My Name is Belle presents an autobiographical snapshot of the immigrant experience through the eyes of a 7-year-old child. Belle Yang, artist and writer, uses herself as the model for the fictional pig-tailed girl named Hannah who arrives from Taiwan. Belle, as Hannah, faces change and loneliness - the difficulty of learning a new language, a new culture, even a new name, and of living with tension while waiting for green cards, longing to be citizens.

Using vignettes straddling time... dipping into Belle's past and present, the documentary capitalizes upon Belle's distinctive storytelling and paintings. The story unfolds through Belle's drawings, voices from the book, from colleagues and critics telling of a 7-year-old in San Francisco, a cheeky and rebellious teen, a young adult running from an abusive lover, and witnessing the Tiananmen Square massacre. Lastly, Belle returns to America with appreciation for the freedom of expression.

At mid-career, Belle turned to writing children's books to explain the hardships of becoming American citizens if you are not born here. With the immigration debate becoming a hot and sometimes ugly political topic across the nation, she wanted to humanize the debate with a child's view of the journey to becoming a citizen. This documentary taps into the hopes and fears all immigrants experience when trying to grab hold of the American dream.

Saturday, 5/10/08 from 1-1:30 a.m. ET