FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 26, 2009
CONTACT:
Meg Fullwood
214-740-9377
mfullwood@kera.org
PROGRAMS OF CELEBRATION, REMEMBERENCE AND HOPE IN KERA’S LINEUP FOR APRIL
DALLAS/FORT WORTH – Celebrate spring with new programs, original productions and specials on KERA-TV. The month begins with a Sesame Street special to help military families with young children cope with change, and continues with special programs celebrating Native Americans, Earth Day and a slate of programs honoring Holocaust Remembrance Month.
Here’s is a list of highlights for the month of April:
Coming Home: Military Families Cope with Change
Wednesday, April 1 at 7:00 p.m.
Sunday, April 5 at 4:30 p.m.
Join Queen Latifah, John Mayer and your Sesame Street friends for a new television special designed to help military families with young children cope with deployments, homecomings and changes. Resources are available online at http://www.sesameworkshop.org/initiatives/emotion/tlc/
Mighty Mites: A Nowhere But Texas Special
Wednesday, April 1 at 7:30 p.m.
Sunday, April 5 at 9:30 p.m.
The rags to riches story of the high school football team of Fort Worth’s Masonic Home and School in the 1930s. The team gained national attention under Coach Rusty Russell and won their way to the state championship.
Wednesday, April 1 at 8:00 p.m.
For over 40 centuries, Jews, Christians and Muslims have come to Jerusalem to look for God while others worshiped from afar. This two-hour special, hosted by Ray Suarez, follows the paths taken by Abraham, David, Jesus and Mohammed.
Through a Cat’s Eye
Thursday, April 2 at 8:00 p.m.
Through a Cat’s Eyes uses eye-witness reports, historic photographs and film footage to tell the story of Fort Worth’s legendary baseball team. Newsman Bob Schieffer (CBS), who grew up in Fort Worth, shares his memories of the team.
Live from the Artists Den
Thursday, April 2 at 10:00 p.m.
The weekly music series features a concert by Patti Griffin.
Great Performances at the Met – La Damnation de Faust
Mezzo-soprano Susan Graham and Italian tenor Marcello Giordani are unlucky lovers in La Damnation de Faust, Hector Berlioz’s classic take on dancing with the devil.
Fifteen adventurers are transplanted into the living and working conditions of 1867 ranch life, outfitted with period tools, technology and clothing. A diverse group of cowboys-at-heart discover the myth of the American West.
With more than 360 million years on the planet, frogs have evolved into some of the most adaptable creatures on earth. Today, that’s changing. Nature examines the environmental crisis unfolding around the globe.
Masterpiece Classic – Little Dorrit, Part 2 to 5
Charles Dickens’ story of love and financial downfall follows Little Dorrit and her father who has been incarcerated for 25 years.
Antiques Roadshow – Chattanooga, TN, Part 2
Antiques Roadshow travels to Chattanooga, Tennessee in search of collectables, heirlooms and people with great stories.
American Experience – The Crash of 1929
Market mechanics, economic cycles and political trends are evaluated in this look at the Roaring 1920s and subsequent market crash.
Masterpiece Contemporary – God on Trial
A cast of believers and non-believers come to terms with faith and suffering as they face extermination at Auschwitz.
In 1987, NOVA began to chronicle the lives of seven young medical students on the journey to become doctors. In this two-part series, the filmmakers return to find out what sort of doctors and people they have become from the stress of medical school to the demands of making life and death decisions.
American Future: A History with Simon Schama – Parts 1 to 4
Tuesdays, April 7, 14, 21 and 18 at 8:00 p.m.
Simon Schama travels across American to investigate the country’s fading optimism. In Part One, he explores the American West as a former symbol of opportunity now in the midst of a drought. In Part Two, he investigates the American attitude to war. He travels to San Antonio, Texas and talks to veterans and serving soldiers and finds their feelings about the war to be deeply divided.
FRONTLINE: Black Money
Tuesday, April 7 at 9:00 p.m.
Frontline investigates the shadowy world of international bribery and how multinational companies create slush funds, front companies and secret payments to reap billions in business. These practices are facing a new international crackdown.
Independent Lens: Milking the Rhino
Tuesday, April 7 at 10:00 p.m.
Two of Africa’s oldest cattle cultures, the Maasai of Kenya and Himba of Namibia, are emerging from 100 years of “white man’s conservation” that turned their land into game reserves. Now, with a new conservation model, wildlife control is in their hands and the tribes are vying for a piece of the ecotourism pie.
Jean-Michel Cousteau: Ocean Adventures – Sea Ghosts
Wednesday, April 8 at 7:00 p.m.
Travel to the high Arctic to discover why some beluga whales are thriving and others are disappearing.
American Masters – Glass: A Portrait of Philip in Twelve Parts
Wednesday, April 8 at 8:00 p.m.
A film mosaic of one of the 20th century’s greatest and occasionally controversial composers, Philip Glass, the documentary offers insight into his creative process, includes performance footage and interviews with his family, spiritual teachers and collaborators.
Albert Alcalay: Self Portraits
Wednesday, April 8 at 10:00 p.m.
The moving story of Alcalay’s journey from concentration camp prisoner to artist and revered Harvard University professor made by three former Harvard students, Rob Eustis, Allen Moore and KERA’s Rob Tranchin, who, thirty years after taking classes with Alcalay, reunited to make a film about their teacher.
Globe Trekker: The Balkans
Thursday, April 9 at 8:00 p.m.
Globe Trekker visits Kosovo, Serbia, Bosnia HerzegovinaandMontenegro set to a rollicking gypsy-inspired soundtrack.
Great Performances at the Met – Thais
Sunday, April 12 at 2:00 p.m.
Soprano Renée Fleming is Egyptian courtesan Thaïs in Jules Massenet’s tale of lust and salvation. Baritone Thomas Hampson is the tortured monk Athanaël who falls from grace in his attempt to lead the godless to redemption.
We Shall Remain: American Experience
Monday, April 13, 20 and 27 at 8:00 p.m.
American Experience explores Native American history as part of American history in this five-part series. Episode One, After the Mayflower, explores the Wampanoag’s relationship with the English in the 1600s. Episode Two, Tecumseh’s Vision tells the story of the Shawnee leader in the years after the American Revolution. Episode Three, Trial of Tears explores the resilience of the Cherokee Nation.
Robert Mirabal: Music from a Painted Cave
Monday, April 13 at 9:30 p.m.
Born and raised in Taos Pueblo, Robert Mirabal studied world music from many cultures before blending traditional and popular music to create his own sound. He combines “birdlike” melodies on flute with exotic instruments, keyboards and guitar to create a sound that brought him national acclaim.
Frontline investigates the increasing power and influence of a new branch of the Taliban that is making Pakistan one of the Obama administration's top foreign policy concerns.
Independent Lens – Taking Root: Vision of Wangari Maathai
In 1977, Wangari Maathai suggested the rural women of Kenya plant trees to rebuild a depleted environment. Tree planting grew to a national movement that safeguarded the environment, defended human rights, promoted democracy and brought Maathai the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004.
This viewer-driven program debuts on the Web, moves to television and returns to the Web when citizens are asked to make their case for the nation’s energy future. The best online submissions will be discussed and debated by a panel of experts on television and drives the online conversation.
The Auschwitz concentration camp was a closely guarded Nazi secret until two men escaped to tell the world about the atrocities. Escape from Auschwitz chronicles the story of their escape and explores the controversial decision by the head of the Hungarian underground not to make the report public.
The portrayal of the Plaszow concentration camp in the film Schindler’s List set into motion a series of events captured in this documentary. Two remarkable women share their stories as they bear witness to their ties to Plaszow in the name of creating a better future.
Auschwitz: The Forgotten Witness
British serviceman Arthur Dodd was a prisoner of war at Auschwitz during WWII and witness to the Nazi’s brutality against the Jews. He lapsed into a depressive silence about his experiences for decades. In this BBC report he returns to Auschwitz to recall his imprisonment. His faith helps him survive and restores him to health and sanity.
The 1958 film starring Clark Gable and Burt Lancaster explores WWII submarine warfare and the themes of vengeance, loyalty and honor tested under the stress of wartime.
Great Performances at the Met – Lucia di Lammermoor
Anna Netrebko plays the fragile heroine of Donizetti's opera, presented as a Victorian ghost story.
Scientists attempt to breed endangered species, including Yangtze turtles and Sumatran rhinos.
Scientists fear contamination to the food chain and drinking water from polluted runoff from industry, agriculture and suburban development. Frontline investigates the increasing hazards to human health, the environment and why it’s so hard to keep our waters clean.
Secrets of the Dead – Blackbeard’s Lost Ship
Marine archeologists discover and excavate the 300-year-old wreck of Blackbeard's pirate flagship. The team pieces together the puzzle of the ship's demise, and uncovers new evidence of Blackbeard's betrayal, downfall and death.
Jean-Michel Cousteau: Ocean Adventures – Call of the Killer Whales
In Killer Whales, Jean-Michel Cousteau and his team travel to both the northern and southern hemispheres as they seek out killer whales in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
Texas: The State of Flowing Water
The program, produced by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, examines the threats facing the state’s water supply and what can be done to protect our most precious natural resource. An encore presentation in celebration of Earth Day.
Host Lee Cullum speaks with Gretchen M. Bataille, the 14th President of the University of North Texas and the first female to hold the position.
Angela Gheorghiu and Roberto Alagna star in a new production of Puccini's melodic look at love.
True Whispers: The Story of the Navajo Code Talkers
This program tells the stories of a group of young Navajo men, recruited from government boarding schools into the Marines during World War II, who devised an unbreakable code in their native language and transmitted vital messages in the midst of combat against the Japanese.
Frontline investigates what happens to the mentally ill when they leave prison and why they return at such alarming rates.
A home of your own: that’s the American dream. But what happens when the dreamers are immigrants, factory workers and Communists? Director Michal Goldman traces the history of ‘The Coops,’ a cooperative apartment complex built in the Bronx by Jewish garment workers. The film tracks the rise and fall of the community from the 1920s into the 1950s, bearing witness to lives lived across barriers of race, convention and sometimes even common sense.
