In Case You Missed It: PBS + Margaret Cho

From my inbox and now on to you:

Finding Your Roots, which premiered on March 25 and airs through May 20, explores race, culture and identity through the genealogy and genetics of some of America’s best-known personalities. Cho, as well as Dr. Sanjay Gupta, the multiple Emmy-award winning chief medical correspondent for CNN, and media and business magnate Martha Stewart, star in the episode airing May 6. The three guests are all children of first or second-generation immigrants, and share the peculiar burdens of that heritage. In an episode that crisscrosses the planet, from India to Korea to Poland, the viewer catches a glimpse of three distinct, yet oddly overlapping experiences of families leaving their homes and becoming American.

Cho, who co-stars in the TV series Drop Dead Diva, has never explored her Korean roots. As viewers will learn, the research teams trace her ancestry all the way back to her 20th great-grandfather, whose ancestral line connects to a prestigious clan in what is now North Korea. Her ancestors’ individual choices and their country’s political turmoil over the last half-century have cut off ties to Cho’s family’s past.

Tad Nakamura + PBS

Check your local stations.

Pilgrimage and A Song For Ourselves will be broadcasting together on multiple PBS affiliate stations starting on Mother’s Day, May 8th through the 15th. Two Films by Tadashi Nakamura is the official title of the program. Not every PBS station will be airing the show but it will be broadcasting on 1,104 stations, covering 45% of the country including; San Francisco, Dallas, Boston and New Orleans.

PBS Lineup For This Month

Definitely late posting out on this, but wanted to make sure to post up the list of programs PBS is airing this month in honor of APA month (grabbed out from the CAAM site).

AHEAD OF THE MAJORITY by Kimberlee BassfordCo-presented with ITVS and PBS HawaiiOn PBS stations nationwide May 2009Ahead of the Majority is a one-hour documentary that explores the life and times of the late U.S. Representative Patsy Takemoto Mink (1927-2002), the first woman of color in Congress and driving force behind Title IX, the landmark legislation that mandated gender equity in education.

BOLINAO 52 by Duc NguyenCo-presented by ITVS and KTEH/San JoseOn public broadcast stations nationwide May 2009In 1988 a group of Vietnamese boat people attempted to flee their country in search of freedom. Once at sea the boat’s engine died leaving over 100 people stranded in the ocean. What happens next is an unbelievable story of perseverance that changed the lives of the survivors forever.

HOLLYWOOD CHINESE by Arthur DongOn “American Masters” May 27, 2009Hollywood Chinese is a captivating revelation on a little-known chapter of cinema: the Chinese in American feature films. From the first Chinese film produced in 1916, to Ang Lee’s triumphant Brokeback Mountain almost a century later, Hollywood Chinese brings together a fascinating portrait of actors, directors, writers, and iconic images to show how the Chinese have been imagined in movies.

WINGS OF DEFEATby Risa Morimoto and Linda Hoaglund On “Independent Lens” May 5, 2009What were the Japanese Kamikazes thinking just before crashing into their targets? When Risa Morimoto discovered that her beloved uncle trained as a Kamikaze pilot in his youth, she wondered the same thing. Through rare interviews with surviving Kamikaze pilots, Morimoto retraces their journeys from teenagers to doomed pilots and reveals a complex history of brutal training and ambivalent sacrifice.

THE MOSQUE IN MORGANTOWN by Brittany HuckabeeCo-presented by WETA on America at the Crossroads June 15, 2009A small university town in West Virginia becomes the unlikely battleground for the soul of Islam in America when Asra Nomani fights for the right of women to pray alongside men in the local mosque. A thoughtful, even-handed documentary about a community struggling with change while trying to hold itself together.

Linked: The Megumi Yokota Story

Was checking out Asiance Magazine (because I'm like that) and caught this interview on Abducted: The Megumi Yokota Story which is going to be airing June 19th on PBS.

Check out a few lines from the article:

Abduction: The Megumi Yokota Story premiers on PBS, June 19th. ABDUCTION is the true story of a 13-year-old Japanese girl kidnapped by North Korean spies in 1977, and her parents' 30-year battle to bring her home. It was directed by Chris Sheridan (Director, Writer, Producer) and his wife Patty Kim (Director, Writer, Producer).

Read it in full here.