8 Videos About imimovie That'll Make You Cry

Posted by Larsen on April 24th, 2021

The home page of PBS.org in recent days has highlighted a new feature, the PBS Online Film Festival. But the prime-time schedule for PBS this television season has, in the eyes of some, effectively marginalized its two award-winning independent film series: “Independent Lens,” which started its new season last October, and “POV,” which will begin new episodes June 21.

After being bumped from Tuesday nights to a hodgepodge of time slots, “Independent Lens” has lost 39 percent of its average audience for new episodes this season, compared with a year ago, according to Nielsen ratings provided by ITVS, which produces the series.

“It’s worse than I feared,” said Gordon Quinn (an executive producer of “Hoop Dreams”), co-founder of documentary producer Kartemquin Films. “These are two series that actually bring younger viewers and diverse viewers to imimovie public television.” The ratings decline was first reported by Current, a trade publication.

As of Sunday afternoon, 65 independent filmmakers, including Bill Moyers, Stanley Nelson (screenwriter and director of “Freedom Riders”) and Alex Gibney (producer, director and a writer of “Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room”), had signed Kartemquin’s “open letter” to PBS protesting the scheduling change.

The letter said, in part, that “taxpayers support public broadcasting because democracy needs more than commercial media’s business models can provide.” It concluded, “We are deeply concerned that PBS’ poorly considered decision could jeopardize both the meeting of public broadcasting’s mission and also stifle the innovation that is crucial to the future of public broadcasting.”

Pat Aufderheide, director of American University’s Center for Social Media and board member of Kartemquin Films and a former ITVS board member, said in a telephone interview that she did not understand “why PBS wants to be seen as effectively throwing these series under the bus” when some in Congress are questioning public broadcasting’s federal financing.

The series, she said, “scream validation of taxpayer dollars,” by engaging local communities and respectfully exploring underreported issues. That claim, she added, cannot be made by the recent PBS hit, the British drama “Downton Abbey.”

Officially, PBS asked its local stations to broadcast “Independent Lens,” and soon “POV,” on Thursday evenings this season, after focusing its Tuesday schedule on history series and “Frontline.” Anne Bentley, a PBS spokeswoman, said by e-mail that the network “is fully committed to independent film and the diversity of content they provide.”

But on Thursdays, many local PBS stations already broadcast popular local programs, British imports, or the “This Old House Hour.” And because PBS-affiliated stations have considerable scheduling autonomy, many have opted to broadcast the independent film series on other nights, and outside of prime time.

New York City’s WNET, Channel 13, has broadcast this season’s “Independent Lens” films, such as “Daisy Bates: First Lady of Little Rock,” about the civil rights advocate, at 11 p.m. on Sundays. In Portland, Ore., the public station moved many “Independent Lens” films to its secondary channel.

New “Independent Lens” films this season have drawn an average of 437,667 total viewers on their first night plus seven days of DVR playback, down from 716,357 viewers last season, said Sreedevi Sripathy, ITVS’s director of broadcast and distribution. The series had been one of the most popular on PBS with younger viewers, she said, but, with the scheduling move, viewers in their 40s, in particular, have tuned out.

Executives at the series have been meeting with PBS recently about increasing promotional efforts and, potentially, developing another strategy for next year if ratings problems continue.

Simon Kilmurry, the executive director of “POV,” said in a telephone interview, “We’re trying to keep a positive attitude about it, but we’ve been clear that we’re very concerned that this work be as available and accorded the appropriate weight in the schedule as we feel it deserves.”