HOME ACROSS LANDS features International Institute of RI's resettlement work (Saturday at 7 PM)

The journey of a family that spent more than five years in an Ethiopian refugee camp before relocating to Rhode Island is the focus of the upcoming documentary, Home Across Lands.

The documentary will premiere on WSBE Rhode Island PBS on Saturday, August 15, 2009 at 7 PM, as part of the station's ongoing series, Rhode Island Stories. The documentary will be re-broadcast on Sunday, August 16 at 11 PM, and on WSBE Learn on Sunday, August 30 at 11 PM.

Home Across Lands was commissioned by the International Institute to chronicle the journey of a group of Eritrean-Kunaman refugees making the transition from life in the Shimelba Refugee Camp in Northern Ethiopia to their new home in Rhode Island.

The Kunama featured in the film fled their native Eritrea and spent years in the confines of the camp, until they were granted refugee status by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. The film focuses on their journey to Rhode Island and their journey to becoming self-reliant, invested participants in their new home.

The film was shot over a one year period and features footage and interviews from various locations in Ethiopia and Rhode Island. The experience for the filmmakers was a challenging one as the U.S. State Department had issued a warning for travelers within 50 km of the border between Ethiopia and Eritrea. The refugee camp was located 45 km south of the Eritrean border.

“Our goal was to present viewers with a first-hand visual representation of the journey, while giving a voice to those who live in the camp,” said director John Lavall, who produced the one hour documentary in conjunction with executive producer Mary Copp, cinematographer Jessica Jennings, and editor Julie Lewis/editor.

The film takes viewers on the odyssey from the camp on the arid northern border of Ethiopia and Eritrea to Rhode Island’s Spring House Hotel and Resort on Block Island. Home Across Lands illustrates the ways the International Institute bridges the vast divide from life in a refugee camp to life in Rhode Island as they help the Kunama in making sense of apartment living, public transportation, employment and health care, while nurturing their own community as they adapt to a larger and very foreign one.

Home Across Lands is a production of Devlo Media and Vision Wink Films. For more information, visit www.devlomedia.com or www.iiri.org.

Find WSBE Rhode Island PBS on

• Over-the-air digital 36.1
• Cox/Verizon/Fullchannel: 08
• ComCast: check listings for local channel
• DirecTV: 36
• Dish Network: 7776

Find WSBE Learn on

• Over-the-air digital 36.2
• Cox: 808
• Verizon: 478
• ComCast: 294

source: http://www.film.ri.gov/HomeAcrossLands.html

WSBE "Learn" More

The digital conversion earlier this year was rocky for some, and no sweat for others. But how ever you weathered the revolution, all of your local television stations emerged with new channel choices for your enjoyment. WSBE Rhode Island PBS, for example, broadcasts on two over-the-air channels: its main schedule on 36.1 (formerly known as analog "36"), and WSBE Learn on 36.2. Of course, those channel numbers are only meaningful to you if you watch TV over-the-air, but it's a pure, basic starting point. Cable and satellite TV services have WSBE all over the place channel number-wise. More on that - and a clear Finder's Guide - in an upcoming blog!

The prime time programming on WSBE Learn has evolved nicely since we first started broadcasting almost two years ago. (That's right, two years! But most of that was in obscurity until Cox finally picked up the channel in February.) As for the schedule itself, it's different from WSBE Rhode Island PBS - both in broadcast dates/times as well as content. Learn airs some series that are not broadcast on WSBE Rhode Island PBS: Austin City Limits, NewsHour, plus Tracks Ahead, Africa Trek, and From the Top at Carnegie Hall. Some main channel favorites are featured, of course, but on different days and at different times: American Experience, Scientific American Frontiers, P.O.V, Independent Lens, Great Performances, and a variety of How-To series from This Old House, to Everyday Edisons, to America's Test Kitchen, and more.

Visit www.ripbs.org and click TV SCHEDULE (your second option from the left on the menu under the welcome banner) for the schedules for both channels!

As always, your comments and questions are always welcome - post it here, or send an email to public @ the station Web site.

- LMR
Public Information Manager

"PAWTUCKET RISING" Profiles Growth of Artist Community

Imagine the nerve. With behemoth Boston to the north, and prominent Providence to the south, could an obscure, small, tired, old mill city – derogatorily known as "The Bucket" – really expect to become an artistic hub?

The answer is, yes. And, after talking to Herbert Weiss, Pawtucket's economic and cultural affairs officer, put an exclamation point at the end of that sentence.

Like a phoenix rising from the ashes to live again, so is Pawtucket Rising. In fact, that's the name of the new documentary by local filmmaker Jason Caminiti about the historic city's renaissance. WSBE Rhode Island PBS will air the film on Thursday, January 22 at 10 PM and on Saturday, January 24 at 7 PM on channel 36, digital 36.1, Dish 7776, DirecTV 36, and on cable channel 8 in RI (Massachusetts cable subscribers should check their cable listings for the local channel number).

The documentary profiles the birth and evolution of Pawtucket's arts district through adaptive reuse of empty century-old factory buildings as an engine of economic revival.
The birthplace of the American Industrial Revolution grew in prominence and wealth during the manufacturing decades in the first half of the 20th Century. But decline in domestic manufacturing left numerous structurally sound but unwieldy brick giants abandoned and unused.

Designer Morris Nathanson advocated for preserving and converting the mills – with their wide open spaces and massive windows and natural light – into living and working spaces for artists. He started the community ball rolling in the late 1980s when he acquired one of the city's 17 vacant mill buildings. Located on Exchange Street, across from Tolman High School and behind City Hall, the mill's high profile location on a hill is an inspiring metaphor for Pawtucket.

Officially, this city of just over 72,000 has been incubating visual and performing arts venues for about a decade. Pawtucket Mayor James Doyle and the visionary team he assembled - led by Herb Weiss for the past 9 and a half years – have put real city-side muscle behind the dream. No fruitless and insincere glad-handing; Pawtucket initiated the state and municipal legislation necessary to permit the arts and entertainment district to exist and flourish in its borders, and continues to allocate necessary resources years later.

For the city, the municipal and community partnership spurs purposeful economic development, turning abandoned real estate liabilities into assets. For artists, the partnership enhances art education and awareness, and encourages development of affordable live-work spaces. Finally, the partnership preserves the historic character, architecture, and charm of Pawtucket – that benefits the whole city and even the state.

Although the film focuses on Pawtucket, its valuable message applies to urban cities anywhere. In fact, that's how the film came to be, according to Caminiti. Interested in documenting the history and arts culture of his own adopted city of Fall River, the Newport, RI, native was told about Pawtucket by a friend. What Caminiti found in Pawtucket was a great story with a greater lesson: cities past their manufacturing prime can flourish and grow in new directions - if elected officials sincerely support the effort and collaborate with leaders in the community.

For more information about Pawtucket Rising, visit www.pawtucketrising.info

Critical Condition: A Rhode Island Prognosis (Nov 20, 8PM)

Since 2002, the number of Rhode Islanders without medical insurance has doubled. Why? Who are Rhode Island's uninsured? Where can they turn for coverage? Why does it cost so much?

These questions - and some surprising answers - are explored in the new Rhode Island PBS production, CRITICAL CONDITION: A RHODE ISLAND PROGNOSIS, written, produced, and directed by Maria Saracen. The one-hour program is divided into two segments: a 30-minute documentary that features RI providers and administrators of health care and health insurance, and a 30-minute in-studio discussion led by WJAR NBC10 Health Check Reporter Barbara Morse Silva. CRITICAL CONDITION: A RHODE ISLAND PROGNOSIS airs at 8 P.M. on Thursday, November 20, followed by the national documentary from P.O.V., Critical Condition at 9 P.M., on WSBE Rhode Island PBS (channel 36, digital 36.1, cable 8, DirecTV 36, Dish 7776).

The documentary features enlightening facts and important commentary from (in order of appearance) Vincent Mor, Ph.D., chair of the Department of Community Health at Brown University; Christopher F. Koller, Health Insurance Commissioner; James E. Purcell, President and CEO of Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island; Merrill Thomas, MBA, CEO and executive director of the Providence Community Health Centers; Paul J. Tencher, director of communications for the Rhode Island Free Clinic; Dr. Caroline Troise, medical director of the Rhode Island Free Clinic; Gary Alexander, director of the RI Department of Human Services; Dr. Michael Fine, managing director of Health Access RI; K. Nicholas Tsiongas, MD, MPH, past president of the Rhode Island Medical Society; Lieutenant Governor Elizabeth Roberts; and Edward J. Quinlan, president of the Hospital Association of Rhode Island (HARI).

Overall, the picture painted by these experts is not very encouraging but, considering the national debate, it should come as no surprise. What may be surprising to viewers are some of the myth-shattering facts about health care and medical insurance in RI. Plus, there are a few bright spots presented, even if they will not materialize overnight.

WJAR NBC10 Health Check Reporter Barbara Morse Silva expands on some of the issues raised in the documentary in a probative discussion with Dr. David Gifford, director of the RI Department of Health; John Cogan, executive assistant for Policy and Program Review in the Office of the Health Insurance Commissioner; and Rajiv Kumar, founder and chairman of Shape Up RI. The lively discussion also examines the availability of health care services in Rhode Island, doctor’s fee-for-service incentives, the importance of preventative health care, the health care costs and outcomes of other countries, and the future of health care in RI.

Following the local perspective, Rhode Island PBS presents the national documentary from P.O.V., Critical Condition, at 9 P.M. Roger Weisberg (Waging a Living, P.O.V. 2006) puts a human face on the nation's growing health care crisis by capturing the harrowing struggles of four critically ill Americans who discover that being uninsured can cost them their jobs, health, home, savings, and even their lives. Filmed in verité style, Critical Condition offers a moving and invaluable exposé at a time when the nation is debating how to extend health insurance to all Americans.

Production of CRITICAL CONDITION: A RHODE ISLAND PROGNOSIS and local broadcast of P.O.V. Critical Condition are part of the Critical Condition Outreach Campaign, co-managed by P.O.V. and Outreach Extensions, and made possible by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the California Endowment, the California Health Care Foundation, the Charles A. Frueauff Foundation, the Commonwealth Fund, the Fledgling Fund, the Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, the Missouri Foundation for Health, the Nathan Cummings Foundation, the Park Foundation, the Public Welfare Foundation, the Spunk Fund and the Trull Foundation.

Spotlight is on Rhode Island Artists Tonight

At 8 PM tonight, Struggle in Steel features the monumental works of Donald Gerola, the signature sculptor of the Pawtucket Arts Collaborative. Shot on location at various places throughout Rhode Island, the film explores Gerola’s idiosyncratic creative and working process, fabricating pieces that range from intimate atrium accents to monumental monsters upwards of 40 feet.

Then at 8:30, NetWorks2008: Rhode Island Artists profiles three visual artists: Walter Feldman, Timothy Philbrick, and Toots Zynsky. NetWorks 2008: Rhode Island Artists is collection of short films featuring selected contemporary RI artists, including their works and interviews in their studios.

NetWorks 2008 is actually an exhibition platform curated by Dr. Joseph Chazan and Umberto Crenca, of AS220. This exhibit highlights the work and achievement of these diverse and influential RI artists. This unique project brings together an unprecedented and diverse range of collaborating art institutions to celebrate the rich creative energy of Rhode Island.

Keep an eye out for additional episodes; there were 15 artist profiles recorded.

A FATHER'S JOURNEY TO IRAQ at Latin Film Festival

When Warwick resident Pablo Mijares decided to visit his soldier son in Iraq, Pablo packed up his video and still cameras, and took off on an adventure other parents of military personnel can only imagine.

Both as a producer-director at WSBE Rhode Island PBS and as a still photographer, Pablo Mijares chronicled his visit to the Iraqi war zone in a unique media journal, "A Father's Journey to Iraq." Originally aired on Rhode Island PBS as part of the New England Portrait series, this 30-minute piece features compelling and exclusive footage of sites and sights few civilians are permitted to see.



Now, the Latin American Film Festival brings a new dimension to the story by screening the production, NEW ENGLAND PORTRAIT: A FATHER'S JOURNEY TO IRAQ, twice this week.

The first screening is on Friday, September 26 at 4 p.m., at the Columbus Theater & Studio, 270 Broadway, Providence, 401-621-9660.

The second screening is on Saturday, September 27 beginning at 8 p.m., and the RISD Auditorium, 17 Canal Street, in Downtown Providence.

To see the entire festival schedule, visit http://www.plaff.org/schedule.htm

Traces of the Trade: A Story from the Deep North

More than a decade ago, first-time filmmaker Katrina Browne made a troubling discovery — her New England ancestors were the largest slave-trading family in U.S. history. In her film, Traces of the Trade: A Story from the Deep North, she and nine fellow descendants of the DeWolf family set off to retrace the trade triangle: from their ancestors' old homestead in Bristol, Rhode Island, to slave forts in Ghana, to sugar plantation ruins in Cuba.

Ten years from inception to debut, the film is part of the PBS series P.O.V., and airs on Rhode Island PBS on Thursday, July 3 at 9 PM (we're on channel 36 / digital 36.1 / RI cable 8 / DirecTV 36 / Dish Network 7776); night-owl Cox and Comcast cable subscribers can catch a rebroadcast on July 5 at 1:30 AM.

As the film recounts, the DeWolf name has been honored through generations, both in the Bristol and on the national stage. Family members have been prominent citizens: professors, writers, legislators, philanthropists, Episcopal priests and bishops. If the DeWolfs' slave trading was mentioned at all, it was in an offhand way, with reference to scoundrels and rapscallions.

Then Browne's grandmother opened the door a crack. She wrote a DeWolf history booklet with a brief but pointed reference to the slave trade, which caused Browne to look deeper. What Browne learned in her research, coupled with the journey she undertook with other DeWolf descendants to retrace early New England's infamous trade in rum, slaves and sugar, revealed secrets hidden in plain sight. Archival documents — from logs and diaries to detailed business correspondence, canceled checks and sales records detailing a global economy — unsettle not just a family, but also a nation's assumptions about its not-so-distant history.

Technically, this film is a well-structured, nicely photographed, and finely edited cinema verité documentary. Browne is looking for the truth about her family, and she goes about trying to keep her filming of it candid and truthful.

When the film presents historical evidence and explores the poignant and pointed personal struggles family members undergo when facing these facts, the film is fascinating and compelling. The filmmaker, however, tries to cast a wider philosophical net. Whether the conclusions reached in this personal family story can be successfully applied to a broad audience will be a controversy best left to the viewers to debate. Either way, it's a thoughtful and provocative look at an aspect of Rhode Island history not widely known.

Watch the film, (then the second short documentary that follows it) and then talk about them here.

What do you think about Traces of the Trade?
Did you know that quiet beautiful Bristol was such an important hub of the slave trade? (By the way, if you really had no idea, then you obviously haven't experienced the comprehensive multi-media series by Paul Davis in The Providence Journal. Check it out!)

Bush's War

From the horror of 9/11 to the invasion of Iraq; the truth about WMD to the rise of an insurgency; the scandal of Abu Ghraib to the strategy of the surge—for six years, FRONTLINE has revealed the defining stories of the war on terror in meticulous detail, and the political dramas that played out at the highest levels of power and influence.

Now, on the fifth anniversary of the Iraq invasion, the full saga unfolds in the two-part FRONTLINE special Bush's War, airing on Rhode Island PBS on Thursdays, April 3, from 9 to 11:30 P.M. and April 10, from 9 to 11 P.M. ET.

Drawing on one of the richest archives in broadcast journalism — more than 40 FRONTLINE reports on the war on terror - combined with fresh reporting and new interviews, Bush's War will be the definitive documentary analysis of one of the most challenging periods in our nation's history.

Watch the clip (but ignore the publicized dates). Watch the documentary. Share your comments.

CARING FOR YOUR PARENTS - Preview

Here's an advance look at CARING FOR YOUR PARENTS, an important documentary we're airing on Wednesday, APRIL 16 at 9 PM.

Narragansetts tell their Stories in Stone

From the rhythmic chink of a chisel on granite to the twittering flute over the placid landscape, Stories in Stone casts a mystical enchantment right from the beginning. What follows for the next 26 minutes measures up to – even exceeds – expectations set by the opening.

Stories in Stone is an engaging film about the Narragansett tribal stone masons who, over the last four hundred years, have built many stone walls that wind picturesquely through the woods of southern New England. Interspersing footage that elegantly captures the beauty of the walls with interviews with tribal elders and members of two prominent Narragansett mason families, producers / directors / writers Marc Levitt and Lilach Dekel weave a story that is both poetic and inspirational. In the photo is Russel Spears, one of South County's master stone masons.Filmed in both video and film, Stories in Stone uses scenic footage and original music to express both the traditional and contemporary aspects of this craft. With no central narrator, Stories in Stone allows the Narragansett to tell their own story.

Stories in Stone began filming in 2002 as a result of Marc Levitt’s enduring interest in stone walls of southern New England. Marc first wrote a story about a stone wall mason in 1983. He conducted oral histories with stone masons at a local storytelling festival in 1986. He worked on a joint photographic/oral history project about the masons of South County, Rhode Island, in 2000 with photographer Mathias Oppersdorff. Now, Marc shares with a wider audience his interest and passion for the walls and their builders.

Prayer in America: A Rhode Island Perspective

Rhode Island is unique in its richly diverse religious community. Perhaps it's not so surprising, considering religious freedom was the basis on which Roger Williams founded the new colony.

On January 24, Rhode Island PBS sponsored an interfaith conference at the Center for Nonviolence and Peace Studies at the University of Rhode Island Multicultural Center in Kingston. The conversation continues.

Later this week and next, Rhode Island PBS presents a thought-provoking two-part documentary entitled PRAYER IN AMERICA. The documentary project enlisted academic advisors with expertise in a variety of faith traditions and historical perspectives to examine this important issue in-depth for the first time. In the short span of two hours (part 1 at 8 PM on Thursday, February 21; part 2 at 8 PM on Thursday, February 28), the documentary covers the history how prayer has shaped the American experience, and how America as a nation has impacted prayer and prayer practices, from crisis to forgiveness, from social justice to civil religion.

Rhode Island leaders representing the Roman Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Native American – and even atheist – perspectives gathered at Rhode Island PBS studios recently for a very special interfaith discussion of issues raised in the documentary, PRAYER IN AMERICA.

Hour one of PRAYER IN AMERICA will air on Thursday, February 21 at 8 PM, followed by the local discussion at 9 PM. The host of both local discussions is Marc Joel Levitt, and his guests for part 1 will be The Reverend Doctor Donald Anderson, Imam Farid Ansari, Rabbi Marc Jagolinzer, former Buddhist monk and community activist Pich Choen, and Narragansett tribal elder Paula Dove Jennings.

The second hour of PRAYER IN AMERICA will air one week later, on Thursday, February 28 at 8 PM. The local discussion at 9 PM includes The Reverend Doctor Liliana DaValle, The Reverend Timothy Burger, The Reverend Father John Codega, The Reverend Doctor Janice Thompson, and Brown University Assistant Professor of Religious Studies Matthew Bagger, PhD.


Seated (left to right): Rev. Dr. Janice Thompson, Rev. Dr. Liliana DaValle, Paula Dove Jennings. Standing (left to right): Fr. John Codega, Marc Levitt, Rabbi Marc Jagolinzer, Rev. Timothy Burger, Rev. Dr. Don Anderson, Dr. Matthew Bagger, Imam Farid Ansari, and Pich Choen.

Production of the local programs is part of an extensive national outreach effort funded by the John Templeton Foundation, and administered through Los Angeles-based Outreach Extensions. Like the film, the outreach campaign is multi-faith in its perspectives and designed to engage and involve the public in a greater discussion of the issues raised in the film. Visit http://www.prayerinamerica.org/ for clips and information.

You are invited to share with us your thoughts and comments about PRAYER IN AMERICA.
What are your own faith traditions?
What is the role of prayer in your own life?