Coming This Fall to the Peeb

Who says PBS can’t be hip? A hilarious clip from the folks at POYKPAC. ‘llectuals … it’s summer reading, you can watch.

Rent PBS Docs on Netflix

Were you aware that you can rent PBS documentaries on Netflix? A quick perusal of the PBS documentaries sub-genre (accessible by logging into your account, choosing “Documentary” and then sub-genre “PBS Documentaries” in the right-hand column) reveals a plethora of docs and doc series. You can rent many of Ken Burns’ iconic documentaries, like “The Civil War,” “The War” and “Mark Twain” and “Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson.”

There are also episodes of Frontline, NOVA, NATURE, American Experience and American Masters. You can rent Martin Scorsese’s American Masters look at Bob Dylan (”Bob Dylan: No Direction Home”) and Susan Steinberg’s look at Ahmet Ertegun (”Atlantic Records: The House that Ahmet Built”).

Some, like American Masters’ presentation of “Les Paul: Chasing Sound” and Ken Burns’ “Jazz” are available for instant viewing directly on the site.

So when you’re done with “Curb Your Enthusiasm: Season 5,” “Scrubs: Season 1″ or “Sex and the City: Season 6,” consider adding a little PBS to your queue.

NPT Visits Our Next Door Neighbors in Little Kurdistan, USA

(NPT Press Release)

New original documentary explores Nashville’s Kurdish Population

NASHVILLE, Tennessee — May 19, 2008 — For the past thirty years, Kurdish immigrants in Nashville have started the first Kurdish Mosque in the United States and opened businesses, restaurants, markets and bakeries, building what is now the largest Kurdish population in North America. On Wednesday, May 28 at 8:00 p.m., Nashville Public Television (NPT) introduces the city to this thriving community with the premiere of NEXT DOOR NEIGHBORS: LITTLE KURDISTAN, USA, the first in a new series of documentary programs under the NEXT DOOR NEIGHBORS banner.

“As refugees, Kurds have overcome significant barriers to survive and flourish in Nashville,” says Will Pedigo, the program’s writer, producer and director. “They arrive as outsiders; estranged from their homeland and strangers in their new home. With this documentary, and the future installments in the Next Door Neighbors series, we hope to encourage Nashville to make strides towards a greater awareness of its diversity and provide an avenue for interaction among all our neighbors.”

The first significant wave of Kurds arrived in Nashville in 1976. They have since established a vibrant community recognized by Kurds nationally for its strong cultural and traditional heritage. The half-hour NEXT DOOR NEIGHBORS: LITTLE KURDISTAN, USA examines how these Kurds have adapted to life in Nashville and provides insight into the struggles refugees face as they build new lives in a new home. The documentary explores what it means to be Kurdish, and reflects on the journey Kurds make as they become Kurdish-Americans trying to assimilate into American culture and still hold on to their traditions. In addition to meeting a variety of Kurdish immigrants and Kurdish-Americans, viewers will also visit Azadi International Foods for fresh-baked Kurdish bread, go inside the Salahadeen Center, the first Kurdish Mosque in the United States, and hear about life in Nashville from younger generations of Kurds.

The NEXT DOOR NEIGHBORS series looks at Nashville’s status as a new destination city for refugees and immigrants, and explores the rich diversity of people now calling Nashville home. Across the United States, mid-sized cities like Nashville are experiencing unprecedented growth in their international populations. Together these communities are redefining the traditional international city on a smaller local scale.

“As our new neighbors rebuild their lives in Nashville,” says Pedigo, “their experiences, contributions and conflicts impact the city. They are also challenged by isolation and barriers unknown to many Nashvillians. How Nashville addresses its changing demographic will be important for the future of similar communities across the country.”

The NEXT DOOR NEIGHBORS series will include in-depth web content at wnpt.net, public forums and feature a panel discussion after each of the four programs.

NEXT DOOR NEIGHBORS: LITTLE KURDISTAN, USA is made possible through a grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting’s My Source initiative and is supported by The HCA Foundation on behalf of HCA and the TriStar Family of Hospitals. A partnership with the Vanderbilt University Center for Nashville Studies provided valuable research and community outreach.

A Free Teleseminar for Journalists on the DTV Transition

To help journalists report on the upcoming DTV transition, the Foundation for American Journalists (FACS) will present a free tele-seminar with industry experts who can answer questions on how the transition will affect consumers. This seminar is aimed at journalists who cover technology, business, consumer affairs and the broadcast-cable-satellite industries.

On the call will be Marcellus Alexander, Executive Vice President, Television, National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) and Jason Oxman, Senior Vice President, Industry Affairs, Consumer Electronics Association

“Reporting the Digital Television Transition,” a free tele-seminar for journalists, is scheduled for Tuesday, May 20, at 11 a.m. Eastern (8 a.m. Pacific). It is presented by FACS and its programming partner, the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ).

To register, vsiit FACSnet.org.

NPT and Gildas Club Award Essay Contest Winners

NPT and Gilda’s Club of Nashville yesterday awarded the winners of the first NPT/Gilda’s Club of Nashville “It’s Always Something” Essay Contest.” The contest asked high school students to submit personal essays about their experience with cancer for a chance to win up to $2,000. The top three finishers were honored at a reception at Gilda’s Club of Nashville’s headquarters off Music Row with celebrity judges Ron Bironas of the Tennessee Titans and Matt Friction of the Pink Spiders on hand. The Tennessean’s Beverly Keel was also a judge, but was out of town and unable to attend. First place and $2,000 went to Alison McFerrin, 18, a senior at White County High School; second place and $1,000 went to Hailey Hughes, 18, a senior at Martin Luther King Jr. magnet; and third place and $500 went to Isabelle Gigante, 16, a sophomore at Hillsboro High School. McFerrin also read her winning essay.

In the first picture are, from left, are Bironas, first place finisher McFerrin, third place finisher Gigante, second place finisher Hailey Hughes, Megan Ingram from Gilda’s Club of Nashville and Kathy Edson, NPT.

In the second picture are, from left, are Bironas, first place finisher McFerrin, second place finisher Gigante, third place finisher Hughes and Friction.

The Electric Company to Return

Cue the funk. It may have been the coolest show about reading ever, and it’s coming back.

The Electric Company, “Refitted for the age of hip-hop and informed by decades of further educational research on reading,” according to the New York Times, will return to public television in 2009.

“It’s the old one mixed with ‘High School Musical’ and a Dr Pepper commercial,” Linda Simensky, senior director of programming for PBS Kids, told the Times.

And some funk? Just a little?

The original show ran from 1971-1977. Check out classic audio and video clips from the show — including the famous “banana in your ear” skit — at the SesameWorkshop.org/tec.

Frontline Looks at the Storm Over Everest

It was the worst climbing tragedy in Mount Everest’s History. As darkness fell on May 10, 1996, a fast-moving storm of unimaginable ferocity trapped three climbing teams high on the slopes of Mount Everest. The climbers, exhausted from their summit climb, were soon lost in darkness, in a fierce blizzard, far from the safety of high camp at 26,000 feet. World-renowned climber and filmmaker David Breashears returns to Everest to tell the story of the climbers who perished in that storm in Frontline’s presentation of “Storm Over Everest,” Tuesday, May 13 at 8:00 p.m. central on NPT and PBS stations nationwide. It is also the story of 11 climbers caught in the storm and the eyewitness accounts of their astonishing survival in the world’s most unforgiving environment.

Elisabeth Jensen in the New York Times writes, “In an attempt to free his film from the controversy of that day — mostly manufactured by the media, he says — Mr. Breashears largely avoids second-guessing, instead piecing together a straightforward story of the climb, told by the participants and focused around the storm itself — what it was like to be in it and survive. Close observers of the tragedy are left to parse for themselves how the recollections match up with past accounts, like in the best-selling book “Into Thin Air,” which sold nearly one million hardcover copies alone.”

James Clash, Adventure Columnist for Forbes Magazine, has an interview with Breashers:

Preview:

The DTV Transition in Four Videos

Still unclear about DTV Transition? We’ve created four new videos — specifically for our web viewing — to help you out. Kevin Crane, our VP of Technology and Programming leads the way. Watch them at http://wnpt.net/dtv.

Got questions? drop us a line newmedia[at]wnpt.net.

NPT Does the Country Music Marathon

Sometimes, we must honor our own. Congratulations to, left, NPT Vice President of Development and Marketing Daniel Tidwell and NPT Volunteer Coordinator (and Nashville Scene Lust Lister) Miguel Otero for finishing the Country Music 1/2 Marathon. Otero finished at 2:14:43, with Tidwell just behind him at 2:14.46. Meanwhile part-timer Jay Rockholt went the full 26.2 miles.

NPT consultant Kathy Tompkins also finished the 1/2 Marathon.

None of these folks should have any trouble with the NPT 8 K, coming on June 14.

Sons of Lwala Wins Big at Nashville Film Festival

The Nashville Film Festival wrapped last Thursday, with over 22,000 attendees — a 10% increase from 2007 — and 31 sold-out screenings. Though not necessarily a total surprise, one of the big hits of the festival was Barry Simmons’s documentary Sons of Lwala, which not only took home the NPT Human Spirit Award, but also walked away with the Audience Award for Best Documentary and the Tennessee Independent Spirit Award for best Feature Length Film. All this for a film that Simmons, as he told me at the Festival before his first screening, hadn’t submitted to any other festivals.

Simmons may have been a journalist before his Sons of Lwala journey began, but he’s definitely a filmmaker now

From an NPT angle, this is the second year in a row that the NPT Human Spirit Award Winner has gone on to win the Audience Award. Last year, The Clinton 12, picked up both.

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