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The Best Episodes of POV

Every episode of POV ranked from best to worst. Let's dive into the Best Episodes of POV!

The Best Episodes of POV

Since its 1988 premiere, this critically acclaimed documentary series has presented hundreds of films that put a human face on contemporary social issues by relating...
  1. Background image for The Betrayal (Nerakhoon)
    9.2/10(18 votes)

    #1 - The Betrayal (Nerakhoon)

    S22:E5

    Filmed over 23 years, The Betrayal is the Academy Award-nominated directorial debut of renowned cinematographer Ellen Kuras in a unique collaboration with the film's subject and co-director, Thavisouk ("Thavi") Phrasavath. After the U.S. government waged a secret war in Laos during the Vietnam War, Thavi's father and thousands of other Laotians who had fought alongside American forces were abandoned and left to face imprisonment or execution. Hoping to find safety, Thavi's family made a harrowing escape to America, where they discovered a different kind of war. Weaving ancient prophecy with personal testimony and stunning imagery, The Betrayal is a story of survival and the resilient bonds of family.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  2. Background image for The Act of Killing
    8.8/10(19 votes)

    #2 - The Act of Killing

    S27:E13

    Joshua Oppenheimer visits men accused of playing a key role in the killing of over one-million Indonesians in 1965. Initially, the men explain their actions as patriotic and necessary. But over time, some question their actions. 2013 Oscar nominee. 2014 BAFTA Best Documentary.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  3. Background image for The Most Dangerous Man in America:  Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers
    8.7/10(20 votes)

    #3 - The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers

    S23:E14

    The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers is a 2009 documentary film directed by Judith Ehrlich and Rick Goldsmith. The film follows Daniel Ellsberg and explores the events leading up to the publication of the Pentagon Papers, which exposed the top-secret military history of the United States involvement in Vietnam.

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  4. Background image for The Look of Silence
    8.7/10(14 votes)

    #4 - The Look of Silence

    S29:E3

    An optometrist identifies the men who killed his brother in the horrific 1965 Indonesian genocide. He confronts them while testing their eyesight and demands they accept responsibility.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  5. Background image for The Beaches of Agnès
    8.5/10(16 votes)

    #5 - The Beaches of Agnès

    S23:E3

    The Beaches of Agnès is a 2008 French documentary film directed by Agnès Varda. The film is an autobiographical essay where Varda revisits places from her past, reminisces about life and celebrates her 80th birthday on camera. She has said that it will most likely be her last film.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  6. Background image for This Way Up
    8.2/10(10 votes)

    #6 - This Way Up

    S22:E8

    This is a story about a wall - the separations it's meant to enforce, and the unintended ones it creates. The security wall being constructed by Israel on the West Bank has divided Palestinian families and communities. It has also isolated the Catholic-run Our Lady of Sorrows nursing home, leaving its feisty residents to face old age in the throes of one of the world's most bitter conflicts.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
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  8. Background image for Episode 15
    8.0/10(1 votes)

    #7 - Episode 15

    S17:E15

    No description available

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  9. Background image for The Fall of Fujimori
    8.0/10(8 votes)

    #8 - The Fall of Fujimori

    S19:E4

    In 1990, an unknown candidate named Alberto Fujimori rode a wave of popular support to become the president of Peru. He fought an allout war on terror against the guerilla organization Shining Path, and won. Ten years later, accused of kidnapping, murder and corruption, he fled Peru to his native Japan, where he was in exile for four years. Fujimori has remained virtually silent about the abrupt end of his controversial presidency, until now. He granted an unprecedented, in-depth interview to filmmaker Ellen Perry, who presents an intimate, chilling portrait of this enigmatic leader's rise and fall, interweaving neverbefore-seen footage from his regime with Fujimori's own words. As events unfold in his quest to return to Peruvian politics, The Fall of Fujimori offers a cautionary tale about power and corruption in an age of terrorism.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  10. Background image for Life.Support.Music
    7.8/10(7 votes)

    #9 - Life.Support.Music

    S22:E3

    In 2004, Jason Crigler's life was taking off. He was one of New York's hottest young guitarists, his new CD was due for release and his wife, Monica, was pregnant with their first child. Then, at a gig in Manhattan, Jason suffered a near-fatal brain hemorrhage. His doctors doubted he would ever emerge from his near-vegetative state. The astonishing journey that followed, documented by friend and filmmaker Eric Daniel Metzgar (The Chances of the World Changing, POV 2007), is a stirring family saga and a portrait of creative struggle in the face of overwhelming tragedy.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  11. Background image for The Law in These Parts
    7.7/10(15 votes)

    #10 - The Law in These Parts

    S26:E8

    For the first time, Israeli military and legal professionals who devised the legal framework behind the occupation are interviewed about this system, which mirrors the country’s toughest moral quandaries.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  12. Background image for Listening Is an Act of Love: A StoryCorps Special
    7.6/10(8 votes)

    #11 - Listening Is an Act of Love: A StoryCorps Special

    S26:E15

    Celebrate the transformative power of listening with this animated special from the oral history project StoryCorps, which captures intimate conversations among everyday people.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  13. Background image for Web Junkie
    7.4/10(5 votes)

    #12 - Web Junkie

    S28:E4

    A look at Internet addiction in China via the experiences of teens at Daxing Boot Camp in Beijing, one of some 400 rehabilitation centers created by the government to treat the disorder. Patients, who are kept under constant surveillance, take part in rigorous exercise, group therapy, brain scans and classroom instruction. "It is an abyss swallowing my son," says one mother of why she sought help for her son. It's also not cheap. Parents, many at their wits' end, often borrow money to pay.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  14. Background image for Landfall
    7.4/10(8 votes)

    #13 - Landfall

    S34:E2

    No description available

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  15. Background image for My Way to Olympia
    7.2/10(6 votes)

    #14 - My Way to Olympia

    S27:E3

    Filmmaker Niko von Glasow profiles participants at the 2012 Paralympic Games in London, including a one-handed Norwegian table tennis player, the Rwandan sitting volleyball team, an American archer who uses his feet and a Greek paraplegic boccia player. Along the way, von Glasow—who was born with severely shortened arms—sees his preconceptions and stereotypes about the Paralympics and sports in general upended.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  16. Background image for Dance for Me
    7.2/10(5 votes)

    #15 - Dance for Me

    S27:E5

    The world of professional ballroom dancing in Denmark, where participants often look beyond the country's borders for the perfect partner, is examined. The documentary follows Egor, a 15 year old from Russia, as he adjusts to life in Denmark and to his 14-year-old Danish partner, Mie.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  17. Background image for After Tiller
    7.2/10(9 votes)

    #16 - After Tiller

    S27:E10

    The story of the four abortion doctors that remained in Wichita, Kansas after the assassination of George Tiller in 2009.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  18. Background image for The Return
    7.2/10(6 votes)

    #17 - The Return

    S29:E1

    An unprecedented reform to California's "Three Strikes" law seen through the eyes of those on the front lines – prisoners suddenly freed, families turned upside down, reentry providers helping navigate complex transitions, and attorneys and judges wrestling with an untested law.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  19. Background image for Of Men and War
    7.2/10(5 votes)

    #18 - Of Men and War

    S29:E2

    At a first-of-its-kind PTSD treatment center in California, follow Iraq and Afghanistan veterans and their families on their paths to recovery as they attempt to make peace with their pasts, their loved ones and themselves.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  20. Background image for Maquilapolis: City of Factories
    7.1/10(434 votes)

    #19 - Maquilapolis: City of Factories

    S19:E12

    Just over the border in Mexico is an area peppered with maquiladoras: massive factories often owned by the world's largest multinational corporations. Carmen and Lourdes work at maquiladoras in Tijuana, where each day they confront labor violations, environmental devastation and urban chaos. In this lyrical documentary, the women reach beyond the daily struggle for survival to organize for change, taking on both the Mexican and U.S. governments and a major television manufacturer. A co-production of the Independent Television Service (ITVS).

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  21. Background image for 56 Up
    7.1/10(7 votes)

    #20 - 56 Up

    S26:E14

    In 1964 a group of 7-year-old children were interviewed for the groundbreaking documentary Seven Up. Michael Apted has been back to film them every seven years since. Now they are 56.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  22. Background image for American Gypsy: A Stranger in Everybody's Land
    7.0/10(1 votes)

    #21 - American Gypsy: A Stranger in Everybody's Land

    S13:E7

    Exploring the secretive and largely unassimilated Romani culture as it follows one Spokane, Wash., Gypsy family. That family, the Markses, had a score to settle with the city of Spokane, which had their house raided in 1986 in search of stolen goods. The family later sued for improper police search, and writer-director Jasmine Dellal's film follows the case---and family head Jimmy Marks' obsession with it---closely.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  23. Background image for American Revolutionary: The Evolution of Grace Lee Boggs
    7.0/10(9 votes)

    #22 - American Revolutionary: The Evolution of Grace Lee Boggs

    S27:E2

    A profile of 98-year-old Grace Lee Boggs, a Chinese-American social activist in Detroit who has spent much of her adult life fighting for civil rights and female equality.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  24. Background image for Twelve Disciples of Nelson Mandela
    6.9/10(11 votes)

    #23 - Twelve Disciples of Nelson Mandela

    S19:E10

    In the wake of his stepfather’s death, Thomas Allen Harris embarks on a journey of reconciliation with the man who raised him as a son but whom he could never call "father." As part of the first wave of black South African exiles, Harris’s stepfather, B. Pule Leinaeng, and his eleven comrades left their home in Bloemfontein in 1960. They told the world about the brutality of the apartheid system and raised support for the fledgling African National Congress and its leader, Nelson Mandela. Drawing upon the memories of the surviving disciples and their families, along with the talent of young South African actors who portray their harrowing experiences, Twelve Disciples of Nelson Mandela tells an intimate story of family and home against the backdrop of a global movement for freedom. A co-production of the Independent Television Service (ITVS), in association with P.O.V./American Documentary and the National Black Programming Consortium.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  25. Background image for When I Walk
    6.9/10(8 votes)

    #24 - When I Walk

    S27:E1

    The Season 27 premiere features Jason DaSilva's "When I Walk," in which the filmmaker chronicles his life for five years after being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis at age 25. By happenstance, a family member records the moment when the diagnosis hits home: while vacationing in the Caribbean, his legs give out. Yet, not all is bad: he meets Alice Cook, whose mother also has MS, at a support group. The two fall in love, marry and collaborate on completing the documentary.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  26. Background image for 15 to Life: Kenneth's Story
    6.9/10(8 votes)

    #25 - 15 to Life: Kenneth's Story

    S27:E7

    The story of a 15-year old sentenced to four life sentences. Does society benefit from incarcerating young teens to a lifetime in prison?

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

Best Episodes Summary

"The Betrayal (Nerakhoon)" is the best rated episode of "POV". It scored 9.2/10 based on 18 votes. Directed by Unknown and written by Unknown, it aired on 7/21/2009. This episode scored 0.4 points higher than the second highest rated, "The Act of Killing".