Video Tapes Collection
U.S. Art and Culture
American Roots Music (DVD)
Fosse (DVD)
Foundations Directory, The (CD)
Guide to Higher Education in the United States, A (CD)
Sing America (CD)
Produced in 1995 for the Annenberg CPB Collection by the New York Center for Visual History in association with KCET/Los Angeles and the BBC, this is an instructional video series on U.S. film history for college and high school classrooms and adult learners. Using clips from more than 300 of the greatest movies ever made, this series explores film history and American culture through the eyes of over 150 Hollywood insiders, including Clint Eastwood, Steven Spielberg, and Michael Eisner. In-depth treatments present film as a powerful economic force, potent twentieth-century art form, and viable career option.
The Hollywood Style
In the classical Hollywood film, the story is primary. Filmmakers rely on style - structure, narrative, and visual elements - to effectively tell their story. Martin Scorsese and Sydney Pollack are among the premier directors who discuss how the classical Hollywood style, evolving and yet enduring over time, informs their work. back to top
The Studio System
This program surveys Hollywood's industrial past during the era of contract players and directors, studio police forces, and colorful movie moguls. It also looks at the filmmaking environment of today with studio heads Michael Eisner, Howard Koch, and others. Paramount Pictures, one of the oldest and most successful of the Hollywood studios, serves as a case study.
The Star
Greta Garbo, Cary Grant, Dustin Hoffman — these, among many others, are names synonymous with Hollywood. Early on, Hollywood saw that recognizable talent could minimize the financial risks of film production. Critics, film scholars, and studio publicists view the stars from many angles: as marketing tools, cultural icons, and products of the industry. Joan Crawford headlines as a case study of the cultural phenomenon of stardom.
The Western
The Western is an American myth that has been translated by other cultures and reinterpreted time and again, but never dies. With clips and critical commentary on westerns from John Ford's Stagecoach through the work of Arthur Penn, Sam Peckinpah, and Clint Eastwood, this program traces the aesthetic evolution of the genre, as well as its sociological importance.
Romantic Comedy
Breezy and silly to witty and intelligent, romantic comedies have been with us since the 1930s. But the surface humor has often just barely masked issues of gender and sexuality. This program looks back on screwball comedies including It Happened One Night and His Girl Friday. Directors James Brooks and Nora Ephron present interpretations of the genre that reveal the underlying social and psychological messages.
The Combat Film
Beginning with World War II combat films produced under directives from the federal government, this program examines the role of the combat film in filling a social and political need. Critics and directors describe the evolution of these films, the rise of the Vietnam film, and the influence of the newsreel documentaries and TV news on the genre.
Film Noir
These cynical and pessimistic films from the 1930s and '40s touched a nerve in Americans. Historians link the genre's overriding paranoia to Cold War-related angst over the nuclear threat and the Hollywood blacklist. In addition, a cinematographer demonstrates the creation of noir lighting, which gave films their peculiar look and emphasized the themes of corruption and urban decay.
Film in the Television Age
Television first arrived in American homes just as the Hollywood studio system was collapsing. As the new medium took hold, so did a new era of motion picture entertainment. Top directors, actors, and film scholars trace the influence of each medium on the other - from the live and fresh dramas of the Golden Age of Television, and the growth of Hollywood spectacles, to the megalithic entertainment industry of today.
The Film School Generation
Maverick filmmakers of the 1960s and '70s, including Brian DePalma, Martin Scorsese, and Steven Spielberg, capitalized on new technology and borrowed from classical Hollywood and French New Wave as they reinvented the American film. The financial and cultural forces that contributed to their success and commercial clout are explored.
The Edge of Hollywood
While many of the old rules are still in force, independent filmmakers today often add their dissenting voices to the forum. This program looks at some alternative visions from new talents including Spike Lee, Joel and Ethan Coen, Jim Jarmusch, and Quentin Tarantino. With limited budgets, they are challenging the stylistic status quo of the Hollywood film.
Film Language
"Film Language" illustrates basic terms such as tracking shots and zooms and provides a primer on editing technique.
Writing and Thinking About Film
"Writing and Thinking About Film" provides a formal and cultural analysis of a classical film sequence. It serves as a critical how-to guide for those new to film critique.
Classical Hollywood Today
"Classical Hollywood Today" offers interviews with contemporary directors, European filmmakers, scholars, and critics, as well as studio-era veterans who probe Hollywood's influence on both American and world culture.
This series explore works of fiction, prose, and poetry within their historical, social, and cultural contexts.
Native Voices
Native Americans had established a rich and highly developed tradition of oral literature long before the writings of the European colonists. This program introduces
Native American oral traditions through the work of three contemporary authors: Leslie Marmon Silko (Laguna Pueblo), Simon Ortiz (Acoma Pueblo), and Luci Tapahonso (Navajo).
Exploring Borderlands
Chicana writer Gloria Anzaldúa tells us that the border is “una herida abierta [an open wound] where… the lifeblood of two worlds is merging to form a third country - a
border culture.” This program explores the literature of the Chicano borderlands and its beginnings in the literature of Spanish colonization.
Utopian Promise
When British colonists landed in the Americas, they created communities that they hoped would serve as a “light onto the nations.” This program compares the answers of two important groups, the Puritans and Quakers, and exposes the lasting influence they had upon American identity.
Spirit of Nationalism
The Enlightenment brought new ideals and a new notion of selfhood to the American colonies. This program begins with “the self-made man” in Benjamin Franklin’s
autobiography, and then turns to the development of this concept in the writings of
Romanticist Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Masculine Heroes
In 1898, Frederick Jackson Turner declared the frontier as the defining feature of American culture. This program turns to three key writers of the early national
period - James Fenimore Cooper, John Rollin Ridge, and Walt Whitman.
Gothic Undercurrents
What was haunting the American nation in the 1850s? The three writers treated in this program – Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, and Emily Dickinson - use poetry and prose to explore the dark side of nineteenth-century America.
Slavery and Freedom
How has slavery shaped the American literary imagination and American identity? This program turns to the classic slave narratives of Harriet Jacobs and Frederick Douglass, as well as the fiction of Harriet Beecher Stowe.
Regional Realism
Mark Twain’s novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn remains a classic of American literature. This program compares Twain’s depiction of Southern vernacular culture to that of Charles Chestnutt and Kate Chopin and, in doing so, introduces the hallmarks of American Realism.
Social Realism
This program presents the authors of the American Gilded Age, such as Edith Wharton, and juxtaposes them with social realists like Anzia Yezierska. These writers expose the double world that made up turn-of-the-century New York: that of the elite and that of the poorest of the poor.
Rhythms in Poetry
Amidst the chaos following World War I, Ezra Pound urged poets to “Make it new!” This program explores the modernist lyrics of two of these poets: William Carlos
Williams and Langston Hughes. What is modernism? How did these poets start a revolution that continues until this day?
Modernist Portraits
Jazz filled the air and wailed against the night. Writers such as Hemingway, Stein, and Fitzgerald forged a new style: one which silhouetted the geometry of language,
crisp in its own cleanness.
Migrant Struggle
Americans have often defined themselves through their relationship to the land. This program traces the social fiction of three key American voices: John Steinbeck, Carlos Bulosan, and Helena María Viramontes.
Southern Renaissance
This program uncovers the revisioning of Southern myths during the modernist era by writers William Faulkner and Zora Neale Hurston.
Becoming Visible
This program guides the viewer through the works and contexts of ethnic writers from 1945-1965. Starting with the works of Ralph Waldo Ellison, Philip Roth, and N. Scott Momaday, we explore the way writers from the margins took over the center of American culture.
Poetry of Liberation
The artists of the 1960s wanted an art that was relevant. They wanted an art that not only spoke about justice, but also helped create it. This program explores the innovations made in American poetry in the 1960s by Allen Ginsberg, Amiri Baraka, and Adrienne Rich.
Search for Identity
Contemporary prose writers began creating a new American Tradition comprised of many strands, many voices, and many myths about the past. This program explores the search for identity by three American writers: Maxine Hong Kingston, Sandra Cisneros, and Leslie Feinberg.
Baseball
The 9-part series spans 150 years, starting with the myth-debunking tale of baseball's true beginnings—when it was a game one-degree above mayhem. Then follow the growth of America's National Pastime through the decades of glory and record-setting achievements, as well as the scandals, the bigotry, and the big money. The series portrays the game as a mirror of America itself—the passions, prejudices, and ambitions that have shape the country.
Baseball - Our Game 1840s – 1900
Baseball - Something Like a War 1900 – 1910
Baseball - The Faith of Fifty Million People 1910 – 1920
Baseball - A National Heirloom 1920 –1930
Baseball - Shadow Ball 1930 – 1940
Baseball - The National Pastime 1940 – 1950
Baseball - The Capital of Baseball 1950 – 1960
Baseball - A Whole New Ballgame 1960 - 1970
Baseball - Home 1970 – Present
The Blues
THE BLUES, executive producer-Martin Scorsese, consists of seven feature-length films, by seven different directors, each exploring the blues through their own personal style and perspective.
Feel Like Going Home
Directed by Martin Scorsese, pays homage to the Delta blues. Musician Corey Harris travels through Mississippi and on to West Africa, exploring the roots of the music. The film celebrates the early Delta blues men through original performances and rare archival footage. Performers in this film are: Corey Harris, John Lee Hooker, Son House, and Salif Keita, Habib Koite, Taj Mahal, Ali Farka Toure, and others.
The Soul of a Man
Written and directed by Wim Wenders (Buena Vista Social Club; Paris, Texas; Wings of Desire) explores the lives of his favorite blues artists – Skip James, Blind Willie Johnson, and J.B. Lenoir – in a film that is part history and part personal pilgrimage.
The Road to Memphis
Directed by Richard Pearce, traces the musical odyssey of blues legend B. B. King in a film that pays tribute to the city that gave birth to a new style of blues.
Warming By The Devil’s Fire
Written and directed by Charles Burnett, presents a tale about a young boy’s encounter with his family in Mississippi in the 1950’s, and intergenerational tensions between the heavenly strains of gospel and the devilish moans of the blues.
Godfathers and Sons
Directed by Marc Levin, travels to Chicago with hip-hop legend Chuck D (of Public Enemy) and Marshall Chess to explore the heyday of Chicago blues.
Red, White & Blues
Joins musicians such as Van Morrison, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, and Tom Jones performing and talking about the music of the early sixties British invasion that reintroduced the blues sound to America.
Piano Blues
Directed by piano player and Hollywood director/actor Clint Eastwood, explores Eastwood’s life long passion for piano blues, using a treasure trove of rare historical footage in addition to interviews and performances by such living legends as Pinetop Perkins and Jay McShann, as well as Dave Brubeck and Marcia Ball.
Connect with English
A video series in English as a second language. Through the story of Rebecca, an aspiring singer on a journey across America, Connect With English touches on life’s important issues: leaving home, parenting, education, work, love, success, and loss.
All of the characters use meaningful, natural language that students can put to work immediately in their own lives. Each episode features dialogue that is slightly slowed down and subtly simplified. Key lines are repeated, idioms paraphrased, and important events retold. There are constant visual clues to meaning, such as written signs, notes, and documents. Facial expressions, gestures, and body language also reveal meaning for students. Closed captioning can be used as a teaching and literacy resource. For levels from high beginning through low and high intermediate. Produced by WGBH Boston with books from the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. 1998. Information on books:
http://www.learner.org/catalog/series71.html
A video series in English as a second language. Through the story of Rebecca, an aspiring singer on a journey across America, Connect With English touches on life’s important issues: leaving home, parenting, education, work, love, success, and loss.All of the characters use meaningful, natural language that students can put to work immediately in their own lives. Each episode features dialogue that is slightly slowed down and subtly simplified. Key lines are repeated, idioms paraphrased, and important events retold. There are constant visual clues to meaning, such as written signs, notes, and documents. Facial expressions, gestures, and body language also reveal meaning for students. Closed captioning can be used as a teaching and literacy resource. For levels from high beginning through low and high intermediate. Produced by WGBH Boston with books from the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. 1998. Information on books:
A Death In The Family
A tight-knit family faces the ultimate tragedy in James Agee’s poignant Pulitzer Prize- winning novel. Bases on a childhood tragedy that haunted Agee throughout his life, A Death in the Family explores the effect of a sudden, untimely death on a small family in Knoxville, Tennessee, in the summer of 1915.
F. Scott Fitzgerald - The Great American Dreamer
His flamboyant lifestyle epitomized the madcap excess of the Roaring Twenties. His classic stories made him one of the most important American authors of the twentieth century.
Famous American Writers Biography Series
Tennessee Williams, Wounded Genius
He was the prototypical tortured genius – a man whose public triumphs were unable to dispel the fear and doubt that tormented him.
Mark Twain, His Amazing Adventure
He was an American original, a gifted and irreverent storyteller whose portrayal of a young nation captured the imagination of the world.
John Steinbeck, An American Writer
One of America’s greatest writers, John Steinbeck paradoxically remains one of America’s least understood artists.
Ernest Hemingway, Wrestling with Life
He has been called the most influential writer since Shakespeare. But his fame came as much from his well-publicized personal life as from his celebrated works.
Edgar Allan Poe
He is the uncontested master of the macabre, a genius whose melancholy nature made his own life as tragic as one of his strange tales
Four By Ailey: An Evening With The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater
The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, the country’s boldest and most exciting dance company, brings its distinctive style – dazzling, brash and dynamic, yet graceful and poetic.
Jazz- A Film By Ken Burns
This series explores the history of the major American musical form. We track its development in African American culture, its rise to prominence with its golden age of popularity spanning from the 1920's to the mid 1940's both in its original form and in Swing through its popular decline and the rise of vital new sub-genres into the present day. Along the way, we learn of the lives and work of major contributors to the form such as Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday, Benny Goodman, Charlie "Bird" Parker and many others who helped form Jazz into the vibrant musical form it is. Moreover, we see how the music reflected the political and social issues of the African American community over the course of the form's history.
Language Teaching Methods I & Language Teaching Methods II
Mountain Stage
This music series showcases many musical genres, including alternative, folk, R&B, blues, country, jazz, bluegrass and world music.
Pearl Buck: The Woman, The World, And Two Good Earths
A tour of Green Hills Farm, the Pennsylvania home of this Nobel Prize-winning author, evokes a vibrant image of her as sculptor, pianist, organist, philanthropist, and mother of nine adopted children as well as a beacon of 20th century literature.
Riding The Rails – Winner 11 Major Awards, Including “Best Documentary”
Riding the Rails tells the unforgettable story of the 250,000 teenagers who left their homes and hopped freight trains during the Great Depression. The film vividly combines the clear-eyed memories of speeding trains and newsreel interviews with lean-bodied kids full of bravado.
Toni Morrison - Profile Of A Writer
Nobel Prize laureate Toni Morrison has firmly established herself as one of the nation’s finest novelists and the leading chronicler of the black experience in American.
A Tribute To Alvin Ailey With The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater
When Alvin Ailey, the great American choreographer, dancer and director, died in 1989 he was 58, but his legacy is ageless. Ailey played a key role in the growth of modern dance in America and his company, founded in 1958, is one of the United States’ oldest dance troupes as well as one of the most youthful and vital on the dance scene.
"We have A Dream"
DOS WOMEN'S HISTORY MONTH EVENT WITH ASSISITANT SECRETARY OF STATE, BUREAU OF EDUCATIONAL AND CULTURE AFFAIRS PATRICIA S. HARRISON AND CHIEF FOREIGN AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT FOR NBC NEWS ADREA; U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVE
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