodder for thought about what makes a person beautiful. Flawed is less about whether girl can get along with boy than whether girl can accept herself, imperfections and all. A Production of Atlantic Centre and the National Film Board of Canada. Length: 12:00. Six Weeks by Marcin Janos Krawczyk This is a poignant evocation of the first six weeks in the life of a baby given up for adoption in Poland — six weeks during which the birth mother can change her mind and keep her baby. The helplessness of the baby as momentous decisions about his fate swirl around him and the anguish of the young and poor mother, making what she feels is “the best decision,” are balanced by the beauty of newborn life and the love it inspires. Winner of IDFA Award for Best Short Documentary. Length: 16:00.

Transcript of POV Short Cuts Press Release - PBS › pov › downloads › 2011 › pov... · 4"of"4"...

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Contacts:  POV  Communications:  212-­‐989-­‐7425.  Emergency  contact:  646-­‐729-­‐4748    Cathy  Fisher,  [email protected],  Jillian  Ayala,  [email protected]    POV  online  pressroom:  www.pbs.org/pov/pressroom  

“POV  Short  Cuts”  Showcases  the  Power  of  Brevity  in  Six  New  Short  Films  

Premiering  on  PBS  on  Tuesday,  Aug.  23,  2011  

Animation,  StoryCorps  Oral  Histories,  Passionate  Birders,  an  Adoption  Story  from  Poland  and  One  Delightfully  Irascible  Matriarch  Make  for  a  Wry  and  Touching  Program  of  Inventive  Shorts    POV,  public  television’s  award-­‐winning  nonfiction  film  series,  shows  that  innovation  in  documentary  storytelling  is  not  the  province  of  long-­‐form  filmmaking  alone.  Whether  employing  freewheeling  animation  or  cinéma  vérité,  candid  musings  or  fragmented  recollections,  the  films  on  POV  Short  Cuts  reveal  the  seriocomic  depths  of  ordinary  moments,  memories  and  passions.  Included  are  David  Wilson’s  Big  Birding  Day,  Andrea  Dorfman’s  Flawed,  Marcin  Janos  Krawczyk’s  Six  Weeks,  Beverly  Morris’s  Tiffany,  and  two  new  animated  pieces  —  Miss  Devine  and  No  More  Questions!  —  from  the  award-­‐winning  StoryCorps  oral-­‐history  project.    The  films  of  POV  Short  Cuts  will  have  their  national  broadcast  premieres  on  Tuesday,  Aug.  23,  2011  at  10  p.m.  on  PBS  as  part  of  the  24th  season  of  POV  (Point  of  View),  which  runs  through  Sept.  27  on  Tuesdays  at  10  p.m.  and  continues  with  specials  in  November  2011  and  winter/spring  2012.  (Check  local  listings.)  American  television’s  longest-­‐running  independent  documentary  series,  POV  is  the  winner  of  a  Special  Emmy  Award  for  Excellence  in  Television  Documentary  Filmmaking,  an  IDA  Award  for  Best  Continuing  Series  and  NALIP’s  2011  Award  for  Corporate  Commitment  to  Diversity.    POV  Short  Cuts:    

• Big  Birding  Day  by  David  Wilson Marty  and  Chris,  best  friends  since  childhood,  travel  to  Mexico  to  try  and  break  the  record  for  number  of  bird  species  sighted  in  a  24-­‐hour  period  —  pushing  the  boundaries  of  their  passion  for  bird  watching,  the  most  popular  pastime  in  the  United  States.  Length:  12:00

 • Flawed  by  Andrea  Dorfman    

Artist  Andrea  Dorfman’s  drawings  burst  colorfully  into  life  as  she  animates  the  story  of  her  long-­‐distance  relationship  with  a  man  whose  profession  —  plastic  surgery  —  gives  her  plenty  of  fodder  for  thought  about  what  makes  a  person  beautiful.  Flawed  is  less  about  whether  girl  can  get  along  with  boy  than  whether  girl  can  accept  herself,  imperfections  and  all.  A  Production  of  Atlantic  Centre  and  the  National  Film  Board  of  Canada.  Length:  12:00.    

• Six  Weeks  by  Marcin  Janos  Krawczyk  This  is  a  poignant  evocation  of  the  first  six  weeks  in  the  life  of  a  baby  given  up  for  adoption  in  Poland  —  six  weeks  during  which  the  birth  mother  can  change  her  mind  and  keep  her  baby.  The  helplessness  of  the  baby  as  momentous  decisions  about  his  fate  swirl  around  him  and  the  anguish  of  the  young  and  poor  mother,  making  what  she  feels  is  “the  best  decision,”  are  balanced  by  the  beauty  of  newborn  life  and  the  love  it  inspires.  Winner  of  IDFA  Award  for  Best  Short  Documentary.  Length:  16:00.  

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• Tiffany  by  Alix  Lambert  In  this  bittersweet  animated  short,  Beverly  Morris  (the  mother  of  the  producer,  Jennifer  Morris)  tells  of  her  ongoing  and  oddly  affecting  struggle  to  hold  on  to  the  most  contested  object  in  her  rocky  divorce  —  a  Tiffany  lamp.  Tiffany  was  made  as  part  of  an  online  collaboration  between  the  creators  of  the  stage  play  “You  Better  Sit  Down:  Tales  From  My  Parents’  Divorce”  and  WNYC  New  York  Public  Radio’s  culture  site.  Length:  1:00.  

 • StoryCorps    

StoryCorps  brings  its  Peabody  Award-­‐winning  storytelling  to  POV  for  a  second  season.  Since  2003,  StoryCorps  has  recorded  and  preserved  the  voices  and  memories  of  everyday  people,  one  conversation  at  a  time.  These  animated  short  films  on  POV  use  original  recordings  that  have  become  beloved  public-­‐radio  “driveway  moments.”  StoryCorps  is  funded  by  the  Corporation  for  Public  Broadcasting.  POV  Short  Cuts  features  two  StoryCorps  animations:  

• Miss  Devine  Cousins  James  Ransom  and  Cherie  Johnson  recall  their  formidable  Sunday  school  teacher,  Miss  Lizzie  Devine,  the  only  woman  who  scared  them  more  than  their  grandmother.  Set  in  the  small  Florida  town  of  the  cousins’  childhood,  this  short  will  have  you  laughing  along  as  James  and  Cherie  remember  the  fearsome,  larger-­‐than-­‐life  Miss  Devine.  Length:  3:00.  

 • No  More  Questions!  

Strong-­‐willed  grandmother  Kay  Wang  allowed  her  son  and  granddaughter  to  drag  her  into  a  StoryCorps  booth.  Though  Kay  was  reluctant,  she  had  stories  to  tell  —  from  disobeying  her  mother  and  rebuffing  suitors  while  growing  up  in  China  to  late-­‐life  adventures  as  a  detective  for  Bloomingdale’s  department  store.  Kay  passed  away  just  weeks  after  that  interview,  and  her  son  and  granddaughter  returned  to  StoryCorps  to  remember  her  gentler  side,  which  she  kept  to  herself.  Length:  4:00.    

 StoryCorps  credits:  Executive  Producer:  Dave  Isay;  Supervising  Producer:  Donna  Galeno;  Producers:  Mike  Rauch,  Lizzie  Jacobs;  Co-­‐producers:  Michael  Garofalo,  Isaac  Kestenbaum;  Animator/Director:  Tim  Rauch.  

 POV  Short  Cuts  Total  Running  Time:     56:46    About  the  Filmmakers:  David  Wilson,  Producer/Director,  “Big  Birding  Day”  David  Wilson  studied  filmmaking  at  Hampshire  College  in  Amherst,  Mass.,  before  moving  back  to  his  hometown  of  Columbia,  Mo.,  to  found  the  Ragtag  Cinema.  He  has  worked  in  fiction,  documentary  and  music  videos,  making  work  that  evokes  the  Midwestern  landscapes  that  he  loves.  His  “Kansas  Anymore”  (1996)  and  “Magic  City”  (2001)  screened  nationally  as  part  of  the  PunkNotRock  tours  that  Wilson  organized.  In  2003,  Wilson  co-­‐created  an  experimental  opera,  “The  Nitrate  Hymnal,”  with  Bob  Massey  in  Washington,  D.C.  In  2004,  he  returned  to  Columbia  to  launch  the  True/False  Film  Fest  with  partner  Paul  Sturtz.  In  2009,  he  completed  Big  Birding  Day.  The  film  premiered  at  SXSW  and  Wilson  was  named  one  of  Filmmaker  magazine’s  25  New  Faces  of  Independent  Film.  He  is  currently  in  post-­‐production  on  “We  Always  Lie  to  Strangers,”  a  portrait  of  Branson,  Mo.  that  he  is  co-­‐directing  with  A.J.  Schnack.      Andrea  Dorfman,  Writer/Director/Animator/Narrator,  “Flawed”  Andrea  Dorfman  is  an  artist  and  filmmaker  based  in  Halifax,  Nova  Scotia.  She  has  made  numerous  short  experimental  and  dramatic  films  as  well  as  two  feature  films,  “Parsley  Days”  (2000)  and  “Love  That  Boy”  (2003).  Dorfman  also  made  a  full-­‐length  documentary,  “Sluts”  (2005),  and  is  currently  working  in  

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animation  at  the  National  Film  Board  of  Canada.  She  is  in  development  with  her  third  feature  film,  “Harmony.”  She  teaches  film  and  video  part-­‐time  at  the  Nova  Scotia  College  of  Art  and  Design  and  is  the  co-­‐creator  of  “Blowhard,”  a  thematic  storytelling  series  in  Halifax.    Marcin  Janos  Krawczyk  Marcin  Janos  Krawczyk  is  well-­‐known  in  his  native  Poland  as  an  actor,  screenwriter  and  director.  He  worked  with  the  Dramatic  Theatre  in  Warsaw  from  2001  to  2003  and  also  appeared  in  productions  at  the  Powszechny  Theatre.  Since  1999,  he  has  appeared  in  numerous  Polish  television  series,  but  is  best  known  for  the  role  of  the  priest  Anthony  King  in  the  series  “Presbytery.”  While  taking  a  documentary  course  in  Andrzej  Wajda  Master  School  of  Film  Directing  in  Warsaw,  Krawczyk  made  a  short  documentary  for  the  series  “Silence  II.”  Other  filmmaking  credits  include  the  short  “Rendez-­‐vous,”  which  earned  a  Golden  Bear  nomination  at  the  Berlin  International  Film  Festival.  Alix  Lambert,  Director,  “Tiffany”  Alix  Lambert’s  2001  feature-­‐length  documentary,  “The  Mark  of  Cain,”  was  nominated  for  an  Independent  Spirit  Award  and  aired  on  ABC  News  “Nightline.”  She  produced  additional  segments  of  “Nightline”  as  well  as  segments  for  the  PBS  series  Life  360.  Lambert  wrote  the  sixth  episode  of  the  HBO  series  “Deadwood,”  for  which  she  won  a  Writers  Guild  of  America  Award.  As  an  artist,  Lambert  has  exhibited  at  the  Venice  Biennale,  the  Museum  of  Modern  Art  and  the  Georges  Pompidou  Center.  Her  books  include  The  Silencing,  Mastering  the  Melon  and  Crime.  She  is  an  associate  artist  with  the  Obie  Award-­‐winning  theater  group  The  Civilians  and  has  recently  completed  production  (with  co-­‐director  David  McMahon)  on  a  feature-­‐length  documentary  titled  “Bayou  Blue.”      StoryCorps:  Dave  Isay,  Founder  and  President  Dave  Isay  is  the  founder  of  StoryCorps  and  the  recipient  of  numerous  broadcasting  honors,  including  five  Peabody  Awards  and  a  MacArthur  “Genius”  Fellowship.  He  is  the  author  and  editor  of  numerous  books  that  grew  out  of  his  public  radio  documentary  work,  including  two  StoryCorps  books:  Listening  Is  an  Act  of  Love  and  Mom:  A  Celebration  of  Mothers  From  StoryCorps,  both  New  York  Times  bestsellers.    Mike  Rauch,  Producer/Director  Mike  Rauch  first  became  fascinated  with  the  triumphs,  trials,  and  life  stories  of  everyday  Americans  while  working  as  a  door-­‐to-­‐door  book  salesman.  He  joined  StoryCorps  in  2007  and  worked  as  an  intern  and  facilitator  before  taking  on  his  current  role  as  a  producer  and  director  on  the  StoryCorps  animated  series.  He  also  works  with  his  brother  Tim  to  produce  independent  animation  through  their  studio  Rauch  Brothers  Animation,  and  he  is  currently  developing  a  film  featuring  1950s  recordings  made  by  Puerto  Rican  migrants  in  New  York  City.    Tim  Rauch,  Animator/Director  Tim  Rauch  has  been  drawing  ever  since  he  was  old  enough  to  hold  a  crayon.  His  career  in  animation  began  on  “The  Wonder  Pets!”  an  Emmy  Award-­‐winning  preschool  show,  for  which  he  was  an  animator  and  designer.  Since  then,  he  has  created  animation  for  clients  as  diverse  as  Sesame  Workshop  and  Mountain  Dew.  Through  Rauch  Brothers  Animation,  he  has  directed  and  animated  two  award-­‐winning  independent  films  that  have  screened  in  over  50  film  festivals  worldwide.    POV  Series  Credits:  Executive  Producer:           Simon  Kilmurry  Co-­‐Executive  Producer:         Cynthia  López  Director  of  Production  and  Programming:     Chris  White  Series  Producer:         Yance  Ford    

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Produced  by  American  Documentary,  Inc.  and  now  in  its  24th  season  on  PBS,  the  award-­‐winning  POV  series  is  the  longest-­‐running  showcase  on  American  television  to  feature  the  

work  of  today’s  best  independent  documentary  filmmakers.  Airing  June  through  September  with  primetime  specials  during  the  year,  POV  has  brought  more  than  300  acclaimed  documentaries  to  millions  nationwide  and  has  a  Webby  Award-­‐winning  online  series,  POV’s  Borders.  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  (www.pbs.org/pov)  POV’s  award-­‐winning  website  extends  the  life  of  our  films  online  with  interactive  features,  interviews,  updates,  video  and  educational  content,  as  well  as  listings  for  television  broadcasts,  community  screenings  and  films  available  online.  The  POV  Blog  is  a  gathering  place  for  documentary  fans  and  filmmakers  to  discuss  their  favorite  films  and  get  the  latest  news.      POV  Community  Engagement  and  Education    POV  films  can  be  seen  at  more  than  450  events  across  the  country  every  year.  Together  with  schools,  organizations  and  local  PBS  stations,  POV  facilitates  free  community  screenings  and  produces  free  resources  to  accompany  our  films,  including  discussion  guides  and  curriculum-­‐based  lesson  plans.  With  our  community  partners,  we  inspire  dialogue  around  the  most  important  social  issues  of  our  time.    Major  funding  for  POV  is  provided  by  PBS,  The  John  D.  and  Catherine  T.  MacArthur  Foundation,  National  Endowment  for  the  Arts,  The  Educational  Foundation  of  America,  New  York  State  Council  on  the  Arts,  New  York  City  Department  of  Cultural  Affairs,  FACT  and  public  television  viewers.  Special  support  provided  by  the  Academy  of  Motion  Picture  Arts  and  Sciences.  Funding  for  POV's  Diverse  Voices  Project  is  provided  by  the  Corporation  for  Public  Broadcasting.  Project  VoiceScape  is  a  partnership  of  Adobe  Youth  Voices,  PBS  and  POV.  POV  is  presented  by  a  consortium  of  public  television  stations,  including  WGBH  Boston  and  THIRTEEN  in  association  with  WNET.ORG.      American  Documentary,  Inc.  (www.amdoc.org)  American  Documentary,  Inc.  (AmDoc)  is  a  multimedia  company  dedicated  to  creating,  identifying  and  presenting  contemporary  stories  that  express  opinions  and  perspectives  rarely  featured  in  mainstream  media  outlets.  AmDoc  develops  collaborative  strategic-­‐engagement  activities  around  socially  relevant  content  on  television,  online  and  in  community  settings.  These  activities  are  designed  to  trigger  action,  from  dialogue  and  feedback  to  educational  opportunities  and  community  participation.      

       

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