AV Club - Reel America: People Who Shape a Nation

Women Behind the Art

Join us to watch two 16 mm films from the Library's collection documenting how women artists created their work anonymously and then were overlooked because of it. Also, watch PBS' POV documentary titled "American Seams" by Carly and Jared Jakins, about three Native American women quilters whose lives complement and contrast each other. In collaboration with POV, the award-winning independent non-fiction film series on PBS www.pbs.org/pov. For more information, please contact the branch at 305-535-4219 or capleyb@mdpls.org. Ages 13 yrs.+

About the Series:

2026 marks the United States’ semiquincentennial – its 250th birthday! Join us to celebrate the big birthday with a monthly movie showing the people from the past and present that had a hand in creating these United States. Get a monthly cinematic glimpse of what America looks like! 

About the two 16 mm Films:

• Anonymous Was a Woman, 1978, 28 mins. 

Presents an overview of 18th and 19th-century American folk art created by women and offers a look at the daily lives of these women in urban and rural America.

• Four Women Artists, 1977, 25 mins. 

Four women artists from Mississippi discuss their art and lifestyles. Includes writer Eudora Welty, quiltmaker Pecolia Warner, painter Theora Hamblett, and Ethel Mohamed, who creates embroidered pictures.

About the Film Collection

The 16mm film collection has been part of the Miami-Dade Public Library System's holdings for over 55 years. It began in the 1960s, and its first films were part of the City of Miami’s public library before there was a county library. When MDPLS was formed, the County supplemented its local funding for films with Federal LSCA (Library Services and Construction Act) grants. Apart from leased feature films, all films were purchased for free exhibition for the life of the print. Subjects within the collection include experimental/avant-garde art films, non-narrated films, children’s films, Black history, Floridiana, and local history. Today, there are over 4,000 films within the collection.

About the Division of Special Collections & Archives

Miami-Dade Public Library System’s Division of Special Collections & Archives holds rare and irreplaceable historical documents for the benefit of the public and scholarly community. They oversee the Helen Muir Florida Collection, 16mm Film Collection, Cuban Collection of Rare Books & Ephemera, Genealogy Collection, The Vasari Project, and rare & antiquarian books from as early as the 17th century. The Division's primary goal is to provide the public with the contents of the vault at their request. Its collections include rare books, original manuscripts, over 18,000 photographs, prints, artifacts, audiovisual resources, and electronic media.

About the American Seams Filmmaker: 

Carly Jakins is a documentary filmmaker whose work has been curated by The Atlantic and ITVS's Independent Lens. Her debut, Ghosts on the Mountain, was the Documentary Short award winner at the American Society for Visual Anthropology and Heartland Film Festival in 2014. Jakins has produced and co-directed several other award-winning short documentaries, including producing the feature documentary, Scenes From the Glittering World (PBS, 2022). She is currently engaged in exploring the experiences of rural women near her home in the Western United States.

About POV

Produced by American Documentary, POV is the longest-running independent documentary showcase on American television. Since 1988, POV has presented films on PBS that capture the full spectrum of the human experience, with a long commitment to centering women and people of color in front of, and behind, the camera. The series is known for introducing generations of viewers to groundbreaking works like Tongues Untied (1989), Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse (1992), Rabbit in the Room (1999), Of Civil Wrongs & Rights: The Fred Korematsu Story (2001), Made in L.A. (2007), American Promise (2013), Not Going Quietly (2021), While We Watched (2022), A House Made of Splinters (2022), The Last Out (2023) and the mini-series And She Could be Next (2020). Throughout its history POV has featured the work of award-winning, innovative filmmakers including Jonathan Demme, Laura Poitras, Nanfu Wang, Frederick Wiseman, Emiko Omori, Janus Metz Pedersen and Ava DuVernay. In 2018, POV Shorts launched as one of the first PBS series dedicated to bold and timely short-form documentaries. In 2024, Indiewire named seven POV films in its roundup of  "The 50 Best Documentaries of the 21st Century": Faya Dayi (2021), The Mole Agent (2020), Minding The Gap (2018), Cameraperson (2016), The Look of Silence (2015), The Act of Killing (2013) and After Tiller (2013). All POV programs are available for streaming concurrent with broadcast on all station-branded PBS platforms, including PBS.org and the PBS App, available on iOS, Android, Roku streaming devices, Apple TV, Android TV, Amazon Fire TV, Samsung Smart TV, Chromecast and VIZIO. For more information about PBS Passport, visit the PBS Passport FAQ website.

POV goes "beyond the broadcast" to bring powerful nonfiction storytelling to viewers wherever they are. Free educational resources accompany every film and a community network of thousands of partners nationwide work with POV to spark dialogue around today’s most pressing issues. POV continues to explore the future of documentary through innovative productions with partners such as The New York Times and The National Film Board of Canada and on platforms including Instagram.

POV films and projects have won 50 Emmy® Awards, 28 George Foster Peabody Awards, 16 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Awards, three Academy Awards® and the first-ever George Polk Documentary Film Award. Learn more at pbs.org/pov and follow @povdocs on social media. 

About American Documentary, Inc.

American Documentary, Inc. (AmDoc) is a multimedia organization dedicated to creating, identifying and presenting contemporary stories that express opinions and perspectives rarely featured in mainstream media outlets. AmDoc is a catalyst for public culture, developing collaborative strategic engagement activities around socially relevant content on television, online and in community settings. These activities are designed to trigger action, from dialogue and feedback to educational opportunities and community participation.

Major funding for POV is provided by PBS, the Open Society Foundations, The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Wyncote Foundation, Reva & David Logan Foundation, Park Foundation, and Perspective Fund. Additional funding comes from the National Endowment for the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts, public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, Chris and Nancy Plaut, Acton Family Giving, 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.

About PBS 

PBS, with more than 330 member stations, offers all Americans the opportunity to explore new ideas and new worlds through television and digital content. Each month, PBS reaches over 36 million adults on linear primetime television, more than 16 million users on PBS-owned streaming platforms, 53 million viewers on YouTube, and 60 million people view PBS content on social media, inviting them to experience the worlds of science, history, nature, and public affairs and to take front-row seats to world-class drama and performances. PBS’s broad array of programs has been consistently honored by the industry’s most coveted award competitions. Teachers of children from pre-K through 12th-grade turn to PBS Learning Media for digital content and services that help bring classroom lessons to life. As the number one educational media brand, PBS KIDS helps children 2-8 build critical skills, enabling them to find success in school and life. Delivered through member stations, PBS KIDS offers high-quality content on TV -including a PBS KIDS channel- and streaming free on pbskids.org and the PBS KIDS Video app, games on the PBS KIDS Games app, and in communities across America. More information about PBS is available at PBS.org, one of the leading dot-org websites on the internet, Facebook, Instagram, or through our apps for mobile and connected devices. Specific program information and updates for press are available at pbs.org/pressroom or by following PBS Communications on X.  

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