A new animated series debuts on PBS this evening–short adaptations of audio recordings collected by StoryCorps, the oral history project and NPR series created by public radio producer David Isay.
POV, the indie film series now airing its 23rd season on PBS, will present Danny and Annie, Parts I and II, the stories of love and loss of Brooklyn couple Danny and Annie Perasa, who came to personify the StoryCorps motto, “listening is an act of love.” The animation will be paired with Salt, an “exquisite film about environment, artistry and solitude” by Australian photographer Murray Fredericks.
The CPB-backed animated shorts, the first of five to be showcased on POV through Sept. 7, were created by Mike and Tim Rauch, brothers who began animating StoryCorps audio stories before presenting their ideas to Isay. “StoryCorps connected to things we were into as kids,” said Mike Rauch, “everyday people from all walks of life, documentary stories and the relationships between people.” Mike was working as a StoryCorps intern and facilitator when he proposed the idea to his younger brother Tim, whom he credits for creating the drawings and character designs. “It’s all coming from his hand.”
StoryCorps first unveiled the shorts this spring with the online release of Q&A, an animation of 12-year-old Joshua Littman’s interview with his mother Sarah that has its broadcast debut on Aug. 24. Immediately after the POV broadcasts, each of the forthcoming shorts will be distributed online and offered to public TV stations as interstitials. CPB awarded more than $325,000 for creation and pubTV distribution of seven StoryCorps animations.