KCET presents two documentaries commemorating Asian Pacific Heritage Month

CHINESE COUPLETS (left) and PACIFIC HEARTBEAT “Splinters” (photos courtesy of KCET)

To commemorate Asian Pacific American Heritage Month for Southern California viewers, the following documentary programs will debut on KCET during the month of May:

CHINESE COUPLETS
Premieres Thur., May 5 at 10 p.m. PT
CHINESE COUPLETS is an intimate family story that reveals the impact of America's Chinese Exclusion Acts on one family, over two centuries, in three countries, on four generations of women. Part memoir, part history, part investigation, the filmmaker’s search for answers about her mother’s emigration to America during the Chinese Exclusion era reveals the often painful price paid by immigrants who abandoned their personal identity, the burden of silence they passed on to their offspring and the intergenerational strife between immigrants and their American born children.

PACIFIC HEARTBEAT “Splinters”
Premieres Fri., May 6 at 9 p.m. PT
In the 1980's, an intrepid Australian pilot left behind a surfboard in the seaside village of Vanimo, Papua, New Guinea. Twenty years later, surfing is not only a pillar of village life, but it's also a means to prestige. Vanimo is known as a surfing destination and has a reputation of having the most consistent waves in Papua New Guinea. This story unfolds in the months leading up to the first National Surf Championships and explores the hopes and dreams of the surfers, and how surfing has led to societal changes in a male dominated culture.