For those that miss both this advanced screening and the November 25th broadcast on the anniversary of the attacks, the entire episode will be available online at pbs.org/secrets the following day.

Secrets of the Dead: MUMBAI MASSACRE

Please join us for a special press screening

THIRTEEN, in partnership with the New York chapter of the South Asian Journalists Association (SAJA), presents a special press screening of MUMBAI MASSACRE on Tuesday, Nov. 17th from 6 to 8:30 p.m., at the Columbia Journalism School
(third floor lecture hall) on 116th St. and Broadway (#1 train to 116th St.).

The event will begin with a one-hour screening of the film, followed by a panel discussion and Q&A from members of the media.

Panelists are:

Victoria Pitt, Writer/Director of the film
Jared Lipworth, Executive Producer, Secrets of the Dead
Todd Baer, Freelance Journalist - Al Jazeera English; covered Mumbai Massacre from Mumbai, Kashmir & Gujarat
Mira Kamdar, Author “Planet India” and Foreign Policy Analyst

Panel moderated by SAJA Co-founder Sree Sreenivasan,
Dean of Student Affairs, Columbia Graduate School of Journalism,
Contributing Editor DNAinfo.com

Light refreshments will be served before the screening

Kindly reply by November 16th to:
Jitin Hingorani at 212.560.6609 or HingoraniJ@wnet.org

Synopsis of MUMBAI MASSACRE

On November 26, 2008, 10 young Pakistani men sailed into Mumbai, India’s thriving financial heart and home of the Bollywood film industry. The men were armed with AK47s, grenades and plastic explosives, as well as satellite phones and global positioning systems connecting them to their controllers. They spread out across the city. Quick-fire strikes on the Victoria Station Railway Station, the busiest train terminus in India, the legendary Leopold Café and Cama Hospital saw more than a hundred dead in only an hour. But this was just the beginning. The gunmen had come for a longer engagement, in targets chosen to grab and hold the world’s attention: the historic Taj Mahal Palace and Tower Hotel, the ultra-modern, five-star Trident-Oberoi Hotel and Nariman House, a Jewish Community center nearby. Sixty hours later, the Indian security forces brought the attacks to a close.

MUMBAI MASSACRE brings together candid and very personal accounts from the ordinary and extraordinary people who were caught up in the siege. Actual text of intercepted telephone calls between the gunmen and their commanders and CCTV footage from the hotels give a chilling, real-life edge to their stories. The film also explores the dramatic role that modern communications played: mobile phones, the internet and 24-hour television news gave vital information not just to those in hiding – but to the killers’ commanders in Pakistan.

The film airs on THIRTEEN’s Secrets of the Dead series on PBS stations nationwide on Wednesday, November 25, 2009 at 8 p.m. EST (check local listings), the one-year anniversary of the terrorist attacks in Mumbai.

THIRTEEN’s Secrets of the Dead: Mumbai Massacre was produced by Electric Pictures and Furnace for THIRTEEN in association with WNET.ORG, Screen Australia, ScreenWest Inc., Channel 4 (UK), The History Channel UK and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Victoria Pitt is writer/director, Andrew Ogilvie is executive producer for Electric Pictures and Phil Craig is executive producer for Furnace. At THIRTEEN, Jared Lipworth is executive producer. William R. Grant is executive-in-charge.

WNET.ORG Correspondent Rafael Pi Roman speaks with New York City Health Commissioner Thomas Farley about the expected return of the H1N1 virus during the normal flu season.

Merce Cunningham, the American choreographer who is credited with reinventing the way we think about dance, has died at the age of 90. Regarded as one of the most influential artists of our time, Cunningham studied under Martha Graham before founding the Merce Cunningham Dance Company in 1953.

SundayArts profiled Merce Cunningham on the eve of his 90th birthday and the world premiere of his work “Nearly Ninety” at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in April. Watch the profile below.

Cunningham was also profiled in the American Masters production in “Merce Cunningham: A Lifetime of Dance.”

“Religion & Ethics Newsweekly” has won the 2009 Gabriel award for “Television: Short Feature- National Release” for “Barefoot College in India.” The Gabriels are sponsored by the Catholic Academy for Communication Arts Professionals.

Correspondent Fred de Sam Lazaro traveled to the Indian state of Rajasthan for a look at one man’s efforts to bring sustainable development to rural areas of the developing world by teaching hundreds of village women how to install and maintain solar energy. Watch the feature here.

Executive Producer for Religion & Ethics Newsweekly is Arnold Labaton. Host: Bob Abernethy. Religion & Ethics is produced by WNET.ORG.

UPDATE 12:36 PM 7/21/09 — According to the Associated Press, Cambridge prosecutors have dropped the disorderly conduct charge against Henry Louis Gates Jr.

Noted Harvard professor and frequent THIRTEEN host and editor Henry Louis “Skip” Gates, Jr. was arrested by Cambridge, Massachusetts police at his home on Thursday, July 16 on charges of disorderly conduct. According to the police report, a woman called police to the house after seeing a man “wedging his shoulder in the front door [of Gates' house] as to pry the door open.” Gates had just returned from filming in China for the upcoming THIRTEEN / PBS documentary, “Faces of America.” Gates allegedly confronted the officers at the scene, accusing them of racism and “exhibiting loud and tumultuous behavior,” according to the police report. Professor Gates was subsequently arrested, held at Cambridge police headquarters and released four hours later on his own recognizance. Neither Gates nor the Cambridge police have commented on the incident at this time.

Gates has been the host and editor for numerous productions at THIRTEEN, including African American Lives, African American Lives 2 and Looking for Lincoln.

Gates’ lawyer and Harvard colleague Charles Ogletree has released a statement on behalf of his client:
Read More …

Frank McCourt, a former New York City schoolteacher who turned his childhood in Ireland into a Pulitzer Prize-winning book, “Angela’s Ashes,” died in Manhattan on Sunday, July 19th. He was 78 years old.

In 2006, New York Voices host Rafael Pi Roman sat down for an interview with McCourt, at his old classroom at the original Stuvyestant High School. McCourt also discussed his most recent book, “Teacher Man,” an account of his thirty years as a teacher in the New York public school system.

(View full post to see video)

I have two confessions to make.

First - I don’t have a TV.

Yes, I work for a broadcast company and I don’t own a television. But I watch TV shows. A lot of them.

Which leads me to my second confession. I’m addicted to Hulu and Netflix “watch instantly”.

I curl up in bed with my computer on my lap and decompress to an episode of Friday Night Lights, Starter Wife or Masterpiece Theatre.

That’s right, Masterpiece Theatre…my dirty little secret is that I’m hooked on bonnet dramas. So when PBS launched their video portal back in April, my obsession with British dramas collided with my consumption of online TV and there were fireworks. Metaphorically speaking.

A whole new world has opened up: Thirteen is no longer just your grandparents’ station. Or your kids’.

It’s for all of us.

When we want it. How we want it.

But there’s more.

Thirteen is working closely with PBS to beta test a local version of the video portal, which launched this week: www.thirteen.org/video. We want our audience to have their PBS needs (British drama or otherwise) fulfilled right here at home. Thirteen.org/video looks like the PBS portal but with added programming produced by us: The City Concealed, Reel 13 shorts, Worldfocus….and many more in the pipeline.

Hours of programming gets added every week.

It’s a one-stop-shop. Go straight to the program you want, or browse by genre or show title.

We’re still working out some technical kinks (we don’t use the term “beta” loosely), but we’re anxious to hear what you think. Leave a comment here or at www.facebook.com/wnet-thirteen.

Thanks for watching – anywhere.

-debbie adler
director of online marketing

by Daniel T. Allen
Community Engagement Coordinator
Friends of Thirteen

The Friends of THIRTEEN is a nonprofit organization of volunteers who act as liaisons between THIRTEEN and the community to: INCREASE engagement with the station’s quality programming; PROMOTE use of its innovative educational resources; and EXPAND support for public media as one of our nation’s great cultural resources. For more information about Friends please contact Executive Director Dorothy Pacella at 212.560.2800 or Pacella@thirteen.org.

It’s finally here. After literally years of preparation America finally faces the digital television transition. From the $350,000 advertisement for placed by the FCC on a NASCAR (that crashed twice) to the four month push-back of the date, it’s been a long strange trip.

In order to help the city prepare for “the big switch,” Friends of Thirteen have been working hard since last fall to connect seniors to information about DTV, train volunteers, and bring together community leaders across the five boroughs.

In September last year, Friends attended “Harlem Connects,” a conference to help Harlem’s seniors get connected. The conference hosted by the Harlem Consumer Education Council made it apparent that far too many people lacked crucial information about the conversion.

In October, we convened a “DTV community coalition” here at the station for community-based organizations, city officials, activists and educators to brainstorm strategies to raise community awareness about the transition. Read More …

A roundup of all streaming, full-length videos online from PBS and Thirteen programs that aired last week. See the list below for all full episodes and links. Read More …