In a new Dialogue interview that premieres Friday, Dec. 13, at 8 p.m., host host Marcia Franklin interviews Michael Ames, the co-author of American Cipher: Bowe Bergdahl and the U.S. Tragedy in Afghanistan.
Ames, a former reporter for the Idaho Mountain Express and Sun Valley Magazine, became fascinated with the story of Bowe Bergdahl, an U.S. Army soldier who grew up in Hailey, Idaho, who was captured by the Taliban and held for five years.
Ames and co-author Matt Farwell take a deeper look into Bergdahl’s life and the politics surrounding the search for him and his eventual release. Franklin talks with Ames about his conclusions and why he felt it was important to write the book.
DecemberFest 2019, Idaho Public Television’s year-end on-air fundraising campaign, will feature a new Idaho Experience documentary on the history of Albion State Normal School and an hourlong Outdoor Idaho film that explores recent changes in the state that are affecting Idaho’s communities, public lands and wildlife.
‘Albion Normal: A Teachers College’ on ‘Idaho Experience’
When Idaho first became a state in 1890, state leaders recognized the need for teachers — lots of teachers. But it wasn’t easy to convince a qualified teacher to move to the small pioneering communities found in early Idaho. So lawmakers opened Albion State Normal School, a college for teachers. But not everyone felt Albion was the right place for a state-funded school. Thus began a 56-year battle to save the school from closure. Along the way, the college provided more than 6,000 teachers and lives on in spirit at the old campus that still exists today.
Albion Normal: A Teachers College on Idaho Experience (Dec. 8 at 5:30 PM) looks at the role Albion Normal School had on the state and how training future teachers has evolved over the years.
‘State of Change’ on ‘Outdoor Idaho’
It seems like only yesterday Idaho was the forgotten state, the one routinely confused with Iowa. But no longer. Today it seems that the state with more cattle than people is on everyone’s radar screen.
The changes in Idaho have been astounding, affecting just about everything, from cities and towns to public lands and wildlife. Yet throughout Idaho’s seven degrees of latitude, there’s a real sense of unease. Ask people who have lived here for 30 years. To them it feels like a no-turning-back kind of change.
“It’s certainly the most complicated and far-reaching show we’ve ever attempted, by turns thought-provoking, disquieting and optimistic,” says executive producer Bruce Reichert.
The Outdoor Idaho crew examines some of those changes — as well as some reasons for optimism — in the nation’s 43rd state … a State of Change (Dec. 8 at 7 PM).
DecemberFest (Dec. 6-8) is Idaho Public Television’s three-day year-end fundraising campaign. Approximately 74 percent of IdahoPTV’s operating budget comes from private contributions from individuals, corporations and foundations, and through initiatives such as DecemberFest.Viewers can pledge their support during DecemberFest by phone at (800) 980-4788 or online at idahoptv.org.
December 7, 1941, “a date which will live in infamy,” also marked the beginning of an era in U.S. history that deeply affected Japanese-Americans. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor in Hawaii by Imperial Japanese aircraft, President Franklin Roosevelt issued an executive order that resulted in the forced relocation of all persons of Japanese ancestry from the Pacific Coast.
Almost 120,000 people, 60 percent of whom were American citizens, were sent to 10 camps around the country, including the Minidoka War Relocation Center in south-central Idaho. One of those incarcerated was Minoru Yasui, an attorney who had intentionally violated a curfew order in Portland, Oregon, and had been found guilty. His case went all the up to the United States Supreme Court, which upheld his conviction.
In a new Dialogue interview that premieres Friday, Dec. 6, at 8 p.m., host Marcia Franklin talks with Holly Yasui, Minoru’s daughter, who has produced a documentary about her father’s life called “Never Give Up! Minoru Yasui and the Fight for Justice.”
Idaho Public Television will air Yasui’s documentary on Monday, Dec. 9, at 9 p.m.
In the conversation, Yasui talks about why she wanted to make the film about her father and reflects on why she thinks the documentary is particularly relevant today. Yasui and Franklin also discuss why many in the Japanese-American community believe the internment facilities should be called “concentration camps.”In 1983, a federal court vacated Minoru Yasui’s conviction, and in 2015, President Barack Obama posthumously awarded Yasui the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the country’s highest civilian honor.
Here are the new programs that will premiere this year during DecemberFest:
FRIDAY, DEC. 6
8:00 PM: Dialogue features Holly Yasui, the filmmaker behind Never Give Up! Minoru Yasui and the Fight for Justice (which airs Monday, Dec. 9, at 9 PM). The documentary chronicles Yasui’s father’s challenge to the internment of Japanese American citizens during World War II.
8:30/7:30 PM (Mountain/Pacific) on the PLUS Channel: Carol Burnett – A Celebration is a 50th-anniversary tribute to the career of a comic genius, filled with pure nostalgia, great clips and memories from iconic stars. (Repeats at 12:30 AM/11:30 PM)
9:00 PM: Waylon Jennings – The Outlaw Performance captures a never-before-broadcast concert in Nashville, recorded in 1978 at the pinnacle of the “outlaw country” movement.
10:30 PM: Prince – Rave Un2 the Year 2000, recorded at the musician’s Paisley Park Studios in Minnesota, captures Prince’s legendary talent and showmanship at a dazzling performance filmed on the cusp of the new millennium.
SATURDAY, DEC. 7
Noon: America’s Test Kitchen 20th Anniversary Special features cast members including Bridget Lancaster, Julia Collin Davison, Jack Bishop and Adam Ried counting down the series’ 20 most popular recipes (as voted by viewers) and looking back on moments from the show’s two decades on air.
1:00 PM:This Old House 40th Anniversary Special joins hosts and cast members to celebrate 40 years of groundbreaking home improvement. Vintage clips, behind-the-scenes stories and favorite moments from the series that inspired an entire genre of TV programming are also featured.
4:00 PM: Ken Burns: Country Music goes behind the scenes of the 16-hour documentary series devoted to the history of this truly American art form. Features interviews with Rosanne Cash, along with Ken Burns and other members of the filmmaking team.
6:30 PM: Classic Christmas – My Music is a festive celebration of favorite carols and popular holiday standards performed by Bing Crosby, Perry Como, Judy Garland, Nat King Cole, The Carpenters and many others.
10 PM: John Fogerty: My 50 Year Trip showcases many of the songwriter’s best-known hits, inspired by the 50th anniversary of his Woodstock performance as the lead singer of Creedence Clearwater Revival.
SUNDAY, DEC. 8
3:00 PM: Aretha Franklin Remembered – My Music celebrates the legendary Queen of Soul and the first woman inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame with her greatest hits from television appearances spanning the 1960s-2000s, many of which have never been seen in the U.S.
5:30 PM: Albion Normal: A Teachers College on Idaho Experience tells the story of Idaho’s original school for training grade-school teachers to serve the state’s growing population and remote communities.
7:00 PM: State of Change on Outdoor Idaho explores the astounding changes that are affecting Idaho’s communities, public lands and wildlife — and finds reasons for optimism among the unease.
8:30 PM: An Intimate Evening With David Foster on Great Performances features the musician and songwriter in a concert that features guest artists Loren Allred, Pia Toscano, Fernando Varela, Sheléa, Katharine McPhee and others.
10:30 PM: Il Volo: Ten Years celebrates 10 years of friendship, memories and music between the international superstars. In this new concert, the trio performs in the ancient city of Matera, Italy, surrounded by the beautifully unique landscape.
In the second of a two-part interview with acclaimed author and world traveler Barry Lopez, Dialogue host Marcia Franklin continues her conversation with the National Book Award-winner about his newest book, Horizon. The memoir is both a look back at six regions of the world Lopez has written about, and a meditation on his concerns and hopes for the planet.
Lopez also talks about one of his next projects, and shares an experience that dramatically affected his life. The interview was recorded at the 2019 Sun Valley Writers’ Conference.
The author of more than 15 books of fiction and non-fiction, Lopez won the National Book Award in 1986 for Arctic Dreams. Of Wolves and Men, his seminal work on the complicated relationship between humans and wolves, was a finalist for the National Book Award in 1980.
Part two of the interview airs Friday, November 29, at 8 PM on Dialogue. The first part of the conversation aired on November 22. Both programs can be streamed here. All of Franklin’s interviews conducted at the Sun Valley Writers’ Conference since 2005 can be streamed here.
On Friday, November 22, WorldFest-Houston International Film Festival Executive Director Hunter Todd and Artistic Director Kathleen Haney presented a Special Jury Award for Outstanding Creative Excellence to Idaho Public Television for winning more Remi Awards for Creative Excellence than any other production company or television network in the 52 year history of the film festival.
WorldFest is the largest film and video competition in the world in terms of number of actual category entries, with more than 4,500 category entries received in 2019. There are 200 sub-categories for competition, allowing each film to compete in its own individual genre. WorldFest is also the film festival with the longest continuous management in the world with executive director Todd at the helm for 53 consecutive years. WorldFest began in August 1961 as an international film society, screening independent, foreign and art films.
“Idaho Public Television has consistently entered brilliant documentary and news programs in our international television competition over the past 25 years, and subsequently been awarded more Awards for Creative Excellence than any television network, production company or television producer group in the world!” Todd says. “IdahoPTV has produced programs dealing with all aspects of Idaho, its people, the countryside, its culture and way of life, the great natural beauty of the state, and the many unique people and places.”
Haney says, “Idaho Public Television has captured the very heart and soul of the great state of Idaho, its people and its beauty over the past several decades!”
The Board of Directors of WorldFest presented this Remi Special Jury Award for Creative Excellence to Idaho Public Television in the form of the Gold Remi Statuette, the symbol of the very best in production values in television, cable and the web. This marks the first time in the 53-year WorldFest history that such a Special Award has been made, representing more than 100 Remi Awards presented to Idaho Public Television over the past three decades.
Ron Pisaneschi, IdahoPTV general manager, says he is honored to accept this incredible award on behalf of his entire staff. “We display our awards from WorldFest on the walls of our Boise station because we are proud that such an important festival recognizes our efforts. This Special Jury Award was a complete surprise. We are thrilled that Chairman Hunter Todd and Artistic Director Kathleen Haney came all the way to Boise to present it.”
The Remi Award is named after Frederic Remington, the brilliant and creative artist who captured the spirit of Texas and the West with his exceptional paintings and sculptures.
In the
first of a two-part interview with acclaimed author Barry Lopez, Dialogue
host Marcia Franklin talks with the National Book Award-winner about his newest
book, “Horizon.” The sprawling memoir is both a look back at six regions of the
world Lopez has written about, and a meditation on his concerns and hopes for
the planet.
Lopez,
the author of more than 15 books of fiction and non-fiction, won the National
Book Award in 1986 for “Arctic Dreams.”
“Of
Wolves and Men,” his seminal work on the complicated relationship between
humans and wolves, was a finalist for the National Book Award in 1980.
Franklin
talks with Lopez about his philosophy of writing, why he wanted to write
“Horizon,” and his thoughts on global travel in an era of concern about climate
change.
Part one of the interview airs Friday, November 22, at 8 PM on Dialogue. The second part of Franklin’s interview with Lopez will air next Friday, November 29.
The conversation was recorded at the 2019 Sun Valley Writers’ Conference. Franklin’s interviews conducted at that event since 2005 can be streamed here.
