Lightning Over Braddock: A Rust Bowl Fantasy...

Lightning Over Braddock: A Rust Bowl Fantasy (Bravo Sunday at 10 p.m.) For 15 years documentarian Tony Buba made nearly 12 shorts about the people of his hometown of Braddock, Pa. With his first feature, this 1988 release, a film of ragged perfection and wise silliness, he becomes a chronicler of the disintegration of the American dream, for Braddock, outside Pittsburgh, is a dying mill town that has lost almost 75% of its population.

Stray Dog (Bravo Monday at 8 p.m., Tuesday at 1 a.m.) One of Akira Kurosawa’s finest films, a compelling 1949 post-war Japanese drama in which a young Tokyo detective’s search for his missing gun becomes a symbolic quest for his manhood.

Tilai (KCET Saturday at 9 p.m.) Set against the majestic, unspoiled plains of Burkina Faso, this Idrissa Ouedraogo 1991 film unfolds with the stateliness and inevitability of Greek tragedy--but with lots more humor. It has to do with a young man (Rasmane Ouedraogo) returning to his native village after a two-year absence to discover that his father has taken his beautiful fiancee (Ina Cisse) as a second wife against her wishes.