POV backdrop
Documentary

The Worst Episodes of POV

Every episode of POV ranked from worst to best. Explore the Worst Episodes of POV!

Binge this in 22d 7h•Peaking at 10.0/10

The home for the world's boldest contemporary filmmakers, celebrating intriguing personal stories that spark conversation and inspire action.

Airs on
PBS
BestEpisodes
WorstEpisodes
BestSeasons
AllEpisodes

Seasons39

All123456789101112131415161718192021222324252627282930313233343536373839

Episode Rankings

  1. #1 Worst Episode
    Click to reveal
    POV Season 1 Episode 1 - Acting Our Age
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    S1:E1

    "There's nobody that's not going to get old — unless they die," says Enola Maxwell at the beginning of this engaging and refreshing film. Through the eyes of six women, aged 65-75, we are treated to a variety of new perspectives on aging, along with such complex and emotional subjects as changing body image, sexuality, family life and dealing with death. Generous portions of insight and good humor provide clues to grappling with these issues that effect us all.

    Director:Michal Aviad
    Writer:Unknown

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  2. POV Season 1 Episode 2 - American Tongues
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    S1:E2

    Rich in humor and regional color, this sometimes hilarious film uses the prism of language to reveal our attitudes about the way other people speak. From Boston Brahmins to Black Louisiana teenagers, from Texas cowboys to New York professionals, American Tongues elicits funny, perceptive, sometimes shocking, and always telling comments on American English in all its diversity.

    Directors:Andrew Kolker, Louis Alvarez
    Writer:Unknown

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  3. POV Season 1 Episode 3 - Fire From the Mountain
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    S1:E3

    Based on the autobiography of Nicaraguan author Omar Cabezas, Fire From the Mountain is the lyrical, earthy, sometimes humorous account of the author's political journey from student activist to guerrilla to government official. Shaffer's last film, Witness to War: Dr. Charlie Clements, won an Oscar in 1985.

    Director:Deborah Shaffer
    Writer:Unknown

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  4. POV Season 1 Episode 4 - Knocking on Armageddon's Door
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    S1:E4

    Half comedy, half horror story, this disturbing film focuses on several spokesmen for America's survivalist movement as they reveal the way they think, the way they play, and the way they prepare for the next world war.

    Directors:Torv Carlsen, John Magnuson
    Writer:Unknown

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  5. POV Season 1 Episode 5 - Living with AIDS
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    S1:E5

    If Armageddon's Door is about the explosion of community, Living with AIDS is just the opposite. It's a graceful, moving film about a community that provides both compassion and care to someone with a debilitating disease, in this case a courageous 22-year-old man with AIDS.

    Director:Tina DiFeliciantonio
    Writer:Unknown

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  6. POV Season 1 Episode 6 - Las Madres: The Mothers of Plaza de Mayo
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    S1:E6

    During the late 1970s, tens of thousands of men, women and even children were abducted by the right-wing military government in Argentina. While most of the population was terrorized by these actions, a small group of mothers of the disappeared began staging weekly demonstrations to demand that their children be released and the kidnappers be brought to justice. This is the dramatic story of their courageous struggle, which ultimately served as a catalyst for the toppling of the dictatorship. Las Madres has won multiple awards at film festivals around the world and was nominated for an Oscar.

    Directors:Susana Blaustein Muñoz, Lourdes Portillo
    Writer:Unknown

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

    7. Trending NowTRENDING NOW

    The 20 BEST Episodes of POV

    READ
  7. POV Season 1 Episode 7 - The Good Fight
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    S1:E7

    Five years before the United States entered World War II, 3,200 Americans went off to Europe to fight the spread of fascism. At 18, 19 and 20 years old, they volunteered to risk their lives defending a democratically elected government in the Spanish Civil War. Fifty years later, in their own words, the survivors recount a vivid story of those years — and what's happened to them since.

    Directors:Noel Buckner, Sam Sills, Mary Dore
    Writer:Unknown

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  8. POV Season 1 Episode 8 - Louie Bluie
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    S1:E8

    A lively portrait of 76-year-old Harold "Louie Bluie" Armstrong, musician, artist, raconteur and rogue.

    Director:Terry Zwigoff
    Writer:Unknown

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  9. POV Season 1 Episode 9 - Gates of Heaven
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    S1:E9

    On the surface, this is a somewhat unusual film about pet cemeteries and their owners. But then it grows much more complicated and bizarre, until in the end it is about such large issues as love, immorality, failure, and the dogged elusiveness of the American Dream. Featured at major film festivals like New York, Cannes, and Berlin, Gates of Heaven was included in Roger Ebert's all time 10 best list.

    Director:Errol Morris
    Writer:Unknown

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  10. POV Season 1 Episode 10 - Best Boy
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    S1:E10

    Hailed by many critics as a classic, Best Boy is the moving story of Philly, a 53-year-old mentally-disabled man who adapts to an independent life as he prepares to move away form his elderly parents.

    Director:Ira Wohl
    Writer:Unknown

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  11. POV Season 1 Episode 11 - Rate It X
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    S1:E11

    Rate It X is a bitingly funny and disarming journey through the landscape of American sexism. Men only are interviewed by the two filmmakers in a witty montage of free-wheeling encounters. Pornographers, corporate executives, a funeral parlor director and Santa Claus are among those who reveal more than they intended. A surprisingly candid view of men's feelings towards women 15 years after the birth of the women's movement.

    Directors:Lucy Winer, Paula de Koenigsberg
    Writer:Unknown

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  12. POV Season 1 Episode 12 - Metropolitan Avenue
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    S1:E12

    Metropolitan Avenue is an inspiring contemporary story about women who strive to combine new roles and old values in our rapidly changing society. We are introduced to a lively Brooklyn neighborhood which, like many urban areas, faces problems caused by racial tensions and cuts in municipal services. But in this case, a group of "traditional" homemakers from varied ethnic backgrounds rise to the challenge and become leaders in the effort to save their community.

    Director:Christine Noschese
    Writer:Unknown

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  13. POV Season 2 Episode 1 - Girltalk
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    S2:E1

    A heartbreaking yet hopeful portrait of three runaway girls with histories of abuse and neglect. Pinky, a Puerto Rican girl, refuses to go to school. Mars, on the streets since age 13, works as a stripper. Martha, who has lived in a dozen foster homes, confronts teenage motherhood. Music, humor, and intimate conversations play against the disturbing reality of these girls' lives.

    Director:Kate Davis
    Writer:Unknown

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  14. POV Season 2 Episode 2 - Who Killed Vincent Chin?
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    S2:E2

    On a hot summer night in Detroit, Ronald Ebens, an autoworker, killed a young Chinese-American engineer with a baseball bat. Although he confessed, he never spent a day in jail. This gripping Academy Award-nominated film relentlessly probes the implications of the murder in the streets of Detroit, for the families of those involved, and for the American justice system.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  15. POV Season 2 Episode 3 - Coming Out
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    S2:E3

    The debutante tradition is alive and well. Witness the annual Debutante Cotillion in Washington, DC -- a meticulously planned ritual where networking and meeting people who can help you later are as important to today's debs as the style of the gown or the height of the escort.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  16. POV Season 2 Episode 4 - Wise Guys!
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    S2:E4

    A stamp dealer from Los Angeles, a former school teacher form Miami, a born again Christian from Las Vegas, and a whiz-kid law student square off in the Jeopardy! $100,000 Tournament of Champions. Peek behind the scenes and into the fact-filled minds of contestants in one of America's favorite game shows.

    Director:David Hartwell
    Writer:Unknown

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  17. POV Season 2 Episode 5 - The Family Album
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    S2:E5

    Home movies and tape recordings collected from 60 different American families comprise a composite lifetime which moves from childhood to adulthood, from innocence to experience.

    Director:Alan Berliner
    Writer:Unknown

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  18. POV Season 2 Episode 6 - Dark Circle
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    S2:E6

    Denounced by officials and shunned by broadcasters when it was first released, this exploration of the personal and immediate impacts of the nuclear age carries a chilling thesis: The Bomb is killing ordinary Americans, even in the absence of a nuclear war.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  19. POV Season 2 Episode 7 - Jack Levine: Feast of Pure Reason
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    S2:E7

    A bold and unconventional film portrait of one of America's leading Social Realist painters doing what he does best: skewering corrupt politicians, raging over social injustices, and satirizing the petty foibles of humankind.

    Director:David Sutherland
    Writer:Unknown

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  20. POV Season 2 Episode 8 - No Applause, Just Throw Money
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    S2:E8

    On the streets and subways of New York, 101 itinerant performers whirl firesticks, mimic passers-by, imitate Stevie Wonder, tap dance and perform classical music. A delightful mixture of music and magic moments, celebrating some joyful encounters in New York City streets.

    Director:Karen Goodman
    Writer:Unknown

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  21. POV Season 2 Episode 9 - Partisans of Vilna
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    S2:E9

    The untold story of a handful of Jewish youth who organized an underground resistance against the Nazis in the Lithuanian ghetto of Vilna.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  22. POV Season 2 Episode 10 - The Fighting Ministers
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    S2:E10

    Moved by the growing desperation of thousands of laid-off steel workers, a group of ministers in Pittsburgh begins to confront the city's government and powerful corporations. Their passionate, controversial, and unorthodox actions lead to profound soul-searching, Church rejection, and imprisonment.

    Director:Richard Wormser
    Writer:Unknown

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  23. POV Season 2 Episode 11 - Binge
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    S2:E11

    Videomaker Lynn Hershman places herself center-screen for an intimate, humorous, and piercing narrative about her efforts to control her weight.

    Director:Lynn Hershman-Leeson
    Writer:Unknown

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  24. POV Season 2 Episode 12 - Cowboy Poets
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    S2:E12

    For more than a hundred years cowboys have written with feeling about the life and land they love. Several contemporary poet lariats keep that tradition alive — even on the Johnny Carson show.

    Director:Kim Shelton
    Writer:Unknown

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  25. POV Season 2 Episode 13 - Doug and Mike, Mike and Doug
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    S2:E13

    The inner and outer lives of identical twins Doug and Mike Starn, whose collaborative painting and photographic work is rapidly gaining acclaim in the art world.

    Director:Cindy Kleine
    Writer:Unknown

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

Worst Episodes Summary

"Acting Our Age" is the worst rated episode of "POV". It scored /10 based on 0 votes. Directed by Michal Aviad and written by Unknown, it aired on 7/5/1988. This episode scored 0.0 points lower than the second lowest rated, "American Tongues".