Kidd Kraddick takes casual step toward small screen

After 22 years in radio, Kidd Kraddick has ventured onto the small screen.

Kraddick and the rest of the “Kidd Kraddick in the Morning” show crew join four other radio shows appearing on the new syndicated entertainment show “Dish Nation.” Airing from Dallas, Kraddick’s show can be heard locally on weekday mornings on WFMF, 102.5 FM. “Dish Nation” airs at midnight weeknights on WBRL, Channel 10.

“It’s never been in the back or the front or the side of my mind (to get into television). I didn’t get into radio to be seen, but it’s the way of the world now, you know,” Kraddick said Sept. 12 from Dallas. “We put our show on the Internet about three years ago, and once we saw that we had 10 million viewers watching it we thought, ‘Wow,’ maybe, like I wouldn’t want to go out and do a TV show like be in a sitcom or something like that, but recording the radio show and taking the best parts, I’m fine with that.”

In addition to Kraddick’s show, “Dish Nation” features radio shows airing from Los Angeles, New York, Atlanta and Detroit.

“The ‘Dish Nation’ producers do give us suggested stories to work into the show, but most of the time they’re stories we would be talking about anyway. They’re taking that footage and combining it with the other shows who are talking about those same topics and then they’re mixing them together into a montage each night,” Kraddick said.

Topics on a recent show were actress-singer Jessica Simpson’s weight and actress Amanda Bynes’ driving record. But when it comes to “dishing,” there are things that are off limits, as far as Kraddick is concerned.

“One of the stories they suggested had to do with adult films, and I said no I’m not going to talk about it on my show. We don’t want to acknowledge porn or adult movies, stuff like that. You know we keep our audience in mind. We have a lot of moms and daughters who listen to the show together and we never want to do anything to embarrass them. We try to be edgy but inside the realm of what’s acceptable in a car with a mom and daughter that are going to school,” he said.

Being part of a 22-minute montage show keeps face time for each show at a premium, Kraddick said.

“So if we get five minutes that’s a good day,” he said. “It’s been a real challenge trying to do a radio show and a TV show at the same time and I think we’re slowly figuring out how to do it.”

‘POV’ tells Parker’s story

When director Jonathan Demme set out to document the devastation and rebuilding of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina struck in 2005, he met resident Carolyn Parker and gained permission to film her progress.

What began as a historical documentary morphed into a deeply personal character study of the courage and resiliency of this fierce, opinionated matriarch and community activist. “I’m Carolyn Parker: The Good, the Mad, and the Beautiful,” shot over the course of five years, is Demme’s intimate, unvarnished chronicle of Parker’s five-year crusade to rebuild her beloved neon-green house, her church, her community — and her life.

As the levees broke and the floodwaters of Katrina barreled up the mouth of the Mississippi River, Parker’s home in the Holy Cross neighborhood was submerged and her neighbors had to be rescued from their rooftops by helicopter. Parker was pronounced dead in the local newspaper after authorities found no trace of her for weeks. It turns out she was one of the last people to leave her neighborhood under mandatory evacuation, but she survived and took refuge in the Superdome along with thousands of other newly homeless victims of the storm.

Parker gained instant recognition in January 2006 for her public rebuttal of Mayor Ray Nagin, when she railed at him and a committee of experts, promising that if they pulled down her house it would be “over my dead body.”

As the waters retreated, Parker was one of the first to move back to the Lower Ninth Ward. While she waited for the funds to reconstruct her house, she lived in a FEMA trailer for four years with her daughter, Kyrah Julian, who had returned home from Syracuse University to help. Her son, Rahsaan, joined the family from California, where he had just completed his master’s degree, and lived in the gutted shell of Parker’s home. Parker immediately began advocating for the rebuilding of her cherished St. David’s Church, the only Catholic Church that welcomed African-Americans when she was growing up.

Parker gives viewers a guided tour of her home after its destruction. She remembers moving into her home with her husband, who asked why she wanted that old, tiny house.

“Because it wants me,” she replied. “All it needs is love.” Later, when Kyrah’s father was murdered, Parker pressed on, raising her family and making sure they had a stable home. And after Katrina hit, “Everyone else was crying,” she recalls. “I didn’t cry. . . . As I got into that house . . . I realized that I had to look up and say ‘Thank you God, thank you. It’s still standing.’”

Demme and his crew made their final visit to film Parker, her son and daughter at the end of 2010.

“It was the best visit ever,” says Demme. “As we approached the house we started to hear sounds that let us know that the Parkers were finally back home.”

“I am happy,” says Parker. “I had no walls but now I have walls. . . . I know somebody heard me. Especially God in heaven. . . . I love New Orleans; I love the Lower Ninth Ward, and I’m not going anywhere.”

“I’m Carolyn Parker: The Good, the Mad, and the Beautiful” will air as an installment of PBS’ “POV” at 11:30 p.m. Sunday on WLPB, Channel 27.

‘We Shall’ follows nuns

Not even the human tragedies and loss of life nor the destruction of residential and ministry facilities caused by Hurricane Katrina could force the Catholic sisters of New Orleans to leave the city where their congregations had ministered for as long as three centuries.

Their stories are told in the hour-long documentary, “We Shall Not Be Moved: The Catholic Sisters of New Orleans,” which will air at 10 a.m. Sunday on WBRZ, Channel 2.

The film relates the motivations, struggles, soul-searching and decisions that six congregations made in the face of the destruction wrought by Katrina in 2005.

“This analysis elevates the program from the level of a ‘Katrina brick-and-mortar rebuilding chronicle’ to a complex and fascinating journey with religious women who faced an uncertain personal and public future,” said Sister of St. Francis of Sylvania Judith Ann Zielinski, the film’s writer and producer for NewGroup Media, South Bend, Ind.

“Their choices were not uniform, simple, or immediate; ultimately, however, all six congregations, with an average of 175 years of combined service to New Orleans, re-confirmed their commitment to the city and its people,” she added.

The program uses archival photos and materials, television footage of Katrina and the flood, extensive and poignant interviews with nuns from each of the congregations. Music is performed by New Orleans Gospel Choirs.

Among the featured interviews is Marianite Sister of Holy Cross Mary Kay Kinberger, who served as director of religious education for the Diocese of Baton Rouge from 1990 to 1995.

Jim Kelly, former co-president of Catholic Charities, New Orleans, takes viewers on a tour of the areas of New Orleans deluged by water from breached flood walls. He also offers his insights into the role of religious women within the history of New Orleans.

The congregations featured are Ursuline Sisters, Congregation of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Sisters of the Holy Family of New Orleans, Marianites of Holy Cross, Congregation of St. Joseph and Society of St. Teresa of Jesus (Teresian Sisters).

The film relates how these six congregations of sisters lost more than convents, chapel, cars and motherhouses. They also lost ministries – high schools, child development centers, community centers and a nursing home for the elderly at which 17 patients died while awaiting rescue. The film shows how each congregation faced the seemingly insurmountable challenge of gaining the necessary funds and overcoming other obstacles to repair or rebuild their facilities. Some of these funds came from the most unexpected sources, one being King Abdullah, of Saudi Arabia.

The film project was coordinated and led by SC Ministry Foundation in Cincinnati, Ohio, which organized the fundraising effort to make the documentary. Foundation leaders called upon NewGroup Media, an independent production company in South Bend, Ind. The 14 funders represent the Assembly of Catholic Foundations and other Catholic foundations and congregations of women religious.

ä ON THE INTERNET:

http://www.weshallnotbemovedmovie.com

Worth a look

LOUISIANA PUBLIC SQUARE: 7 p.m. Wednesday, and noon Sept. 30, WLPB, Channel 27. The program will discuss the effectiveness of the more than $4 billion in tax refunds, credits, incentives, exclusions and deductions granted to corporations and individuals. State records show that some entities receive tax rebates even if they don’t have a tax liability. Up to 20 average residents will have a chance to voice their opinions on the subject and question a panel of experts.

ä ON THE INTERNET:

http://www.lpb.org/publicsquare

DOWN SOUTH DANCE: 10 p.m. Wednesday, TLC. The new special follows two teams of teen cloggers, one from South Carolina, the other from Georgia, as they compete in the R2K Clogging Invitational. The intensely competitive world of clogging is examined, along with all the drama from coaches, dancers and their families during the week leading into the competition.

ANG È LE ET TONY: 10 p.m. Wednesday, TV5Monde USA. In the 2009 French film, A young woman with a troubled past meets a fisherman in a small fishing port in Normandy. The mismatched pair’s relationship buds. The movie was a César Award winner.

Louisiana Public Broadcasting and the Catholic Diocese of Baton Rouge provided information for this column. Television stations with news about programming, on-air reporters or personalities should fax information to Judy Bergeron, [phone], or email [e-mail].