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POV Season 22 Episodes
Season 22 Episode Guide
15 Episodes 2009 - 2009
Episode 1
New Muslim Cool
Tue, Jun 23, 2009 87 mins
Season 22 opens with "New Muslim Cool," which chronicles the life of likable Hamza Pérez, a Puerto Rican Islam convert and talented rap artist (he teams with his brother Sulíman in M-Team) who moves to Pittsburgh to help form a Muslim community. Filmed over a period of several years, the documentary traces his growing maturity and understanding of his faith, which is tested by an FBI raid on his mosque and the loss of a job he cherished---teaching prison inmates about his faith and life itself.
Episode 2
Beyond Hatred
Tue, Jun 30, 2009 87 mins
"Beyond Hatred" explores the 2002 murder of a gay man at the hands of three neo-Nazi skinheads in France and the resulting trial, and attempts of the victim's family to come to grips with the tragedy. The episode includes interviews with his parents and siblings, the prosecutors and defense attorneys, and the father of one of the perpetrators.
Episode 3
Life. Support. Music.
Tue, Jul 7, 2009 87 mins
"Life. Support. Music." tells the story of guitarist Jason Crigler, who backed, among others, Norah Jones. At a 2004 gig, he suffered a brain hemorrhage that led doctors to believe he'd be in a vegetative state for the rest of his life---if he survived. Despite that prognosis, his wife Monica---who was three months pregnant with their first child---and family decided to undertake an intensive rehabilitative regime, and in so doing brought him back.
Episode 4
The Reckoning: The Battle for the International Criminal Court
Tue, Jul 14, 2009 87 mins
The work of the International Criminal Court, an international body formed in 2002 to prosecute crimes against humanity, is chronicled in "The Reckoning." Filmed over three years, the documentary features chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo and his team as they issue arrest warrants for the leaders of the Lord's Resistance Army in Uganda, try a Congolese warlord and charge Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir with crimes against humanity and genocide.
Episode 5
The Betrayal (Nerakhoon)
Tue, Jul 21, 2009 87 mins
Shot over 23 years, the Oscar-nominated "The Betrayal (Nerakhoon)" tells the story of a Laotian family forced to flee their homeland after the father helped the CIA during the secret war in Laos during the Vietnam War. The transition to life in the U.S. is far from easy, as they're settled in a Brooklyn apartment next door to a crack house, the family's younger children assimilate into American culture and Southeast Asian gangs form in the neighborhood.
Episode 6
Hold Me Tight, Let Me Go
Tue, Jul 28, 2009 87 mins
The experiences of five children at Mulberry Bush School, a school in Oxford, England, for preadolescents with severe behavioral problems, are chronicled in the cinema vérité documentary "Hold Me Tight, Let Me Go."
Episode 7
P.O.V. Shorts Program
Tue, Aug 18, 2009 57 mins
A collection of short documentaries, including "Utopia, Part 3: The World's Largest Shopping Mall," about the 7-million-square-foot South China Mall, which was built in 2005 and is virtually empty; "Nutkin's Last Stand," about the attempt of Britons to save their red squirrels from an influx of North American gray squirrels; "34x25x36," about the Patina V mannequin factory near L.A.; and "City of Cranes," which explores the world of crane operators.
Episode 8
Nutkin's Last Stand
30 mins
A plague of North American grey squirrels threatens the beloved British red squirrel.
Episode 9
This Way Up
Tue, Aug 25, 2009 57 mins
The story of East Jerusalem's Our Lady of Sorrows Nursing Home, which serves Palestinian Christians and sits adjacent to the Israel-built security wall. The problem: It is on the Israeli side, which makes it difficult for family members to visit.
Episode 10
Ella es el Matador (She Is the Matador)
Tue, Sep 1, 2009 57 mins
Profiles two female matadors, veteran Mari Paz Vega and newcomer Eva Florencia. Also: a history of women and bullfighting, including a 1908 Spanish law that barred them from the sport.
Episode 11
The English Surgeon
Tue, Sep 8, 2009 57 mins
"The English Surgeon" details the work of British neurosurgeon Henry Marsh in Ukraine, home to a decaying medical infrastructure that often fails patients with neurological problems. The documentary chronicles three weeks in 2007 as he provides care---and sometimes delivers bad news---to patients in need of his level of expertise, including a young man with a brain tumor that is slowly killing him.
Episode 12
The Principal Story
Tue, Sep 15, 2009 57 mins
"The Principal Story" details how a principal can influence a school's success, through the stories of Tresa D. Dunbar, in her second year at Chicago's Henry H. Nash Elementary, and Kerry Purcell, who runs Harvard Park Elementary in Springfield, Ill. Although one's a relative novice and the other a six-year veteran, they share much in common, including contagious can-do spirits and the fact that they oversee predominately low-income children.
Episode 13
Bronx Princess
Tue, Sep 22, 2009 57 mins
"Bronx Princess" tells the story of the college-bound daughter of a Ghanaian immigrant to the Bronx. Fed up with her mother's stifling ways, in the summer between high school and college she travels to Ghana to visit her father, a tribal chief. Also: "Jennifer," in which filmmaker Stewart Copeland explores his relationship with his late mother; "So the Wind Won't Blow It All Away," about three high-school students who return to post-Katrina New Orleans to graduate with their friends.
Episode 14
The Way We Get By
Wed, Nov 11, 2009 87 mins
"The Way We Get By" relates the stories of three senior citizens who, as part of the "Maine Troop Greeters," thank soldiers at a Bangor, Maine, airport who are arriving from or departing for Afghanistan and Iraq---some 800,000. The seniors and their many cohorts offer the troops handshakes, cookies and free cell phones, and in exchange the troops provide them with purpose. Directed by Aron Gaudet, whose mother, Joan, is one of the subjects.
Episode 15
Patti Smith: Dream of Life
Wed, Dec 30, 2009 117 mins
Filmed over 11 years, this fascinating, arty portrait of "godmother of punk" Patti Smith features her thoughts on her life, from her friendship with photographer Robert Mapplethorpe to the deaths of her husband Fred "Sonic" Smith and brother Todd. "Life is an adventure of our own design intersected by fate and a series of lucky and unlucky accidents," she observes. The doc includes performances---and parts of performances---of such songs as "Gloria," "My Generation" and "Land: Horses."