WXXI TV

Public Defender • WXXI-TV

At a critical juncture in our nation’s history, Public Defender, an award-winning documentary film, examines the fault lines of American democracy through the lens of Heather Shaner, a seasoned and fiercely compassionate public defender in Washington, DC.

Public Defender airs Tuesday, January 6 at 10:30 p.m. on WXXI-TV and streaming live on the WXXI and PBS Apps.

Heather Shaner, a feisty, blue-haired defense attorney in Washington, DC, has spent over 45 years representing people who can’t afford a lawyer. But her empathy is tested when a violent mob supporting outgoing President Donald Trump storms the U.S. Capitol.

She is assigned to represent Jack Griffith, a social media influencer, and Annie Howell, a single mother and painter. As Heather gets to know her clients, she discovers Jack and Annie were deceived by misinformation and thought they’d joined a righteous defense of democracy, not an authoritarian wave.

Public Defender explores the delicate state of U.S. democracy, the forces threatening to tear it apart, and the people dedicated to protecting it. When trust is lost amidst a growing political divide, the unlikely bonds between Heather and her clients reveal how people can rise above the fray to find each other’s humanity.

RIT Shorts, Pt. 4 • WXXI-TV

WXXI continues to put a spotlight on the work of Rochester Institute of Technology film and animation students by presenting a series of shorts biannually.

RIT Shorts, Pt. 4 premieres Thursday, January 15 at 8 p.m. on WXXI-TV and the WXXI-TV Live Stream. Repeats Saturday, January 17 at 1 p.m. on WXXI-WORLD and at 5:30 p.m. and 11:30 p.m. on WXXI-TV, and Sunday, January 18 at 3:00 p.m. on WXXI-TV.

This edition features four pieces — three animated and one live-action — all centered on disability themes. RIT Shorts, Pt. 4 is part of Dialogue on Disability, WXXI’s annual initiative with Al Sigl Community of Agencies, which features a week of programming that showcases people with disabilities and sparks conversations about inclusion.

Featured shorts include:

An animation of the back of a young girl wearing a dress and looking up at a starburst of red and blue with words in white that read I WANT TO BE ALONE

I Want to Be Alone by Piper Charron
Follows Lisa as she struggles to complete a late-night commute after her headphones run out of battery. Each area of the city brings new and increasingly chaotic stimuli that she must cope with to reach her rooftop garden sanctuary. These stimuli manifest increasingly abstractly, building in visual and sonic texture and intensity as she traverses the city.

About Piper Charron: Piper is an internationally recognized 2D animator who works in both industry pipelines and experimental fine art animation. He specializes in highly technical character rigs and multimedia experimental animation. He worked as the senior animator and Harmony rigs specialist at MAGIC Spell Studios for two and a half years. In the spring of 2023, he worked with Christine Banna to create live projections for Stories From The Living Tree, a multimedia choir production. His film Sea Smoke was selected as the Rochester Institute of Technology’s animation submission for the 2023 CILECT prize competition. In 2024, he was awarded the Irene Pfizenmaier Award for Academic Excellence in Graphic Expression and the Outstanding Undergraduate Scholar Award from RIT. Piper grew up on an island off the coast of Downeast Maine. His proximity to the ocean in a tight-knit artistic community while growing up still informs his work today. In his multimedia work, he explores themes of connection and community, evoking emotions through non-traditional narratives. He aims to pursue a career in television animation in Canada while working on his personal craft. He earned his Bachelor in Fine Arts from the Rochester Institute of Technology in 2024. He currently resides in Maine, enjoying the ocean while searching for the next step in his artistic career.

Ghost Sandwich by Lymon Thorn

When a deaf woman drops and shatters her phone, her one accessibility aid, she uses different means of visual communication. Unfortunately, everyone else happens to be haunted by specters that she will never perceive – and to make matters worse, they won’t listen to anyone who can’t use a ghost to talk.

About Lymon Thorn: Lymon is a deaf queer animator who goes by they/them and enjoys animating in their own language, ASL.

An animation of a girl in a white dress with copy in white on a balck background that read: Ghost Sandwich.

Light purple background with a the word xobrettahc - all the letters are in different colors.

Xobrettahc by Robert Welton
Taking place in an animation class, students are asked to propose ideas for story pitches. They each blurt a series of words pertaining to their main concept as Trebora, a student who isn’t prepared to share, moves shapes inside her imagination in an effort to visualize their plans. She lucks out when time runs out before her turn but continues to struggle at home. Finally, after a fit of frustration, she draws an expressionistic but solid creature. As Trebora describes her idea in the following class, we see the other students’ concepts fleshed out as their own animals.

About Robert Welton: Robert is a Film and Animation major at Rochester Institute of Technology pursuing a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. He is currently a junior and his passion centers mainly around Stop Motion animation.

Oneness by Kaela Mangiaracina
This film is about being in the process of making one of the biggest decisions of her life, a deaf girl attempts to figure out where she fits among the hearing and deaf worlds. Fun fact: The lead actress in this 2015 film Jacqueline Pransky, who is now a teacher at Rochester School for the Deaf.

About Kaela Mangiaracina: “I was born and raised in New Jersey in a crazy Italian family. They always have been a big advocate for me and supported me in anything I wanted and needed. I was born deaf, and am the last baby of the family. I have two older brothers, one is deaf, so my parents already knew sign language when I was first born. I never wanted a cochlear implant, but because of the pressures I got from school I went to – I wanted to be a video editor, and I felt like I could not succeed as a video editor if I am deaf. So, I forced myself to get a cochlear implant, and that experience was actually traumatic, what Kristen experienced in the movie is not what I experienced, I changed the story a bit for visibility, what I experienced was more of physical intense pain shooting up in my arm and my face. I experienced a lot of vertigo and severe tinnitus. It gave me a new perspective on life itself, just have to keep on pushing through things. In some cases, cochlear implant works for some people, in some other cases, it does not, and in some other cases, people wonder what it is like if they got it. I had a taste of all of that. I actually got a cochlear implant replacement, it works better, but I am very cautious about it because the first experience was really, really traumatic. I don’t understand words or environmental sounds. I just hear weird sounds.”

An xray of a skull and beside it a white woman with long black hair standing in front of a brick wall.

RIT Shorts is a bi-annual series that showcases the work of some of RIT’s most impressive student filmmakers, offering these young producers a platform to share their films to a broader audience while offering WXXI viewers the chance to see the incredible talent that RIT is cultivating.

Call The Midwife Holiday Special 2025 • WXXI-TV

Senior members of the convent embark on a mercy mission, swapping the snowy East End of London for the sun-drenched terrain of Hong Kong.

Call The Midwife Holiday Special 2025 airs Thursday, December 25 at 8 p.m. on WXXI-TV and streaming live on the WXXI and PBS apps.

The rise in hospital births, and wider changes in the NHS, have clipped their wings. But their mission to the Far East is a chance to take flight and work out what really matters. For her part, Sister Julienne suddenly finds herself excited about the Order’s future. After years of battling change, she decides to embrace it and see what love can do.

Picture Shows: Joyce Highland (RENEE BAILEY) Trixie Franklin (HELEN GEORGE) Sister Julienne (JENNY AGUTTER)
Credit: © Neal Street Productions/Olly Courtney

Rick Steves’ European Christmas • WXXI-TV

Rick Steves visits seven European cultures at Christmastime, including Wales, France, Norway, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Italy.

Rick Steves’ European Christmas airs Sunday, December 20 at 3 p.m. on WXXI-TV.

From manger scenes and mistletoe to wintry wonderlands, Rick Steves’ European Christmas celebrates the Christmas season throughout the European continent. In the special, Rick visits friends and families in England, France, Norway, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Italy to reveal their customs and practices of the holiday season. He begins his travels in England, where the Christmas pudding is the real centerpiece of a traditional English holiday meal. In Paris, the Eiffel Tower heralds the season with its red, twinkling lights. And in the countryside of Tuscany, villagers stack neat pyramids of wood for great bonfires. The lighting of the fires is a signal to villagers – dressed as shepherds – to come and sing old carols. Rick Steves’ European Christmas offers a colorful, musical celebration of Christmas across Europe where viewers will learn about customs from “the old countries,” hear local choirs, and discover holiday family traditions.

Hope of the Season: Christmas with the Tabernacle Choir • WXXI-TV

Packed with classic carols, holiday favorites and an inspirational portrait of real life, this 90-minute concert features songs and stories of hope.

Hope of the Season: Christmas with the Tabernacle Choir airs Monday, December 15 at 8 p.m. on WXXI-TV and streaming live on the WXXI and PBS apps

This Christmas, the world-renowned Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square joins with Tony Award®-winner Ruthie Ann Miles and Hollywood veteran Dennis Haysbert in the unforgettable holiday spectacular, “Hope of the Season.” Packed with classic carols, holiday favorites and an inspirational portrait of real life, this 90-minute concert features songs and stories of hope for audiences of all ages.

Happiness • WXXI-TV

Happiness airs Sunday, December 14 at 8 p.m. on WXXI-TV and streaming live on the WXXI and PBS apps

After 20 years away, Broadway director Charlie Summers finds himself back in his childhood room, helping his mother at the local theater. The eclectic cast and crew there may lack professional skills, but certainly don’t lack passion.

Happiness, a new six-episode series from PBS, is a feel-good musical comedy-drama that is fun for the entire family—just in time for the holiday season. Centered on the highs and lows of an amateur theater group in New Zealand, the story follows Charlie Summers after he reluctantly returns home from a Broadway stint, helping his mother run the local community theater group Pizazz. Warm, funny and heartfelt, the opening scene features an airport flash mob, choreographed to the tune of Backstreet Boys’ “Everybody,” featuring original lyrics and choreography and continues to dazzle with original musical numbers from the fictional Pizazz production of “The Trojan Horse,”including “Troy Boy” and “Greeks Bearing Gifts.”

I am disABLEd • WXXI-TV

This heartwarming documentary highlights the challenges and triumphs of students with disabilities and their families, focusing on their abilities and similarities with their typically developing peers rather than their disability.

I am disABLEd airs Monday, January 12 at 3 p.m. on WXXI-TV and streaming on the WXXI app.

The film seeks to ignite conversations about inclusion and action and encourages thoughtful conversations about what it means to destigmatize disabilities.

This program is presented as part of Dialogue on Disability, a partnership between WXXI and Al Sigl Community of Agencies – in conjunction with the Herman and Margaret Schwartz Community Series. Dialogue on Disability is supported by the Fred L. Emerson Foundation with additional support from The Golisano Foundation. The weeklong initiative runs January 12-18, 2026.

WXXI and Al Sigl have been hosting Dialogue on Disability since 2005. In 2014, with the support of businessman and philanthropist Tom Golisano and the Golisano Foundation, Move to Include™ was formed. This initiative enables WXXI to present and develop programming that promotes inclusion year round.

American Masters “Starring Dick Van Dyke” • WXXI-TV

American Masters “Starring Dick Van Dyke” airs Tuesday, December 30 at 8 p.m. on WXXI-TV and streaming live on the WXXI and PBS apps

Ahead of his 100th birthday, celebrate the life and career of legendary actor Dick Van Dyke. Known for iconic roles in Mary Poppins, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and his classic CBS sitcom, he has delighted audiences on screen and stage for eight decades.

Over the course of his life, Dick Van Dyke has dazzled audiences in many iconic works, from his Broadway debut in Bye Bye Birdie to his sitcom The Dick Van Dyke Show and his silver screen performances in such beloved films as Mary Poppins and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Along the way, he has influenced many of today’s entertainers and his performances have stood the test of time. Discover the career of the Emmy, Tony and Grammy-winning star and hear how he continues to inspire the biggest acts in show business in American Masters – Starring Dick Van Dyke.

Starring Dick Van Dyke chronicles the star’s career over eight decades, beginning with his stint as a radio DJ and slapstick nightclub act and through his breakthrough television gigs and movie roles. In addition to his memorable work, the documentary features rare and never-before-seen footage and performance clips, as well as new, exclusive interviews with Julie Andrews, Carol Burnett, Jim Carrey, Ted Danson, Steve Martin, Conan O’Brien, Martin Short and more. Also featured are archival interviews with Van Dyke’s former costars and colleagues, including Walter Cronkite, Sheldon Leonard, Rose Marie, Mary Tyler Moore and Carl Reiner.