This film traces the ascent of Cambodian American teenager Ashley Chea, a basketball prodigy whose life intensifies amid college recruitment, injury, and triumph.

 The Future of Nature airs Wednesdays, March 26 through April 16 at 10 p.m. on WXXI-TV and streams live on the WXXI app.

This four-part series follows a growing number of inspiring people, fighting to save nature and helps to understand the impact of carbon on our planet and how nature is helping to mitigate its effects.

Episodes include:

In Oceans, airing March 26, see how oceans, and the organisms within them, help to draw down carbon at scale.

Grasslands, airing April 2, explores  the planet’s rich grasslands, dynamic, huge, and above all vital for our planet’s future.

In Forests, airing April 9, understand the carbon drawdown superpower of forests, and why restoring and protecting them is critical.

Humans, airing April 16, looks at how humans can become a force for good throughout the natural world.

This film traces the ascent of Cambodian American teenager Ashley Chea, a basketball prodigy whose life intensifies amid college recruitment, injury, and triumph.

 Independent Lens “Home Court” Monday, March 24 at 10 p.m. on WXXI-TV and streams live on the web, WXXI app (Android & Apple IOS ) and PBS App.

Filmed over three years of Ashley’s high school career, ”Home Court” is a coming-of-age story that relays the highs and lows of her immigrant family, surmounting racial and class differences, and personal trials that include a devastating knee injury.  

The film opens in Ashley’s sophomore year of high school. She shuttles between her home in a lower-income neighborhood in Los Angeles and her private school, Flintridge Prep, while traveling to youth basketball tournaments and visiting colleges around the country. Ashley’s parents work long hours at their donut shop, so her coach, Jayme Kiyomura Chan, steps in where they cannot. 

With the pressure of being one of the top basketball recruits in the country, tensions rise as Ashley navigates college offers and her family’s input. Meanwhile, she grapples with the task of leading her high school team, as well as being a leader in her community and the mounting responsibility to represent her culture. The film culminates in the bittersweet moments of Ashley leaving for college with her family.

 The period drama Marie Antoinette continues to chronicle the life of one of history’s most influential and controversial figures.

 Marie Antoinette, Season 2 premieres Sunday, March 23, 2025 at 10p.m. on WXXI-TV and streams live on the web and the PBS app.

Emilia Schüle (“Berlin Dance School”) returns as the title character, Marie Antoinette, and Louis Cunningham (“Bridgerton”) reprises his role as Louis XVI. The series, a CANAL+ Creation Originale in association with CAPA Drama (Newen Studios), Banijay Studios France, and Beside Productions, invites audiences to peek behind the curtain of the personal and political life of the last Queen of France.

Marie Antoinette sees Antoinette and Louis facing unprecedented challenges at the height of their power. As financial crises loom across the nation and political rivalries intensify, the royal couple must navigate an increasingly hostile court and a changing France. From Versailles to the Palais Royal, the seeds of a revolution began to take root, threatening the very foundations of France’s long-standing monarchy.

The ensemble cast includes Freya Mavor, Jack Archer (“Call the Midwife”), Jasmine Blackborow (“Shadow and Bone”), Oscar Lesage (“Dangerous Liaisons”), Crystal Shepherd-Cross (“Chronicles of the Sun”), Roxane Duran (“Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris”), Caroline Piette (“Beats Per Minute”) and others.

Photo: Patrick ALBENQUE (Breteuil), Emilia Schüle (Marie Antoinette), Louis Cunningham (Louis XVI), Guy HENRY (Vergennes) • Credit: Caroline Dubois / Capa Drama / Canal Plus

Two-time Tony Award-winning composer Jeanine Tesori’s powerful new opera Grounded, commissioned by the Met and based on librettist George Brant’s acclaimed play, has its awaited company premiere.

Great Performances at the Met “Grounded” airs Friday, March 21, 2025 at 9 p.m. on WXXI-TV and streams live on the WXXI app.

Mezzo-soprano Emily D’Angelo, one of opera’s most compelling young stars, headlines in the tour-de-force role of Jess, a hot-shot fighter pilot whose unplanned pregnancy takes her out of the cockpit and lands her in Las Vegas, operating a Reaper drone halfway around the world. As she adjusts to this new way of doing battle, she struggles under the pressure to be the perfect soldier, the perfect wife, and the perfect mother all at the same time. Met Music Director Yannick Nezet-Seguin takes the podium, leading a cast that also features tenor Ben Bliss as the Wyoming rancher who sweeps Jess off her feet. Michael Mayer’s high-tech staging, using a vast array of LED screens, presents a variety of perspectives on the action, including the drone’s predatory view from high above.

Photo: Emily D’Angelo as Jess and Kyle Miller as the Sensor • Credit: Ken Howard