PBS documentary series ‘Lost LA’ features Historic Filipinotown

The “Historic Filipinotown” episode explores the origin of the yo-yo, popularized by Fil-Am businessman Pedro Flores. Image: Screenshot/”Historic Filipinotown”

LOS ANGELES – The historical documentary series “Lost LA” returns in 2024 for a sixth season featuring untold histories behind tiki culture, cemeteries, tuberculosis, hiking, fast food and Historic Filipinotown.

The “Historic Filipinotown” episode, aired on Jan. 9 on PBS SoCal and Jan. 10 on KCET, features Filipino Americans working to make their heritage more visible in Los Angeles.

Host Nathan Masters explores the yo-yo’s surprising origin story, tours Historic Filipinotown in a jeepney and tastes classic Filipino street foods.

Featured interviews include activist and librarian Florante Ibanez and the hosts of “This Filipino American Life” podcast.

“Lost LA” was produced by PBS SoCal and KCET, Southern California’s flagship PBS stations, in partnership with the University of Southern California Libraries.

The series is part of the USC Libraries’ longstanding commitment to building public engagement with regional history collections.

It explores Southern California’s past through documents, photos and other rare materials from local libraries and archives, many of them part of the LA as Subject research alliance.

Hosted by the USC Libraries’ Nathan Masters, the half-hour series has won multiple accolades since its premiere in January 2016, including six LA Area Emmy Awards, three Golden Mikes from the Radio and Television News Association of Southern California and a PRExcellence Best in Show Award from the California Library Association.

USC Libraries collections featured prominently in this sixth season include the Olive View Sanatorium and Hospital records, the “Dick” Whittington Studio photographs and the Filipino American Library collection.

William Cunningham of the USC Digital Library and William Deverell, a USC historian and director of the libraries’ Collections Convergence Initiative, also guest star in the new episodes.

“Lost LA” joins the previously announced award-winning, acclaimed series “Finding your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr.” to complete a night of historical exploration.

The celebrated scholar will helm the 10th anniversary season of “Finding your Roots,” which will trace the ancestral histories of the series’ first-ever, non-celebrity participants in addition to 18 new celebrity guests.

Watch the “Historic Filipinotown” episode.