WORTH NOTING ON TV
* THURSDAY
Everybody Just Stay Calm - Stories in Independent Filmmaking (Independent Film Channel, 7-7:30 p.m.): People who love film but don't particularly love Hollywood may find what they're looking for in this new channel dedicated to independent movies - those made outside the Hollywood studio system.
A venture of Bravo Cable Network, the channel may take a little checking to see if it's available in your area (as well as some viewer discretion in the case of some film content). But the productions are offered uncut and commercial-free 24-hours a day.
The debut program is the documentary ``Everybody Just Stay Calm,'' which considers the best and worst of the genre, as told in the words of filmmakers Martin Scorsese and Whit Stillman and other notable figures. Other opening night offerings are Illeana Douglas's ``Franz Kafka's It's a Wonderful Life [sic]'' and Jonathan Demme's ``Swimming to Cambodia.'' * SATURDAY
Great Books (The Learning Channel, 10-11 p.m.): Ernest Hemingway once called it ``the best book we have,'' and many scholars now consider it the first - and still most important - modern novel. But after its publication in 1884, ``The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn'' was banned by some public libraries and since then has been dubbed politically incorrect in some quarters.
Yet if any work deserves to be a subject of the channel's worthwhile ``Great Books'' series, it's Mark Twain's story of two boys who run from home and drift down the Mississippi together. This documentary, called ``Hick Finn'' and narrated by Donald Sutherland, examines the book itself and traces its author's career and times.
Twain impersonator McAvy Layne reads letters, articles, and other Twain works in character. In establishing the social and historical context of Twain's works - as well as his impact on other writers - the program offers interviews with Justin Caplan, a Pulitzer Prize-winning Twain biographer; columnist Nat Hentoff, and some Twain scholars.
Please check local listings for these programs.
