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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 Accepted
    8.3/10(8 votes)

    #1 - Accepted

    S35:E10

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

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  2. Background image for Advocate
    8.1/10(7 votes)

    #2 - 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.

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

    #3 - Episode 15

    S17:E15

    No description available

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

    #4 - 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
  5. Background image for Granito: How to Nail a Dictator
    7.7/10(10 votes)

    #5 - 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.

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

    #6 - 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
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  8. Background image for Nostalgia for the Light
    7.6/10(10 votes)

    #7 - 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.

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

    #8 - 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
  10. Background image for Chez Jolie Coiffure
    7.3/10(18 votes)

    #9 - Chez Jolie Coiffure

    S33:E5

    In this captivating documentary filmed in a single tiny room, viewers step inside an underground hair salon with its charismatic proprietor, a Cameroonian immigrant named Sabine. Here, she and her employees style extensions and glue on lashes while watching soaps, dishing romantic advice, sharing rumors about government programs to legalize migrants, and talking about life back home in Cameroon.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  11. Background image for Love & Stuff
    7.2/10(9 votes)

    #10 - Love & Stuff

    S35:E7

    A multigenerational love story focuses on a daughter who cares for her terminally ill mother and adopts a baby in her 50s.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  12. Background image for Maquilapolis: City of Factories
    7.1/10(433 votes)

    #11 - 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
  13. Background image for The City Dark
    7.1/10(11 votes)

    #12 - The City Dark

    S25:E3

    Is darkness becoming extinct? A meditation on the human relationship to the stars.

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

    #13 - 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
  15. Background image for He's My Brother
    7.1/10(7 votes)

    #14 - He's My Brother

    S35:E4

    Christine works to ensure dignified lives for herself and her brother, Peter.

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

    #15 - 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
  17. Background image for And She Could Be Next, Part 2
    7.0/10(7 votes)

    #16 - And She Could Be Next, Part 2

    S33:E2

    The story of a defiant movement of women of color, transforming politics from the ground up by fighting for a truly reflective democracy. Filmed during the historic 2018 midterm elections, the documentary features organizers and candidates (including Rashida Tlaib and Stacey Abrams) as they fight for a truly reflective government, asking whether democracy can be preserved—and made stronger—by those most marginalized

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  18. Background image for An Act of Worship
    7.0/10(5 votes)

    #17 - An Act of Worship

    S35:E11

    The past 30 years of American history through the perspective of Muslims across the U.S. who have lived it.

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

    #18 - 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
  20. Background image for Midwives
    6.9/10(7 votes)

    #19 - Midwives

    S35:E12

    Two women in a region beset by violent ethnic divisions run a makeshift medical clinic.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  21. Background image for Wuhan Wuhan
    6.8/10(8 votes)

    #20 - Wuhan Wuhan

    S35:E1

    Exploring the early days of COVID-19 when Chinese citizens and frontline health care workers in Wuhan grappled with a mysterious virus.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  22. Background image for Manzanar, Diverted: When water becomes dust
    6.8/10(6 votes)

    #21 - Manzanar, Diverted: When water becomes dust

    S35:E2

    Japanese Americans incarcerated at the Manzanar World War II concentration camp; Native Americans forced from their land; ranchers bought out by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  23. Background image for Delikado
    6.7/10(6 votes)

    #22 - Delikado

    S35:E8

    Locals on an island paradise risk death to save the Philippines' last ecological frontier.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  24. Background image for President
    6.6/10(7 votes)

    #23 - President

    S35:E5

    A new leader takes on the corrupt ruling party in Zimbabwe's 2018 presidential election.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  25. Background image for Faya Dayi
    6.6/10(5 votes)

    #24 - Faya Dayi

    S35:E6

    A look at khat, a euphoria-inducing plant, and the lives of harvesters of the crop in Harar, Ethiopia.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  26. Background image for My Country, My Country
    6.5/10(4 votes)

    #25 - My Country, My Country

    S19:E13

    My Country, My Country is a 2006 documentary film about Iraq under U.S. occupation by the filmmaker Laura Poitras.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

Best Episodes Summary

"Accepted" is the best rated episode of "POV". It scored 8.3/10 based on 8 votes. Directed by Unknown and written by Unknown, it aired on 10/10/2022. This episode scored 0.2 points higher than the second highest rated, "Advocate".