May is AANHPI Heritage Month! Join us as we celebrate the impact that Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders have made on this country’s past, present, and future. Below we’ve gathered a list of educational and enlightening programs that offer a glimpse of the diverse achievements, history, culture, traditions, and stories of the AANHPI community airing on PBS KVIE, available to stream for free on the PBS app, or available to stream with PBS KVIE Passport. Discover, reflect, learn, and celebrate AANHPI Heritage Month not only during the month of May, but all year long!
Programs Airing on PBS KVIE
ViewFinder: Chinese Builders of Gold Mountain
May 6 at 7PM
Celebrate the hard work, courage, and determination of the Chinese pioneers who helped build California. Visit historic Chinese temples, Gold Rush sites, and the levees the Chinese built in this episode of ViewFinder.
Atomic People
May 12 at 9PM
Combining their personal accounts with archive footage, this film features a number of voices from some of the only people left on Earth to have survived a nuclear bomb.
ViewFinder: Vanishing Chinatown
May 13 at 7PM
Discover the story of San Francisco’s changing Chinatown through the story of a family photo studio and the photo archive they left behind.
A Life Reimagined: The George Masa Story
Premieres on May 18 at 10PM
Working backward through filmmaker Paul Bonesteel’s decades-long fascination, unravel the mysterious life of George Masa, a Japanese immigrant whose extraordinary photographs helped define the identity of the Great Smoky Mountains. Joined by a devoted circle of historians, naturalists and artists, Bonesteel traces Masa’s journey from a small village in Japan to the rugged peaks of North Carolina.
Finding Your Roots: Stranger Than Fiction
May 19 at 8PM
Follow this episode of Finding Your Roots as Henry Louis Gates, Jr. maps the roots of two award-winning writers: novelist Amy Tan and poet Rita Dove, tracing lineages that run from a plantation in Maryland to a speakeasy in Washington, DC to a village in central China. Along the way, Amy and Rita reimagine themselves as they learn the true stories of the people who laid the groundwork for their success — and inspired their art.
ViewFinder: Return to the Soil
Premieres May 27 at 7PM
At the start of World War II, thousands of Japanese American families were forced to abandon their homes, farms, and businesses and were placed in incarceration camps across the U.S. This film explores the profound impact on farm families and discovers how subsequent generations survived and thrived.
Programs Available to Stream on the PBS app
Independent Lens: Light of the Setting Sun
Premieres May 18
After a family crisis, filmmaker Vicky Du uncovers the mental illness passed down through four generations of her Chinese family. From Taiwan to New Jersey, Light of the Setting Sun reveals how revolution, migration, and trauma shape identity and asks whether the past must define the future.
Independent Lens: Third Act
Premieres May 18
Filmmaker Tadashi Nakamura chronicles his father Robert A. Nakamura’s life — from WWII incarceration to becoming a pioneer of Asian American cinema. As Parkinson’s and political unrest open old wounds, father and son confront art, memory, and legacy.
Pacific Heartbeat, Seasons 11 & 12
Pacific Heartbeat is a national public television series of critically acclaimed documentaries that provides an authentic glimpse into the Pacific Islander experience. Creative and beautifully told stories about arts, culture, and human connection, the series features a diverse array of programs intended to draw viewers into the heart and soul of Pacific Island culture.
Programs Available to Stream on the PBS app with PBS KVIE Passport
PBS KVIE Passport is a benefit of station membership. Members gain extended access to more videos available to stream on the PBS App.
American Masters: Nam June Paik: Moon Is the Oldest TV
See the world through the eyes of Nam June Paik, the father of video art and coiner of the term “electronic superhighway.” Born in Japan-occupied Korea, Paik went on to become a pillar of the American avant-garde and transformed modern image-making with his sculptures, films, and performances. Experience his creative evolution, as Academy Award nominee Steven Yeun reads from Paik’s own writings.
American Masters: Ten Times Better
Peer into the astonishing and heartwarming story of George Lee, a pioneering Asian dancer who originated a featured role in George Balanchine’s “The Nutcracker” 70 years ago as a teenage immigrant from China.
Great Performances: Yellow Face
Enjoy Tony winner David Henry Hwang’s comedy starring Daniel Dae Kim as an Asian American playwright who protests “yellowface” casting in the musical “Miss Saigon” only to mistakenly cast a white actor as the Asian lead in his own play.