Every month, the duo that puts together GBH's programming schedule offers up insights into the best programs on GBH in the coming weeks. Read on to see what Ron Bachman, Senior Director of Programming, and Devin Karambelas, Programming Manager, have to offer this month.
Independent Lens: Coded Bias
Monday, March 22 at 10pm on GBH 2
In London, police are piloting the use of facial recognition technology. Hangzhou, China is quickly becoming a model for city-wide surveillance. Artificial intelligence has already permeated every facet of public and private life — automating decisions about who gets hired, who gets health insurance, and how long a prison term should be. However, as MIT Media Lab researcher Joy Buolamwini discovers, most facial recognition does not see dark-skinned faces or women with accuracy, leading to the harrowing realization that the very algorithms intended to avoid prejudice are only as unbiased as the humans programming them. This timely film sheds light on the impact of bias in AI on civil rights and democracy around the world. —Ron
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Midsomer Murders Season 18
Monday, March 22 at 8p on GBH 44
Boasting a staggering death toll of more than 280 unfortunate victims in 18 years, the quaint county of Midsomer is not terribly high on my destination list, for all its charm. Season 18 witnesses DCI John Barnaby (Neil Dudgeon) and his partner Charlie Nelson (Gwilym Lee) return for more murder and mystery. The two policemen and new forensic pathologist Dr. Kim Karimore (Manjinder Virk) are drawn into the macabre world of body-snatching when a wealthy landowner goes missing. They also investigate a positively extraterrestrial subject, find themselves in the cutthroat realm of competitive cycling and discover a sculpture park opening marred by murder — just another day in Midsomer! —Devin
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American Masters: Flannery
Tuesday, March 23 at 8pm on GBH 2
Winner of the inaugural Library of Congress/Lavine/Ken Burns Prize for Film, this new documentary is a lyrical, intimate exploration of the life and work of writer Flannery O’Connor, whose distinctive Southern Gothic style — sharply aware and starkly redemptive — influenced a generation of artists and activists. Including conversations with those who knew her and were inspired by her (Mary Karr, Tommy Lee Jones, Hilton Als and more), Flannery employs never-before-seen archival footage, newly discovered personal letters and her own published words (read by Mary Steenburgen) alongside original animation and music to examine the life and legacy of an American literary icon. A good man may be hard to find (as one of her best-known stories has it), but you need look no further than this film to discover a gifted woman. —Ron
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The X Factor: Women in New England Politics
Thursday, March 25 at 9p on GBH 2
This original Rhode Island PBS documentary spotlights several trailblazing female politicians in New England, centered on the 2020 re-election campaign of first-term Rhode Island Representative Justine Caldwell. Caldwell’s story intersects with current and former politicians, including Rhode Island’s first female governor Gina Raimondo (now serving as U.S. Secretary of Commerce), former Rhode Island Attorney General Arlene Violet, New Hampshire U.S. Senator and former governor Jeanne Shaheen and former Vermont governor Madeleine Kunin. While there is still work to be done, New England beats national averages when it comes to female representation in state legislatures. Celebrate the past, present and future of women in politics with this excellent local doc. —Devin
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America ReFramed: The Place That Makes Us
Tuesday, March 30 at 8pm on GBH WORLD
When the steel mills shut down in Youngstown, Ohio decades ago, it shattered a way of life. Over half the population left. Thousands of empty blighted homes were left behind, eroding the social fabric of this once mighty industrial base. Persistent joblessness, crime and poverty plague the city. Filmed over the course of three years, this documentary is an intimate and inspiring portrait of a quintessential post-industrial American city, seen through the eyes of a new generation of residents who have chosen not to abandon their hometown, as so many have, but to stay, rebuild and make a life for themselves. —Ron
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American Experience: The Blinding of Isaac Woodard
Tuesday, March 30 at 9p on GBH 2
On February 12, 1946, 27-year-old Isaac Woodard boarded a Greyhound Bus headed toward Winnsboro, South Carolina. Woodard, a Black army sergeant, was on his way home after serving in World War II. Following a heated exchange with the bus driver, local police took Woodard in and savagely beat him, leaving him unconscious and permanently blind. This shocking incident is the subject of American Experience’s latest documentary, The Blinding of Isaac Woodard, and took on an air of uncanny repetition when the production team was filming during the height of the George Floyd protests. Just as remarkable as the 1946 incident of racial violence is its legacy: the prosecution of white law enforcement (nearly unprecedented, at the time), the racial awakening of President Harry Truman and how it even set the stage for the Supreme Court’s landmark 1954 decision in Brown v. Board of Education. —Devin
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