PBS picks up “The Light in Her Eyes”

May 15, 2012 by Adam Benzine

The Light in Her Eyes

U.S. public broadcaster PBS has picked up Laura Nix and Julia Meltzer’s The Light in Her Eyes (pictured), a documentary following a female teacher in Syria, to air on the network’s ‘POV’ strand.

The doc will air as part of ‘POV’’s 25th anniversary season, premiering on July 19. It previously played at IDFA in Amsterdam, and was one of 10 documentary projects that participated in the 2011 Independent Filmmaker Labs, a year-long fellowship for first-time directors.

In a joint statement, Nix and Meltzer said: “Since ‘POV’ went on the air on 1988, it has championed the documentary art form, offering filmmakers a venue to take creative risks.

“It’s where you’ve seen work from documentary greats including Errol Morris, Jonathan Demme, Albert and David Maysles, Michael Moore, Freida Lee Mock and Frederick Wiseman. We are thrilled to join this roster of filmmakers.”

The Light in Her Eyes follows preacher Houda al-Habash at her mosque school for women and girls in Damascus, Syria, in which she educates women about the Qur’an and encourages them to take their secular education seriously and live public lives.

The filmmakers added that they will be holding numerous community screenings around the U.S. in conjunction with ‘POV.’ As previously reported, the 25th season of ‘POV’ will kick off on June 21 and run until October 18 with two special presentations scheduled for fall and winter.

Director Jennifer Fox’s My Reincarnation, a 20-years-in-the-making doc about exiled Tibetan Buddhist master Chögyal Namkhai Norbu and his Western-born son, Yeshi, will launch the season.

Tags: Independent Filmmaker Labs, Julia Meltzer, Laura Nix, PBS, POV, The Light in Her Eyes