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Still a Fresh P.O.V. The PBS documentary series turns 20 but keeps breaking new ground

Unscripted shows are a staple of the TV landscape. But no reality series has ever packed as provocative a punch as public television's documentary showcase P.O.V., which is celebrating its 20th anniversary this summer. Its 1991 presentation of Tongues Untied, a groundbreaking film about gay life in the black community, was condemned on the Senate floor and stations that carried the show received bomb threats. Farmingville, a film about the murder of two undocumented Mexican day laborers in a Long Island town, aired just after President Bush proposed his guest-worker program in 2004 and helped stir the recent immigration debate. The series has also brought the work of filmmaking mavericks Michael Moore and the read full article
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Still a Fresh P.O.V. The PBS documentary series turns 20 but keeps breaking new ground

Unscripted shows are a staple of the TV landscape. But no reality series has ever packed as provocative a punch as public television's documentary showcase P.O.V., which is celebrating its 20th anniversary this summer. Its 1991 presentation of Tongues Untied, a groundbreaking film about gay life in the black community, was condemned on the Senate floor and stations that carried the show received bomb threats. Farmingville, a film about the murder of two undocumented Mexican day laborers in a Long Island town, aired just after President Bush proposed his guest-worker program in 2004 and helped stir the recent immigration debate. The series has also brought the work of filmmaking mavericks Michael Moore and the read more

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Premiered: July 05, 1988, on PBS
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Premise: This acclaimed, long-running documentary series is a showcase for independent films on a wide variety of subjects, from the heartwarming (`Sweet Old Song,' about a 91-year-old musician) to the whimsical (`The Sweetest Sound,' a study of names) to the controversial (`Live Free or Die,' about an abortion doctor). Whatever the subject, the most important criterion is that the films express a `point of view.'

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