America Dreams Deferred (Episode #114)

KQED World: Sun, Feb 24, 2013 -- 3:00 AM

A young Latino man, William Caballero, juggles unconditional family love with the challenges of breaking the cycle that has kept so many relatives from reaching their dreams. Set against a backdrop of Coney Island and Fayetteville, North Carolina, an NYU graduate student turns the camera on his Puerto Rican-American family plagued by social, medical and public health issues. US health care and culture is examined through this young man's lens, which also explores both his and family's dreams. Many immigrants in the US aspire to achieve the American dream and this Latino family comprised of immigrants to second-generation Americans is no different. As subjective as the barometer of reaching this goal is, the film begs the ultimate question: who attains their American dream?

Brother Outsider: The Life of Bayard Rustin (Episode #118)

KQED World: Sat, Feb 23, 2013 -- 4:30 PM

During his 60-year career as an activist, organizer and "troublemaker, " Bayard Rustin formulated many of the strategies that propelled the American civil rights movement. His passionate belief in Gandhi' s philosophy of nonviolence drew Martin Luther King Jr. and other leaders to him in the 1940's and 50's; his practice of those beliefs drew the attention of the FBI and police. But his open homosexuality forced him to remain in the background, marking him again and again as a "brother outsider." Brother Outsider combines rare archival footage - some of it never before broadcast in the U.S. - with provocative interviews to illuminate the life and work of a forgotten prophet of social change.

51 Birch Street (Episode #120)

KQED World: Sun, Feb 17, 2013 -- 3:00 AM

Documentary filmmaker Doug Block had every reason to believe his parent's 54-year marriage was a good one. So he isn't prepared when, just a few months after his mothers' unexpected death, his 83-year old father, Mike, phones to announce that he's moving to Florida to live with "Kitty", his secretary from 40 years before. Always close to his mother and equally distant from his father, he's stunned and suspicious.
When Mike and Kitty marry and sell the longtime family home, Doug returns to suburban Long Island with camera in hand for one last visit. And there, among the lifetime of memories being packed away forever, he discovers 3 large boxes filled with his moms' daily diaries going back 35 years.
Realizing he has only a few short weeks before the movers come and his dad will be gone for good, the veteran documentarian sticks around, determined to investigate the mystery of his parents' marriage. Through increasingly candid conversations with family members and friends, and constantly surprising diary revelations, Doug finally comes to peace with two parents who are far more complex and troubled than he ever imagined.
Both unexpectedly funny and heartbreaking, 51 Birch Street is the first-person account of Block's unpredictable journey through a whirlwind of dramatic life-changing events: the death of his mother, the uncovering of decades of family secrets, and the ensuing reconciliation with his father. What begins as his own intimate, autobiographical story, soon evolves into a broader meditation on the universal themes of love, marriage, fidelity and the mystery of family.
51 Birch Street spans 60 years and 3 generations, and weaves together hundreds of faded snapshots, 8mm home movies and two decades of verit?footage. The result is a timeless tale of what can happen when our most fundamental assumptions about family are suddenly called into questio"

After Happily Ever After (Episode #119)

KQED World: Sun, Feb 10, 2013 -- 3:00 AM

Brother Outsider: The Life of Bayard Rustin (Episode #118)

KQED World: Sun, Feb 3, 2013 -- 3:00 AM

During his 60-year career as an activist, organizer and "troublemaker, " Bayard Rustin formulated many of the strategies that propelled the American civil rights movement. His passionate belief in Gandhi' s philosophy of nonviolence drew Martin Luther King Jr. and other leaders to him in the 1940's and 50's; his practice of those beliefs drew the attention of the FBI and police. But his open homosexuality forced him to remain in the background, marking him again and again as a "brother outsider." Brother Outsider combines rare archival footage - some of it never before broadcast in the U.S. - with provocative interviews to illuminate the life and work of a forgotten prophet of social change.