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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!

Binge this in 21d 22h•Peaking at 9.2/10

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 a compelling story in an intimate fashion. "POV" has won

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Episode Rankings

  1. #1 Fan Favorite
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    POV Season 20 Episode 10 - Made in L.A.
    9.2/10(9 votes)

    #1 - Made in L.A.

    S20:E10

    Los Angeles is now the country’s center for apparel manufacturing, but many of its factories bear an eerie resemblance to New York’s early 20th century sweatshops. Made in L.A. follows the remarkable journey of three Latina immigrants working in L.A.’s garment factories and their struggle for self-empowerment as they wage a three-year battle to bring a major clothing retailer to the negotiating table. This intimate film offers a rare and poignant glimpse into this “other” California, where immigrants in many industries toil long hours for sub-minimum wages, fighting for an opportunity in a new country. A co-production with the Independent Television Service (ITVS). A Diverse Voices Project co-production. A co-presentation with Latino Public Broadcasting. (packaged to 86:46)

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  2. POV Season 22 Episode 5 - The Betrayal (Nerakhoon)
    9.2/10(18 votes)

    #2 - 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.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  3. POV Season 27 Episode 13 - The Act of Killing
    8.8/10(19 votes)

    #3 - 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.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  4. POV Season 23 Episode 14 - The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers
    8.7/10(20 votes)

    #4 - 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.

    Directors:Judith Ehrlich, Rick Goldsmith
    Writers:Judith Ehrlich, Rick Goldsmith

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  5. POV Season 29 Episode 3 - The Look of Silence
    8.7/10(14 votes)

    #5 - 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.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  6. POV Season 35 Episode 10 - Accepted
    8.5/10(8 votes)

    #6 - Accepted

    S35:E10

    A prep school in Louisiana that sends 100% of its grads to college is rocked by scandal.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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    The 20 WORST Episodes of POV

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  7. POV Season 23 Episode 3 - The Beaches of Agnès
    8.3/10(17 votes)

    #7 - 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.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  8. POV Season 31 Episode 13 - Survivors
    8.3/10(7 votes)

    #8 - Survivors

    S31:E13

    Two health care workers in Sierra Leone face the Ebola epidemic in their country.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  9. POV Season 38 Episode 2 - Igualada: Refusing to Know Your Place
    8.3/10(13 votes)

    #9 - Igualada: Refusing to Know Your Place

    S38:E2

    Black activist Francia Márquez rises from rural Colombia to launch a historic presidential campaign that defies the political establishment. By espousing a different way of doing politics and championing equality, she inspires a nationwide movement that challenges centuries of exclusion.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  10. POV Season 22 Episode 8 - This Way Up
    8.2/10(10 votes)

    #10 - 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.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  11. POV Season 24 Episode 11 - If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front
    8.2/10(11 votes)

    #11 - If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front

    S24:E11

    If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front explores two of America’s most pressing issues — environmentalism and terrorism — by lifting the veil on a radical environmental group the FBI calls America’s “number one domestic terrorism threat.” Former Earth Liberation Front member Daniel McGowan faces life in prison for two multimillion-dollar arsons against Oregon timber companies. What turned this working-class kid from Queens into an eco-warrior? Marshall Curry (Oscar®-nominated Street Fight, POV 2005) provides a nuanced and provocative account that is part coming-of-age story, part cautionary tale and part cops-and-robbers thriller.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  12. POV Season 24 Episode 13 - Last Train Home
    8.1/10(9 votes)

    #12 - Last Train Home

    S24:E13

    Every spring, China’s cities are plunged into chaos as 130 million migrant workers journey to their home villages for the New Year in the world’s largest human migration. Last Train Home takes viewers on a heart-stopping journey with the Zhangs, a couple who left infant children behind for factory jobs 16 years ago, hoping their wages would lift their children to a better life. They return to a family growing distant and a daughter longing to leave school for unskilled work. As the Zhangs navigate their new world, Last Train Home paints a rich, human portrait of China’s rush to economic development. An EyeSteelFilm production in association with ITVS International. An Official Selection of the 2010 Sundance Film Festival. Winner of Best Feature-Length Documentary Award, 2009 International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam. (90:00)

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  13. POV Season 33 Episode 4 - Advocate
    8.1/10(7 votes)

    #13 - Advocate

    S33:E4

    Meet Israeli lawyer Lea Tsemel, a political firebrand who is known by her opponents as "the devil's advocate" for her decades-long defense of Palestinians who have been accused of resisting the occupation, both violently and non-violently.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  14. POV Season 17 Episode 15 - Episode 15
    8.0/10(1 votes)

    #14 - Episode 15

    S17:E15

    No description available

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  15. POV Season 19 Episode 4 - The Fall of Fujimori
    8.0/10(8 votes)

    #15 - 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.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  16. POV Season 36 Episode 7 - While We Watched
    8.0/10(6 votes)

    #16 - While We Watched

    S36:E7

    In a world of fake news, journalist Ravish Kumar stands his ground. Will his show survive?

    Director:Vinay Shukla
    Writers:Vinay Shukla, Abhinav Tyagi, Amaan Shaikh

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  17. POV Season 22 Episode 3 - Life.Support.Music
    7.8/10(7 votes)

    #17 - 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.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  18. POV Season 24 Episode 4 - Enemies of the People
    7.8/10(6 votes)

    #18 - Enemies of the People

    S24:E4

    The Khmer Rouge slaughtered nearly two million people in the late 1970s. Yet the “killing fields” of Cambodia have remained largely unexplained. Until now, in Enemies of the People. Enter Thet Sambath, an unassuming, yet cunning, investigative journalist who lost his family in the conflict and spends a decade gaining the trust of the men and women who perpetrated the massacres. Sambath and co-director Rob Lemkin record shocking testimony, never before seen or heard, from the foot soldiers who slit throats and from Pol Pot’s right-hand man, the notorious Brother Number Two. Winner of the 2010 Sundance World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Prize. (90:00)

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  19. POV Season 25 Episode 12 - Nostalgia for the Light
    7.8/10(11 votes)

    #19 - Nostalgia for the Light

    S25:E12

    Patricio Guzmán's Nostalgia for the Light is a remarkable meditation on memory, history and eternity. Chile’s remote Atacama Desert, 10,000 feet above sea level, provides stunningly clear views of the heavens for astronomers. But it also holds secrets from the past: human remains, from pre-Columbian mummies to the bones of political prisoners "disappeared" during the Pinochet dictatorship.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  20. POV Season 36 Episode 3 - Liquor Store Dreams
    7.8/10(7 votes)

    #20 - Liquor Store Dreams

    S36:E3

    Immigrant dreams and generational divides collide against LA's complex racial landscape.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  21. POV Season 38 Episode 3 - Made in Ethiopia
    7.8/10(7 votes)

    #21 - Made in Ethiopia

    S38:E3

    Inside Ethiopia's largest Chinese-run industrial park, three women stand at the crossroads of rapid development. A Chinese director drives ambitious expansion, while a local farmer and factory worker grapple with promises of prosperity and the true cost of progress in their transforming community.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  22. POV Season 38 Episode 9 - Black Snow
    7.8/10(8 votes)

    #22 - Black Snow

    S38:E9

    In a remote Siberian coal town, homemaker-turned-journalist Natalia Zubkova investigates an abandoned mine fire releasing toxic gas into residential homes. When her reporting goes viral, government officials launch an aggressive cover-up campaign, putting her directly in their crosshairs.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  23. POV Season 26 Episode 8 - The Law in These Parts
    7.7/10(15 votes)

    #23 - 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.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  24. POV Season 17 Episode 4 - Last Man Standing: Politics---Texas Style
    7.5/10(20 votes)

    #24 - Last Man Standing: Politics---Texas Style

    S17:E4

    What is old is often new again. Most funerals today are part of a multimillion-dollar industry run by professionals. This increased reliance on mortuaries has alienated Americans from life's only inevitability — death. A Family Undertaking explores the growing home funeral movement by following several families in their most intimate moments as they reclaim the end of life, forgoing a typical mortuary funeral to care for their loved ones at home. Far from being a radical innovation, keeping funeral rites in the family or among friends is exactly how death was handled for most of pre-20th century America. Prior to the Civil War, caring for and preparing the dead for burial on family farms or in local cemeteries was both a domestic skill and a family responsibility.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  25. POV Season 25 Episode 2 - Granito: How to Nail a Dictator
    7.5/10(11 votes)

    #25 - Granito: How to Nail a Dictator

    S25:E2

    In a stunning milestone for justice in Central America, a Guatemalan court recently charged former dictator Efraín Rios Montt with genocide for his brutal war in the 1980s — and Pamela Yates’ 1983 documentary, When the Mountains Tremble, provided key evidence for bringing the indictment. Granito: How to Nail a Dictator tells the extraordinary story of how a film helped tip the scales of justice.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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Best Episodes Summary

"Made in L.A." is the best rated episode of "POV". It scored 9.2/10 based on 9 votes. Directed by Unknown and written by Unknown, it aired on 9/4/2007. This episode scored 0.0 points higher than the second highest rated, "The Betrayal (Nerakhoon)".