During this critical decade in American life, artists built on the styles of the 1950s. An explosion of artistic energy produced Pop Art, Minimalism, color-field painting, and hard-edged abstraction. Sculptors and painters on both coasts explored new methods and new subject matter. American Art in the Sixties examines the key figures of that decade including Rauschenberg and Johns, two crucial transitional figures between Abstract Expressionism and the sensibilities of the new decade. The art of that time mirrors the optimism and the affluence, and the technology and the vulgarity of those boom years.
Paul Robeson was a celebrated African-American Actor, Athlete, Singer, Writer, and Civil Rights Activist. Robeson's many achievements are chronicled in this program, ranging from playing with the NFL to graduating from Columbia Law School, performing on Broadway and in Hollywood films to founding the American Crusade against Lynching as well as Council on African Affairs. Robeson was one of the most talented performers of his time and a dedicated humanitarian who ultimately sacrificed fame and fortune for what he believed in. His association with Leftist Politics during the era of the Cold War, and frequent denouncing of American political parties led to his eventual blacklisting with other prominent writers and artists during the McCarthy Era. His talents in all areas are remarkable, and his dedication to attaining a peaceful coexistence between all the people of the world is truly admirable.
An entrepreneur sets out to reinvent school food — to challenge the way Boston's public school students eat lunch. Over a yearlong journey, she wrangles with bureaucracy, unwieldy regulations and a team of stalwart lunch ladies, to navigate a path to replace plastic-wrapped vended meals with fresh, healthy food cooked from scratch that changes the way kids both eat and learn.
The #3 leading cause of death in the United States is its own health care system. 1.7 million Americans experience a preventable mistake during medical care, and these mistakes lead to many as 440,000 deaths annually. Directed by the son of late patient safety pioneer, Dr. John M. Eisenberg, To Err Is Human is an in-depth documentary about this silent epidemic and those working quietly behind the scenes to create a new age of patient safety. Through interviews with leaders in healthcare, footage of real-world efforts leading to safer care, and one family's compelling journey from victim to empowerment, the film provides a unique look at the future of our healthcare system's ongoing fight against preventable harm.
The multiple means of making art after the end of illusionism led these artists to create performances, sculptures, earthworks, tableaux, furniture, shaped canvases, and more, using unusual materials. They explore the process of making forms and giving meanings to those forms. In this idea art, their focus is as often social and psychological as artistic. Some of their activities enlist engineering and construction techniques, others compose texts or scripts that are central to their art. Some cast the viewer in the role of a spectator, while the others demand active participation. The sources for their concepts and art works are equally diverse; the delicate proportions and balance of Early Renaissance painting, the exploration of the surface of the moon, the structure and inventions of vernacular architects, to name only a few.
A wealthy arrogant merchant learns the true meaning of Hanukkah when he takes the family of a poor peddler to court for savoring the smell of his wife's pancakes from outside their window.
Once upon a time, there were three hungry Dinosaurs: Papa Dinosaur, Mama Dinosaur...and a Dinosaur who happened to be visiting from Norway. One day - for no particular reason - they decided to tidy up their house, make the beds, and prepare pudding of varying temperatures. And then - for no particular reason - they decided to go...someplace else. They are definitely not setting a trap for some succulent, unsupervised little girl.
Grieving young widower Santiago convinces his landlord - a disgraced biochemist with a serious hygiene problem - to help him clone his dead wife, using their female housemate as a surrogate mother.
A man, after being robbed and shot fourteen years earlier, succumbs to a life of addiction and ultimately loses the love of his life and knowing his only child. After meeting a local pastor, Brian is forced to confront his alcohol addiction. His volunteer work at the pastor's church leads him to a job as a home health-care worker. Upon meeting his first patient, Taj, the two men are unaware that their lives will forever be changed through this trying relationship.
One of Canada's top 10 universities and its largest school board found themselves embroiled in a growing global controversy as scholars, parents, and officials question the Confucius Institute program's true purpose.
Huey Lewis And The News: BEFORE! follows one of the world’s top rock-and-roll bands of the 80’s and a crew of fifty technicians to the Bahamas for the making of a music video for their number one hit single, “Stuck With You” for their album, “FORE!” Blank takes us behind the scenes for an off-beat look at what happens when a song is transformed into visuals and musicians are transformed into actors. Hidden in the straightforward reportage are sly comments on the MTV machine, sexism in the media, and the business of rock-and-roll. Best of all, Huey Lewis and the News maintain their sense of humor even when absurdity threatens to overwhelm them.
Leon Trotsky is considered one of the most controversial revolutionary figures of his time. Was he a practical revolutionary or a naive idealist? On the practical side, he was the mastermind behind the Bolshevik seizure of power in 1917, and was totally ruthless during the ensuing Civil War. As an idealist, he was committed to the pursuit of international revolution, but created many political enemies. After Lenin's death, Trotsky lost in a power struggle with Stalin, and later was expelled from the Communist Party. Trotsky was exiled from the Soviet Union, eventually finding refuge in Mexico. In 1940, Stalin ordered his assassination, and Trotsky died after being struck in the head with an ice-pick. History records that Trotsky was a master theoretician, a skillful propagandist and a brilliant orator.
The Elvis phenomenon has its roots in his birthplace where Presley began a musical journey that would take him from the wrong side of the tracks in Tupelo through Memphis to worldwide iconic status. Using interviews, recordings, photographs and rare home movies, Elvis: Return to Tupelo is the rock n roll adventure story of one of the greatest cultural forces of the twentieth century.
An unnamed man and woman make preparations to attend a burial in a small, desolate town. After an intense argument separates the two, they find themselves isolated and in emotional turmoil. As the burial draws near, they begin to experience disturbing, surreal incidents involving manifestations of dread and despair. Abstract, dream-like sequences comprise the film, along with creative cinematography, abrasive sound design, and minimal use of spoken dialogue. A study of the human condition regarding loss, fear, and isolation, It Takes from Within is the debut feature film from writer/director Lee Eubanks.
Filmed largely in Lowell and Lawrence over four years, Beyond the Wall is a raw and honest chronicle of one man’s efforts to help former convicts stay on the straight and narrow, away from the needle that sent them spiraling into prison.
Visiting examples of Herzog and de Meurons ground-breaking style, this film reflects their capacity to astonish and explore the way in which they transform what might otherwise be ordinary through new treatments and techniques.