WORTH NOTING ON TV
* WEDNESDAY
The American Experience (PBS, 9-10 p.m.): Names like Spike Lee no doubt ring a bell with many fans, but how about Oscar Micheaux? He was among the most prolific of the filmmakers considered in ``Midnight Ramble,'' an overlooked group of black directors who produced some 500 films for African-Americans between 1910 and World War II.
Called ``race movies'' in those days, these productions - created by both blacks and whites - were partly a response to the degrading images of blacks often found in mainstream movies of the times. The program explores the theatrical and sociological roots of the industry, from its heyday - when about 300 theaters showed these films - to its gradual demise as integration in movie houses began to occur.
From Fury to Forgiveness (The Discovery Channel, 10-11 p.m.): Some victims of violent crime have found compassion in the middle of their outrage and tragedy. In fact, they have become advocates for the people who attacked them or killed their loved ones. This program tells the story of three of them.
Marietta Jaeger's seven-year-old daughter disappeared 21 years ago and has not been seen since. Her abductor - whose record is said to have inspired the film ``Silence of the Lambs'' - phoned Jaeger to taunt her. As Jaeger explains on the show, at that moment she realized that she was ``really desperate to reach him and help him,'' and from there her compassion grew.
Bill Pelk helped get the sentence commuted for a girl involved in the savage murder of his grandmother. He says the process allowed him to see his grandmother not ``as a woman who was butchered ... but [as] what she stood for.''
SueZann Bosler and her father were stabbed in their home, and her father died. She survived, overcame feelings of revenge, helped get the offender's death sentence commuted, and began working with prison inmates.
When these three decided not to become victims of hatred, as one of them put it, the change in attitude transformed their lives.
Please check local listings for these programs.
