Reel America: People Who Shape a Nation

Maya Lin: A Strong Clear Vision (NR)

Revisit Freida Lee Mock's Oscar-winning documentary of Maya Lin, the young architect behind the Vietnam Veterans Memorial whose design was met with widespread controversy and public attacks. At the intersection of art, politics and creativity she remained steadfast in her personal vision. This event is a 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 14 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 Filmmakers: 

Freida Lee Mock is an Academy Award® and Emmy Award®-winning filmmaker with a range of films on the arts and humanities that include: the Oscar® nominated films Rose Kennedy: A Life to Remember, Sing!, and To Live Or To Let Die; and the Emmy® Award winning Lillian Gish: An Actor’s Life For Me and The Kennedy Center Honors. Her work also features numerous biographical films of notables such as Justice Ruth Ginsburg, Jesuit Greg Boyle (G-Dog), Anita Hill, and Steven Spielberg for the Academy Awards®, Frank Sinatra, Benny Goodman, Elia Kazan, and others for the Kennedy Center Honors. She is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the Directors Guild of America, the International Documentary Association, the Writers Guild of America, and Center for Asian American Media. 

Terry Sanders, Producer, is a director and producer, and a two-time Oscar® winner who has produced and/or directed more than 80 award-winning dramatic features, theatrical documentaries, television specials, and a large body of portrait films of major American artists, writers and musicians. He produced, wrote and directed the feature documentary, Fighting For Life, about military doctors and nurses on the front lines to save lives and the wounded in field hospitals that begins when battles end and recently wrote, produced and directed Liza, Liza, Skies Are Grey, a coming -of-age dramatic feature which starred and introduced Academy Award®-winning actress Mikey Madison in the title role and the documentary 9th Circuit Cowboy, the Long Good Fight of Judge Harry Pregerson. 

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.

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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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