Cara Mertes

Currently the Executive Director of P.O.V./American Documentary, Cara Mertes has been an advocate for independent and alternative media for over a decade. She is an award-winning filmmaker, programmer and writer whose work has been featured widely in museums, festivals, PBS and internationally. She was the Executive Producer/Director of SIGNAL TO NOISE: Life with Television, a PBS series examining the impact of television on American society, as well as being producer for New Television for public television, an annual series featuring the best in international experimental video work, and Independent Focus for WNET/New York, at the time the premiere public television showcase for American independent video and film. Recently she was Consulting Producer for There She Is: A History of Miss America, featured on PBS's American Experience, and is currently researching for her NEH-supported film Catching the Shadow: Women and 19th Century Photography. Mertes is a Contributing Editor to The Independent and has served on the boards of ITVS, the International Flaherty Seminars and Media Alliance among others.