Racing with the Moon (HBO Sunday at...

Racing with the Moon (HBO Sunday at 6 a.m., again at 3 p.m.; Wednesday at 6 a.m.). This 1984 film is a small wonder. It’s a miraculously assured work, set in a Northern California town, and brims with love, insight and a kind of double-edged understanding; of the fine kids (Sean Pean, Elizabeth McGovern) whose story it is, and of the time itself, Christmas, 1942, a kind of last gasp of national innocence.

A World Apart (TMC Tuesday at 6 p.m.). A haunting, deeply moving film of conscience and consequence, this 1988 release is about two separate worlds, one huge, one intimately small--black Africa and the all-female household of anti-apartheid activist Diana Roth (Barbara Hershey). Told with an empathy strengthened by director Chris Menges’ refusal to sentimentalize his characters, it’s a semi-autobiographical story by screenwriter Shawn Slavo, whose mother in 1963 became the first white woman to be jailed under South Africa’s 90-day detention act.

Trackdown (TNT Tuesday at 7:20 p.m.) An astute, stylish 1976 exploitation picture, directed by Richard T. Heffron and written by Paul Edwards (from a story by Ivan Nagy), that was one of the very first pictures to deal with runaway kids who head for Hollywood and end up in prostitution. With Karen Lamm, Jim Mitchum, Anne Archer and Erik Estrada.

Miller’s Crossing (Cinemax Saturday at 3:20 a.m.) With their third feature, Joel and Ethan Coen--Joel directs, Ethan produces, and they write together--turned to the period gangster picture. The striking result is richly atmospheric and morally ambiguous as a savvy mid-level gangster (Gabriel Byrne) commences an odyssey in search of an underworld kingpin worthy of his allegiance. With Albert Finnery as a lusty, larger-than-life old-time Irish gang leader and John Turturro as a pathetic target of gang violence.