For  Immediate  Release    

Contacts:  POV  Communications:  212-­‐989-­‐7425.  Communications@pov.org      Cathy  Fisher,  cfisher@pov.org;  Amanda  Nguyen,  anguyen@pov.org.    POV  online  pressroom:  www.pbs.org/pov/pressroom      

POV  Announces  ‘Hackathon  2’  Digital  Storytelling  Winners:  ‘Empire,’    ‘The  Human  Experiment’  and  ‘The  Whiteness  Project’;  All  Projects  Now  Online  

 

POV  Hackathon  3  Set  for  April  13-­‐14,  2013;  Call  for  Participants  Open  Through  March  12    

 The  ‘Empire’  team  at  POV  Hackathon  2.  Credit:  POV  

 

POV  (Point  of  View),  PBS’  award-­‐winning  independent  documentary  series  currently  in  its  25th  year,  took  over  the  offices  of  Huge,  Inc.  in  Brooklyn,  N.Y.  for  the  weekend-­‐long  POV  Hackathon  2,  from    Jan.  12-­‐13,  2013.  POV  challenged  eight  teams  of  filmmakers,  developers  and  designers  to  “hack”  documentary  films  and  create  a  working  interactive  prototype  for  a  final  screening  and  pitch,  judged  by  Terry  Bryant  from  the  Corporation  for  Public  Broadcasting,  Ingrid  Kopp  from  the  Tribeca  Film  Institute,  Paco  de  Onís  of  Skylight  Pictures  and  Brian  Storm  of  MediaStorm  and  the  Hackathon  participants.    And  the  winners  are:  Participants’  Choice  award:  Empire;  Best  Prototype  award:  Stop  the  Experiment;  and  Best  Pitch  award:  The  Whiteness  Project.    The  next  POV  Hackathon  will  be  held  Saturday-­‐Sunday,  April  13-­‐14,  2013.  POV  Hackathon  3’s  Call  for  Participants  is  now  open  at  http://pov.org/hackathon.  Deadline:  Tuesday,  March  12  at  midnight  ET.    All  Hackathon  2  projects  are  now  available  for  viewing  at  http://pov.org/hackathon.  Learn  more  about  POV  and  see  project  demos,  and  download  event  photos.    About  the  winning  projects:  Empire  (Participants’  Choice  winner)  looks  at  the  continuing  legacy  of  Dutch  colonialism  through  an  ‘exploded’  feature  film:  a  series  of  video  installations  presented  simultaneously  in  a  common  space.  Filmmakers  Eline  Jongsma  and  Kel  O’Neill  teamed  up  with  interactive  designers  Clint  Beharry  and  Claire  Mitchell  to  translate  the  multi-­‐screen  presentation  to  a  diptych  platform  that  allows  the  viewer  to  push  and  pull  the  screen’s  boundaries  to  decide  which  installation  and  story  they  want  to  follow.  Learn  more.    Stop  the  Experiment  (Best  Prototype  winner)  is  a  Web  app  created  by  developers  Mimi  Flynn,  Christopher  Castiglione  and  Cameron  Hickey  and  filmmakers  Dana  Nachman  and  Chelsea  Matter.  The  app  will  accompany  the  The  Human  Experiment,  a  documentary  that  explores  the  ubiquity  of  untested  

chemicals  in  everyday  products  and  encourage  consumers  to  consider  their  own  interactions  with  untested  products  and  chemicals,  and  take  action.  Learn  more.    The  Whiteness  Project  (Best  Pitch  winner)  is  a  cross-­‐platform  investigation  into  how  white  Americans  experience  their  ethnicity.  The  team  is  comprised  of  filmmaker  Whitney  Dow,  designer  John  Kudos,  designer/developer  Sumit  Paul,  researcher  Chithra  Jeyaram  and  mentor  Dante  Chinni.  The  project,  which  will  live  primarily  on  the  Internet,  will  have  film  and  art-­‐installation  components.  Learn  more.      “It’s  amazing  what  these  teams  of  documentary  filmmakers,  developers  and  designers,  who  had  not  met  before,  were  able  to  achieve  in  the  span  of  31  hours,”  said  Adnaan  Wasey,  POV  Digital  Director.  “The  prototypes  point  to  an  exciting  future  for  nonfiction  media:  not  made  for  the  Web,  but  made  of  the  Web.”    “We're  taking  the  unique  step  of  sharing  all  of  the  POV  Hackathon  prototypes,  along  with  an  explanation  of  the  technologies  used  to  create  them,  to  inspire  other  filmmakers,  developers  and  designers  to  continue  experimenting.”  said  Wasey.  “It  also  raises  the  bar  for  POV  Hackathon  3.”    The  POV  Hackathon  2  projects  included  Cpm-­‐703;  Empire;  Faith  in  the  Five  Boroughs;  Feed  Me  a  Story;  The  Human  Experiment  /  Stop  the  Experiment;  How  to  Lose  Your  Virginity;  and  The  Whiteness  Project;  plus  one  project  from  POV  Hackathon  1—Data  Docs—whose  team  members  returned  to  develop  new  aspects  of  their  storytelling.  The  teams,  all  at  early  stages  in  production,  produced  a  wide  array  of  Web-­‐based  prototypes,  including  a  safe  consumer  product  finder,  a  video  cookbook  creation  system,  an  economics-­‐themed  web  documentary  that  adapts  itself  to  real-­‐time  data,  and  a  paradigm  for  interacting  with  three-­‐dimensional  art  installations  on  the  Web.    About  POV  Produced  by  American  Documentary,  Inc.,  the  award-­‐winning  POV  is  the  longest-­‐running  showcase  on  American  television  to  feature  the  work  of  today’s  best  independent  documentary  filmmakers.  POV  has  brought  more  than  365  acclaimed  documentaries  to  millions  nationwide  and  has  a  Webby  Award-­‐winning  online  series,  POV’s  Borders.  Since  1988,  POV  has  pioneered  the  art  of  presentation  and  outreach  using  independent  nonfiction  media  to  build  new  communities  in  conversation  about  today’s  most  pressing  social  issues.  Visit  www.pbs.org/pov.        Major  funding  for  POV  is  provided  by  PBS,  The  John  D.  and  Catherine  T.  MacArthur  Foundation,  National  Endowment  for  the  Arts,  New  York  State  Council  on  the  Arts,  New  York  City  Department  of  Cultural  Affairs,  the  desJardins/Blachman  Fund  and  public  television  viewers.  Funding  for  POV’s  Diverse  Voices  Project  is  provided  by  the  Corporation  for  Public  Broadcasting.  Special  support  provided  by  the  Academy  of  Motion  Picture  Arts  and  Sciences.  POV  is  presented  by  a  consortium  of  public  television  stations,  including  KQED  San  Francisco,  WGBH  Boston  and  THIRTEEN  in  association  with  WNET.ORG.      POV  Digital  (www.pbs.org/pov)      POV’s  award-­‐winning  website  extends  the  life  of  our  films  online  with  interactive  features,  interviews,  updates,  video  and  educational  content,  as  well  as  listings  for  television  broadcasts,  community  screenings  and  films  available  online.  The  POV  Blog  is  a  gathering  place  for  documentary  fans  and  filmmakers  to  discuss  films  and  get  the  latest  news.      About  Huge  

Huge  is  a  digital  agency  that  provides  business  strategy,  design,  marketing  and  technology  services  to  some  of  the  world's  largest  businesses  and  best-­‐known  brands.  The  company  is  known  for  successfully  harmonizing  user  needs  and  business  goals  to  create  industry-­‐changing  digital  experiences  for  its  clients.  Huge  has  offices  based  in  the  

United  States,  Europe  and  Latin  America,  and  is  part  of  the  Interpublic  Group  of  Companies.  For  more  information,  visit  www.hugeinc.com.  @hugeinc  on  Twitter,  Facebook,  LinkedIn