Spring 2010 Highlights
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historic
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enlightening
SoCal Connected
“SoCal Connected” is KCET’s hard-hitting weekly news magazine that investigates
and reports on the issues that affect Southern California, from the economy to
the environment. Recently described as the “60 Minutes of the West,” “SoCal
Connected” has won numerous awards – including six Emmys, eight Golden
Mikes, and was named among the “100 Best” by Los Angeles Magazine.
Anchored by Val Zavala, the program airs at 8:00 PM Thursdays and 8:30 PM
Fridays, with encore broadcasts on Saturdays and Sundays, only on KCET.
Tavis Smiley Reports
Wednesday, March 31 8:00 PM
Friday, April 2 10:00 PM
Delve into Martin Luther King Jr.’s great 1967 speech, “Beyond Vietnam: A
Time to Break Silence.” The speech, delivered exactly one-year prior to the date
of his assassination, is considered pivotal but often under-appreciated. Smiley
will examine the context of Dr. King’s words on liberty, responsibility, and
freedom against the backdrop of the fight for civil rights and an increasingly
unpopular war, and examine the implications of his words today. Watch Tavis
Smiley weeknights at 7 PM and 11 PM.
American Experience
Eyes on the Prize
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Thursdays, April 1, 8, 15 9:00 PM
First broadcast in 1987, this award-winning documentary series examining
America’s civil rights years returns to public television. It covers the period
from the murder of 14-year-old Emmett Till in Money, Mississippi, and the
Montgomery, Alabama bus boycott, through school desegregation, the march
from Selma to Montgomery and the Voting Rights Act. “Eyes on the Prize”
is considered the definitive history of this formative time in our nation’s life.
Narrated by Julian Bond, the acclaimed six-hour production includes interviews
with key figures of the movement.
NATURE
Moment of Impact
Sunday, April 4, 11 8:00 PM
When animals of astounding ability connect with each other and the world
around them, there is a “moment of impact,” like the violent collision of cheetah
with gazelle, the blink-of-an-eye strike of a deadly cobra and the amazing
dexterity of an elephant’s trunk as it feeds, fights or reaches out with affection.
Using the latest technologies, HD camera lenses and computer graphics, this
two-part series will take us inside the animal to present an innovative and
revolutionary look at the bioengineering of “how animals work.”
Spring 2010 Highlights
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Masterpiece Classic
Sharpe’s Peril
Sunday, April 4 9:00 PM
The thrilling adventures of Colonel Richard Sharpe continue as he leads a ragtag
party of civilians and soldiers on a march across India, with the murderous army
of an opium lord in hot pursuit. Sean Bean (“The Lord of the Rings”) stars as
Sharpe, with Daragh O’Malley as his comrade-in-arms, Sergeant Major Patrick
Harper, in this latest installment of the series based on Bernard Cornwell’s bestselling novels.
NOVA
Hunting the Edge of Space
Tuesday, April 6 8:00 PM
This tale of human ingenuity involves some of the most colorful figures of the
scientific world – Galileo, Kepler, Newton, William Herschel, George Hale and
Edwin Hubble – leading up to today’s colossal telescopes, housed in spaceage cathedrals or orbiting high above the Earth. Now at the center of an
international space race, a new generation of ever-larger telescopes is poised to
reveal answers to longstanding questions about our universe – and, in turn, to
raise new questions.
The Buddha
Imagine This
Sunday, April 11 3:30 PM
In conjunction with Holocaust Remembrance Day, KCET presents “Imagine This”
to public broadcasting viewers both locally and nationally. Under the auspices
of British director Timothy Sheader, “Imagine This” opened in the West End
at the New London Theatre on November 19, 2008. The musical tells the tale
of a group of actors in the Warsaw Ghetto who struggle to keep the dream of
freedom alive among the prisoners by performing the epic tale of Masada, the
ancient Judean mountain where 2,000 years ago a small band of courageous
rebels held 10,000 Roman soldiers at bay.
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Wednesday, April 7 8:00 PM
Explore the life of the Buddha, whose ideas generated Buddhism in northern
India 2,500 years ago. The Buddha never claimed to be God or his emissary on
earth. He said only that he was a human being who, in a world of unavoidable
pain and suffering, had found a kind of serenity that others could find too.
Award-winning filmmaker David Grubin tells the story of the Buddha’s life,
drawing upon the work of some of the world’s greatest artists and sculptors,
who across two millennia, have depicted the Buddha’s life in art, rich in beauty
and complexity.
Masterpiece Classic
The Diary of Anne Frank
Sunday, April 11 9:00 PM
Anne Frank’s feisty, poignant and timeless account of her life in a cramped
hidden annex during World War II comes to life in this new adaptation. Ellie
Kendrick (“An Education”) captures the eloquent reflections of a teenage girl
trying to live an ordinary life in extraordinary circumstances.
Among The Righteous:
Lost Stories from the Holocaust in Arab Lands
Monday, April 12 10:00 PM
Did any Arabs save Jews during the Holocaust? Rob Satloff set out on an
eight-year journey to find an Arab hero whose story would change the way
Arabs view Jews, themselves and their own history. Along the way, he found
not only the Arab heroes for whom he started his quest, but a vast, lost history
of what actually happened to the half-million Jews of the Arab lands of North
Africa under Nazi, Vichy and fascist rule.
When Families Grieve
Wednesday, April 14 8:00 PM
This special, starring Katie Couric and the Sesame Street Muppets, performs a
valuable service to families everywhere, in both the military and the public at
large. It creates awareness of the courageous struggles of parents and children,
and shares the strategies that have helped them to move forward when coping
with the death of a parent.
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Worse Than War
Wednesday, April 14 9:00 PM
Based on Daniel Goldhagen’s book of the same title, this film is the first
documentary to step back and focus on the general phenomenon of genocide
offering viewers profound insights about its dimensions, its patterns and causes.
In the 20th century, genocide killed more than all wars. Goldhagen travels,
listens to witnesses and confronts perpetrators in nine countries around the
world, bringing viewers on an unprecedented journey of insight and analysis
into the causes of genocide and its tragic role in politics and human affairs.
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Spring 2010 Highlights
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Great Performances at the Met:
Les Contes d’Hoffman
Sunday, April 18 1:00 PM
Tony Award-winner Bartlett Sher (Lincoln Center Theater’s South Pacific) directs
this new production, returning after the triumph of his Met Barber of Seville.
Offenbach’s fictionalized take on the life and loves of the German romantic
writer E.T.A. Hoffmann is a fascinating psychological journey. Met music director
James Levine conducts Joseph Calleja in the tour-de-force title role. Anna
Netrebko is the tragic Antonia and Alan Held sings the demonic four villains.
Smitten
Sunday, April 18 11:30 PM
Rene di Rosa is smitten by art. For more than 50 years, the renowned Napa
Valley-based collector and California art patron has been seeking out unknown
and emerging artists, adding their work to his ever-growing and vast collection.
Di Rosa and his collected works, which have become the world’s largest and most
notable collection of Northern California art, are the centerpiece of this film.
Earth Days:
American Experience
Monday, April 19 9:00 PM
A look back at development of the modern environmental movement sheds
light on the era’s pioneers. The film features active participants in these
watersheds events, representing a diverse cross section of American life and
politics. Former Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall, renewable energy
pioneer Hunter Lovins, biologist Paul Ehrlich, former Republican Congressman
Pete McCloskey and Apollo Nine astronaut Rusty Schweickart are among the
witnesses.
Tuesday, April 20 8:00 PM
Arnold Schwarzenegger is betting on green. He wants to roll California’s
greenhouse gas emissions back to their 1990 levels, and he’s promising
Californians that their lifestyles – and their pocketbooks – won’t feel the pinch.
With help from eco-celebrities like Ed Begley, Jr. and Bill Nye “The Science Guy,”
NOVA examines California’s aggressive pursuit of a sustainable energy future
and visits the places where green energy is already becoming a reality.
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NOVA
The Big Energy Gamble
Frontline
The Dancing Boys of Afghanistan
Tuesday, April 20 9:00 PM
It’s called Bacha Bazi, translated literally as “boy play.” Hundreds of boys,
some as young as 11, street orphans or boys bought from poor families by
former warlords and powerful businessmen, are dressed in women’s clothes,
taught to sing and dance for the entertainment of male audiences and then
sold to the highest bidder or traded among the men for sex. Afghan journalist,
Najibullah Quraishi investigates this practice, exposing the sexual abuse and
even murders of the boys.
Independent Lens
Dirt! The Movie
Tuesday, April 20 10:00 PM
It’s under our feet and under our fingernails, but what is it? And how did it get
there? Inspired by William Bryant Logan’s acclaimed book “Dirt: The Ecstatic
Skin of the Earth,” you’ll find out how industrial farming, mining and urban
development have led us toward cataclysmic droughts, starvation, floods and
climate change. Dirt is a part of everything we eat, drink and breathe. Which is
why we should stop treating it like, well…dirt. Narrated by Jamie Lee Curtis.
Through A Dog’s Eyes
Wednesday, April 21 8:00 PM
Based in part on a book by dog trainer Jennifer Arnold, this film presents the
science that explains the amazing dog/human bond and what makes Arnold’s
training techniques so effective for anyone with a canine. Arnold’s non-profit
organization, Canine Assistants, trains dogs to assist people with a variety of
disabilities.
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P.O.V.
Food, Inc.
Wednesday, April 21 9:00 PM
This expose’ presents a revealing look at the US food industry and
corporations that put profit before consumer health. Featuring interviews with
such experts as Eric Schlosser (“Fast Food Nation”), Michael Pollan (“The
Omnivore’s Dilemma”) along with forward thinking social entrepreneurs, this
film reveals surprising – and often shocking truths – about what we eat, how
it’s produced, who we’ve become as a nation and where we are going from
here.
Spring 2010 Highlights
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Sense of Wonder
Thursday, April 22 9:00 PM
Bill Moyers introduces the docudrama about the life of pioneering
environmentalist and writer Rachel Carson. Filmed primarily on location at
Carson’s cottage on the coast of Maine, the film follows this quiet wildlife
biologist during the final year of her life, as she battles cancer and the
chemical industry in the wake of publishing the ground-breaking book “Silent
Spring” 1962. The film stars Kaiulani Lee as Rachel Carson, and is beautifully
captured in HD by Oscar-winning cinematographer Haskell Wexler.
Armenian Exile
Saturday, April 24 7:00 PM
This documentary is part one in a trilogy of films in which producer Hagop
Goudsouzian has created a video self-portrait in which he pursues his quest for
identity. This theme also inspired him to make “My Son Shall Be Armenian,” part
two of this trilogy. In this film, Goudsouzian travels for his first encounter with
Armenia, searching for the ultimate connection with his sometimes neglected
identity. While filming, he comes to a surprising realization.
My Son Shall Be Armenian
Saturday, April 24 8:30 PM
Between 1915 and 1923, one and a half million Armenians were massacred
by the Turkish Ottoman army. Filmmaker Hagop Goudsouzian and five
Montrealers of Armenian descent, return to the land of their forebears in
search of survivors of the 1915 genocide. Goudsouzian weaves the moving
accounts of these centenarians and the touching reactions of the New World
travellers into a dignified and poignant film about the need to make peace with
the past in order to move into the future.
Sunday, April 25 6:00 PM
This program explores how the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah has
bitterly divided Arab and Jewish communities in the United States by focusing
on the prolonged, public, and unresolved conflict between these communities
in the Detroit, Michigan area.
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KCET Spring 2010 Highlights | 7
Arabs, Jews, and the News
NOVA
Mind Over Money
Monday, April 26 8:00 PM
In the aftermath of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, NOVA
explores why mainstream economists failed to predict the crash of 2008 and why
we so often make irrational financial decisions. “Mind Over Money” exposes the
mysterious and surprising nature of the two most powerful forces on our planet:
the human mind and money.
Great Performances
Hamlet from the Royal Shakespeare Company
Wednesday, April 28 8:00 PM
Shakespeare’s famously tortured Dane receives a dynamic contemporary spin in
this critically acclaimed new production from the Royal Shakespeare Company.
Hamlet, played by David Tennant, host of Masterpiece Contemporary, won a
highly coveted 2009 Olivier Award for his performance. He is joined by Patrick
Stewart as Claudius. This edgy interpretation by innovative director Gregory
Doranand utilizes location shooting at St. Joseph’s College, London, as the
setting for a present day Elsinore Castle.
American Masters
The Doors: When You’re Strange
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Wednesday, May 12 9:00 PM
The creative chemistry of four brilliant artists – drummer John Densmore,
guitarist Robby Krieger, keyboardist Ray Manzarek and singer Jim Morrison
– made the Doors one of America’s most iconic, influential, mysterious, and
sometimes frightening rock bands. This documentary using only original
footage,much of it previously unseen, was shot between the group’s
formation in 1965 and Morrison’s death in 1971. Johnny Depp narrates.
Masterpiece Mystery!
Miss Marple Series V: The Mirror
Crack’d from Side to Side
Sunday, May 23 9:00 PM
Hollywood star Marina Gregg leaves Los Angeles for picturesque St. Mary
Mead to take up residence at Gossington Hall with her young English husband,
film director Jason Rudd. When the couple throws a benefit for the St. John
Ambulance, the grounds are abuzz with curious locals, including previous owner,
Dolly Bantry. But when a fan consumes a poisoned daiquiri, Marina finds herself
starring in a real-life mystery. Joanna Lumley (“Absolutely Fabulous”) and Lindsay
Duncan (Alice in Wonderland ) guest star.