Public Broadcasts Archive

Broadcast Archive
2007

THE CATS OF MIRIKITANI

by Linda Hattendorf and Masahiro Yoshikawa
Eighty-year-old Jimmy Mirikitani survived the trauma of internment camps, Hiroshima and homelessness by creating art. But when 9/11 threatens his life on the New York City streets and a local filmmaker brings him to her home, the two embark on a journey to confront Jimmy’s painful past. The Cats of Mirikitani is an intimate exploration of the lingering wounds of war and the healing powers of friendship and art.

THE FIRST BATTLE

By Tom Coffman
This a one-hour documentary that reveals the behind-the-scenes battle waged by Japanese Americans in Hawai’i in their successful efforts to not be interned. This powerful documentary details how 160,000 people of Japanese ancestry in Hawai’i were able to freely go about their lives during World War II, while 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry on the Mainland were wrongly interned.

FROM A SILK COCOON

By Satsuki Ina
This documentary is a true story based on letters exchanged between a young Japanese American couple, Itaru and Shizuko Ina, while imprisoned in two separate American prison camps during World War II. Labeled as “disloyal” and deemed “enemy aliens dangerous to the public peace and safety of the United States,” they struggle to prove their innocence and fight deportation.

MOST HONORABLE SON

By Bill Kubota
After the Pearl Harbor attack, Nebraska farmer Ben Kuroki volunteered for the U.S. Army Air Corps. He would become the first Japanese American war hero, surviving 58 missions as an aerial gunner over Europe, North Africa and Japan. Between tours of duty he found himself at the center of controversy – a lone spokesman against the racism faced by the thousands of Japanese Americans who were sent to internment camps. Through interviews and rare, never-before-seen film, Most Honorable Son recounts one man’s remarkable journey through World War II, providing context to two seemingly disparate histories – the U.S. air war and the Japanese American experience.

SENTENCED HOME

By David Grabias and Nicole Newnham
Raised as Americans in inner city projects near Seattle, three young Cambodian refugees each made a rash decision as a teenager that irrevocably shaped their destiny. Years later, facing deportation back to Cambodia, they find themselves caught between a tragic past and an uncertain future by a system that doesn’t offer any second chances.

THE SLANTED SCREEN

By Jeff Adachi
From silent film star Sessue Hayakawa to Harold & Kumar Go to Whitecastle, The Slanted Screen explores the portrayals of Asian men in American cinema, chronicling the experiences of actors who have had to struggle against ethnic stereotyping and limiting roles. The film presents a critical examination of Hollywood’s image-making machine, through a fascinating parade of 50 film clips spanning a century. It includes interviews with actors Mako, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, James Shigeta, Dustin Nguyen, Phillip Rhee, Will Yun Lee, Tzi Ma, Jason Scott Lee, comedian Bobby Lee, producer Terence Chang, writer Frank Chin, and directors Gene Cajayon, Eric Byler, and Justin Lin.

WHOSE CHILDREN ARE THESE?

By Theresa Thanjan
The lives of three Muslim teenagers are impacted by post 9/11 domestic anti-terrorism security measures. Navila fights to release her father from detention; Sarfaraz, a popular basketball player, confronts pending deportation; and Hager, a young woman who faces bias, is spurred into activism.

Broadcast Archive
2008

A VIEW FROM A GRAIN OF SAND

Told through the eyes of three Afghan women – a doctor, teacher and women’s rights activist – this documentary tells the story of how war, international interference and the rise of religious fundamentalism has stripped Afghan women of rights and freedom. Together with rarely seen archival footage, their powerful stories provide illuminating context for Afghanistan’s current situation and the ongoing battle women face to gain even basic human rights.

Broadcast Archive
2009

AHEAD OF THE MAJORITY

By Kimberlee Bassford
Ahead 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.

A VIEW FROM A GRAIN OF SAND

Told through the eyes of three Afghan women – a doctor, teacher and women’s rights activist – this documentary tells the story of how war, international interference and the rise of religious fundamentalism has stripped Afghan women of rights and freedom. Together with rarely seen archival footage, their powerful stories provide illuminating context for Afghanistan’s current situation and the ongoing battle women face to gain even basic human rights.

BOLINAO 52

By Duc Nguyen
In 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 happened next was an unbelievable story of perseverance that changed the lives of the survivors forever.

HOLLYWOOD CHINESE

By Arthur Dong
Hollywood 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.

NEW MUSLIM COOL

By Jennifer Maytorena Taylor
Puerto Rican-American rapper Hamza Pérez pulled himself out of drug dealing and street life and became a Muslim. He moved to Pittsburgh’s tough North Side to start a new religious community, rebuild his shattered family and take his message of faith to other young people through hard-hitting hip-hop music. New Muslim Cool takes viewers on Hamza’s ride through streets, slums and jail cells — following his spiritual journey to some surprising places in an America that never stops changing.

THE BETRAYAL (Nerakhoon)

By Ellen Kuras and Thavisouk Phrasavath
On P.O.V., July 21, 2009 at 10 PM
Filmed over 23 years, The Betrayal is the Academy Award®-nominated directorial debut of renowned cinematographer Ellen Kuras in a unique collaboration with the film’s subject and co-director, Thavisouk (“Thavi”) Phrasavath. After the U.S. government waged a secret war in Laos during the Vietnam War, Thavi’s father and thousands of other Laotians who had fought alongside American forces were abandoned and left to face imprisonment or execution. Hoping to find safety, Thavi’s family made a harrowing escape to America, where they discovered a different kind of war.

THE MOSQUE IN MORGANTOWN

By Brittany Huckabee
A 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. The Mosque in Morgantown is a thoughtful, even-handed documentary about a community struggling with change while trying to hold itself together.

WINGS OF DEFEAT

By Risa Morimoto and Linda Hoaglund
What were 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.