POV Kicks Off New Season of Independent Films Monday, June 24 on PBS

 Award-winning documentary series has a new time slot; Filmmakers explore African-American funeral traditions, international immigration, solitary confinement, love and adolescence in today's America

Garrison and Kevin in 'Only the Young.' Credit: Jason Tippet and Elizabeth Mims

POV (Point of View) launches its 26th season on PBS with a move to Monday nights at 10 p.m. (check local listings) starting Monday, June 24, 2013, underscoring PBS's commitment to independent film. POV's new season runs through Oct. 14 and will conclude with winter specials. Here is a preview of the first four programs (follow the links for trailers, press releases, art and more):

POV Summer Preview, June 24-July 15, 2013:

June 24: Homegoings by Christine Turner 
Through the eyes of Harlem funeral director Isaiah Owens, the beauty and grace of African-American funerals are brought to life. Homegoings takes an up-close look at the rarely seen world of undertaking in the black community, where funeral rites draw on a rich palette of tradition, history and celebration. With intimate interviews and archival photographs, the film paints a portrait of the dearly departed, their grieving families and a man who sends loved ones “home.” An Official Selection of MoMA’s 2013 Documentary Fortnight. A co-production of ITVS and POV’s Diverse Voices Project, with funding provided by CPB. A co-presentation with the National Black Programming Consortium (NBPC). Produced in association with American Documentary | POV.

July 1: Special Flight  by Fernand Melgar
This is a dramatic account of the plight of undocumented foreigners at a detention center in Geneva, Switzerland, and of the wardens who struggle to reconcile humane values with the harsh realities of a strict deportation system. The 25 inmates featured are among the thousands of asylum seekers and illegal immigrants imprisoned without charge or trial and facing deportation to their native countries, where they fear repression or even death. Special Flight is a heart-wrenching exposé of the contradictions between the country’s compassionate social policies and the intractability of its immigration laws.

July 8: Herman's House by Angad Singh Bhalla
Herman Wallace may be the longest-serving prisoner in solitary confinement in the United States—he’s spent more than 40 years in a 6-by-9-foot cell in Louisiana. Imprisoned in 1967 for a robbery he admits, he was subsequently sentenced to life for a killing he denies. Herman’s House is a moving account of the expression his struggle found in an unusual project proposed by artist Jackie Sumell, who asked Wallace to imagine his “dream home.” The film takes us inside the duo’s unlikely 12-year friendship, revealing the transformative power of art. A co-presentation with the Center for Asian American Media.

July 15: Only the Young by Jason Tippet and Elizabeth Mims
Follow three unconventional Christian teenagers coming of age in a small Southern California town. Skateboarders Garrison and Kevin, and Garrison’s on-and-off girlfriend, Skye, wrestle with the eternal questions of youth: friendship, true love and the promise of the future. Yet their lives are also touched by the distress signals of contemporary America: foreclosed homes, abandoned businesses and adults in financial trouble.With sun-drenched visuals and a soul-music soundtrack, Only the Young embodies the innocence and candor of its youthful subjects—and of adolescence itself.

Only the Young is shown with Nancy Schwartzman’s short xoxosms, the modern-day love story of a guy from small-town Illinois who reaches out to a beautiful New York City art student from Korea. They meet in the only place that such different people might ever find each other—online.

See the entire POV season here.

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