PBS Hawaii's new co-production with Pacific Islanders in Communications, PACIFIC HEARTBEAT, is attracting viewers across the country, with more than 80% of public television stations electing to carry these culturally authentic Pacific programs. This week on the national series, our featured program is Papa Mau: The Wayfinder (Sat., May 19, 2012. 8:00 pm). It tells the story of the historic 1974 sailing of the voyaging canoe Hōkūle‘a from Hawaii to Tahiti using non-instrument navigation. This event captured the imagination of people throughout the Pacific Rim. Master navigator Mau Piailug guided the voyage.
Mau, who has since passed away, was a Micronesian who lived in the Yap island group. Thousands of his fellow Micronesians have relocated to Hawaii, where they encounter unfamiliar and difficult social terrain. They come here to make use of a federal diplomatic arrangement known as the Compact of Free Association.
The next INSIGHTS ON PBS HAWAII (Thurs., May 17, 2012, 8:00 pm) looks at the problems facing Micronesians in Hawaii. Joining moderator Dan Boylan are scheduled guests: Patricia McManaman, Director of the State Department of Human Services; Neal Palafox, MD, Professor of Family Medicine and Community Health, UH John A. Burns School of Medicine; and Innocenta Sound-Kikku, Vice Chair of the Micronesian Health Advisory Coalition.
INSIGHTS is also available online via live streaming. We want to hear from you! Your questions and comments are welcome via phone, email, Twitter or live blogging. You may also email your questions ahead of time to insights@pbshawaii.org
Many of Hawaii's residents of Chinese ancestry trace their family origins to southern China. Searching for Roots in Canton (Sat., May 19, 2012, 10:00 pm) follows two Chinese Americans from San Francisco, CA. to south China as they search for their ancestral homes. Both gain a clearer perspective of what it means to be Chinese as well as American.
Fans of GREAT PERFORMANCES: how's this for a show? Combine two storylines from Shakespeare with the music of the Baroque masters, performed by some of the world's best singers, and you have the next GREAT PERFORMANCES AT THE MET (Fri., May 18, 2012, 9:00 pm). Placido Domingo puts in an appearance on The Enchanted Island, an otherworldly version of The Tempest island, where lovers from Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream are shipwrecked. Works by Handel, Vivaldi, Rameau and others are set to Jeremy Sams' new libretto, with leading roles by David Daniels and Joyce DiDonato (pictured).
On the next edition of HIKI NŌ (Thurs., May 17, 2012,7:30 pm), Maui High School correspondents profile a woman whose mother is living with Alzheimer's disease. In Honolulu, Iolani School student journalists show us a fertile environment for budding poets at The ARTS at Mark's Garage downtown. Hosted by students from Halau Ku Mana Charter School in Honolulu, this episode also features reports from Kealakehe High School (Hawaii Island); Island School (Kauai); Maui Waena Intermediate School (Maui); Ewa Makai Middle School, Kainalu Elementary School and Leilehua High School on Oahu.
This HIKI NŌ newscast encores Saturday, May 19, 2012, at 12:30 pm and Sunday, May 20, at 3:00 pm. You may also view this newscast and past episodes on our website, www.pbshawaii.org/hikino
The complex chorus of bellows and grunts coming from the koala bear is a secret language that scientists strive to decode on the next NATURE (Wed., May 16, 2012, 8:00 pm). In Cracking the Koala Code, scientists track four koala bears in Australia to discover the marsupials' secrets for survival.
Bones of Turkana (Wed., May 16, 2012, 10:00 pm) follows paleoanthropologist Richard Leakey and his wife Meave, daughter Louise and their colleagues to Kenya's Turkana Basin on their mission to understand the mysteries of human evolution.
Social justice curriculum gets a close look on INDEPENDENT LENS (Thurs., May 17, 2012, 10:00 pm). Spending a year in Tucson, AZ, filmmakers chronicled Tucson High School's Mexican American Studies Program and how it transformed students' lives with Precious Knowledge, but not without controversy.
SIMPLY MING (Sat., May 19, 2012, 5:30 pm) goes to San Francisco where Ming joins a tequila master for this episode, Julio Bermejo and Cooking with Spirits. Julio and Ming explore amazing food stalls at the Ferry Plaza Farmer's Market before heading back to the Bermejo's turf, Tommy's Mexican Restaurant, to cook on the fly.
RUDY MAXA'S WORLD (Sat., May 19, 2012, 7:30 pm) shows us the rugged coastline, exotic birds and indigenous plants found in South Africa: Garden Route and Wine Country, including the village of Franschhoek.
Chinese American filmmaker Theresa Loong knew little about her father's past until she discovered his secret diary, written when he was a teenager and a POW in a Japanese work camp during World War II. Every Day is a Holiday (Sat., May 19, 2012. 9:00 pm) recounts the painful but life-affirming story of Paul Loong's unlikely journey, from Chinese Malay teenager and Japanese POW, to merchant seaman, Veterans Affairs doctor and naturalized citizen of the country that liberated him: the United States.
For more program listings by genre, click here.
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