“POV Shorts,” the PBS series focused on independent short-form documentaries, is moving homes. For Season 9, “POV Shorts” will run its films on Time Studios‘ YouTube page.
The season, which launches Nov. 17, will kick off with “Bloodlines, Mississippi” from director Crystal Kayiza and “The Boys and the Bees” from director Arielle Knight.
Those two films will also air on PBS, but after that, this season of “POV Shorts” will be exclusive to Time Studios. That includes Aurora Brachman and LaTajh Simmons-Weaver’s “Hold Me Close,” Brit Fryer and Lydia Cornett’s “Tessitura,” Serville Poblete’s “In the Morning Sun,” Arjun Fischer’s “Artificial Love,” Mars Verrone’s “Buckskin,” Victor Tadashi Suárez and Livia Albeck-Ripka’s “Still Standing,” Arshia Shakiba’s “Who Loves the Sun” and Nathan Truesdell’s “A Derailment.”
Six of the season’s films have qualified for Oscars consideration in the documentary short film category: “Bloodlines, Mississippi,” “The Boys and the Bees,” “A Derailment,” “Buckskin,” “In the Morning Sun” and “Still Standing.”
“POV Shorts” and Time Studios previously collaborated on the Season 6 film “Sol in the Garden,” from Débora Souza Silva and Emily Cohen Ibañez.
“Nine seasons in, POV Shorts has shown that a twenty-minute film can change how someone sees a problem they thought they understood,” said Opal H. Bennett, executive producer, POV Shorts and senior producer, POV, in a statement. “Partnering with Time Studios means these stories reach people who might never seek out an independent documentary — which has always been the point.
“Season 9 asks ‘what holds people together when the systems around them fail,’ added Bennett. “A doctor in the Delta fighting to keep patients whole, two brothers learning their homestead, a town living inside the aftermath of a toxic derailment — these films offer answers to that question from completely different perspectives, which is exactly what short form does best.”
“POV Shorts” films have won three IDA Documentary Awards for Best Short Form Series, and landed several Academy Award nominations since launch in 2018.
Time Studios also recently joined as distribution partner for the Co-Production Fund from American Documentary/POV Shorts and Chicken & Egg Films.
“For more than a century, Time has been dedicated to powerful real-world reporting and extraordinary storytelling,” said Justine Simons, executive producer, video, Time, in a statement. “Our partnership with POV Shorts builds on that mission, bringing our audience some of the finest short documentaries being made today. We’re thrilled to collaborate on Season 9 and share these remarkable films across our platforms.”
Here’s a first look at “Bloodlines, Mississippi,” produced by Harri Grace, Paul King and created in collaboration with Nobel Prize Outreach, which “follows Dr. Foluso Fakorede and his team at Cardiovascular Solutions of Central Mississippi as they work to prevent avoidable amputations. Set in the Mississippi Delta, Kayiza’s film looks at community-centered healthcare as a response to racial disparities and the barriers patients face in accessing treatment within a system shaped by historic inequality.”
And here’s a first look at “The Boys and the Bees,” produced by Knight and Sean Weiner. “The film follows two brothers as they tend hives and restore their family’s Georgia homestead, deepening their bond along the way.”: