DECEMBER 2023 PROGRAM HIGHLIGHT
Peralta TV can be seen on
Channel 27: Alameda, Berkeley
Channel 28: Emeryville, Piedmont, Oakland
AT&T U-Verse Channel 99
FREE: THE POWER OF PERFORMANCE
12/06 (Wed) @ 2:30pm
12/25 (Mon) @ 7:30pm
12/30 (Sat) @ 8:30pm
A film by Suzanne LaFetra & David Collier
In a city infamous for crime and high dropout rates, the Destiny Arts Center in Oakland, California, provides a safe place for teens to share their stories, build community, and express themselves through dance. Each year, 20 diverse students are accepted into the Destiny Arts Youth Performance Company, where they spend months creating a performance based on their dynamic lives.
Under the thoughtful guidance of Destiny's artistic director, Sarah Crowell, each journey reveals how collaborative art can serve as a foundation for personal discovery, growth, resilience, and hope. Capturing the powerful grace of a performing arts company for at-risk youth, FREE: THE POWER OF PERFORMANCE journeys behind the curtain to spotlight the intimate stories of five particular inner-city teenagers whose lives are transformed by the power of collaborative dance.
THE WORLD'S MOST SCENIC RAILWAY JOURNEYS
Rolling past snow-capped peaks, fairy-tale castles, and breathtaking natural wonders, THE WORLD’S MOST SCENIC RAILWAY JOURNEYS is an unforgettable ride through some of the most spectacular landscapes on Earth. From Italy, Switzerland, and Finland, to the Scottish Highlands, it’s a breathtaking adventure. Along the way, meet the engineers who keep these trains running and the many characters who work, travel, and live along these exotic and far-flung routes. And while an airplane is certainly the quickest route to any destination, nothing compares to an epic train expedition where it’s always the journey that counts.
LIGURIA
12/07 (Thur) @ 1pm
12/12 (Tue) @ 8am
Set in the north-western Italian province of Liguria, this episode couples a journey along the Mediterranean’s spectacular stretch of coastline with a trip into the Apennine mountains aboard a vintage train time capsule. 
SWITZERLAND
12/14 (Thur) @ 1pm
12/19 (Tue) @ 8am
The journey starts in Tirano in northern Italy and starts climbing up through the Italian Alps and the great lakes of Italy on its way to the roof of Europe, Zermatt, the gateway to the magnificent Matterhorn.
FINLAND
12/21 (Thur) @ 1pm
12/26 (Tue) @ 8am
Here we go on an extraordinary 600-mile journey through Finland. From Helsinki to the Arctic Circle, even at -30° our railway runs smoothly past the thickest of forests, stopping at stations frozen in time. Visit ice castles and even Santa Claus himself!
SCOTLAND
12/28 (Thur) @ 1pm
1/02 (Tue) @ 8am
We’ll travel through the Scottish Highlands from Inverness to Edinburgh through the majestic Cairngorm National Park, landscapes steeped in heroic history and valleys rich in folklore before arriving in Scotland’s capital, Edinburgh.
THE SCIENCE OF COOKING
Humankind has been creating countless ways of cooking food for as long as we can remember. Cooking is the product of human efforts to obtain energy from nature. And within those efforts lies the essence of wisdom achieved by humankind. From a new perspective, this documentary series takes a look at the world of cooking which is a series of endless accidents, adventures, and unexpected connections.
EPISODE 1: HEAT
12/13 (Wed) @ 6pm
12/16 (Sat) @ 9am
12/19 (Tue) @ 2:30pm
A major part of cooking involves delivering heat energy to natural things and transforming them to the state where they can be digested and absorbed. This technique does not stop at simply making food taste good. Professor Wrangham of Harvard University says the ability to produce food through heat is what helped humans evolve.
EPISODE 2: POWER
12/20 (Wed) @ 6pm
12/23 (Sat) @ 9am
12/26 (Tue) @ 2:30pm
"Power" is about how to change ingredients using physical force. In terms of preserving, texture, convenience, and nutrient intake, this revolutionary cooking method provided the foundation for cultural development.
EPISODE 3: BACTERIA
12/27 (Wed) @ 6pm
12/30 (Sat) @ 9am
1/02 (Tue) @ 2:30pm
Fermentation is an advanced cooking method of using microorganisms' life activities to cook food, and it can synthesize new components and remove toxicity from food. But because it uses microorganisms, it is a unique cooking method that causes both aversion and preference.
EPISODE 4: TASTE
1/03 (Wed) @ 6pm
1/06 (Sat) @ 9am
1/09 (Tue) @ 2:30pm
This episode covers the five taste receptors which are sweet, salty, spicy, bitter, and sour. "Why is sugar sweet?" is the wrong question. "Why does sugar taste sweet to us?" is the right question. Taste doesn't exist in things. It is something our brains create. It is a type of antenna that mankind has developed for survival. It is the ability to consume nutrients and avoid poison.
THE EPIC ADVENTURE OF A HEDGEHOG
12/15 (Fri) @ 1pm
12/17 (Sun) @ 8pm
12/27 (Wed) @ 10am
A film by Guillaume Poyet
Nature Without Borders (2021) - Best of Show
Today threatened with extinction, this small animal, more than 60 million years old, is undergoing a real rural exodus. Forced to flee its natural habitat because of our intensive farming methods, the hedgehog migrates to the green spaces of cities in search of food. Let's embark on a road-movie with a young hedgehog whose adaptability will be regularly tested. Through the adventures of our heroine, this animal tale offers us a gateway to human activities that impact the environment and transform our ecosystems.
CINEPOD - SEASONAL GIFTS
12/16 (Sat) @ 8pm
12/19 (Tue) @ 6pm
12/20 (Wed) @ 10am
12/21 (Thur) @ 5:30pm
12/24 (Sun) @ 7:30pm
CINEPOD is Berkeley-based writer and producer Roger Garcia’s unique look at the world of cinema and its inhabitants. In this episode of CINEPOD, host Roger Garcia proposes gifts for cinephiles in this coming holiday season.
In London, he finds a copy of Derek Jarman’s “Super 8” a collection of stills from Jarman’s experimental and pioneering Super 8 films of the 1970s, accompanied by essays.
In Hong Kong, Roger comes up with another book “The Last Emperor Revisited” a collection of photographs taken by Hong Kong art director and photographer Basil Pao who was a multi-hyphenate on the epic “The Last Emperor” directed by Bernardo Bertolucci and a landmark western film that helped open up the Chinese film industry in the latter half of the 20th century. Roger also finds a DVD of Hong Kong veteran filmmaker Ann Hui’s first film “The Secret” long out of circulation but now back in a restored version.
THE ENGLISH NATIONAL OPERA PRESENTS: THE BARBER OF SEVILLE
12/22 (Fri) @ 8pm
12/31 (Sun) @ 8pm
Filmed live from The London Coliseum, enjoy this superb collection of performances from the English National Opera. With a superb cast including Andrew Shore as Dr Bartolo, Kathryn Rudge as Rosina and Morgan Pearse as the barber Figaro, Rossini’s comic masterpiece fizzes with a feast of frivolous fun. The talented Christopher Allen conducts Rossini’s score.
THE ENGLISH NATIONAL OPERA PRESENTS: BENVENUTO CELLINI
12/24 (Sun) @ 8pm
1/01 (Mon) @ 6pm
Filmed live from The London Coliseum, another great performance from the English National Opera.
Monty Python legend Terry Gilliam unleashes his inexhaustible imagination on Berlizo’s dazzling opera Benvenuto Cellini. A stellar cast has been assembled, led by tenor Michael Spyres in the title role, with the stunning soprano Corinne Winters as Cellini’s lover, Teresa. With its stunning visual and musical set pieces, Berlioz’s first completed opera is based on the autobiography of the infamous and celebrated 16th-century goldsmith and sculptor Benvenuto Cellini.
THE SURPRISING WORLD OF RABBITS
12/25 (Mon) @ 6:30pm
12/29 (Fri) @ 8:30pm
1/01 (Mon) @ 10am
A film by Hervé Glabeck & Aurélie Saillard
Is there a more inoffensive creature than the rabbit? At first sight, anyway... And yet this herbivorous animal, an easy prey for all manner of predators, has developed a range of astonishing faculties to survive. Sight, hearing, speed, language, reproduction, cooperation... abilities honed and perfected over the centuries in order to adapt to the environment, and which are often more than surprising.
This film explores the rabbit's super powers, seen in a variety of unusual situations in a range of countries around the world. We shall see how the fluffy, cuddly bunny - often with a rather random life expectancy - can prove to be highly resourceful and even indomitable, if they get the opportunity... Prey or pest, weak or strong, cute or dangerous... the rabbit is all of these, and much, much more.
