The acclaimed PBS documentary series POV, which has been merging online technology and nonfiction storytelling since the early 1990s, has produced two short films for distribution on Snapchat Discover, in partnership with the short-form digital content creator NowThis, it was announced today by American Documentary, Inc., the parent company of POV. This is the first time that documentary films will appear in Snapchat Discover.
POV's Snapchat Films series launches with the Snapchat-native films "We'll Still Be Here" (Sunday, Oct. 23, 2016), about dominoes players keeping their beloved game alive while a neighborhood changes around them, by Lizzie Jacobs; and "The Way It Should Be" (Sunday, Oct. 30, 2016), a story of love and friendship as lived and told by queer women of color, by Terence Nance and Chanelle Aponte Pearson.
The films will each be available exclusively on the NowThis channel in Snapchat's Discover section for a 24-hour window. Viewers must download the Snapchat app from Apple's App Store or the Google Play Store to view the films.
The Snapchat Films series continues POV's tradition of presenting contemporary stories that express perspectives rarely featured in mainstream media and promoting dialogue around critical social issues.
"In the mid-1990s, it was AOL, email and chat applications; in the 2000s it was web series; today it's Snapchat," said POV Digital Executive Producer Adnaan Wasey. "Robust social media platforms like Snapchat offer an exciting means to tell new kinds of stories and engage a new audience. We're excited to not only be able to show the filmmaking community what's possible, but also to do it alongside teams of ambitious independent filmmakers with a history of breaking new ground. And we're thrilled to have developed the project with NowThis, an organization that has been a continuous pioneer in online media."
"We are so thrilled to showcase these short films to our audience in a new and innovative way," said Sarah Frank, editor of NowThis. "Providing young storytellers a direct path to an audience is something that emerging platforms like Snapchat can uniquely do, and we are proud to feature these alongside NowThis stories."
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