Paper Lantern

Two countries, two restaurants, one vision. At Gabriela Cámara's acclaimed Contramar in Mexico City, the welcoming, uniformed waiters are as beloved by diners as the menu featuring fresh, local seafood caught within 24 hours. The entire staff sees themselves as part of an extended family. Meanwhile at Cala in San Francisco, Cámara hires staff from different backgrounds and cultures, including ex-felons and ex-addicts, who view the work as an important opportunity to grow as individuals. A Tale of Two Kitchens explores the ways in which a restaurant can serve as a place of both dignity and community.

In 1975, a seven-months pregnant Vietnamese refugee, Giap, escapes Saigon in a boat and, within weeks, finds herself working on an assembly line in Seymour, Indiana. 35 years later, her aspiring filmmaker son, Tony, decides to document her final day of work at the last ironing board factory in America.

Chez Schwartz takes us inside a year in the life of Schwartz's Deli - the unique 75-year-old landmark on Montreal's historic Main. Filmed through changing seasons, from the quiet of early morning preparation to the frenetic bustle of packed lunch times and never ending line-ups, to the more relaxed ambiance late at night - Chez Schwartz is an evocative, cinematic portrait of a small spunky deli known worldwide equally for its atmosphere and smoked meat.

This is the original version of the much heralded "Raising The Bamboo Curtain" narrated and produced by legendary travel filmmaker Rick Ray. (Rick later sold partial rights to this program to another producer who hired Martin Sheen to narrate - that cut down and rewritten version is not the same). Sneaking his cameras past Burmese and Cambodian customs officials and getting around the country to produce one of the best travel docs ever made, Rick has outdone himself - again!

In this special edition of Globe Trekker Chinatown, Lavinia Tan, Justine Shapiro and Megan McCormick travel worldwide to explore the magic and mystery of Chinatowns across the globe. Lavinia Tan begins the journey in Malaysia and Singapore where overseas traders led the earliest migrations of Chinese people. The journey continues from there to the United States, where Justine Shapiro visits San Francisco. Megan McCormick explores New York s Lower East Side, home to the largest Chinatown in the Western Hemisphere. After a short trip to London s Soho district, Lavinia Tan ends this journey with a visit to Hong Kong exploring the world famous film industry and the 21st century migration of Chinese back to their homeland.

A short documentary about the Thai restaurant Sabai Sabai located in Middlebury, Vermont.

America's involvement in the Vietnam War dramatically intensified in 1964 after the Tonkin Gulf incident, an incident in which the blame falls squarely on the Johnson administration. What would follow would be a series of misinformation and outright lies from the government to mislead the American public into supporting a war that would become increasingly harder to justify.

Beginning with a private, rolling party on board one of Hong Kong's iconic streetcars, travel journalist Rudy Maxa and former chef and now Washington, D.C. restaurateur Daisuke Utagawa lead viewers through on of the worlds most exciting cities. Hong Kong takes cuisine from around the world and makes it its own. Explore the cuisine as well as the mostly unknown, lush side of Hong Kong where hiking trails and beaches rule. Bangkok - In a city where the weather is always hot, it is natural that residents spend so much time eating outside. Street food rules the capital of Thailand, and no visitor should miss the opportunity to follow local custom. Utagawa and Maxa taste their way through the city while exploring the Klongs (canals) and temples that make Bangkok a visitors paradise.

During the pandemic-induced lockdowns of 2020, a restaurant owner struggles to maintain his business.

A trans Vietnamese woman's deadname being repeated over and over again.

Since the fall of Saigon in 1975, Vietnamese refugees have built the largest Vietnamese community outside of Vietnam, in Orange County, California. In 1999, "Little Saigon" burst onto the national stage when a store owner displayed a poster of Ho Chi Minh, triggering protests by Vietnamese Americans struggling to reconcile their past demons with their present lives. Saigon, U.S.A. uses this moment to examine this community's changing identity and growing empowerment.