'Boomtown' continues another ambitious season of 'P.O.V.'

Public television's summer documentary showcase, "P.O.V.," inaugurated its 15th season last week. The films, most of which run about an hour, are seen in Kansas City at 10 p.m. Sundays on KCPT, Channel 19. Topeka's KTWU airs the "P.O.V." films five days earlier, at 9 p.m. Tuesdays. Here are the films for the rest of the season, with their KCPT air dates: "Boomtown" (tonight): This story about Native American sovereignty profiles the Suquamish Nation near Seattle, which thrives off the sale and detonation of fireworks that are illegal off the reservation. "Hybrid" (July 14): A very odd film, featuring crude black-and-white animation, about the life of Milford Beeghly, a forward-looking Iowa farmer who championed hybrid corn at a time when it was highly controversial. His grandson, Monteith McCollum, made the film. "Refrigerator Mothers" (July 21): In the 1950s the medical establishment believed that children whose mothers were emotionally cold were likely to be autistic. This film explores the legacy of that myth on a generation of guilt-ridden women. "Fenceline: A Company Town Divided" (July 28): One small town, one large oil company, two racially separate neighborhoods - one white, one black - and their very different responses to charges that the oil company has been polluting the area. "Sweet Old Song" (Aug. 4): A 91-year-old fiddle player (no, not Claude Williams), the 60-year-old love of his life, and their contrarian approach to growing older. "Mai's America" (Aug. 11): A Vietnamese girl immigrates to America, winds up in rural Mississippi and wonders if this is as good as it gets in the land of opportunity. "My American Girls: A Dominican Story" (pledge week, air date TBA): One year in the topsy-turvy life of the Ortiz family, newly immigrated here from the Dominican Republic. "Senorita Extraviada" (Aug. 25): This unsparing account of the disappearance of more than 200 young women and girls from the border town of Juarez, Mexico, has been riveting film festival audiences all year (including Kansas City's). Filmmaker Lourdes Portillo, aided by some very brave locals, exposes the official corruption that has kept these horrifying serial crimes from greater scrutiny. "Escuela" (TBA): This sequel to a previous "P.O.V." film, "La Boda (The Wedding)," reunites us with the Luis family, Mexican-Americans who toil in the migrant labor fields and dream of a better life. During the 2002-03 season "P.O.V." will present three more films, including the acclaimed "Two Towns of Jasper," about the 1998 dragging death of James Byrd Jr., and "Brother Outsider: The Life of Bayard Rustin," a biography of the oft-overlooked luminary of the civil rights movement. Broadcast dates for these films have not been scheduled. "P.O.V." is broadcast at 10 p.m. Sundays on KCPT, Channel 19, and at 9 p.m. Tuesdays on KTWU in Topeka.