Gotham & Independent Spirit Award nominee and Sundance winner, “I Didn’t See You There” documentary from director Reid Davenport, is set to debut on Jan. 9 on POV.
The award-winning documentary feature will have its national broadcast premiere on PBS television series POV on Monday, January 9, 2023 at 10:00 pmET (check local listings) and will be available to stream with no PBS Passport membership necessary until February 9, 2023 at pbs.org, and the PBS Video app.
Shot entirely from the filmmaker’s literal physical perspective, both from his wheelchair and his two feet, I Didn’t See You There is a groundbreaking work of documentary cinema by first-time feature director Reid Davenport.
Here’s the film’s official synopsis:
As a visibly disabled person, filmmaker Reid Davenport sets out to make a film about how he sees the world, from either his wheelchair or his two feet, without having to be seen himself. The unexpected arrival of a circus tent outside his apartment in Oakland, CA leads him to consider the history and legacy of P.T. Barnum’s Freak Show and its lingering presence in his daily life in the form of gawking, lack of access, and other forms of ableism. Informed by his position in space, lower to the ground, Davenport captures indelible images, often abstracted into shapes and patterns separate from their meaning. But the circus tent looms in the background, and is reverberated by tangible on-screen interruptions, from unsolicited offers of help to careless blocking of ramps. Personal and unflinching, I Didn’t See You There forces the viewer to confront the spectacle and invisibility of disability. Offering both a perspective and stylistic approach that are rarely seen, Reid brings an urgently needed storytelling eye to filmmaking with a documentary that is powerful and emotional, thoughtful and raw, intimate and political.
