On March 25, the veteran film producer Erika Dilday spoke at a documentary conference in Copenhagen, on a panel addressing the many challenges, political and otherwise, that now face nonfiction-film distribution. “Even though it’s terrifying, it’s also incredibly energizing,” Dilday, the executive director of the nonprofit that produces PBS’s long-running, Emmy-winning series POV, told the audience. “I’m ready to paint my face, tie a band around my head, and crawl through the mud to try to save our ability to show independent content on public media.”
In the background, though, the fight was not going well. Since Donald Trump returned to the White House in January, public media has been under heavy threat from legislators and the administration; plans are in the works for Congress to claw back $1.1 billion in federal funds from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. At a House DOGE subcommittee hearing the day after Dilday spoke in Copenhagen, the chair, Marjorie Taylor Greene, accused PBS of “brainwashing and trans-ing” America’s children. Dilday herself had already seen how the situation was playing out on TV schedules. At the end of February, she’d heard from PBS that the release of Break the Game, a film from POV’s current slate about a trans video gamer’s relationship with fame and her fans, would be postponed indefinitely. By all appearances, the network was obeying in advance. (The Atlantic has a par...
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