NaN/100 votes#1 - Acting Our Age
Season 1 Episode 1 - Aired 7/5/1988
"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: N/A
NaN/100 votes#2 - American Tongues
Season 1 Episode 2 - Aired 7/5/1988
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.
Director: Louis Alvarez, Andrew Kolker
Writer: N/A
NaN/100 votes#3 - Fire From the Mountain
Season 1 Episode 3 - Aired 7/12/1988
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: N/A
NaN/100 votes#4 - Knocking on Armageddon's Door
Season 1 Episode 4 - Aired 7/19/1988
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.
Director: Torv Carlsen, John Magnuson
Writer: N/A
NaN/100 votes#5 - Living with AIDS
Season 1 Episode 5 - Aired 7/19/1988
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: N/A
NaN/100 votes#6 - Las Madres: The Mothers of Plaza de Mayo
Season 1 Episode 6 - Aired 8/2/1988
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.
Director: Susana Blaustein Muñoz, Lourdes Portillo
Writer: N/A
NaN/100 votes#7 - The Good Fight
Season 1 Episode 7 - Aired 8/9/1988
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.
Director: Sam Sills, Noel Buckner, Mary Dore
Writer: N/A
NaN/100 votes#8 - Louie Bluie
Season 1 Episode 8 - Aired 8/23/1988
A lively portrait of 76-year-old Harold "Louie Bluie" Armstrong, musician, artist, raconteur and rogue.
Director: Terry Zwigoff
Writer: N/A
NaN/100 votes#9 - Gates of Heaven
Season 1 Episode 9 - Aired 8/30/1988
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: N/A
NaN/100 votes#10 - Best Boy
Season 1 Episode 10 - Aired 9/6/1988
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: N/A
NaN/100 votes#11 - Rate It X
Season 1 Episode 11 - Aired 7/26/1988
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.
Director: Lucy Winer, Paula de Koenigsberg
Writer: N/A
NaN/100 votes#12 - Metropolitan Avenue
Season 1 Episode 12 - Aired 8/16/1988
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: N/A
The Best Episodes of POV Season 1
Every episode of POV Season 1 ranked from best to worst. Discover the Best Episodes of POV Season 1!
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...
Genre:Documentary
Network:PBS
Season 1 Ratings Summary
"Acting Our Age" is the best rated episode of "POV" season 1. It scored N/A/10 based on 0 votes. Directed by Michal Aviad and written by N/A, it aired on 7/5/1988. This episode is rated NaN points higher than the second-best, "American Tongues".