TV REVIEWS : DOCUMENTARIES FOCUS ON LIBERTY

Liberty, that fragile concept that is our nation’s birthmark and soul, is provocatively explored both in theory and in execution in three very different documentaries on KCET Channel 28 tonight.

“The Statue of Liberty,” airing at 8 p.m., was made by director and co-producer Ken Burns to kick off the yearlong celebration of the 100th birthday of the grand lady who symbolizes the ideals of the country she overlooks. Like his enthralling documentary “Brooklyn Bridge,” this one is rich in historical detail about the conception, design and construction of the massive structure.

But Burns is equally interested in the meaning of the statue and spends much of the hour talking about the concept of liberty with an assortment of well-known people. Their views are diverse and thoughtful and not always laudatory. Writer James Baldwin, for example, complains that “For a black inhabitant of this country, the Statue of Liberty is simply a very bitter joke, meaning nothing to us.”

Most soberingly, Czechoslovakian-born film director Milos Forman questions the very notion of making such a program: “I don’t think anybody who was born in this country really cares. I think that if this show is for American audiences, forget it. You are born here and you take everything for granted. . . .”

Yet just how great our personal freedoms are is clearly on display at 9 p.m. in “Turning Points,” KCET’s new local magazine series about people confronting major changes in their lives. While not intended to tie in with “The Statue of Liberty,” the premiere’s three principal stories nevertheless depict both the benefits of a system in which citizens are free to improve their lives and the serious consequences that so much freedom can produce.

A piece on former USC football star Charles White trying to get his professional career back on track is flat and unsatisfying, lacking an emotional payoff. But one on chefs Susan Feniger and Mary Sue Milliken taking on the challenge of opening their own restaurant is interesting, and another about an unmarried 16-year-old girl coming to grips with an unplanned pregnancy is outstanding--intimate in its focus, sweeping in its disturbing implications.

Indeed, without setting out to be, the latter segment, produced by Nancy Salter, turns out to be an eloquent, powerful plea for making sex education and contraceptives readily available to the young.

Following at 10 p.m. is “Victims of Crime: Silent No More,” a repeat of a “KCET Journal” that forcefully documents the abuses that liberty suffers when citizens are victimized by crime.

If you’re looking for happy endings, tape the three programs and watch them in reverse order.