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Premiering on Independent Lens on 17 May, Ari Luis Palos’ documentary makes a very clear argument against Arizona’s HB 2281, passed in February 2011. That argument begins with students who assert how they’ve benefitted from TUSD’s Mexican American studies program, including Crystal Terriquez, the oldest child in her household, juggling childcare and school.

— Pop Matters

Like many dramatic films, Precious Knowledge, a documentary directed by Ari Luis Palos, sets up an inevitable conflict between two forces on a collision course. On one side is a group of students and teachers at an Arizona high school who want to use education as a tool for self-awareness and empowerment. On the other, is a group of conservative lawmakers who feel their curriculum is divisive and anti-American. When they meet, metaphorical blood is shed, tears flow, and in at least one sense — despite a tragic climax — there’s a happy ending.

— Univision

American public broadcaster PBS has several major documentary programs in the pipeline for the fall, including the premiere of Ken Burns’ The Dust Bowl; Half the Sky, featuring New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof; and three-part doc series Broadway or Bust.

— Realscreen

A new video series from PBS explores the Lexicon of Sustainability—are you listening, Thomas Keller?—"breaking down terms that are used so often to describe food, they've started to sound like nothing more than marketing gimmicks, such as: "cage free," "free range," even "local," which the above video takes on. Get out your notebooks, kids, and see what the series has to say about "food miles," "urban farmer," and, of course, "locavore."

— Eater

Indonesia is home to the world’s largest Muslim population. It is also home to a transgender community known as the waria, biological men who live openly as women. Tales of the Waria follows four characters from this little-known community as they search for romance and companionship. At turns comical and heartbreaking, the film uncovers a world that not only defies our preconceptions of gender and Islam, but also reveals our endless capacity as human beings to search for love -- whatever the consequences.

— Lehigh Valley Live

Independent Lens and POV, the PBS series at the center of a dispute about public TV’s commitment to independent film, are moving to Monday nights, PBS’s highest-rated evening.

— Current

Filmmaker Bernardo Ruiz is tackling a national topic with no easy answers - the high rate of Latino high school dropouts. “My whole life has been about examining Latino stories and trying to get at complexity,” says acclaimed Mexican-American documentary maker. ”We can have a debate about the dropout rate and accomplish nothing,” says Ruiz, who was raised in Brooklyn, New York. “But political battles don’t reflect how nuanced things are. I am going to drill much deeper.”

— NBC Latino

The Mexican American Studies Program at a local high school in Tucson, Arizona helped increase the Latino graduation rate and the number of students who went to college. The recently banned program is now the subject of a new documentary, Precious Knowledge, to air next week on PBS. We speak to Eren Isabel McGinnis, the co-director of the film, and Alanna Castro, one of the students who took part in the program.

— Latino USA

t’s not everyday you hear about independent shorts that offer such a fresh take on the sci-fi genre. It turns out there have been 3 seasons of short films on multiple topics within the realm of the future and are available to watch online. Each film also has a short interview with the filmmaker and behind the scenes extras.

— Indies Unchained

“Summer Pasture is a fascinating look at a culture so different from ours that we can’t help but wonder what Locho and Yama would think if they were to see a documentary about a year in our lives with all the things we take for granted…”

— Technorati.com