Earth Days
Monday, April 19 at 9:00 p.m. on WPBT2
In “Earth Days,” acclaimed director Robert Stone (“Oswald’s Ghost,” “Guerrilla: The Taking of Patty Hearst”) traces the origins of the modern environmental movement through the eyes of nine Americans who propelled the movement from its beginnings in the 1950s to its moment of triumph in 1970 with the original Earth Day and to its status as a major political force in America. Drawing heavily on eyewitness testimony and a wealth of never-before-seen archival footage, Stone examines the revolutionary achievements — and missed opportunities — of a decade of groundbreaking activism. The result is both a poetic meditation on man’s complex relationship with nature and a probing analysis of past responses to environmental crisis.

“Earth Days” interviewees represent a diverse cross-section of American life and politics. Among them are former Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall, renewable energy pioneer Hunter Lovins, biologist Paul Ehrlich, former Republican congressman Pete McCloskey, Earth Day organizer Denis Hayes and Apollo Nine astronaut Rusty Schweickart. They each reflect on their personal awakening to an environmental crisis and the unprecedented movement that grew out of their response to that crisis.

My Lai
Monday, April 26 at 9:00 p.m. on WPBT2
What drove a company of American soldiers -- ordinary young men from around the country -- to commit the worst atrocity in American military history? Were they “just following orders” as some later declared? Or, did they break under the pressure of a vicious war in which the line between enemy soldier and civilian had been intentionally blurred? Today, as the United States once again finds itself questioning the morality of actions taken in the name of war, director Barak Goodman focuses his lens on the 1968 My Lai massacre, its subsequent cover-up, and the heroic efforts of the soldiers who broke ranks to try to halt the atrocities, and then bring them to light. 

On March 16, 1968, a company of American soldiers entered the village of My Lai, located in Quang Ngai Province in central Vietnam. Frustrated by their inability to directly engage the enemy and emotionally devastated by the ongoing casualties their unit had sustained, the men had been told that this was their chance to finally meet the Viet Cong head on. By the end of the day, they had shot and killed 507 unarmed and unresisting men, women and children, none of them apparently members of the enemy forces. Most of the survivors hid under the dead bodies of their families and neighbors.  The incident, subsequently known as the My Lai Massacre, would only come to light more than a year later, when shocking photos of the atrocities were splashed across the pages of national newsmagazines and the evening newscasts, further eroding public support for the war in Vietnam. 

Visit the website at www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/.