POV Short Cuts Press Release

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. 1 of 4 • 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 2 of 4 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 3 of 4 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.

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