For Immediate Release
Contact: Jan Thompson, Writer/Producer, (618) 453-7340, janione@siu.edu
Additional program details and photos online at: www3.wsiu.org/pressroom/bataan
(Carbondale, Ill.) -- WSIU Public Television, a public media arm of Southern Illinois University (SIU) Carbondale, will broadcast an encore presentation of the locally-produced TV documentary, The Tragedy of Bataan,on Monday, April 9 at 9:30pm on its primary HD channels, WSIU-TV 8.1 and WUSI-TV 16.1. The program will repeat on WSIU WORLD, WSIU-TV 8.2 and WUSI-TV 16.2, on Monday, April 9 at 7:30pm and again on Wednesday, April 11 at 6pm.
Narrated by actor Alec Baldwin and written and produced by Jan Thompson, an associate professor in Radio-Television at SIU Carbondale, The Tragedy of Bataan is a 30-minute public television documentary that chronicles the fall of the Philippines and the Bataan Death March in the early months of World War II. The documentary was distributed nationwide in November 2011 by the National Educational Telecommunications Association and as of December 2011, the program had aired 165 times on 97 PBS stations around the country.
The Tragedy of Bataanfeatures first-person accounts by over 20 survivors of the conflict, archival photos, and never-before-seen Japanese propaganda film footage. It also includes excerpts from the unpublished diary of the late Captain Albert Brown of Pinckneyville, Illinois, who describes the five months leading up to the surrender of U.S. troops and Filipino defenders to the Imperial Japanese Army. Brown passed away in August 2011, just two months shy of his 106th birthday. He was the oldest survivor of the Bataan Death March.
WSIU-TV also will rebroadcast a Fall 2011 interview with Thompson and Peggy Doughty, the daughter of Captain Albert Brown, as part of the weekly series WSIU InFocus. The episode will air on Friday, April 6 at 7:30pm on WSIU's primary HD channels, with repeats on April 8 at 12:30pm and April 13 at 5pm. Additional rebroadcasts of the WSIU InFocus special will air on WSIU WORLD on Saturday, April 7 at 4pm, with repeats on April 8 at 9pm and April 9 at 7pm and 8pm. WSIU's Jak Tichenor conducted the interview.
The Tragedy of Bataanalso includes a five-part companion public radio series of the same name. Learn more about the documentary series online at www.tragedyofbataan.com.
About WSIU Public Broadcasting
WSIU Public Broadcasting is licensed to the Board of Trustees of Southern Illinois University and is an integral part of the College of Mass Communication & Media Arts on the Carbondale campus. The stations reach more than three million people across five states and beyond through three digital PBS channels, three NPR stations, a radio information service, a website, and an education and community outreach department.
WSIU's mission is to improve the quality of life of the people they serve. The WSIU stations partner with other community organizations to promote positive change and to support the academic and public service missions of Southern Illinois University Carbondale.
Learn more and get the latest station news online at wsiu.org and on WSIU's Facebook and Twitter pages. WSIU's programs and services are partially funded by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency.
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