Alexandra Pelosi and Alexandra Shiva both have projects in the works at MTV Documentary Films. MTV Docs head Sheila Nevins announced the unit’s upcoming slate, and it includes a journey across pre-2020 election America from Pelosi, and an investigation into the high rate of suicide among young people from Shiva. Deadline confirmed the films are currently in production.
The tentatively-titled “America on Selfies” follows Pelosi as she travels around the country, taking stock of America’s identity ahead of next year’s presidential election. Per its synopsis, the doc is “a real-time pulse check on the state of democracy as the country moves closer to [next] November.” The film asks, “How does America really look these days and how do Americans feel about their country now?”
Pelosi has directed and produced several titles for HBO Documentary Films, of which Nevins used to be prez, such as “Outside the Bubble: On the Road with Alexandra Pelosi,” “The Words That Built America,” and “Meet the Donors: Does Money Talk?” Both Pelosi and Nevins received Emmy nominations for the former’s “Journeys with George,” a 2003 doc delving into George W. Bush’s 2000 presidential campaign.
Currently untitled, Shiva’s doc will take on the suicide epidemic among youth and young adults., offering “life-saving information to reconsider that moment of despair, to understand the role of depression and impulsivity in the act, and to destigmatize mental health.”
Shiva previously worked with Nevins on her Peabody-winning HBO doc “How to Dance in Ohio,” which centers on several autistic teens as they gear up for Spring Formal. “This Is Home: A Refugee Story,” “Stagedoor,” and “Bombay Eunuch” are among Shiva’s other documentaries.
Pelosi and Shiva’s projects join MTV Docs’ previously-announced titles, Smriti Mundhra and Sami Khan’s short “St. Louis Superman” among them. The doc tells the story of Bruce Franks, Jr., a rapper, activist, and state representative who is known as Superman among his constituents.
Nevins helped launch MTV Docs earlier this year. She stepped down as head of HBO Doc Films in 2017. Her decades-long tenure at the premium cable network saw her bringing in dozens of Oscars, including a statuette for Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy’s short “A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness.” As an executive producer or producer, she has received 30-plus Primetime Emmy Awards, 30-plus News and Documentary Emmys, and 40-plus George Foster Peabody Awards.
