The Worst Episodes of POV

Episode Rankings

1. #1 Worst Episode
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   #1 - Acting Our Age

   S1:E17/5/1988

   "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:Unknown

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   Director:Michal Aviad

   Writer:Unknown
2. 

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   #2 - American Tongues

   S1:E27/5/1988

   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.

   Directors:Andrew Kolker, Louis Alvarez

   Writer:Unknown

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   Directors:Andrew Kolker, Louis Alvarez

   Writer:Unknown
3. 

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   #3 - Fire From the Mountain

   S1:E37/12/1988

   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:Unknown

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   Director:Deborah Shaffer

   Writer:Unknown
4. 

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   #4 - Knocking on Armageddon's Door

   S1:E47/19/1988

   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.

   Directors:Torv Carlsen, John Magnuson

   Writer:Unknown

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   Directors:Torv Carlsen, John Magnuson

   Writer:Unknown
5. 

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   #5 - Living with AIDS

   S1:E57/19/1988

   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:Unknown

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   Director:Tina DiFeliciantonio

   Writer:Unknown
6. 

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   #6 - Las Madres: The Mothers of Plaza de Mayo

   S1:E68/2/1988

   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.

   Directors:Lourdes Portillo, Susana Blaustein Muñoz

   Writer:Unknown

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   Directors:Lourdes Portillo, Susana Blaustein Muñoz

   Writer:Unknown
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7. 

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   #7 - The Good Fight

   S1:E78/9/1988

   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.

   Directors:Sam Sills, Noel Buckner, Mary Dore

   Writer:Unknown

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   Directors:Sam Sills, Noel Buckner, Mary Dore

   Writer:Unknown
8. 

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   #8 - Louie Bluie

   S1:E88/23/1988

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

   Director:Terry Zwigoff

   Writer:Unknown

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   Director:Terry Zwigoff

   Writer:Unknown
9. 

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   #9 - Gates of Heaven

   S1:E98/30/1988

   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:Unknown

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   Director:Errol Morris

   Writer:Unknown
10. 

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    #10 - Best Boy

    S1:E109/6/1988

    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:Unknown

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    Director:Ira Wohl

    Writer:Unknown
11. 

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    #11 - Rate It X

    S1:E117/26/1988

    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.

    Directors:Lucy Winer, Paula de Koenigsberg

    Writer:Unknown

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    Directors:Lucy Winer, Paula de Koenigsberg

    Writer:Unknown
12. 

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    #12 - Metropolitan Avenue

    S1:E128/16/1988

    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:Unknown

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    Director:Christine Noschese

    Writer:Unknown
13. 

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    #13 - Girltalk

    S2:E17/15/1989

    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

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    Director:Kate Davis

    Writer:Unknown
14. 

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    #14 - Who Killed Vincent Chin?

    S2:E27/16/1989

    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

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    Director:Unknown

    Writer:Unknown
15. 

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    #15 - Coming Out

    S2:E37/23/1989

    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

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    Director:Unknown

    Writer:Unknown
16. 

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    #16 - Wise Guys!

    S2:E47/23/1989

    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

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    Director:David Hartwell

    Writer:Unknown
17. 

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    #17 - The Family Album

    S2:E57/30/1989

    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

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    Director:Alan Berliner

    Writer:Unknown
18. 

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    #18 - Dark Circle

    S2:E68/6/1989

    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

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    Director:Unknown

    Writer:Unknown
19. 

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    #19 - Jack Levine: Feast of Pure Reason

    S2:E78/13/1989

    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

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    Director:David Sutherland

    Writer:Unknown
20. 

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    #20 - No Applause, Just Throw Money

    S2:E88/20/1989

    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

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    Director:Karen Goodman

    Writer:Unknown
21. 

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    #21 - Partisans of Vilna

    S2:E98/27/1989

    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

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    Director:Unknown

    Writer:Unknown
22. 

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    #22 - The Fighting Ministers

    S2:E109/3/1989

    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

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    Director:Richard Wormser

    Writer:Unknown
23. 

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    #23 - Binge

    S2:E119/17/1989

    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

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    Director:Lynn Hershman-Leeson

    Writer:Unknown
24. 

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    #24 - Cowboy Poets

    S2:E129/17/1989

    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

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    Director:Kim Shelton

    Writer:Unknown
25. 

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    #25 - Doug and Mike, Mike and Doug

    S2:E139/17/1989

    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

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    Director:Cindy Kleine

    Writer:Unknown