PBS backs Defying the Nazis

The sales arm of US pubcaster PBS is heading to Cannes with a slate of docs from the likes of Ken Burns and Artemis Joukowsky.

PBS International is debuting Defying the Nazis: The Sharps’ War, which is from Burns and Joukowsky, Nova doc 15 Years of Terror and Frontline specials The Choice 2016 and Divided States of America.

Defying the Nazis tells the story of Waitstill and Martha Clarka, and American minister and his wife, who left their children in Massachusetts to save dissidents and refugees in Europe during the Second World War.

“The story of Waitstill and Martha Sharp is one of the most incredible tales of compassion, sacrifice and heroism that I have ever heard, and I was completely unaware of it until five years ago when Artemis Joukowsky first shared it with me,” said Burns.

15 Years of Terror follows the terror strategies employed since the 9/11 World Trade Centre massacres, while The Choice 2016 looks at the polarised American presidential race. Divided States of America is a miniseries assessing the Obama presidency and the America the next leader will inherit.