POV Celebrates Milestone 35th Anniversary Maintaining Its Longstanding Commitment To Latinx And Latin American Stories And Filmmakers

Continuing Three and a Half Decades of U.S. Latinx and Latin American Advocacy in Nonfiction Cinema, America's Longest-Running Documentary Series Will Host the Broadcast Premieres of Three New Latinx Titles This Season

POV has returned to PBS this July for its 35th Season, a curated selection of films that reconfirm public media's essential role in sparking national dialogue on contemporary and historical social issues and that once again position POV as a champion for U.S. Latinx and Latin American nonfiction cinema.

On the tail of last year's landmark majority focus on Latin American and U.S. Latinx stories, POV's Season 35 is set to bring audiences the broadcast premieres of two powerful and critically-acclaimed documentaries with Latin American connections and one Latinx nonfiction short: Mexican-Ethiopian director Jessica Beshir's Oscar- shortlisted film Faya Dayi, and Academy-Award nominee Sami Khan and Michael Gassert's The Last Out. POV Shorts Season 5, premiering October 31, will include William D. Caballero's touching animation Chilly and Milly, recent Jury Prize winner at the 2022 PBS Short Film Festival.

America's longest-running documentary series' newest season builds upon its decades-long commitment to representation and inclusion, with over half of this season's films directed by women, and two thirds by filmmakers of color. In addition, half come from filmmakers of Asian descent, and several titles are by and about people with disabilities. A major platform for global nonfiction in the U.S, the series will feature stories from China, Cuba, Ethiopia, Greenland, Myanmar, Norway, the Philippines, Zimbabwe, and feature contemporary Muslim perspectives from both outside and within the U.S.

Marking a historic moment for Latinx narrative representation on PBS and public television in general, the majority of the titles in last year's thirteen-film program were by Latin American or U.S. Latinx filmmakers. This year's lineup represents a broader assortment of global regions and narratives with the selected Latin American and U.S. Latinx documentaries and shorts continuing this decades-long legacy and reaffirming POV as one of the foremost advocates for U.S. Latinx and Latin American documentary storytelling and its makers.

As the premier destination for provocative, critically acclaimed, international non-fiction films, POV's Season 35 is set to present the broadcast premiere of Mexican- Ethiopian director Jessica Beshir's Oscar-shortlisted film and debut feature Faya Dayi on August 29, 2022. A hypnotic immersion into the Oromo and Harari communities of Hararghe, Ethiopia, where khat, a euphoria-inducing plant, holds sway over the rituals and rhythms of everyday life, Faya Dayi unfolds to become a living record of everyone from the harvesters of the crop to people lost in its narcotic haze, to a desperate but determined younger generation searching for an escape from political strife.

Drawing from her joint Mexican and Ethiopian heritage, Beshir offers an exciting revitalization to Third Cinema, the influential aesthetic and political cinematic movement that emerged in the late sixties and early seventies to decry the effects of neocolonialism and global capitalism. The transcontinental movement created powerful creative connections between Latin America and Africa through the work of celebrated directors such as Fernando Solanas, Jorge Sanjinés, and Ousmane Sembène, forging cinematic relationships that continue through Beshir's own practice.

With the intention of examining systemic inequity in U.S. institutions and the true costs of the American Dream for Black and Brown communities, POV will also present the broadcast premiere of Sami Khan and Michael Gassert's The Last Out on October 3, 2022. A moving chronicle of three Cuban baseball players who risk exile to chase their dream of playing in the U.S. major leagues, The Last Out explores the shadowy nexus of the migrant trail and pro sports as it follows the trio on a harrowing journey from immigration obstacles to the broken promises of dubious agents. Against all odds, these young athletes try to hold onto their hope while fighting for a better life for their families. Check out the trailer and poster for the vérité documentary, which were recently premiered in anticipation of the film's upcoming theatrical and broadcast release.

In addition to the above feature-length releases, the current 5th Season of POV Shorts will host the broadcast premiere of Los Angeles-based filmmaker and multimedia storyteller William D. Caballero's touching animated Oscar-qualifying documentary short Chilly and Milly, which had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival. Eleven years after filming a documentary about his family, Caballero returns home to revisit scenes from his documentary with his parents, Chilly and Milly. Chilly, William's father, is a diabetic with kidney failure whose illness detrimentally affects the lives of him and his family. Milly, William's mother, is the matriarchal caretaker of the family. When Chilly passes during the pandemic, William and Milly must come to terms with their loss. With Chilly's passing, Milly is tasked with finding a new purpose in life.

All films in this season, as in years past, are accompanied by educational resources and will be available to stream on all PBS platforms including pbs.org, and the PBS Video app. Premieres continue through fall 2022 with primetime specials in early 2023. In addition to standard closed captioning, POV, in partnership with audio description service DiCapta, provides real time audio interpretations for audiences with sensory disabilities

Throughout its history, POV has reaffirmed its longstanding commitment to Latinx and Latin American stories and filmmakers, having hosted the broadcast premiere of landmark films including Señorita Extraviada by Lourdes Portillo, the 2002 chilling documentary that investigates, with visual poeticism and an unflinching gaze, the kidnapping, rape and murder of over 350 young women in the border city of Juárez, Mexico; Patricio Guzmán's 2010 gorgeous masterpiece Nostalgia for the Light, the first film in his monumental landscape and memory trilogy, which investigates the relationship between historical memory, political trauma and geography in his native country of Chile; and the 2018 magical realist documentary 306 Hollywood, in which Venezuelan-American directors Elan and Jonathan Bogarín become archeologists and reconstruct their grandmother's life, transforming her cluttered New Jersey home of 71 years into a visually exquisite ruin.

Other key Latinx and Latin American titles that had their broadcast premiere on POV include Presumed Guilty by Roberto Hernández, Layda Negrete and Geoffrey Smith in 2010; El Velador (the Night Watchman) by Natalia Almada in 2012; Reportero by Bernardo Ruiz in 2013; Memories of a Penitent Heart by Cecilia Aldarondo in 2017; and the Oscar nominated film The Mole Agent by Maite Alberdi in 2021.

Last year's lineup included the broadcast premieres of other recent and multi-award-winning Latin American and U.S. Latinx titles including Cecilia Aldarondo's Landfall, Michèle Stephenson's Stateless, Núria Frigola Torrent's The Song of the Butterflies, Emily Cohen Ibañez's Fruits of Labor, Oscar Molina's La Casa de Mama Icha, Bruno Santamaría's Things We Dare Not Do, and Maya Cueva and Leah Galant's On the Divide.

"Throughout its history, POV has championed Latin American and U.S. Latinx filmmakers and their stories by providing a space for them to showcase their work, engage in conversations with diverse audiences, and join a network of prestigious POV alumni," said Erika Dilday, executive director/executive producer of American Documentary | POV. "We're proud to support Latin American and U.S. Latinx directors in this and past seasons, many of whom have become international leaders in world cinema."