WQED-TV’s “Destination with Natalie Bencivenga,” created by independent journalist Bencivenga, profiles local immigrant communities and neighborhoods, beginning with Bloomfield. The show’s first 15-minute episode starts streaming May 6 at WQED.org/Destination (or youtube.com/@WQED) and airs on linear Channel 13 at 7:30 p.m. May 12, where it will be paired with another, previously released WQED short, “The Aurora Reading Club.”
Bencivenga, who is on a break from hosting Saturday afternoon on KDKA radio to work on this new project, said she pitched the “Destination” concept to WQED CEO Jason Jedlinski in spring 2024.
“I really try to look at the work that I do (as a way to) to center and uplift the most vulnerable around us,” she said last week. “I look at journalism as a form of social work. I used to be a social worker, and so for me, it’s how I can use these platforms to amplify voices that aren’t always put on the front page.”
The concept of profiling immigrant communities in Western Pennsylvania took hold.
“We really honed it down to this idea of looking at the history of immigration in Pittsburgh, where these neighborhoods were once upon a time, where they are now and where they’re going,” Bencivenga said, “and recognizing that immigrants are the key to prosperous communities. At the heart of this, it’s really a love letter to the immigrant communities of Pittsburgh, but also a call to action to all of us to engage with one another, even with people that we may not be familiar with.”
In the Bloomfield episode, filmed last summer, Bencivenga interviews many different food business owners, including Maria Merante, about the changing nature of the neighborhood, which one interviewee notes was home to German immigrants before it was an Italian neighborhood.
“I never criticize the change,” Merante says in the program. “A lot of people are disappointed in seeing the Italians are gone and new people are moving in, but my father was an immigrant. He replaced somebody else and they said, ‘Uh-oh, here come those Italians,’ so I won’t do that. We welcome everybody who’s here.”
Bencivenga is now working on an episode about Beechview that she hopes to premiere on WQED in July.
“It’s a very different experience because I don’t feel comfortable filming in the community in the same way because of the presence of ICE,” Bencivenga said. “So we’ve been very careful that the shots are really tight. I don’t want people in the background. We’re trying to protect the community, so it’s going to feel different. It’s not going to feel as buoyant as the first (episode).”
For the Beechview episode, Bencivenga is interviewing nonprofit leaders and the heads of business development organizations, among others.
“Where are the community centers? Where do people gather?” Bencivenga said. “And in some spaces that we’re looking at, those places aren’t there anymore. And that’s really what this is about, too, understanding that Little Italy isn’t Little Italy anymore, for example, and that’s okay. It’s OK to honor what was and also embrace the new Bulgarian bakery in town and the Norwegian fish place that opened inside the old Italian restaurant. Sometimes Pittsburgh clings to the past because we have such a beautiful history here, but also I don’t want us to resist all of the beauty we have to look forward to.”
The Beechview episode will also include food in some way because, Bencivenga said, “food is the cultural bridge between people, and I think that that is an easy bridge for people to cross, because we can all embrace one another’s cuisines. I think that is a love language.”
Bencivenga is trying to line up funding to continue the series with a goal of six episodes in the show’s first season. Because it’s a digital-first series on YouTube — rather than the traditional linear-TV first — Bencivenga said she’s aiming for episodes to run 10-to-12 minutes because “QED wanted to keep them accessible to the types of content that people are comfortable with on those (online) platforms.”
Renewed
Netflix renewed amiable comedy “North of North” for a second season and did the same for “Geek Girl.”
Channel surfing
FX’s “ Shōgun ” will begin production on its second season in January with Hiroyuki Sanada returning as Lord Yoshii Toranaga and Cosmo Jarvis back as John Blackthorne in a story set 10 years after the events of season one. … Religious broadcaster Cornerstone Television’s “Today’s Nashville” returns for its eighth season at 10 p.m. May 6.