Thirteen/WNET: Due East

ANNUAL DUE EAST FESTIVAL CELEBRATES ASIAN PACIFIC AMERICAN HERITAGE WITH A SPECIAL PROGRAM LINE-UP IN MAY

Nearly 12 million Asian-Americans call America home. With some 30 national-origin groups, the larger Asian Pacific American community is one of glorious variety. Thirteen/WNET New York recognizes this diversity throughout May with DUE EAST, the station's annual celebration of Asian Pacific American heritage. DUE EAST presents a range of programming focused on the Asian Pacific American experience, from arts and sports to social issues and the immigrant experience. DUE EAST runs from Saturday, May 5 through Saturday, May 26, 2007 on Thirteen.

Program Schedule:

Saturday, May 5

2:30-3p.m.: SEARCHING FOR ASIAN AMERICA - Through intimate profiles of individuals and communities from across the country, part one of this 3-part program serves up a genuine taste of what it's like to be Asian-American in today's ever-changing United States. From inauspicious beginnings as the son of Chinese immigrants to becoming the leader of his home state of Washington, Governor Gary Locke is living the American dream, but his is a complicated tale that attests to both benefits and burdens of being "the first." Ann Curry, Today Show correspondent, hosts the program. (Encore) (Part 1 of 3)

Monday, May 7

12:30-1:30 a.m.: GRASSROOTS RISING - This exploration of the working class roots of the Asian-American experience focuses on the resurgence of grassroots political activism among Asian and Pacific Islander working class families in Los Angeles. It juxtaposes poetry by spoken word artist Alison de la Cruz with the stories of immigrants and activists. From Thai garment workers forced into slave labor to Filipino healthcare workers exploited for their cheap labor to Korea-town restaurant workers fired arbitrarily, they are finding hope with the help of innovative organizations. (Encore)

Tuesday, May 8

10:30-11:30 p.m.: FROM A SILK COCOON - The discovery of a small metal box, containing letters and diary entries, reveals a family story shrouded in silence for more than 60 years. A young Japanese American couple, Shizuko and Itaru, find their dreams shattered when, months after their wedding, they are imprisoned in an American internment camp during WWII. This documentary tells the true story of Shizuko and Itaru's internment experience and the story of thousands of Japanese Americans who were betrayed by America. (Premiere)

1-2 a.m.: INDEPENDENT LENS: Cosmopolitan - East Indian immigrant Gopal (Roshan Seth) reinvents himself as an all-American bachelor when his wife and daughter abandon him. With the help of women's magazines he pursues Mrs. Shaw (Carol Kane), the divorcee next door, but finds there's more to love than the pages of Cosmo would suggest. (Encore)

Wednesday, May 9

12:30-1:30 a.m.: P.O.V.: No More Tears Sister - This documentary recreates the courageous and vibrant life of renowned Tamil human rights activist and professor Dr. Rajani Thiranagama, who was assassinated at the age of 35 after she criticized the atrocities committed by the Tamil Tigers cadres during the violent ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka. This film tells Thiranagama's dramatic story and explores the price of truth in times of war. (Encore)

Thursday, May 10

10-11 p.m.: INDEPENDENT LENS: The Cats of Mirikitani - "Make art not war" is Jimmy Mirikitani's motto. This documentary is about the 80-year-old artist, who has survived the trauma of Hiroshima, American internment camps and homelessness on the streets of New York, by creating art. (Premiere) (FB: Sunday, May 13 at 11:30 p.m.)

12:30-1:30 a.m.: AN UNTOLD TRIUMPH - This film documents and honors the 7,000 men of the 1st and 2nd Filipino Infantry Regiments of the U.S. Army who bravely fought in World War II. Director Noel M. Izon intimately captures their stories through the voices of the veterans themselves. Despite the fact that they endured a bleak, racist, pre-war climate, Filipinos in America rallied to join the American war effort after the fateful bombing of Pearl Harbor. (Encore)

Saturday, May 12

2:30-3 p.m.: SEARCHING FOR ASIAN AMERICA - Part two of this program profiles Martin Bautista and Jeffrey Lim, Filipino immigrant doctors living in the predominantly Caucasian, hog-farming heartland of Guymon, Oklahoma. As their story unfolds, it's apparent that being Asian-American in a rural town is both more challenging and more rewarding than either could have expected. Ann Curry, Today Show correspondent, hosts the program. (Encore) (Part 2 of 3)

4-5 p.m.: GLOBE TREKKER: Sri Lanka & The Maldives - Globe Trekker Megan McCormick begins her travels in Colombo, the capital of Sri Lanka, where she samples the local cuisine, tries stilt fishing and explores a topaz mine. She also tours an elephant orphanage and makes her way to Dhangethi, one of the spectacular Maldive Islands, where she encounters exotic tropical fish and lush foliage. (Premiere)

Sunday, May 13

1-2 p.m.: THE SLANTED SCREEN - This documentary examines the portrayals of Asian men in film and television and how a new generation of independent filmmakers are re-defining age-old stereotypes. THE SLANTED SCREEN includes interviews with award-winning veteran actor Mako, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, James Shigeta, Dustin Nguyen, Phillip Rhee, among others, and features film clips depicting Asian and Asian American male characters from Hollywood films spanning over a century. (Premiere) (FB: Saturday, May 19 at 12:15 a.m.)

11:30-12:30 a.m.: INDEPENDENT LENS: The Cats of Mirikitani - See Thursday, May 10 at 10 p.m.

2-3 a.m.: FROM A SILK COCOON - See Tuesday, May 8 at 10:30 p.m.

Tuesday, May 15

10-11 p.m.: INDEPENDENT LENS: Sentenced Home - As the heated national debate over immigration continues, SENTENCED HOME puts a human face on the devastation wrought by this country's deportation policies. Chronicling the lives of three Cambodian Americans, Kim Ho Ma, Loeun Lun and Many Uch, this film offers a rare glimpse into the drama of the deportation process that has ruined lives of nearly 1,500 Cambodians who face deportation; from the intimate final moments with their loved ones in the U.S. (the only country they have ever really known), to the squalid conditions of Cambodian detention facilities. Hosted by Terrence Howard. (Premiere)

Thursday, May 17

3:20-5:40 a.m.: SUGIHARA: CONSPIRACY OF KINDNESS - In the face of the Nazi onslaught during World War II, a Japanese diplomat named Chiune Sugihara saved thousands of lives, using his authority to rescue fleeing Jewish refugees. This remarkable documentary chronicles the life of Sugihara and the little-known relationship between the Japanese and Jews in the 1930s and '40s. (Encore)

Saturday, May 19

2:30-3 p.m.: SEARCHING FOR ASIAN AMERICA - Part three of this program profiles Lela Lee, a successful actress and creator of the underground comic strip and Web site Angry Little Asian Girl. Just as the irreverent cartoon portrays Kim, an Asian-American girl with attitude, this episode introduces Lee, an Asian-American woman with attitude as well as big plans and hopeful dreams. Ann Curry, Today Show correspondent, hosts the program. (Encore) (Part 3 of 3)

10:45-12:15 a.m.: CINEMA THIRTEEN: RASHOMON - Directed by Akira Kurosawa, this 1950 Japanese crime drama, starring Toshiro Mifune, seeks to uncover the truth when a 12th century samurai is killed and his wife is raped. The film traces the brutal incident from four different perspectives - that of the attacker Tajomaru, the samurai's wife, the murdered samurai, whose story is told through a psychic, and a local woodcutter claiming to have witnessed the murder - but who is telling the truth? (Premiere)

12:15-1:15 a.m.: THE SLANTED SCREEN - See Sunday, May 13 at 1 p.m.

1:15-2:45 a.m.: CINEMA THIRTEEN: Go For Broke - This 1951 film directed by Robert Pirosh and starring Van Johnson dramatizes the heroic exploits of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, which was comprised of Nisei -Japanese Americans born in the United States. The action begins in Camp Shelby, Massachusetts, in 1943, and continues in Italy and France during World War II. Film critic Leonard Maltin called the film "uncompromising in its point of view reflecting the Nisei's collective heroic war record." (Encore)

Sunday, May 20

1-2 p.m.: POLYNESIAN POWER: Islanders in Pro Football - Narrated by Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, this program chronicles the ascent of Polynesians in American football by profiling two Samoan athletes - Pisa Tinoisamoa and Isaac Sopoaga - and explores the challenges and triumphs of chasing the American dream. (Premiere)

2-3 p.m.: KEEPERS OF THE FLAME: The Cultural Legacy of Three Hawaiian Women - This program profiles historian and author Mary Kawena Pukui, dancer and chanter 'Iolani Luahine and kumu hula and teacher Edith Kanaka 'ole, who have each played a pivotal role in reviving the flame of traditional Hawaiian culture to keep their culture alive. (Premiere)

Monday, May 21

10-11 p.m.: SUN GU JA: A Century of Korean Pioneers - This documentary traces the 100-year history of Korean immigration first to the Pacific Coast, and then throughout the U.S., by blending archival footage with first hand accounts from Korean War veterans, family farmers and Korean adoptees, among others. (Premiere) (FB: Thursday, May 24 at 12:40 a.m.)

12:30-1:30 a.m.: INDEPENDENT LENS: Death of a Shaman - Through a journey that takes her back to her roots in Thailand, a young Mien woman from Sacramento strives to come to terms with her father's death and drug addiction, and her sister's murder. Reunited with her relatives, she begins to grasp the complexity of her father's past and experience the nuances of lost identity. (Encore)

Tuesday, May 22

9:30-11 p.m.: FRONTLINE: The Tank Man - On June 5, 1989, one day after Chinese troops expelled thousands of demonstrators from Tiananmen Square in Beijing, a solitary, unarmed protestor stood his ground before a column of tanks advancing down the Avenue of Eternal Peace. Captured by Western photographers watching nearby, this extraordinary confrontation became an icon of the fight for freedom around the world. Veteran filmmaker Antony Thomas investigates the mystery of the tank man - his identity, his fate and his significance for the Chinese leadership, and reveals China's startling social and political system - its embrace of capitalism while dissent is squashed - designed to stifle the nationwide unrest of 1989. (Encore) (FB: Wednesday, May 23 at 12:30 a.m.)

Wednesday, May 23

12:30-1:30 a.m.: FRONTLINE: The Tank Man - See Tuesday, May 22 at 9:30 p.m.

Thursday, May 24

12:40-1:40 a.m.: SUN GU JA: A Century of Korean Pioneers - See Monday, May 21 at 10 p.m.

1:40-2:40 a.m.: INDEPENDENT LENS: Seoul Train - This documentary exposes the complex geopolitics and bureaucracy entangling the lives of thousands of North Korean refugees as well as the story of activists who put themselves in harm's way to save them via a clandestine underground railroad. (Encore)

Friday, May 25

10:30-11:30 p.m.: INDEPENDENT LENS: CHINA BLUE - This documentary profiles teenage factory workers in China who work under deplorable conditions for $.06 per hour to produce the denim jeans we buy and wear. Film secretly and banned in China, this film is a candid look at exploitation in the name of profit.

4:30-5:30 a.m.: AMERICAN EXPERIENCE: The Massie Affair - In the waning days of summer 1931, Honolulu's tropical tranquility was shattered when a young Navy wife made a drastic allegation of rape against five non-white islanders. What unfolded in the following days and weeks was a racially-charged murder case that would make headlines across the nation, enrage Hawaii's native population, and galvanize the island's law enforcers and the nation's social elite. This film recounts the sensational true crime story that rocked 1930s Hawaii. (Encore)

5:30-6 a.m.: LABOR WOMEN - This documentary profiles three immigrant daughters who are part of a new generation transforming the American labor movement. Quynh Nguyen is a trilingual organizer who moves easily between Vietnamese, Spanish and English as she mobilizes meatpackers in their demands for a union contract. Sri Lankan American Karla Zombro confromts the challenge of being a lead organizer as well as openly gay withing the Respect at LAZ Living Wage campaign for airport workers fighting for a contract with the Argenbright company. Jun Chong is a Korean American activist with a labor-community coalition in South Central Los Angeles. She represents the most marginalized of workers - welfare recipients who are being forced into workfare programs. (Encore) (FB: Saturday, May 26 at 2:30 a.m.)

Saturday, May 26

2:30-3 a.m.: LABOR WOMEN - See Friday, May 25 at 5:30 a.m.

4-5 a.m.: GLOBE TREKKER: Cambodia - Globe Trekker Ian Wright travels to Cambodia where he celebrates Buddha Day in Phonm Da, rehearses with the National School of Dance, experiences Cambodian stand-up comedy and makes his way to Angkor Wat, considered by some to be the eighth wonder of the world. (Premiere)