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DECEMBER COLLECTION
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Featured Collection:
Celebrating the Culture:
Kwanzaa 2025 Collection

In honor of Kwanzaa, we’re sharing a collection of titles exploring the guiding pillars that keep this tradition close to home, in our communities and in our hearts. This collection features titles from our current season of POV and POV Shorts and brings back some of our favorites that provide visionary, artfully crafted and poetic cinematic representations of the cherished values of Kwanzaa.

What drives culture, preserves tradition, creates news bonds and community and what keeps it together? From the historical significance of Black rollerskating rinks as sanctuaries in the American South, to finding your chosen sister in the downtown ballroom scene, two films from our 8th season of POV Shorts The People Could Fly ([link removed]) and MnM ([link removed]) underscore the concept of Umoja (Unity), the need to maintain unity in family, community and beyond.

Finding the strength to define and name ourselves - Kujichagulia (Self-Determination) - is paramount to identity and in some cases, survival. Over the Wall ([link removed]) follows the first Black female Nascar pit crew member and tells her story of perseverance. dream hampton’s personal essay film Freshwater ([link removed]) examines loss in the wake of a devastating flood in Detroit. As the film meditates on the effects of climate change on communities of color it shines a light on Ujima (Collective Work and Responsibility) and the importance of solving problems together, even if they’re not your own.

Art and politics collide in Shut Up and Paint, ([link removed]) a portrait of artist Titus Kaphur who exemplifies Ujamaa (Cooperative economics), in his refusal to silence his activism in order to cater to an insatiable art market. Finding Nia (Purpose) is the foundation of the community of self-liberated Black women featured in You Can’t Stop Spirit ([link removed]) who have created their own space of artistic expression and identity in the ‘baby doll’ masking ritual of New Orleans’s Carnival celebration.

Kuumba (Creativity) was the driving force behind the life and legacy of New York artist Michael Richards whose story is told in Are You Down? ([link removed]) . A Mother Apart ([link removed]) follows the transformational journey to finding Imani (Faith), healing and forgiveness and of the Jamaican-American poet and LGBTQI+ activist Staceyann Chin who re-imagines mothering after being abandoned by her own mother.
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Community Grassroots:
The Different Flavors of Organizing Collection
(Streaming until December 31)

What defines community? What brings people together? What does community look like? Our latest collection is curated around the nature of community in an era of cultural, social and political division. Springing from a desire to connect with others around shared experience, collective memory and culture, communities provide a pivotal transformative counter to peril, loss and grief. This collection presents POV features and POV Shorts that imagine various ways communities define themselves, their goals, needs and ideals, and how histories, personal experiences and geography influence how communities look and feel.

From undaunted grassroots organizers confronting violence in their communities in Murders That Matter ([link removed]) and The Body Politic ([link removed]) ; to activists united around accessibility and inclusion in All Riders ([link removed]) ; to American Seams ([link removed]) , Águilas ([link removed]) and A Story of Bones ([link removed]) where bonds are forged by traditional craft, loss and memorial; and MnM ([link removed]) and Jardines ([link removed]) , intimate portraits of people whose identity and self expression are deeply entwined with dignity and safety.

These stories demonstrate that community is a shared effort built through dreams, perseverance, resistance, and that Getting Back to Abnormal ([link removed]) is only possible through collective healing and joy. Watch these visionary stories about community spaces and places and the people who create connections, transform themselves and others, and make a difference out of necessity and hope.
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DECEMBER PREMIERES
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When a queer Korean adoptee reunites with her birth mother in Seoul, long-buried cultural misunderstandings and unspoken regrets surface. With tenderness, humor, and determination, both mother and daughter navigate the heart-wrenching legacy of international adoption.


Between Goodbyes premieres December 8, 2025 at 10pm on PBS (check local listings ([link removed]) ) and will be available to stream at pbs.org/pov and on the PBS App ([link removed]) .
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POV Shorts: S8 is Out
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POV Shorts, the award-winning nonfiction shorts film series curated by POV, returns today for its 8th season with bold new films from visionary independent filmmakers. This year’s lineup explores themes of cultural identity, climate change, resilience, intergenerational storytelling, music, and belonging.

This upcoming season, tune in to:
Chasing Time ([link removed]) , The People Could Fly ([link removed]) , This is America ([link removed]) (MnM ([link removed]) , Your Opinion, Please ([link removed]) ), The Songs of Black Folk ([link removed]) , La Orquesta ([link removed]) , and Classroom 4 ([link removed])

All 6 episodes are now available to stream at pbs.org/povand on the PBS App ([link removed]) .
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STREAMING ENCORES
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What does it take to rebuild a community after a crisis? POV’s Getting Back to Abnormal ([link removed]) follows the stories of people coming together to reclaim normalcy and resilience in extraordinary times.

Getting Back to Abnormal is be available to stream now until Jan 2026 on POV on pbs.org ([link removed]) , and the PBS App ([link removed]) .

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Discover our free resources, thoughtfully created by educators, community leaders, and librarians to inspire learning and dialogue. From reading materials to discussion guides, these tools help you create meaningful impact in your community.
Browse All Resources:
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* Discussion Guides ([link removed])
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Ready to start? Access our complete resource library below.
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POV ON YOUTUBE
Select POV titles are now available to stream on PBS's Youtube channel.
Explore the POV collection and watch now on Youtube!
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Major funding for POV is provided by PBS, The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Wyncote Foundation, Reva & David Logan Foundation, Open Society Foundations, Perspective Fund and the National Endowment for the Arts. Additional funding comes from Nancy Blachman and David desJardins, Bertha Foundation, The Hollywood Foreign Press Association's Charitable Trust, Park Foundation, Sage Foundation, New York State Council on the Arts, public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, Chris and Nancy Plaut, Abby Pucker, Ann Tenenbaum and Thomas H. Lee and public television viewers. POV is presented by a consortium of public television stations, including KQED San Francisco, WGBH Boston and THIRTEEN in association with WNET.ORG.
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