The Truth About Corn

For those of you who don’t know, Detroit Public Television has been hosting Community Cinema Screenings which are free screenings of Documentaries that are part of the documentary series Independent Lens. Our screening on March 29th at the Detroit Film Center is the documentary King Corn. Some of you may have heard of this film from Diane Sawyer’s interview with the film’s creators on Good Morning America.

CLICK TO WATCH INTERVIEW

I got a chance to preview this film and some of the information in it was very new to me and very surprising. Some of the research links the obesity epidemic in the United States to the increase in the production of corn. After being processed corn shows up in a lot of our foods and other products that people use on a daily basis and don’t even realize it. The film really captures how detached people are from knowing where the food they eat comes from and how it is made. For a film essentially about corn I found it very interesting and I encourage all of you to come out to our free screening followed by an open discussion presented at the Detroit Film Center in Eastern Market. Space is limited so reserve your spot soon.

Toni Cozad
TV Promotion Manager

Animal Adventures in Space

The popular PBS kids show The Zula Patrol is coming to the big screen. “The Zula Patrol: Animal Adventures in Space!” rockets into select movie theatres one day only on Saturday, March 29th at 10:00am (local time). Check the list below for a theatre in your area:
MI Canton Cinema 43555 Ford Rd. Canton
MI Quality 16 3686 Jackson Rd. Ann Arbor
MI Ann Arbor Showcase Cinemas 4100 Carpenter Rd. Ypsilanti
MI Commerce Township Stadium 14 3033 Springvale Dr. Walled Lake
MI Saginaw 8 / Quad 3250 Kabobel Saginaw
MI Flint West Showcase Cinemas 1591 S. Graham Rd. Flint Township
MI Kalamazoo 10 820 Maple Hill Dr. Kalamazoo
MI Grand Rapids - Celebration! North 2121 Celebration Dr. NE Grand Rapids
MI Jackson 10 1501 North Wisner Jackson
MI Lansing Mall Cinema 921 Mall Dr. W Lansing
MI Cadillac 5 202 South Mitchell Cadillac

At this special event, you’ll enjoy five never-before-seen episodes of The Zula Patrol and have the opportunity to sing-a-long with your favorite characters.

Follow The Zula Patrollers on their ecological adventures as they search for missing frog eggs, help restore life in the canyon on Zula, solve the mystery of the missing honey, and tunnel through dirt with their new worm boot camp comrades to save their little ecosystem. And don’t be surprised if you discover a little something about the importance of plants and animals in our environment!

Don't miss The Zula Patrol on Detroit Public Television Mondays at 5pm and Sundays at 9:30am.

The oddest thing...

The oddest thing happened in the Detroit Public TV booth at the Michigan Golf Show at the Rock Financial Showplace on Friday. I was there to let thousands of eager golfers know about our HOW TO BEAT THE BOGEY MAN broadcast that night. I collected hundreds of entry forms for a giveaway of an 8-disc set of Travis Fox "Beat the Bogey Man" videos. (Congratulations, Jim from Westland.)

Now, here's the odd part. In this wonderland of golf attractions, it seemed that most who approached our booth wanted to talk more about what's on WTVS rather than what happens on the course. Fortunately, I could usually tell visitors what they wanted to hear. Yep. There's a CELTIC WOMAN broadcast this weekend. Nope. You don't necessarily need to buy a new TV before all stations switch to digital next February…here's how you get a coupon for a converter box.

Then there was this gentleman who wanted just one thing - to tell me how much he appreciates the programs on Detroit Public TV and to make a donation right then and there. Is that two things? Not in our mind, because we often say "Thanks for watching and supporting Detroit Public Television." I gratefully accepted a cash donation on behalf of the station, and began telling him about various membership perks. I soon got a clue that he had already received all that he came for…a chance to contribute. We shook hands. I told him I'd respect his desire to remain an anonymous donor. I invited him to stop by for a tour of our Riley Broadcast Center, and it would be a nice, but unexpected, surprise if he takes me up on my offer.

I'm hoping thousands more viewers will take this gentleman's lead and contribute during our March Membership drive. While we appreciate all the special reasons for supporting Detroit Public TV, there are some that really hit the sweet spot.

Moon Shadows

Did you see the lunar eclipse last night? It’s great when nature brings you that kind of limited engagement. I wouldn’t have even known about it except that it was featured on Yahoo yesterday. Seeing that article every time I went online during the day helped me remember to look to the sky beginning at around 9 p.m. Wednesday.

Last night I had my son Jesse and my nephews Hunter and Clay on the backyard rink and occasionally I’d stop the hockey game and insist that everybody look upward. It was pretty cool -- especially when it was fully in shadow, glowing red. From the ice I called my wife Wendy on my cell phone and insisted she come out and view it with us and I even called Kelley Hamilton, who’s a bit of a moon child, to remind her to step outside and take a look. Busier than most with her four-month-old, she said she appreciated the reminder. And I appreciated the reminder too. The one I got from

The one I also got from and . Now the internet is at once, a blessing and a curse. I love the instant communication. The downside of it is there’s just so much information it’s overwhelming. The web is not a place for those who are easily distracted, and I am one. But in this case, it was a tickler for us to do something outside the virtual world.

And I guess that’s the best possible use for the technology; to maximize our time with the planet and with each other. To use these tools to accomplish our tasks and still have enough time and energy to do the things that we really require; time spent together in a common experience. And as we stood there staring up at the moon in full eclipse I realized the real limited engagement was the one I was having with Jesse, Hunter and Clay on the ice in my backyard. If that sounds a little overly sentimental, you’ll forgive me; I need all the help I can get. I play hockey with a cell phone in my pocket.

Fred Nahhat

DPTV Director of On-Air & Online Fundraising
fred@dptv.org