The public TV documentary series POV has produced two short films exclusively for Snapchat.
The films mark the debut of documentary film on the app’s Discover platform, used by media organizations to share content.
We’ll Still Be Here, the first offering, will be available Sunday for 24 hours. It highlights a group of dominoes players in a changing neighborhood. The second film, The Way It Should Be, is “a story of love and friendship as lived and told by queer women of color,” according to a press release. It will be available Oct. 30. Each film is about six minutes in length.
“We’re hoping to demonstrate to independent filmmakers that Snapchat is a place for a new kind of creative storytelling that also has the ability to engage a large audience,” said Adnaan Wasey, POV’s digital executive producer, in an email to Current. “With any of our work, we are aiming to spark conversation, and we expect that viewers will also use the features of Snapchat to share content privately, which is a new form of dialogue that is just as valid as any.”
The audience will also skew younger than the TV audience for POV’s films, he said.
POV is working in partnership with NowThis, a New York City company that produces videos for mobile. NowThis will host the videos on its Snapchat Discover channel.
“We’ve been able to leverage the expertise NowThis has amassed as a pioneer in mobile storytelling, and they have been making content for Snapchat long enough to have a deep understanding of how viewers engage with content, what works and what doesn’t,” Wasey added.