It has brought viewers the world for 13 seasons and does so again with an extended season that includes two specials and an encore presentation. Point of View (POV), the PBS series that showcases documentary film, returns for another season of provocative insight on topics that range from the struggle for human rights to the meaning of a name.
The themes and production values of POV films can vary wildly, but I’m convinced that the series is one of the unheralded gems of television. When compared to the face of regular television, it becomes clear that there are whole worlds, choruses of voices that go largely unseen and unheard in popular culture. It’s easy to get caught up in the fictions reflected in the small universe that echoes between the TV screen and the sofa, navigated by remote control. The POV series does an extraordinary job of reminding viewers of the value of storytelling in public life, and that the world is bigger than our living rooms. Perhaps it’s time we went out and explored it.
The POV season premieres with a Tom Shepard film, Scout’s Honor. Winner of the Audience Award and the Freedom of Expression Award at Sundance 2001, the film tells the story of how a 12-year-old Boy Scout, Steven Cozza, helped launch a grassroots campaign to change the Scouts’ anti-gay policy. He is joined by David Rice, a lifelong Scout and one of Cozza’s Scout leaders. Their actions set off an inspiring and sometimes painful lesson on what taking a stand can mean.
The film details legal battles of former Boy Scouts who confronted the organization’s anti-gay policy when they learned that one of the group’s tenets — to respect the rights of all people — excluded homosexuals.
Though the latest attempt to bring the issue to the attention of the U.S. Supreme Court failed, Scout’s Honor is an inspiring account of how ordinary people come to realize the power of their convictions in the face of fear and hatred. Scout’s Honor airs Tuesday, June 19, at 10pm on PBS.
Alan Berliner’s charming and visually intriguing film The Sweetest Sound is the second documentary in the POV series. Starting with the question “What’s in a name?,” Berliner is able to spin a quirky but never self-indulgent meditation on how names shape identity. His obsession with his own name becomes more acute when he discovers that he’s not the only Alan Berliner in the world. There’s the Belgian Alain Berliner, the other filmmaker whose Ma Vie en Rose won a Golden Globe in 1997. Then there’s celebrity photographer Alan Berliner of Los Angeles, to name only two. Berliner’s desire to be the Alan Berliner (“maybe they’re being Alan Berliner better than I am”) inspires him to host a meeting all the Alan Berliners he can find. The encounter between the 13 men who accept his invitation is a provocative and humorous realization of the mysterious power of names.
By blending crackled black-and-white stills and film images with icons and sounds from the Internet, Berliner creates an arresting visual representation of the past and future, clashing and meshing to make the present. The Sweetest Sound airs Tuesday, June 26, at 10pm and Satruday, June 30, at 2am on PBS.
Other POV films will be periodically reviewed in the future. However, here is the POV summer season. Air dates are subject to change:
My American Girls: A Dominican Story, by Aaron Matthews. A Dominican mother raising three children reflects on the cost and rewards of pursuing the American Dream. Airs July 3.
Of Civil Wrongs and Rights: The Fred Korematsu Story, by Eric Paul Fournier. The story of how Japanese-American Fred Korematsu resisted internment during World War II and took his case to court. Airs July 10.
True-Hearted Vixens, by Mylene Moreno. History of the Women’s Professional Football League and the women who struggled to keep it afloat. Airs July 17.
Take It From Me, by Emily Abt. A vivid portrait of the real faces of poverty and how the reformed welfare system makes it easier to ignore and forget the poor, rather than interrogate how poverty exists in an affluent nation. Airs July 24.
La Boda (The Wedding), by Hannah Weyer. This touching film is an encore presentation from last season’s POV. Two young people from the Texas-Mexican border plan their wedding among the hardship of a migrant lifestyle and the quest for the American Dream in the face of enduring Mexican traditions. Airs July 31.
In the Light of Reverence, by Christopher McLeod and Malinda Maynor (Lumbee). Actor Peter Coyote narrates this account of how the Lakota in the Black Hills, the Hopi in Arizona, and the Wintu in California struggle to protect their sacred land from those who want to open the land to recreational and tourist industries. Airs August 24.
Life and Debt, by Stephanie Black. How the “new world order” affects Jamaican workers. Jamaica Kincaid narrates passages from her book A Small Place. Airs August 21.
High School, by Frederick Wiseman. This POV classic is a special addition to the series. First screened in 1968, High School has been named one of POV‘s “landmark documentaries from the past which illuminates contemporary issues.” Airs August 28.
For more information on the POV series and to learn about educational and interactive projects related to the series, visit www.pbs.org/pov; or write to: POV, P.O. Box 5034, Bowling Green Station, New York, NY 10274; or call 800/688-4768.
E-mail Belinda Acosta at tveye@austinchronicle.com
This article appears in June 15 • 2001.