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Literature and
Language
Documentary RadioThe American Icons series
examines a single classic work—of literature, music, film, architecture,
theater, or visual art—that has achieved the status of an "icon" in
American culture. In the series debut program on Herman Melville's epic
novel Moby-Dick, a range of stories explores the historical and
social context of the work itself, how and why it has gained enduring
significance within our culture, and how other artists have been
influenced by the work since its creation.
PRODUCTION ORGANIZATION: Studio 350/WNYC, New York, NY YEAR
PRODUCED: 2006 EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Julie Burstein PRODUCERS: Kerrie
Hillman, Ave Carrillo, Michele Siegel, Leital Molad, Trey Kay, Edward
Lifson, Jonathan Mitchell, Jeff Lunden EDITOR: David Krasnow HOST:
Kurt Andersen CAST: Laurie Anderson, Ray Bradbury, Stanley Crouch,
Andrew Delbanco, Rinde Eckert, Edward Herrmann, David Ives, Tony Kushner,
Samuel Otter, Elizabeth Schultz, Frank Stella
PRINT MATERIALS: Promotional Material, PRI, 612-330-9256
AWARDS/FESTIVALS: George Foster Peabody Award
FORMAT: Radio 1 hour DISTRIBUTOR: Public
Radio International
Dramatic SeriesThe American Short Story series
dramatizes seventeen short stories by eminent American writers:
- Almos'
a Man, by Richard Wright
- Barn
Burning, by William Faulkner
- Bernice
Bobs Her Hair, by F. Scott Fitzgerald
- The
Blue Hotel, by Stephen Crane
- The
Displaced Person, by Flannery O'Connor
- The
Golden Honeymoon, by Ring Lardner
- The
Greatest Man in the World, by James Thurber
- I'm a
Fool, by Sherwood Anderson
- The
Jilting of Granny Weatherall, by Katherine Anne Porter
- The
Jolly Corner, by Henry James
- The
Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg, by Mark Twain
- The
Music School, by John Updike
- Parker
Adderson, Philosopher, by Ambrose Bierce
- Paul's
Case, by Willa Cather
- Rappaccini's
Daughter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne
- The
Sky Is Gray, by Ernest J. Gaines
- Soldier's
Home, by Ernest Hemingway
Program 1 Almos' a Man, by
Richard Wright In this story a misunderstood black teenaged farm worker
in the rural South of the 1930s comes of age.
YEAR PRODUCED: 1977 PRODUCER: Dan McCann ADAPTATION: Leslie
Lee DIRECTOR: Stan Lathan CINEMATOGRAPHY: Tak Fujimoto CAST:
LeVar Burton, Madge Sinclair, Robert Doqui, Chistopher Brooks, Roy
Andrews, Gary Goodnow
AWARDS/FESTIVALS: American Film Festival; Columbus (OH) Film Festival,
Bronze Plaque; John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, a MacArthur
Video Classics Library selection
FORMAT: 16mm, Video (39:00)
Program 2 Barn Burning, by
William Faulkner The adolescent son of a post-Civil War sharecropper
finds himself torn between trying to win his father's acceptance and his
aversion to his father's unrelenting and violent nature.
YEAR PRODUCED: 1979 PRODUCER: Calvin Skaggs ADAPTATION: Horton
Foote DIRECTOR: Peter Werner EDITOR: Jay Freund CINEMATOGRAPHY:
Peter Sova CAST: Tommy Lee Jones, Diane Kagan, Shawn Whittington, Jimmy
Faulkner
FORMAT: 16mm, Video (41:00)
Program 3 Bernice Bobs Her
Hair, by F. Scott Fitzgerald A girl from Eau Claire, Wisconsin, is
transformed from a reticent "ugly duckling" into a successful,
sought-after vamp by her manipulative cousin.
YEAR PRODUCED: 1976 PRODUCER: Paul R. Gurian DIRECTOR/ADAPTATION:
Joan Micklin Silver EDITOR: Ralph Rosenblum CINEMATOGRAPHY: Ken Van
Sickle
CAST: Shelley Duvall, Veronica Cartwright, Bud Cort, Dennis
Christopher, Gary Springer, Lane Binkley, Polly Holliday, Mark LaMura,
Murray Moston, Patrick Byrne, Mark Newkirk, Leslie Thorsen, Claudette
Warlick
AWARDS/FESTIVALS: American Film Festival, Red Ribbon; CINE Golden
Eagle; International Short and Documentary Film Festival Award; Columbus
(OH) Film Festival, Bronze Plaque; John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur
Foundation, a MacArthur Video Classics Library selection
FORMAT: 16mm, Video (48:00)
Program 4 The Blue Hotel, by
Stephen Crane A disturbed young Swede arrives in a small Nebraska town
in the 1880s expecting the Wild West of popular dime novels, and
projecting these fears onto the hotel keeper and his fellow guests.
YEAR PRODUCED: 1975 PRODUCER: Ozzie Brown DIRECTOR: Jan
Kadar ADAPTATION: Harry M. Petrakis EDITORS: Barbara Marks, Richard
Marks CINEMATOGRAPHY: Ed Lynch CAST: David Warner, James Keach, John
Bottoms, Rex Everhart, Geddeth Smith, Thomas Aldredge, Red Sutton, Lisa
Pelikan, Cynthia Wright
FORMAT: 16mm, Video (55:00)
Program 5 The Displaced
Person, by Flannery O'Connor A conscientious but driven Polish
refugee disrupts the hierarchy of power on a Georgia farm in the 1940s.
YEAR PRODUCED: 1976 PRODUCER: Matthew N. Herman ADAPTATION:
Horton Foote DIRECTOR: Glenn Jordan EDITOR: Aaron
Stell CINEMATOGRAPHY: Ken Van Sickle CAST: Irene Worth, John
Houseman, Shirley Stoler, Lane Smith, Robert Earl Jones
FORMAT: 16mm, Video (58:00)
Program 6 The Golden
Honeymoon, by Ring Lardner Charlie and Lucy Tate, an elderly couple
from New Jersey, celebrate their fiftieth wedding anniversary in St.
Petersburg, Florida, in the 1920s. There they encounter Lucy's suitor of
fifty years past, who is vacationing with his wife.
YEAR PRODUCED: 1979 PRODUCERS: Don McCann, Whitney
Green DIRECTOR: Noel Black ADAPTATION: Frederic
Hunter CINEMATOGRAPHY: Jonathan Else CAST: Teresa Wright, James
Whitmore, Stephen Elliott, Nan Martin
AWARD: American Film Festival, Finalist
FORMAT: 16mm, Video (52:00)
Program 7 The Greatest Man in the
World, by James Thurber When an illiterate lout becomes the first
man to complete a nonstop solo flight around the world, he instantly
captures national attention, and the highest government officials strive
to make the man into a hero worthy of the adulation they would bestow.
YEAR PRODUCED: 1979 PRODUCER: Ed Lynch ASSOCIATE PRODUCER: Calvin
Skaggs DIRECTOR: Ralph Rosenblum ADAPTATION: Jeff Wanshel EDITOR:
Sandra Morse CINEMATOGRAPHY: Tony Mitchell CAST: Brad Davis, Reed
Birney, John McMartin, Howard DaSilva, Carol Kane, William Prince, Sudie
Bond
FORMAT: 16mm, Video (51:00)
Program 8 I'm a Fool, by
Sherwood Anderson At the turn of the century, a young man from Ohio,
who is serving an apprenticeship at the Sandusky racetrack, lies about his
family and position in order to impress a beautiful woman.
YEAR PRODUCED: 1975 PRODUCER: Dan McCann DIRECTOR: Noel
Black ADAPTATION: Ron Cowen EDITORS: Arnold Faderbush, Stan
Siegel CINEMATOGRAPHY: Jonathan Else CAST: Ron Howard, Santiago
Gonzalez, Amy Irving, John Light, Randi Kallan, Otis Calef, John Tidwel
AWARD: Chicago Educational Film Festival, Golden Babe
FORMAT: 16mm, Video (38:00)
Program 9 The Jilting of Granny
Weatherall, by Katherine Anne Porter On her deathbed, a proud and
once domineering matriarch reviews the successes and failures of her life.
YEAR PRODUCED: 1978 PRODUCERS: Calvin Skaggs, Phylis
Geller DIRECTOR: Randa Haines ADAPTATION: Corinne Jacker EDITOR:
Stan Warnow CINEMATOGRAPHY: Mike Fash CAST: Geraldine Fitzgerald,
Lois Smith, William Swetland
FORMAT: 16mm, Video (57:00)
Program 10 The Jolly Corner,
by Henry James An expatriate American who fled from the Civil War
returns thirty-five years later to a changed and highly commercialized
America that both attracts and repels him.
YEAR PRODUCED: 1976 PRODUCER: David B.
Appleton DIRECTOR/ADAPTATION: Arthur Barron EDITOR: Zina
Voynow CINEMATOGRAPHY: Peter Sova CAST: Fritz Weaver, Salome Jens,
Paul Sparer, Lucy Landau, Sudie Bond, James Greene, George Backman
FORMAT: 16mm, Video (43:00)
Program 11 The Man That Corrupted
Hadleyburg, by Mark Twain A mysterious stranger who was slighted by
the people of Hadleyburg years ago reappears with a scheme to test the
honesty of the town's leading citizens.
YEAR PRODUCED: 1980 PRODUCER: Christopher Lukas DIRECTOR: Ralph
Rosenblum ADAPTATION: Mark Harris EDITOR: Jay
Freund CINEMATOGRAPHY: Mike Fash CAST: Robert Preston, Fred Gwynne,
Tom Aldredge, Frances Sternhagen
AWARDS: American Film Festival, Finalist; Pacific Film Festival, Golden
Medallion
FORMAT: 16mm, Video (40:00)
Program 12 The Music School,
by John Updike A contemporary writer struggles during a
twenty-four-hour period to find a focus to his life.
YEAR PRODUCED: 1974 PRODUCER: Dan
McCann DIRECTOR/ADAPTATION/CINEMATOGRAPHY: John Korty EDITOR:
Richard Chew CAST: Ron Weyand, Dana Larsson, Tom Dahlgren, Vera Stough,
Frank Albertson, Elizabeth Huddle Nyberg, Anne Lawder
AWARDS: San Francisco Film Festival, Golden Gate Award; CINE Golden
Eagle; John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, a MacArthur Video
Classics Library selection
FORMAT: 16mm, Video (30:00)
Program 13 Parker Adderson,
Philosopher, by Ambrose Bierce A Union spy is captured behind enemy
lines at the end of the Civil War and confronts a weary Confederate
general.
YEAR PRODUCED: 1973 PRODUCER: Ozzie Brown DIRECTOR/ADAPTATION:
Arthur Barron CINEMATOGRAPHY: Paul Goldsmith CAST: Harris Yulin,
Douglass Watson, Darren O'Connor
FORMAT: 16mm, Video (39:00)
Program 14 Paul's Case, by
Willa Cather In turn-of-the-century Pittsburgh, a desperate young man
drops out of high school and, using stolen money, moves to New York to
gain entry to a world of refinement.
YEAR PRODUCED: 1979 PRODUCER: Ed Lynch DIRECTOR: Lamont
Johnson ADAPTATION: Ron Cowen EDITOR: William
Haugse CINEMATOGRAPHY: Larry Pizer CAST: Eric Roberts, Michael
Higgins, Lindsay Crouse
AWARDS: American Film Festival, Red Ribbon; American Library
Association, Selected Film for Young Adults; John D. and Catherine T.
MacArthur Foundation, a MacArthur Video Classics Library selection
FORMAT: 16mm, Video (55:00)
Program 15 Rappaccini's
Daughter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne In eighteenth-century Padua,
Italy, a young scholar falls in love with a beautiful but forbidden woman
in a strange garden.
YEAR PRODUCED: 1979 PRODUCER: Calvin Skaggs DIRECTOR: Dezso
Magyar ADAPTATION: Herbert Hartig EDITOR: Jay
Freund CINEMATOGRAPHY: Mike Fash CAST: Kristoffer Tabori, Kathleen
Beller, Michael Egan, Leonardo Cimino
AWARD: Chicago Educational Film Festival, Golden Babe
FORMAT: 16mm, Video (57:00)
Program 16 The Sky Is Gray,
by Ernest J. Gaines In the 1940s, a young black boy from rural
Louisiana encounters a variety of people and attitudes when he journeys to
Bayonne with his mother, a struggling sharecropper.
YEAR PRODUCED: 1980 PRODUCER: Whitney Green ASSOCIATE PRODUCER:
Calvin Skaggs DIRECTOR: Stan Lathan ADAPTATION: Charles
Fuller CINEMATOGRAPHY: Larry Pizer CAST: Olivia Cole, James Bond
III, Margaret Avery, Cleavon Little, Clinton Derricks-Carroll
AWARDS: American Film Festival, Blue Ribbon and Emily Award; Birmingham
International Education Film Festival, Best of Festival; Chicago
Educational Film Festival, Golden Babe; Cleveland Instructional Film
Festival, Top Twenty Award; American Library Association, Selected Film
for Young Adults
FORMAT: 16mm, Video (47:00)
Program 17 Soldier's Home, by
Ernest Hemingway After service in World War I, a soldier returns to
Kansas, where he struggles with a pervasive sense of alienation from his
neighbors and family.
YEAR PRODUCED: 1976 PRODUCER: David B. Appleton DIRECTOR: Robert
Young ADAPTATION: Robert Geller EDITOR: Ed Beyer CINEMATOGRAPHY:
Peter Sova CAST: Richard Backus, Nancy Marchand, Robert McIlwaine, Lisa
Essary, Mark LaMura, Lane Binkley, Robert Hitt, Philip Oxnam, Robert
Nichols, Mark Hall, Tom Kubiak, Brian Utman
AWARDS/FESTIVALS: Chicago International Film Festival, Silver Hugo;
American Film Festival, Final Competition Selection; John D. and Catherine
T. MacArthur Foundation, a MacArthur Video Classics Library selection
FORMAT: 16mm, Video (42:00)
SERIES PRODUCTION ORGANIZATION: Learning in Focus, Inc., NY YEARS
PRODUCED: 1973-80 SERIES EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Robert Geller
SERIES AWARD: George Foster Peabody Award
FORMAT: 16mm, Video (all 17 titles)
SERIES DISTRIBUTORS:
Coronet/MTI
Film and Video, Inc.
Monterey
Movie Company (home video)
Documentary
The series is comprised of six themes—themes of infinite consequence to Americans past and present: The American Dream, the series pilot, explores how novelists have dealt with money and class, wealth, poverty and the nature of success and failure in America; From Melting Pot to Mosaic considers the immigrant novel as a window into America's cultural and economic history; The Color Line sees how American novelists have dealt with the issue of race, as our fiction evolved to encompass a range of multi-ethnic voices; Crises of Faith looks at novels that examined religion, the rebellion against it, and the search for meaning and moral guidelines in the modern world; Violence illustrates how stories of violence and terror enable Americans to grapple with—and perhaps lay to rest—some of the most painful memories of our collective history; Sex and Taboos surveys works of fiction that pushed limits or stirred controversy, including the tensions sometimes caused by today's almost total freedom of literary expression.
PRODUCTION ORGANIZATION: WNET/Thirteen, New York, NY
YEAR PRODUCED: 2007
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Susan Lacy
PRODUCERS: Michael Epstein, Elena Manes, Susan Steinberg, Julie Sacks, Robert Seidman
DIRECTORS/WRITERS: Michael Epstein, Elena Manes, Susan Steinberg, Robert Seidman
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Michael Chin, Buddy Squires, Terry Hopkins, Tony Hardmon
EDITOR: Ed Barteski
NARRATORS: Marck Dold, Sioux Madden, Tom Hammond, Terry Greiss, Ebony Jo-Ann, Malachy Cleary, Geraldine Guo
PRINT MATERIALS: One Page Thirteen/WNET
FORMAT: Video 2 hours each
DISTRIBUTOR: WNET/Thirteen
...And the Earth Did Not Swallow Him
Drama
Based on Tomas Rivera's classic novel "...y no se lo trago la
tierra," this film tells the story of twelve year old Marcos Gonzalez,
his migrant worker family, and a Chicano farm labor community in South
Texas.
PRODUCTION ORGANIZATION: KPBS-TV, San Diego State University, San
Diego, CA YEAR PRODUCED: 1994
EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: Paul Espinosa, Lindsay Law PRODUCER: Paul
Espinosa DIRECTOR/WRITER: Severo Perez CINEMATOGRAPHY: Virgil
Harper EDITOR: Susan Heick, Howard Heard NARRATOR: Miguel
Rodriquez CAST: Jose Alcala, Rose Portillo, Marco Rodriguez, Daniel
Valdez, Lupe Ontiveros, Sal Lopez, Art Bonilla, Evelyn Guerrero, Sam
Vlahos
AWARDS/FESTIVALS: Santa Barbara International Film Festival, Best of
the Festival Audience Award; San Antonio Cine Festival, Best Feature;
Cairo International Film Festival, Best Director; San Diego Filmmakers
Showcase, Best Feature; San Sebastian (Spain) International Film
Festival; Mill Valley Film Festival; Festival of New Latin American
Cinema, Havana, Cuba; Hampton's International Film Festival, Long
Island, New York; San Jose (CA) Cinequest International Festival; USA
Film Festival, Dallas; Independent Feature Project Screening (NYC);
Kennedy Center (DC), Hispanic Academy of Arts and Sciences Screening;
Director's Guild of America, Special Screening; Rimini (Italy) Cinema
Festival; Cruzando Fronteras Film Fest and Smithsonian Institution
Screening, Washington, DC; California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation
Screenings (Sacramento, Riverside, Long Beach); Annual Tom s Rivera
Conference Screening (Riverside, CA)
FORMAT: Video (100:00)
DISTRIBUTOR: Kino
International
Radio Series (Drama and Documentary) This twelve-part
series presents American poets, playwrights, fiction writers, and
essayists through critical commentary and dramatic presentation of the
authors' works.
Program 1 Literature of the Black Experience This
program considers African-American writing from the deep South to New York
City, from the Harlem Renaissance to today. Writers included are W.E.B.
DuBois, Langston Hughes, Ralph Ellison, Richard Wright, Alice Walker, and
Amiri Baraka.
READINGS: Christopher Moore, Al Freeman, Amiri Baraka, Carl
Lumbly COMMENTARIES: Julian Bond, Owen Dodson, Alice Walker, Amiri
Baraka
Program 2 Socio-Political Literature This segment
explores the many forms that social and political commentary has taken in
American literature, including autobiographies, addresses, memoirs,
fiction, and poetry. Among the works considered are those by Thomas
Jefferson, Margaret Fuller, Henry Adams, Emma Goldman, W.E.B. DuBois, and
Theodore Dreiser, as well as literature of the Vietnam War.
READINGS: Frances Sternhagen, Jason Robards, Jr., William Hurt, Marsha
Jean Kurtz, Christopher Moore, Harris Yulin, Tim O'Brien COMMENTARIES:
Ann Douglas, Otto Freidrich, Leo Marx, Richard Drinnon, Julian Bond,
Alfred Kazin, James West, Peter Marin
Program 3 Cross-Currents of American Life As
American literature has broken away from British traditions, its diversity
has increased to include Native American, Jewish, Chicano, and other
immigrant experiences. Among the selections are writings by Alfred Kazin,
Ralph Ellison, James Welch, and Gary Soto.
READINGS: Eli Wallach, Richard Bauer, Laura Esterman, June
Gable COMMENTARIES: Irving Howe, Pietro Di Donato, James Welch, Gary
Soto
Program 4 Four Generations of Women Poets Spanning
nearly three hundred years of American literature, this program includes
sketches of Anne Bradstreet, Emily Dickinson, Marianne Moore, Muriel
Rukeyser, Louise Bogan, and Denise Levertov.
READINGS: Charlotte Moore, Frances Sternhagen, Diane Wiest, Muriel
Rukeyser, Marian Seldes, Denise Levertov COMMENTARIES: Ann Stanford,
Alfred Kazin, Jeffrey Kindley, Carolyn Kizer, Denise Levertov
Program 5 Women's Fiction Selections from the
following five writers provide a sense of the wide range of styles of
women's fiction of the twentieth century: Edith Wharton, Gertrude Stein,
Ellen Glasgow, Carson McCullers, Joyce Carol Oates, and Katherine Anne
Porter.
READINGS: Ann Stone, Frances Sternhagen, William Hurt, James
Cunningham, Susan Sarandon COMMENTARIES: Cynthia Wolfe, Alfred Kazin,
Virginia Spencer Carr, Ellen Friedman, Jane de Mouy
Programs 6 and 7 Modern American Poets These two
programs trace important developments in modern American poetry.
Program 6 features Emily Dickinson, James Russell Lowell, Amy Lowell,
Wallace Stevens, and Adrienne Rich.
Program 7 features Walt Whitman, Stephen Crane, Langston Hughes,
Marianne Moore, Archibald MacLeish, and William Carlos Williams.
READINGS: Frances Sternhagen, Adrienne Rich, Ed Hermann, Maureen
Anderman, Sam Waterston, Mark Hammer, William Atherton, Al Freeman, Diane
Wiest, Micahel Moriarty, Michael Tolan COMMENTARIES: Alfred Kazin,
Peter Brazeau, Justin Kaplan, James Culvert, Owen Dodson, Jeffrey Kindley,
Archibald MacLeish, Reed Whittemore
Programs 8-12 American Prose The rest of the
series surveys twenty of America's most widely read authors and discusses
their significance to our literary tradition.
Program 8 features Ernest Hemingway, Stephen Crane, James Jones, and
Raymond Chandler.
Program 9 concentrates on Mark Twain, John Dos Passos, Henry Miller,
and Jack Kerouac.
Program 10 features Edith Wharton, Thomas Wolfe, Randall Jarrell, and
Carson McCullers.
Program 11 includes Herman Melville, Theodore Dreiser, Zane Grey, and
Joyce Carol Oates.
Program 12 features Jack London, Eugene O'Neill, James Agee, and
Delmore Schwartz.
READINGS: Peter Weller, William Atherton, James Jones, Paul Dooley, Len
Cariou, Mark Hammer, William Hurt, John Heard, Sam Waterston, Ann Stone,
Frances Sternhagen, Tammy Grimes, George Hearn, Harris Yulin, James
Cunningham, Henderson Forsythe
COMMENTARIES: Leslie Fiedler, James Culvert, Gloria Jones, Willie
Morris, Frank McShane, Alfred Kazin, Dennis McNally, Townsend Luddington,
James Atlas, Cynthia Wolfe, Virginia Spencer Carr, Ruth Matthewson, Mary
Jarrell, James West, Ellen Friedman, Barbara Gelb, Mia Agee
SERIES PRODUCTION ORGANIZATION: National Public Radio, Washington,
DC YEAR PRODUCED: 1981 (first broadcast on NPR's Morning
Edition) EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Joe Gwathmey PRODUCER/DIRECTOR: Jo
Ellyn Rackleff, Wendy Blair WRITER: Jo Ellyn Rackleff NARRATOR: Bob
Edwards
FORMAT: Audiocassette 12 (45:00) programs
DISTRIBUTOR: Currently unavailable
Dramatic and Documentary SeriesBeckett Directs
Beckett is a three-part program that features dramatizations of
Waiting for Godot and Krapp's Last Tape by Nobel laureate
Samuel Beckett (1906–89). It includes behind the scenes footage,
interviews, and a roundtable discussion with scholars and theater
professionals.
Program 1 Waiting for Godot (1955) dramatizes the
human condition through the plight of Vladimir and Estragon, who pass the
time on the road as they wait in vain for the arrival of Godot.
YEAR PRODUCED: 1988 PRODUCERS: Mitchell Lifton, Jean-Pierre
Cottet ASSOCIATE PRODUCER: John Fuegi WRITER: Samuel
Beckett DIRECTOR: Walter D. Asmus from the mise-en-scene by Samuel
Beckett WRITER: Samuel Beckett DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: Daniel
Vogel CINEMATOGRAPHY: Luc Herve, Guy Kartagener, Jean-Louis Angelini,
Roger Wrona EDITORS: Jacques Audoir, Christian Martin CAST: The San
Quentin Drama Workshop, featuring Rick Cluchey, Lawrence Held, Bud Thorpe,
Alan Mandell, Louis Beckett Cluchey
AWARD: American Film and Video Festival, Blue Ribbon
PRINT MATERIAL: Study Guide forthcoming from Smithsonian Press
FORMAT: Video (150:00) on two cassettes French version with
different cast also available
Program 2 Krapp's Last Tape (1958) concerns an old
man, who reviews his life by listening to a recording he made at age 39
summarizing another tape made ten or fifteen years earlier. At each stage,
Krapp sees the foolishness of his earlier self but not the fool he
presently is.
YEAR PRODUCED: 1988 EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: John Fuegi PRODUCERS:
Mitchell Lifton, Jean-Pierre Cottet DIRECTOR: Walter D. Asmus from the
mise-en-scene by Samuel Beckett DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: Daniel
Vogel CINEMATOGRAPHY: Tom Arnold, Francis Guilbert, Jean-Marc
Zilbering EDITOR: Christian Martin CAST: Rick Cluchey
PRINT MATERIAL: Study Guide available
FORMAT: Video (60:00) French version with different cast also
available
Program 3 Beckett and the Television Text is a
roundtable discussion with scholars about Beckett's ideas for the staging
of the plays and about the nature of "television texts."
YEAR PRODUCED: 1988 PRODUCERS: Mitchell Lifton, John Fuegi,
Jean-Pierre Cottet DIRECTOR: Jacques Audoir DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY:
Daniel Vogel CINEMATOGRAPHY: Luc Herve, Guy Kartagener, Jean-Louis
Angelini, Roger Wrona EDITOR: Christian Martin MODERATOR: John
Fuegi, University of Maryland, College Park PARTICIPANTS: Herbert Blau,
theater director, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee; Dr. Martin Esslin,
Stanford University; Dr. Robert Corrigan, University of Texas, Dallas; and
Dr. Kathleen Woodward, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
PRINT MATERIAL: Study Guide available
FORMAT: Video (27:00) Available only as part of Beckett Directs
Beckett package
PRODUCTION ORGANIZATIONS: The University of Maryland Visual Press,
College Park, MD, in association with WGBH, Boston, MA; Cameras
Continentales, La SEPT, Société Française de Production (SFP), and FR3,
Paris, France; and Radioteleviseo Portuguesa-E.P. (RTP), Lisbon,
Portugal YEAR PRODUCED: 1988 SERIES PRODUCERS: Mitchell Lifton,
Jean-Pierre Cottet, John Fuegi
FORMAT: Video (see individual listings)
DISTRIBUTOR: Smithsonian
Institution Press
Radio Series (Drama and Documentary)This five-part series
presents American premiere productions of all the extant radio plays of
Samuel Beckett (1906–89). Each drama is introduced by a host and
accompanied by a short interpretive documentary that includes interviews
and discussions.
Program 1 All That Fall (1957) Maddy Rooney's
laborious trip to the Boghill railway station to meet her blind husband
and their return home together.
PRODUCTION ORGANIZATIONS: Soundscape, Inc., Alexandria, VA; Voices
International, New York, NY; and RIAS, Berlin, Germany YEAR PRODUCED:
1986 PROJECT DIRECTOR: Louise Cleveland PROJECT ORIGINATOR: Martha
Fehsenfeld DIRECTOR/PRODUCER: Everett C. Frost ASSOCIATE PRODUCER:
Faith Wilding WRITER: Samuel Beckett STUDIO SOUND EFFECTS: Charles
Potter RECORDING ENGINEER: Mike Moran PRODUCTION ENGINEER: David
Rapkin HOST: Henry Strozier CAST: Billie Whitelaw, David Warrilow,
Alvin Epstein, Jerome Kilty, George Bartenieff, Susan
Willis COMMENTARY: Desmond Briscoe, Everett Frost, Billie Whitelaw,
Richard Ellman, Linda Ben-Zvi, Enoch Brater, Hersh Zeifman, David Hesla
AWARDS/FESTIVALS: New York International Radio Festival, Gold Medal,
Best Drama Special; Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Honorable
Mention, Arts and Humanities Programming
FORMAT: Audiocassette (120:00) 2 (60:00) tapes: drama (89:00);
documentary (31:00)
Program 2 Embers (1959) Henry sits on the beach
talking to his dead father who has drowned and does not answer, and to his
wife Ada, who does.
PRODUCTION ORGANIZATION: Voices International, New York, NY YEAR
PRODUCED: 1989 DIRECTOR/PRODUCER: Everett C. Frost DOCUMENTARY
PRODUCER: Charles Potter ASSOCIATE PRODUCER: Faith Wilding WRITER:
Samuel Beckett PANEL ENGINEER: Peter Novis SEA SOUND EFFECTS: Liam
Saurin RECORDED SOUND EFFECTS: Bert Coules SOUND EFFECTS: Mike
Etherden PRODUCTION ENGINEER: Stephen Erickson HOST: Henry
Strozier CAST: Barry McGovern, Billie Whitelaw COMMENTARY: Barbara
Bray, Barry McGovern, Ruby Cohn, Linda Ben-Zvi
AWARDS/FESTIVALS: New York International Radio Festival, Gold Medal
FORMAT: Audiocassette (60:00) 1 tape: drama (48:00); documentary
(12:00)
Program 3 Words and Music (1962) Words, called
Bob, and Music, called Joe, are forced to collaborate by the club-wielding
Croak and under duress they produce two exquisite lyric poems.
PRODUCTION ORGANIZATIONS: Voices International, New York, NY, and WDR,
Cologne, Germany YEAR PRODUCED: 1986 DIRECTOR/PRODUCER: Everett C.
Frost DOCUMENTARY AND SOUND EFFECTS PRODUCER: Charles
Potter ASSOCIATE PRODUCER: Faith Wilding WRITER: Samuel
Beckett RECORDING AND PRODUCTION ENGINEER: Mike Moran COMPOSER:
Morton Feldman MUSIC: The Bowery Ensemble, conducted by Nils
Vigeland HOST: Henry Strozier CAST: David Warrilow, Alvin
Epstein COMMENTARY: Morton Feldman, Everett Frost, Linda Ben-Zvi,
Maurice Beja
FORMAT: Audiocassette (60:00) 1 tape: drama (40:00); documentary and
commentary (20:00)
Program 4 Cascando (1963) In this play, an Opener
"opens" and "closes" two characters; Voice desperately promises to tell a
story he can finish; and Music equally struggles to create a finished
composition.
PRODUCTION ORGANIZATIONS: Voices International, New York, NY, and WDR,
Cologne, Germany YEAR PRODUCED: 1989 DIRECTOR/PRODUCER: Everett C.
Frost DOCUMENTARY PRODUCER: Charles Potter ASSOCIATE PRODUCER: Faith
Wilding RECORDING AND PRODUCTION ENGINEERS: Mike Moran, Tony May,
Stephen Erickson HOST: Henry Strozier CAST: Fred Neumann, Alvin
Epstein COMMENTARY: Alvin Epstein, William Kraft, Thomas Bishop, Porter
Abbot COMPOSER: William Kraft MUSIC: Speculum Musicae, conducted by
William Kraft
FORMAT: Audiocassette (60:00) 1 tape: drama (18:00); documentary
(12:00); discussion by Beckett scholars (30:00)
Program 5 Rough for Radio II (1976) An Animator,
assisted by a Stenographer and the whip-wielding mute character Dick, has
the task of eliciting from Fox some unknown testimony of unknown
significance.
PRODUCTION ORGANIZATION: Voices International, New York, NY YEAR
PRODUCED: 1989 DIRECTOR/PRODUCER: Everett C. Frost DOCUMENTARY &
SOUND EFFECTS PRODUCER: Charles Potter ASSOCIATE PRODUCER: Faith
Wilding RECORDING ENGINEER: Mike Moran PRODUCTION ENGINEER: Stephen
Erickson HOST: Henry Strozier CAST: W. Dennis Hunt, Amanda Plummer,
Barry McGovern, Charles Potter COMMENTARY: Barry McGovern, Everett
Frost, Rosette Lamont
FORMAT: Audiocassette (60:00) 1 tape: drama (24:00); documentary
(6:00); discussion by Beckett scholars (30:00)
SERIES ORIGINATOR: Martha Fehsenfeld PROJECT DIRECTOR FOR THE
BECKETT FESTIVAL OF RADIO PLAYS: Everett C. Frost PROJECT DIRECTOR
FOR ALL THAT FALL: Louise Cleveland
SERIES AWARD: Gabriel Award SERIES FORMAT: Audiocassette (360:00)
Five programs on six tapes: All That Fall, 2 (60:00); Programs
2-5 (60:00 each)
DISTRIBUTOR: Pacifica
Program Service/Radio Archive
DocumentarySet against a backdrop of American history,
this film tells the story of the creation of Mark Twain’s celebrated
novel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and its century of
controversy. No American novel has been attacked by the public as long as
Huck Finn. In Twain’s time, Huck was said to threaten public
morality and childhood innocence. In our time, the book has been charged
with demeaning African Americans and perpetuating racism. In the
documentary, the connections between race, culture, politics, and morality
are evoked as the film chronicles Twain’s literary genius and influences
along with a retelling of the novel’s plot and a vérité look at the recent
crusade of a mother and daughter in Tempe, Arizona, to remove Huck
from high school required reading lists.
PRODUCTION ORGANIZATION: WGBH, Boston, MA YEAR PRODUCED:
2000 PRODUCER/DIRECTOR: Jill Janows WRITERS: Jill Janows, Leslie
Lee CINEMATOGRAPHY: Richard Dallett, Robb Moss EDITOR: Jon
Neuburger NARRATOR: Courtney B. Vance CAST: Voice of Mark Twain, Ken
Richters; Voice of Huck Finn, Colin Welch
PRINT MATERIALS: Teaching guide available through WGBH, Educational
Print & Outreach, 125 Western Ave., Boston, MA, 02134; Coursepack
available through PBS Video.
FORMAT: Video (90:00)
DISTRIBUTOR: PBS
Video
DramaThe Cafeteria is an adaptation of a story by
Isaac Bashevis Singer (1904-1991), which portrays the experience of two
refugees in the United States, a European-born writer and a young
Holocaust survivor.
PRODUCTION ORGANIZATIONS: Amram Nowak Associates, Inc., and Isaac in
America Foundation, New York, NY YEAR PRODUCED: 1983 (first broadcast
on American Playhouse) EXECUTIVE PRODUCER/DIRECTOR: Amram
Nowak ASSOCIATE PRODUCER: Kirk Simon ADAPTATION: Ernest
Kinoy CINEMATOGRAPHY: Jerry Pantzer EDITOR: Jason
Rosenfield CAST: Zohra Lampert, Bob Dishy, Morris Carnovsky
AWARDS/FESTIVALS: CINE Golden Eagle: American Film Festival, Honorable
Mention; San Francisco Film Festival; San Francisco Jewish Film Festival;
John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, a MacArthur Video Classics
Library selection
FORMAT: Video (58:00)
DISTRIBUTOR: Direct
Cinema Limited
Documentary and Drama Through a mix of dramatic vignettes,
archival material, and poetry readings, this film explores the life of
Carl Sandburg (1878-1967), American poet, folk singer, novelist,
journalist, social activist, and biographer of Lincoln.
PRODUCTION ORGANIZATION: WNET/13, New York, NY YEAR PRODUCED:
1982 EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Jac Venza PRODUCER/DIRECTOR: Perry Miller
Adato WRITER: Paul Shyre MUSIC: Scott Kuney CAST: John Cullum,
Frances Conroy, Michael Higgins
AWARDS: Directors Guild of America, Pinnacle Award for Television
Documentary; Matrix Award for Broadcasting; Women in Communication,
Achievement in Television Documentary
FORMAT: 16mm, Video (120:00)
DISTRIBUTOR: Currently unavailable
Radio Series (Documentary and Drama)Centennial
Faulkner is a three-hour series marking the one hundredth anniversary
of William Faulkner's birth. Each of the one-hour programs examines a
different aspect of Faulkner and his work and includes a radio drama
adapted from a Faulkner short story. Hosted by Stacy Keach, it features
interviews with Shelby Foote and other writers and critics.
Program 1 Spotted Horses Looks at Faulkner as a
renegade writer critic of Southern culture.
Program 2 Honor Sees Faulkner as a born
storyteller. The dramatized story is typical of Faulkner's more commercial
fiction.
Program 3 Mountain Victory Examines the current
debate over Faulkner's treatment of women and African Americans. The
dramatization is a dark brooding story that takes place in the wake of the
Civil War.
PRODUCTION ORGANIZATION: Foundation for New Media, Inc. YEAR
PRODUCED: 1997 EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Robert Clem DIRECTOR/WRITER:
Robert Clem EDITORS: Donald Stark, David Rapkin HOST/NARRATOR:
Stacy Keach CAST: Campbell Scott, David Strathairn, Betty Buckley,
Jeffery Wright, Hope Davis, Michael O'Keefe, Will Patton, Jeff DeMunn,
Lois Smith
FORMAT: Video 3 (58:00) programs
DISTRIBUTOR: New
Media/Waterfront
Classic Theatre: The Humanities in Drama and
Classic Theatre Previews
Dramatic and Documentary SeriesClassic Theatre: The
Humanities in Drama is a BBC-produced series of thirteen great English
and European plays from the Renaissance to the twentieth century. All the
dramas are accompanied by half-hour documentaries which, taken together,
form a series called Classic Theatre Previews. The Endowment
supported the selection, acquisition, and broadcast of the BBC plays and
production of the accompanying documentaries.
- The
Tragedy of Macbeth (1606), by William Shakespeare
- Edward
the Second (1593), by Christopher Marlowe
- The
Duchess of Malfi (c. 1614), by John Webster
- Paradise
Restored
- She
Stoops to Conquer (1773), by Oliver Goldsmith
- Candide
(1759), by Voltaire
- The
Rivals (1775), by Richard Brinsley Sheridan
- The
Wild Duck (1884), by Henrik Ibsen
- Hedda
Gabler (1890), by Henrik Ibsen
- Trelawny
of the "Wells" (1898), by Arthur Wing Pinero
- The
Three Sisters (1901), by Anton Chekhov
- The
Playboy of the Western World (1907), by John Millington Synge
- Mrs.
Warren's Profession (1893), by George Bernard Shaw
Program 1 The Tragedy of Macbeth (1606),
by William Shakespeare Set in Scotland, this play is a classic study of
ambition, murder, and remorse.
PRODUCER: Cedric Messina DIRECTOR: John Gorrie CAST: Eric Porter,
Janet Suzman, John Alderton, Michael Goodliffe, John Thaw, John Woodvine
Classic Theatre Preview with Shakespeare scholar S. Schoenbaum of
Northwestern University.
Program 2 Edward the Second
(1593), by Christopher Marlowe King Edward, a confused, weak, and
foolish man ruled by personal passions, is ennobled in a horrifying death.
PRODUCER: Mark Shivas DIRECTOR: Tony Robertson CAST: Ian
McKellen, Timothy West, Diane Fletcher, James Laurenson
Classic Theatre Preview with Clifford Leech of the University of
Connecticut at Storrs.
Program 3 The Duchess of Malfi
(c. 1614), by John Webster Obsessed by his love for the Duchess, her
brother Ferdinand imprisons her and subjects her to mental torture after
she marries her steward.
PRODUCER: Cedric Messina DIRECTOR: James MacTaggart CAST: Eileen
Atkins, Michael Bryant, Charles Kay, T.P. McKenna, Gary Bond
Classic Theatre Preview with Michael Goldman of Queens College.
Program 4 Paradise Restored
Based on the life and work of the English poet and author John Milton
(1608-1674), this dramatization portrays some of the personal triumphs and
defeats that lie behind Paradise Lost, his epic poem on the fall of man.
DIRECTOR/WRITER: Don Taylor CAST: John Neville, Polly James, Anne
Stallybrass
Classic Theatre Preview with Judith A. Kates of Harvard University.
Program 5 She Stoops to Conquer
(1773), by Oliver Goldsmith When Young Marlow, a bashful young man who
feels at ease only with serving girls, mistakes Mr. Hardcastle's house for
an inn, Miss Hardcastle takes advantage of the situation by posing as a
barmaid.
PRODUCER: Cedric Messina DIRECTOR: Michael Elliott CAST: Sir
Ralph Richardson, Tom Courtenay, Thora Hird, Juliet Mills, Elaine Taylor
Classic Theatre Preview with William Appleton of Columbia University.
Program 6 Candide (1759), by
Voltaire This is a dramatic adaptation of the philosophical novel which
satirizes the optimistic creed of Leibnitz: "All is for the best in this
best of all possible worlds," through the story of young Candide, and his
series of misadventures.
PRODUCER: Cedric Messina DIRECTOR/ADAPTATION/TRANSLATION: James
MacTaggart CAST: Frank Finlay, Ian Ogilvy
Classic Theatre Preview with Georges May of Yale University.
Program 7 The Rivals (1775), by
Richard Brinsley Sheridan This comedy of double identity features the
legendary Mrs. Malaprop.
PRODUCER: Cedric Messina DIRECTOR: Basil Coleman CAST: John
Alderton, Jeremy Brett, Andrew Cruikshank, Beryl Reid, Jenny Linden, T.P.
McKenna
Classic Theatre Preview with William Appleton of Columbia University.
Program 8 The Wild Duck (1884),
by Henrik Ibsen A guilt-ridden loner and idealist sets out to
rehabilitate an impoverished but basically compatible family, destroying
the props of illusion that sustain their common existence.
PRODUCER: Cedric Messina DIRECTOR: Alan Bridges TRANSLATION: Rolf
Fjelde CAST: Denholm Elliott, Derek Godfrey, Mark Digham, Rosemary
Leach, John Robinson, Jenny Agutter
Classic Theatre Preview with Rolf Fjelde of Pratt Institute and the
Juilliard School of Music.
Program 9 Hedda Gabler (1890),
by Henrik Ibsen Married to a pedantic scholar for whom she has no
affection and living in a small, slow, backward Norwegian town of the
1860s, Hedda devises schemes for subtly asserting power over the people
who come into her life.
PRODUCER: Cedric Messina DIRECTOR: Waris Hussein TRANSLATION:
Michael Meyer CAST: Janet Suzman, Ian McKellen, Tom Bell, Jane Asher,
Dorothy Reynolds
Classic Theatre Preview with Eva Le Gallienne, actress and translator
of Ibsen as well as cofounder of the American Repertory Theater.
Program 10 Trelawny of the
"Wells" (1898), by Arthur Wing Pinero In this play about the
social acceptability of the stage, the actress heroine breaks her
engagement to a young aristocrat to return to the theater Undaunted, he
follows and becomes an actor.
PRODUCER: Cedric Messina DIRECTOR: Herbert Wise CAST: John
Alderton, Moira Taylor, Roland Culver, Elaine Taylor, Lally Bowers, Graham
Crowden, Ian Ogilvy, Rachel Kempson, Elizabeth Seal
Classic Theatre Preview with Jane W. Stedman of Roosevelt University.
Program 11 The Three Sisters
(1901), by Anton Chekhov Through the experience of three sisters and
their suitors, this play explores the need for illusion as a means of
coping with a profoundly dispiriting reality.
PRODUCER: Gerald Savory DIRECTOR: Cedric Messina TRANSLATOR:
Elisaveta Fen CAST: Janet Suzman, Eileen Atkins, Michele Dotrice,
Anthony Hopkins, Michael Bryant, Joss Ackland, Sarah Badel, Ronald Hines,
Richard Pearson
Classic Theatre Preview with Victor Erlich of Yale University.
Program 12 The Playboy of the
Western World (1907), by John Millington Synge A playboy claims to
have killed his tyrannical father and is lionized by the villagers for his
boldness until his father arrives to reclaim his errant son.
PRODUCER: Cedric Messina DIRECTOR: Alan Gibson CAST: John Hurt,
Sinead Cusack, Pauline Delany, Joe Lynch, Donal McCann
Classic Theatre Preview with Ann Saddlemyer of the University of
Toronto.
Program 13 Mrs. Warren's
Profession (1893), by George Bernard Shaw To the horror of her
daughter, Mrs. Warren runs a chain of brothels in the capitals of Europe
because it offers good hours, good money, and a chance for advancement
otherwise unavailable to women.
PRODUCER: Cedric Messina DIRECTOR: Herbert Wise CAST: Coral
Browne, Penelope Wilton, James Grout, Derek Godfrey, Robert Powell,
Richard Pearson
Classic Theatre Preview with Dan H. Laurence, literary advisor to the
estate of George Bernard Shaw.
For Classic Theatre Previews and American Presentation of the
Programs: PRODUCTION ORGANIZATION: WGBH, Boston, MA YEAR CLASSIC
THEATRE ACQUIRED & PREVIEWS PRODUCED: 1975 PROJECT DIRECTOR:
Michael Rice SERIES PRODUCER: Joan Sullivan ASSOCIATE PRODUCER:
Monia Joblin DIRECTOR: David Atwood RESEARCHER: Elizabeth
Deane MUSIC COMPOSED/CONDUCTED BY: Joseph Payne VIDEOGRAPHY: Bill
Charrette, Dick Holden, F.X. Lane, Larry LeCain, Greg MacDonald, Lee
Smith, Skip Warehan, Bob Wilson
FORMAT: Video Dramas: Programs 1,11 (150:00); Programs
2,3,5,7-10,12,13 (120:00); Programs 4,6 (90:00) Documentary Previews:
13 (28:00) programs
DISTRIBUTOR: Public
Media Inc. (plays only available)
DocumentaryShot over a three-year period, this film looks
at the life and work of American poet Robert Creeley (b.1926).
PRODUCTION ORGANIZATION: Documentary Research, Inc., Buffalo,
NY YEAR PRODUCED: 1988 PRODUCERS/DIRECTORS/WRITERS/EDITORS: Diane
Christian, Bruce Jackson CINEMATOGRAPHY: Bruce Jackson INTERVIEWS:
Alan Ginsberg, Ed Dorn, Diane Di Prima, Philip Whalen, Stan Brakhage, and
others
FORMAT: 16mm, Video (59:00)
DISTRIBUTOR: contact Documentary
Research, Inc.
Dramatic Radio SeriesThis nine-part dramatization of the
novel by Nikolai Gogol (1809-1852) follows the comic life of a Russian man
and his preposterous scheme to enrich himself.
PRODUCTION ORGANIZATION: Globe Radio Repertory, Seattle, WA YEAR
PRODUCED: 1987 PRODUCERS/WRITERS: Jean Sherrard, John
Siscoe DIRECTOR: Jean Sherrard CAST: John Gilbert, Ted D'Arms,
Marjorie Nelson, John Aylward, Mark Drusch COMMENTARY: Donald Farger,
Harvard University; Willis Konick, University of Washington
FORMAT: Audiocassette 9 (30:000) programs
DISTRIBUTOR: University
of Washington Press
Dramatic Radio Series This thirteen-part adaptation of the
novel by Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616) tells the story of an
impoverished country gentleman who is convinced by reading tales of
chivalry that he should become a knight errant.
PRODUCTION ORGANIZATION: Globe Radio Repertory, Seattle, WA YEAR
PRODUCED: 1985 PRODUCERS/WRITERS: Jean Sherrard, John
Siscoe DIRECTOR: Jean Sherrard CAST: Ted D'Arms, John Aylward, Glenn
Mazen, Marjorie Nelson, JohnGilbert
PRINT MATERIAL: Study guide (24 pages) by Professors George Shipley,
University of Washington; and Carrol Johnson, University of California,
Los Angeles
FORMAT: Video 13 (30:00) programs
DISTRIBUTOR: University
of Washington Press
Documentary Do You Speak American?, hosted by
journalist and writer Robert MacNeil is an exploration of Americans as
seen and heard through the way we speak. It examines the vibrant, dynamic,
and some times controversial ways Americans speak English and the
inextricable link between our language and the broader cultural issues of
race, gender, social standing and power. The film covers topics such as
Ebonics, Spanglish, Hip-Hop and the English-only movement.
PRODUCTION ORGANIZATION: MacNeil/Lehrer Productions, Arlington,
VA YEAR PRODUCED: 2005 EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Susan Mills, Jody Shef,
Clive Syddall PRODUCER/DIRECTOR: William Cran WRITERS: William Cran,
Robert MacNeil CINEMATOGRAPHY: Alan Palmer EDITORS: Joe
Frost NARRATOR: Robert MacNeil
PRINT MATERIALS: MacNeil/Lehrer Productions website, www.pbs.org/speak
FORMAT: Video 3 one-hour programs DISTRIBUTOR: PBS
Video
Documentary and Drama This program examines the life and
work of American writer, poet, and critic Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849). It
also includes dramatized sequences from several of his works.
PRODUCTION ORGANIZATIONS: Film Odyssey, Inc., Washington, DC, in
association with American Masters/WNET, New York, NY YEAR PRODUCED:
1995 (first broadcast on American Masters) PRODUCER/WRITER:
Karen Thomas EDITOR: Mark Muheim DIRECTOR OF DRAMATIC SEQUENCES:
Joyce Chopra EDITORS/DRAMATIC SEQUENCES: Mark Muheim, Joe
Gutowski ASSOCIATE PRODUCERS: Elizabeth Keyishian, Robert J. Sloane,
Cindy E.Vaughn CONTRIBUTING WRITERS: Kenneth Silverman, Daniel Blake
Smith CINEMATOGRAPHY: James Glennon (drama), Dyanna Taylor
(documentary), Erich Roland and Foster Wiley (additional
cinematography) NARRATOR: Ruby Dee EXECUTIVE PRODUCER for
American Masters: Susan Lacy CAST:
- The Tell Tale Heart: Treat Williams, Eric Christmas;
- The Cask of Amontillado (story adapted by Joyce Chopra; music
by Philip Glass): John Heard, Rene Auberjonois;
- Dramatic Recreations: Anthony Maggio as Edgar Allan Poe, Eric
Christmas, Sky Rumph, Pam Van Sant, Devyn Puett, Marianne Mullerleile,
Robert Dowdell, Val Bettin
INTERVIEWS: Philip Glass, Richard Wilbur,
Robert Regan, Joyce Carol Oates, Kenneth Silverman, Ira Levin, Stephen
Nissenbaum, Alfred Kazin, Patrick Quinn
FORMAT: Video (58:00); Cask of Amontillado also available in
single 16-minute version
DISTRIBUTOR: PBS
Video
Dramatic Series This three-part series presents the life
and work of Edith Wharton (l862-1937), whose long and prolific career
included novels, short stories, novellas, poetry, travel books, and
memoirs.
Program 1 The House of Mirth dramatizes Wharton's
novel about Lily Bart, a charming but penniless member of
turn-of-the-century New York society who is intent on marrying a rich
and socially prominent man.
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Jack Willis COPRODUCERS: Daniel A. Bohr,
Dorothy Cullman DIRECTOR: Adrian Hall ADAPTATION: Adrian Hall,
Richard Cumming CINEMATOGRAPHY: Paul Goldsmith, Hart Perry EDITOR:
Charlotte Zwerin CAST: Geraldine Chaplin, William Atherton
Program 2 Summer is the story of
seventeen-year-old Charity Royall's early disillusionment with life
followed by her accomodation to reality.
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Jack Willis COPRODUCERS: Daniel A. Bohr,
Dorothy Cullman DIRECTOR/EDITOR: Deszo Magyar ADAPTATION: Charles
Gaines CINEMATOGRAPHY: Michael Fash CAST: Diane Lane, Michael
Ontkean, John Cullum
Program 3 Looking Back is a dramatic
retrospective of Edith Wharton's life.
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Jack Willis COPRODUCERS: Dorothy Cullman, Sam
Paul DIRECTOR: Kirk Browning WRITER: Steve
Lawson CINEMATOGRAPHY: Francis Kenny CAST: Kathleen Widdoes, John
Cullum, Richard Woods, John McMartin, Stephen Collins
PRODUCTION ORGANIZATION: Cinelit, Inc., Santa Monica, CA YEAR
PRODUCED: 1982 (first broadcast on Great Performances) SERIES
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Jack Willis
FORMAT: Video Programs 1, 2 (90:00), Program 3 (60:00)
DISTRIBUTOR: Currently unavailable.
DocumentaryMore than forty years after his death,
Hemingway is one of the most widely read, and widely written about
American authors. His distinct style and profound influence are
indisputable; his larger-than-life persona is still the stuff of heated
debate. As well known in his lifetime as any movie star, Hemingway was a
dashing international figure who challenged the notion that writers
exist in an ivory tower. There were the battles, the bull fights, the
big game, the booze—and he channeled these experiences into stark prose,
creating a new form of expression, describing action and emotion in
simple, authentic terms. An enormous critical success, his major
works—The Old Man and the Sea, A Farewell to Arms,
The Sun Also Rises, For Whom the Bell Tolls—are still
in print, some in as many as twenty languages. The recent excitement
over Cuba's release of their Hemingway collection is unmatched in modern
literature. It is the literature, it is the written word and the art of
Hemingway's story telling that forms the heart and the freshness of this
film, the point of departure from which Hemingway's life and work are
uniquely explored.
PRODUCTION ORGANIZATION: Educational Broadcasting Corp., New
York, NY YEAR PRODUCED: 2005 EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Susan
Lacy PRODUCERS: DeWitt Sage, Catherine Collins, Allyson Luchak, Jenny
Carchman DIRECTOR/WRITER: DeWitt Sage CINEMATOGRAPHY: Pierre Aim,
Dyanna Taylor EDITOR: Deborah Peretz NARRATORS: Kate Burton, James
Naughton
PRINT MATERIALS: Press materials through www.thirteen.org/pressroom
FORMAT: Video 90:00 mins DISTRIBUTOR: PBS
Video
Documentary
This film tells the story of the life and work of America's only
Nobel Prize-winning playwright, set within the context of the harrowing
family relationships that shaped him and that he in turn sought to
reflect and give form to in his writing. More than a biography of the
greatest literary genius the American theater has produced, the film is
a meditation on the costs and consequences of artistic creation and a
poetic exploration of the dramatic masterpieces O'Neill wrenched from
himself only at the very end of his career—brought to life in passages
performed especially for the production by Al Pacino, Christopher
Plummer, Zoe Caldwell, Liam Neeson, Robert Sean Leonard and Vanessa
Redgrave. It also features penetrating on-camera reflections from a
distinguished roster of directors, playwrights, artists, actors and
scholars, including Jason Robards, Robert Brustein, Tony Kushner, John
Guare, Arthur Gelb, Barbara Gelb, Sidney Lumet, Lloyd Richards, Edward
Shaughnessy, and Robert Whitehead. PRODUCTION ORGANIZATION:
Steeplechase Films, New York, NY YEAR PRODUCED: 2005 EXECUTIVE
PRODUCERS: Ric Burns, Donald Rosenfeld, Mark Samels PRODUCERS: Marlyn
Ness, Steve Rivo, Robin Espinola, Mary Recine DIRECTOR: Ric
Burns WRITERS: Arthur Gelb, Barbara Gelb, Ric
Burns CINEMATOGRAPHY: Buddy Squires, Peter Nelson, Allen
Moore EDITOR: Li-Shin Yu HOST: Christopher Plummer CAST: Al
Pacino, Zoe Caldwell, Christopher Plummer, Robert Sean Leonard, Callie
Thome, Vanessa Redgrave, Liam Neeson, Natasha Richardson, and Jason
Robards
PRINT MATERIALS: American Experience, WGBH FORMAT: Video 120
minutes DISTRIBUTOR: PBS
Video
Drama and DocumentaryEugene O'Neill: A Glory of
Ghosts is a two-part exploration of the life and work of Eugene
Gladstone O'Neill (1888-1953) that blends segments of his plays with
archival footage, photographs, and interviews.
PRODUCTION ORGANIZATION: WNET/13, New York, NY YEAR PRODUCED:
1985 EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: Susan Lacy, Jac Venza PRODUCERS: Perry
Miller Adato, Megan Callaway DIRECTOR: Perry Miller Adato WRITER:
Paul Shyre CINEMATOGRAPHY: Robert Baldwin EDITOR: Jason
Rosenfield CAST: Jeffrey DeMunn as the voice of O'Neill, Zoe
Caldwell, Colleen Dewhurst, Frances Conroy, Frank Converse, Paul Coombe,
Blythe Danner, Joel Fabiani, Bette Henritze, Tom Hulce, Tony Lobianco,
James Naughton, Jason Robards, Mario Van Peebles
AWARDS/FESTIVALS: Directors Guild of America, Top Prize in Television
Documentary/Actuality Category; International Film and Television
Festival of New York, Silver Award
FORMAT: 16mm, Video (150:00) Part 1 (60:00), Part 2 (90:00)
DISTRIBUTOR: Currently unavailable
DramaEugene O'Neill: Journey Into Genius
dramatizes the early years of O'Neill's life, from his expulsion from
Princeton at the age of eighteen to his first triumph as a dramatist in
his early thirties.
PRODUCTION ORGANIZATIONS: Lumiere Productions, Inc., New York, NY,
and Connecticut Public Television YEAR PRODUCED: 1987 (first
broadcast on American Playhouse) PRODUCER/DIRECTOR: Calvin
Skaggs ADAPTATION: Lanie Robertson CINEMATOGRAPHY: Frank
Prinzi EDITOR: Sonia Polansky COPRODUCER: Terry Benes ASSOCIATE
PRODUCER: Stephanie Keys CAST: Matthew Modine, Dylan Baker, Kate
Burton, Jeffrey DeMunn, Chris Cooper, Jane Kaczmarek
FORMAT: Video (55:00)
DISTRIBUTOR: Caridi
Entertainment
Radio Series (Drama and Documentary) This series
features several radio adaptations, with commentary, of works by
American playwright Eugene O'Neill (1888-1953), as well as a documentary
on famed O'Neill director Jose Quintero.
Program 1 S.S. Glencairn: Four Plays of the
Sea(1916-1919) describe life on a tramp freighter and reflect
O'Neill's experiences as a seaman.
- 1: The Moon of the Caribbees
- The S.S. Glencairn, anchored off a Caribbean Island, is visited
and troubled by chants, women, and whisky from the shore. (29:24)
- 2: Bound East for Cardiff
- The dying Yank and Driscoll confess to each other the unexpressed
dream that has lain at the heart of their friendship. (30:00)
- 3. In the Zone
- In a zone of war the enemy may already be aboard in the form of a
"little black box" which Smitty hides under his mattress. (32:00)
- 4. The Long Voyage Home
- Home is a longing never to be realized by those who have given
themselves to the sea. (29:30)
DIRECTOR: Jose Quintero PRODUCER: Erik Bauersfeld SOUND DESIGN:
Randy Thom ARTISTIC DIRECTOR/CONSULTANT: Travis Bogard CAST: Mike
Genovese, Shay Duffin, Gisli Bjorgvinsson, Tim Choate, Ian Abercrombie,
Jim Piddock, James Scally, Larry Drake, Christopher Grove, Antonie
Becker, Erik Holland, and others
Program 2 Jose Quintero Directs O'Neill is a
documentary on the foremost director of O'Neill work, focusing on his
method of direction and staging, rehearsal comments by the director and
cast members, and aural excerpts from completed productions.
Part 1 emphasizes Quintero's style of direction with examples from
rehearsals of each of the Glencairn plays.
Part 2 concentrates on the theme and continuity of one play, In
the Zone (30:00).
PRODUCER: Erik Bauersfeld TECHNICAL PRODUCTION: Jim McKee
Program 3 The Hairy Ape (1922) O'Neill's
Expressionist drama portrays the story of Yank, a fireman in the
stokehole of a giant ocean liner. Branded "a beast" because of his size
and appearance, Yank searches with disastrous results for a place to
belong. (93:36)
DIRECTOR: Jose Quintero PRODUCER: Erik Bauersfeld SOUND
DESIGN: Randy Thom ARTISTIC DIRECTOR/CONSULTANT: Travis
Bogard TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE: Jim McKee PRODUCTION: Sprocket
Systems/Lucasfilm CAST: George Dzundza as Yank, Eric Christmas as
Paddy, Christopher Grove as Long, Deborah May as Mildred, Mercedes
Shirley as Aunt
Program 4 The Emperor Jones (1920) A former
Pullman porter, Jones has risen to Emperor of a Caribbean island,
convincing his subjects that he has supernatural powers and that only a
silver bullet can destroy him. And it does, to the sound of drums and
the island's magic. (88:00)
DIRECTOR: Jose Quintero PRODUCER: Erik Bauersfeld SOUND
DESIGN: Randy Thom ARTISTIC DIRECTOR/CONSULTANT: Travis
Bogard TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE: Jim McKee PRODUCTION: Skywalker
Sound, Lucasfilm CAST: Joe Morton as Brutis Jones, Richard Riehle as
Smithers
Program 5 Hughie (1958) Erie, a small-time
gambler, who has lost his luck and self-confidence with the death of
Hughie, the night clerk of a small side street hotel, tries to convert
the new night clerk into believing his pipe dreams about himself.
(57:00)
DIRECTOR: Jose Quintero PRODUCER: Erik Bauersfeld SOUND
DESIGN: Randy Thom ARTISTIC DIRECTOR/CONSULTANT: Travis
Bogard TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE: Jim McKee PRODUCTION: Skywalker
Sound, Lucasfilm CAST: Jason Robards as Erie, Jack Dodson as Night
Clerk
Program 6 Lazarus Laughed (1926) Subtitled "a
play for an imaginary theater" and originally requiring a minimum of 166
actors, O'Neill's work is an apocalyptic journey in which he has created
a Lazarus, risen from the dead by Jesus, who returns with a message
about death which confounds everyone, and a laughter which transforms
all who hear it. (111:88)
PRODUCER: Erik Bauersfeld DIRECTOR: Edward Hastings MUSIC: Lou
Harrison SOUND DESIGN: Jim McKee CHORUS DIRECTOR: Barney
Jones ARTISTIC DIRECTOR/CONSULTANT: Travis Bogard STUDIOS: Earwax
in San Francisco, Skywalker Sound, Lucasfilm, Nicasio Sony
Studios CAST: (Principals) Robert Foxworth as Lazarus, Barbara Bain
as Miriam, Rene Auberjonois as Caligula, Sydney Walker as Tiberius,
Fredi Olster as Pompeia, Ray Reinhardt as Crassus, William Patterson as
Father, Will Marchetti as Priest
SERIES PRODUCTION ORGANIZATION: Bay Area Radio Drama (BARD), San
Francisco, CA YEARS PRODUCED: 1988-1995 SERIES PRODUCER: Erik
Bauersfeld
FORMAT: Audiocassette (see various lengths above)
SERIES DISTRIBUTOR: contact Bay Area
Radio Drama (BARD)
Radio Series (Documentary and Drama)This series depicts
the world and imagination of thirteen of Latin America's most esteemed
twentieth-century authors.
Program 1 Gabriel Garcia Marquez: The Solitude of Latin
America features dramatic readings as well as interviews recorded
in the author's hometown of Aracataca, Colombia.
PRODUCERS: Keith Talbot, Lois Fishman
Program 2 Jorge Luis Borges: The
Laughter of the Universe looks at the author's Argentine
childhood and the influence of his father's library.
PRODUCER: Robert Montiegel
Program 3 Jose Maria Arguedas: The
Death of a Dancer examines Arguedas' divided allegiance between
the Peru of the Quechua-speaking Indians and the Peru of the Spaniards.
PRODUCERS: Jay Allison, Katie Davis
Program 4 Guillermo Cabrera
Infante: Memories of an Invented City reveals the author's
musical and cinematic influences and how these put him at odds with the
leaders of the Cuban revolution, who were more interested in social
realism.
PRODUCERS: The Kitchen Sisters (Nikki Silva and Davia Nelson)
Program 5 Miguel Angel Asturias:
The President and Other Myths considers the late Guatemalan
writer's uneasy political relationship with his country's dictators.
PRODUCERS: Tom Lopez, Marcelo Montealegre
Program 6 Jorge Amado: The Ballad
of Bahia features Amado and his close friend, singer Harry
Belafonte, discussing the writer's personal attachment to the people of
Bahia, who are the subjects of his work.
PRODUCERS: Robert Malesky, Alfredo Cruz
Program 7 Carlos Fuentes: Beneath
the Mask considers the Mexican diplomat/writer's work and the
role of the novelist as historian.
PRODUCERS: Robert Malesky, Alfredo Cruz
Program 8 Luis Rafael Sanchez: Life
as a Phenomenal Thing uncovers this Puerto Rican writer's
celebration of the popular culture and forms of speech that flourish in
San Juan.
PRODUCERS: Ignacio Acosta, Julio Marzan
Program 9 Clarice Lispector: The
Poetry of Silence features actress Colleen Dewhurst's portrayal
of the writer who revolutionized Brazilian fiction by combining a unique
poetic style and a deeply introspective philosophy.
PRODUCER: Frieda Werden
Program 10 Juan Carlos Onetti: The
Atmosphere of a Brief Life reviews the work of the writer, often
called the "Faulkner of Uruguay," whose imaginary town of Santa Maria is
inhabited by sinister and decadent characters.
PRODUCERS: Larry Massett, Jose McMurray
Program 11 Alejo Carpentier: The
Marvel of the Real features the late Cuban novelist's vision of
the Americas as a land where Indian, African, and European mythologies
merge.
PRODUCERS: Tom Lopez, Elizabeth Perez-Luna
Program 12 Juan Rulfo: A Kind of
Silence introduces the shy, mysterious author whose only two
books changed Mexican writing.
PRODUCERS: Keith Talbot, Lois Fishman
Program 13 Elena Poniatowska: The
Voice of the Powerless shows how the popular Mexican author and
journalist chronicles the heretofore ignored lives of her country's
oppressed.
PRODUCER: Freida Werden
PRODUCTION ORGANIZATION: National Public Radio, Washington,
DC YEAR PRODUCED: 1984 PROJECT DIRECTOR: Frank
Tavares EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Jo Ellyn Rackleff SERIES PRODUCER:
Frieda Werden CAST: Hector Elizondo (Programs 3, 12); Colleen
Dewhurst (9); RichardBauer (10); Edward James Olmos, Meredith Monk,
Charles Ludlam, Lupe Ontiveros (12); and others
FORMAT: Audiocassette 13 (30:00) programs Potentially offensive
language in programs 1,4,13
DISTRIBUTOR: Currently unavailable
Documentary This program chronicles the life and times
of one of the U.S.S.R.'s most celebrated cultural figures, the poet Anna
Akhmatova (1899-1966), who served as the poetic "conscience of Russia"
during the years of Stalinist repression.
PRODUCTION ORGANIZATION: New York Center for Visual History, New
York, NY YEAR PRODUCED: 1990 EXECUTIVE PRODUCER/DIRECTOR/WRITER:
Jill Janows COPRODUCER: Molly Ornati CINEMATOGRAPHY: Richard P.
Rogers EDITOR: Jon Neuburger NARRATOR: Christopher Reeve CAST:
Claire Bloom as the voice of Anna Akhmatova
AWARDS: American Educational Film and Video Festival, Blue Ribbon;
Chicago International Film Festival, Silver Plaque
FORMAT: Video (58:00)
DISTRIBUTOR: Mystic
Fire Video
Documentary
Using the evocative lyricism of this very autobiographical
writer, a tale of his life is told that breaks beyond 1920s caricature
and Jazz Age stereotype. Original cinematic recreations of the
texts—The Great Gatsby, This Side of Paradise,
Tender Is The Night, The Last Tycoon—are illuminated
by insights from people who knew Fitzgerald and have never before been
interviewed. From St. Paul, Minnesota, to the tip of Long Island to
Paris, we are transported on F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald's uniquely
American journey and enveloped in their deeply emotional commentary.
PRODUCTION ORGANIZATION: American Masters/WNET, New
York, NY YEAR PRODUCED: 2000 EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Susan
Lacy PRODUCERS: Catherine Brown Collins, DeWitt
Sage DIRECTOR/WRITER: DeWitt Sage CINEMATOGRAPHY: Dyanna
Taylor EDITOR: Kenneth Levis VOICES: Campbell Scott, Amy Irving,
Laura Linney, William Sadler
PRINT MATERIALS: Contact Matthew Baumoel at 212/560-3118.
AWARDS/FESTIVALS: 2001 Peabody Award; Gold Special Jury
Award-Worldfest Houston 2002
FORMAT: Video (90:00) DISTRIBUTOR: Wellspring
Drama Based on a semi-autobiographical novel by James
Baldwin (1924-1987), this drama tells the story of John Grimes, a young
black teenager who struggles to rid himself of a past that has left his
family emotionally crippled.
PRODUCTION ORGANIZATION: Learning in Focus, Inc., New York,
NY YEAR PRODUCED: 1984 EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Robert
Geller PRODUCER: Calvin Skaggs ASSOCIATE PRODUCERS: Sue Jett, Tony
Mark DIRECTOR: Stan Lathan ADAPTATION: Gus Edwards, Leslie
Lee CINEMATOGRAPHY: Hiro Narita EDITOR: Jay Freund CAST: Paul
Winfield, Rosalind Cash, James Bond III, Olivia Cole
AWARDS/FESTIVALS: American Film and Video Festival, Blue Ribbon; San
Francisco International Film Festival, Golden Gate Award, Best
Television Feature of the Year; FILMEX (Los Angeles); Telluride
International Film Festival; CINE Golden Eagle; New York Times,
Best American Television Film of the Year; Time magazine, one of
"Ten Best of 1985"; John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, a
MacArthur Video Classics Library selection; Berlin Film Festival; New
Delhi Film Festival; London Film Festival
FORMAT: 16mm (97:00)
DISTRIBUTOR: Monterey
Movie Company
Drama An adaptation of the novel by Charles Dickens,
this four-part series centers on two men caught up in a utilitarian
philosophy of hard work and hard facts, with no time for imagination or
human warmth.
PRODUCTION ORGANIZATIONS: WNET/13, New York, NY, in co-production
with Granada Television/U.K. YEAR PRODUCED: 1977 (first broadcast on
Great Performances) PROJECT DIRECTOR FOR WNET: Robert B.
Kotlowitz PRODUCER: Peter Eckesley PRODUCERS FOR GREAT
PERFORMANCES: Ronald F. Maxwell, Jac Venza DIRECTOR: John
Irvin ADAPTATION: Arthur Hopcraft CINEMATOGRAPHY: Ray Goode, Andy
Stephens EDITOR: Anthony Ham CAST: Patrick Allen, Timothy West,
Alan Dobie, Jacqueline Tong, Michelle Dibnah, Rosalie Crutchley, Barbara
Ewing, Ursula Howells, Richard Wren POSTSCRIPTS: Lord Asa Briggs,
Worcester College, Oxford; and Professor George Ford, University of
Rochester
FORMAT: 16mm, Video 4 (60:00) programs
DISTRIBUTOR: Currently unavailable
Documentary This film tracks the personal and
intellectual experiences that influenced such works as Moby Dick
and Billy Budd.
PRODUCTION ORGANIZATION: The Film Company, Washington, DC YEAR
PRODUCED: 1985 EXECUTIVE PRODUCER/DIRECTOR: Robert D.
Squier PRODUCERS: Robert D. Squier, Karen Thomas WRITERS: George
Wolfe, Robert D. Squier, Patricia Ward, Carter Eskew NARRATOR: John
Huston CAST: F. Murray Abraham as Herman Melville
AWARD: Chicago International Film Festival, Gold Plaque
FORMAT: 16mm, Video (90:00)
DISTRIBUTOR: Pyramid
Film and Video
Drama An adaptation of a short story by Hortense
Calisher, The Hollow Boy tells of the friendship between two
young men whose families live in apartments that face each other across
a courtyard in New York City in 1936. (See also Love and Other
Sorrows, Pigeon
Feathers, and The Revolt
of Mother .)
PRODUCTION ORGANIZATION: Learning in Focus, Larchmont, NY YEAR
PRODUCED: 1990 (first broadcast on American
Playhouse) EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: Robert Geller, Brian
Benlifer PRODUCER: David Kappes WRITER: Jay
Neugeboren CINEMATOGRAPHY Declan Quinn EDITOR: Sandra
Adair CAST: Alexis Arquette, Marty Finkelstein, Jerry Stiller,
Kathleen Widdoes
FORMAT: 16mm, Video (54:46)
DISTRIBUTOR: Coronet/MTI
Film and Video, Inc.
Documentary
Series
This series explores the nature of language and how it works—from
language structure, meaning, and evolution to recent developments in the
field of linguistics, particularly the "Chomskyan Revolution." The
programs feature a wide range of linguists, psychologists,
anthropologists, philosophers, authors, comedians, and others.
Program 1 Colorless Green Ideas deals with
words, sentences, syntax, and Universal Grammar, the system claimed by
many linguists to be common to all the world's languages.
Program 2 Playing the Language Game examines the
way children "acquire" language, presenting the innateness theory versus
the imitation theory.
Program 3 With and Without Words traces theories
about how and why the human species evolved the capacity to talk to one
another and how language is a mixed system of verbal communication, body
language, hand gestures, and facial expressions.
PRODUCTION ORGANIZATION: Ways of Knowing, Inc./Equinox Films, New
York, NY YEAR PRODUCED: 1994 EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Gene Searchinger
PRODUCER/DIRECTOR/WRITER: Gene Searchinger CINEMATOGRAPHY: Gene
Searchinger, John Hazard, Michael Male EDITORS: Sara Fishko, Sharon
Sachs, Tom Haneke, Jeffrey Stern FEATURING: George A. Miller, Noam
Chomsky, Steven Pinker, Deborah Tannen, Dan Slobin, Jerry Fodor, Lila
Gleitman, Ursula Bellugi, Stephen Jay Gould, Jill DeVilliers, Frederick
Newmeyer, Judy Kegl, George Carlin, Sid Caeser, Russell Baker, and
others
SCREENINGS: Linguistic Society of America; American Psychological
Association; Modern Language Association; Northeast Linguistics Society;
Boston University Conference on Language Development; American
Association of Applied Linguistics
FORMAT: Video, 3 (56:00) programs
DISTRIBUTOR: Equinox
Films, Inc.
Documentary and Drama This program explores aspects of
the life and work of Nobel laureate Isaac Bashevis Singer (1904-1991),
combining documentary footage with dramatized scenes from A Day in
Coney Island which describe the author's first impressions of
America. (See also The
Cafeteria .)
PRODUCTION ORGANIZATIONS: Amram Nowak Associates, Inc.; and the Isaac
in America Foundation, New York, NY YEAR PRODUCED: 1985 (first
broadcast on American Masters) EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Manya
Starr PRODUCER: Kirk Simon DIRECTOR: Amram
Nowak CINEMATOGRAPHY: Jerry Pantzer with Greg Andracke, Brian
Kellman, David Lerner, Kirk Simon, Burleigh Wartes EDITOR: Riva
Friefield STORY NARRATED BY: Judd Hirsch
AWARDS/FESTIVALS: Academy Award nominee, Best Documentary Feature;
American Film and Video Festival, Finalist; National Educational Film
and Video Festival, Gold Apple; New York Film Festival; CINE Golden
Eagle; San Francisco Film Festival, Golden Gate Award; Denver Film
Festival; Sundance Film Festival; Moscow Jewish Film Festival; Berlin
Film Festival; San Francisco Jewish Film Festival; Nyon (Switzerland)
Film Festival, Sestere d'Argent (Second Grand Prize); U.S.A. (Dallas)
Film Festival
FORMAT: 16mm, Video (58:00)
DISTRIBUTOR: Direct
Cinema Limited
Documentary This film examines the life and work of the
American writer and civil rights activist, James Baldwin (1924-1987).
PRODUCTION ORGANIZATIONS: Nobody Knows Productions in association
with Maysles Films, Inc., WNET/New York, and American Masters YEAR
PRODUCED: 1989 (first broadcast on American Masters) EXECUTIVE
PRODUCERS: Albert Maysles, Susan Lacy PRODUCERS: Karen Thorsen,
William Miles COPRODUCER: Douglas K. Dempsey DIRECTOR: Karen
Thorsen WRITERS: Karen Thorsen, Douglas K. Dempsey ASSOCIATE
PRODUCERS: Joy Birdsong, Joe Wood CINEMATOGRAPHY: David
Lenzer EDITORS: Steve Olswang, Sandra Guthrie
AWARDS: 17 awards including The Academy of Motion Pictures, Top Ten
Documentary; The National Educational Film and Video Festival, Gold
Apple; CINE Golden Eagle; Festival dei Popoli, Florence, Italy, Premiodi
Ricerca; Chicago International Film Festival, Silver Hugo; Nyon
(Switzerland) Documentary Film Festival, Silver Sesterce; American
Filmand Video Festival, Red Ribbon; Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame Award;
Atlanta Film Festival, Special Jury Award; Sydney (Australia) Film
Festival, Audience Approval Award; Sinking Creek Film and Video
Festival, Sinking Creek Award; North Carolina Film Festival, Documentary
Award; International Film and Television Festival (New York), Finalist;
Banff International Television Festival (Alberta, Canada), Finalist;
Sundance Film Festival, Special Tribute; Sundance in Tokyo Film
Festival, Special Tribute, one of the "Ten Best American Independent
Films" from the past two years; Istanbul (Turkey) International Film
Festival, Special Tribute
FESTIVALS: Over 50 film festivals worldwide including the Margaret
Mead Film Festival; Virginia Festival of American Film; INPUT
Conference; London International Film Festival, Cinema du Reel, Paris;
International Filmfestspiele, Berlin, West Germany; Weekly Mail Film
Festival, Johannesburg, South Africa; International Documentary Film
Festival, Vienna, Prague, and Budapest
FORMAT: Video (87:00)
DISTRIBUTORS: California
Newsreel
Documentary In this profile of the Nobel Prize-winning
poet, the artist and others speak about his work, his life in the Soviet
Union, and his experience as an exile.
PRODUCTION ORGANIZATION: New York Center for Visual History, New
York, NY YEAR PRODUCED: 1988 EXECUTIVE PRODUCER/DIRECTOR/WRITER:
Lawrence Pitkethly PRODUCER: Sasha Alpert CINEMATOGRAPHY: Yuri
Neyman EDITOR: Richard Smigielski NARRATOR: Jason Robards
FORMAT: Video (58:00)
DISTRIBUTOR: Mystic
Fire Video
DocumentaryThe production revisits the life and work of
renowned nineteenth-century author Kate Chopin. She is best known for
her novel The Awakening, a story of a woman’s personal self-realization
that shocked the Victorian establishment. The documentary presents key
biographical details set against events of the times, and emphasizes
influences that prompted Chopin’s interest in societal and cultural
expectations and their impact on women. Selections from her fiction are
interwoven at appropriate points.
PRODUCTION ORGANIZATION: Louisiana Public Broadcasting, Baton Rouge,
LA YEAR PRODUCED: 1998 EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Clay
Fourrier PRODUCERS: Tika Laudun, Lucille McDonell DIRECTOR: Tika
Laudun WRITER: Anna Reid Jhirad CINEMATOGRAPHY: Rex Forten
Berry EDITOR: Randy Ward NARRATORS: Kelly McGillis, JoBeth
Williams
FORMAT: Video (30:00)
DISTRIBUTOR: Louisiana
Public Broadcasting
Documentary and Drama Featuring a full dramatization of
her short story, The Grave, and excerpts from The Witness
and The Circus, this program shows the central Texas milieu that
shaped Porter's writing.
PRODUCTION ORGANIZATION: KERA-TV, Dallas, TX YEAR PRODUCED: 1986
(first broadcast on American Masters) EXECUTIVE PRODUCER:
Patricia P. Perini PRODUCER: Calvin Skaggs DIRECTOR: Ken
Harrison WRITERS: Jordan Pecile, Ken Harrison CINEMATOGRAPHY: Bert
Guthrie EDITOR: Jay Freund CAST: Dina Chandel, Paul Winfield, Bill
Irwin, Yankton Hatten COMMENTARY: Eudora Welty, Robert Penn Warren,
Eleanor Clark, Peter Taylor, Joan Givner, Paul Porter
FORMAT: Video (58:00)
DISTRIBUTOR: Films
for the Humanities and Sciences
Drama This adaptation of Harold Brodkey's short story
First Love and Other Sorrows looks at the effect of courtship on
an American family in 1950. (See also The Hollow
Boy, Pigeon
Feathers , and The Revolt
of Mother .)
PRODUCTION ORGANIZATION: Learning in Focus, Inc., New York,
NY YEAR PRODUCED: 1987 (first broadcast on American
Playhouse) EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Robert Geller PRODUCER: Brian
Benlifer DIRECTOR: Steven Gomer ADAPTATION: Dick
Goldberg CINEMATOGRAPHY: Edwin Lynch EDITOR: Pam Wise CAST:
Elizabeth Franz, Stephen Mailer, Haviland Morris, Christopher Collet,
Sheila Ball, Tim Ransom, Spencer Garrett
AWARD: Houston International Film Festival, Gold Award
FORMAT: Video (56:09)
DISTRIBUTOR: Coronet/MTI
Film and Video, Inc.
Dramatic Radio Series Madame Bovary is a
thirteen-part radio dramatization of the novel by Gustave Flaubert
(1821-1880), a chronicle of the rise and fall of Emma Bovary, the Norman
bourgeoise whose dreams of romantic love remain unfulfilled.
PRODUCTION ORGANIZATION: Globe Radio Repertory, Seattle, WA YEAR
PRODUCED: 1988 EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: John P. Siscoe, Jean R.
Sherrard DIRECTOR: Jean R. Sherrard WRITERS: John P. Siscoe, Jean
R. Sherrard SOUND DESIGN/EDITOR: Jerry Thompson NARRATOR: Glenn
Mazen TRANSLATION: Francis Steegmuller CAST: Mary Ann Owen, Bill
Terkuile, Ted D'Arms Frank Corrado, Dan Renner, John Aylward, John
Gilbert, Karen Cody, Michael MacRae, Michael Santo, Marjorie
Nelson COMMENTARY: Roger Shattuck, Boston University
FORMAT: Audiocassette 13 (30:00) programs
DISTRIBUTOR: Currently unavailable.
Dramatic Series Based on a Sanskrit poem written more
than two thousand years ago, The Mahabharata is a three-part
dramatization of a feud of royal succession fought in northern India
during the first millennium B.C. One of India's two major epics, it
combines military and spiritual conflicts to instruct on dharma,
the moral order in the universe, and includes the Bhagavad Gita,
a mystical dialogue between a warrior and the god Krishna. Peter Brook,
who first brought the epic to the West in a nine-hour stage version,
provides the introductions.
PRODUCTION ORGANIZATIONS: Brooklyn Academy of Music, Brooklyn, NY, in
association with Les Productions du 3eme Etage, Le Centre National du
Cinema, Paris, France, Channel 4/U.K., and Reiner Moritz Associates,
Ltd. YEAR PRODUCED: 1988 (originally presented as a six-hour
miniseries on Great Performances) EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: Michael
Birkett, Michael Kustow, Harvey Lichtenstein PRODUCER: Michel
Propper COPRODUCERS: Ed Myerson, Rachel Tabori, Micheline
Rozan DIRECTOR/HOST: Peter Brook WRITERS: Peter Brook, Jean-Claude
Carriere, Marie-Helene Estienne CINEMATOGRAPHY: William
Lubtchansky EDITOR: Nicolas Gaster MUSIC: Toshi
Tsuchitori PRODUCTION DESIGN: Chloe Obolinsky CAST: Georges
Corraface, Mamadou Dioume, Urs Bihler, Ryszard Cieslak, Sotigui Kouyate,
Tuncel Kurtiz, Miriam Goldschmidt, Jeffrey Kissoon, Robert Langdon
Lloyd, Vittorio Mezzogiorno, Bruce Myers, Yoshi Oida, Helene Patarot,
Mallika Sarabhai, Andrzej Seweryn INTRODUCTIONS: Peter Brook
FESTIVAL: Venice Film Festival
PRINT MATERIAL: 24-page booklet comes with the video set
FORMAT: Video (360:00) 3 (120:00) programs Theatrical film
(180:00) also available
DISTRIBUTORS:
Parabola
Video
Documentary This film examines the life and work of one
of France's most celebrated writers, including his struggle to create
the 3,000-page masterpiece, Remembrance of Things Past, and his
treatment of the nature of time and memory, sex and society, and the
creative process itself. (Proust, 1871-1922)
PRODUCTION ORGANIZATION: Wolfe-Carter Productions, Inc., Birmingham,
AL YEAR PRODUCED: 1992 EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Paul
Wagner PRODUCERS: William C. Carter, George Wolfe, Sarah Patton,
Sarah Mondale DIRECTOR: Sarah Mondale WRITER: Terence
Monmaney CINEMATOGRAPHY: Jean-Claude Larrieu, Dominique Gentil, Allen
Moore EDITOR: Marian Hunter NARRATOR: Kate Nelligan INTERVIEWS:
Dame Iris Murdoch, Shelby Foote, Roger Shattuck, and others
AWARDS/SCREENINGS (selected): American Film and Video Festival, Red
Ribbon; National Educational Film and Video Festival, Gold Apple;
Houston International Film Festival, Finalist, Gold Medal; CINE Golden
Eagle; Cindi Silver Award; Baltimore (MD) Film Forum, Honorable Mention;
International Documentary Film Festival (L.A.); Breckenridge Film
Festival, Colorado; American Film Institute Washington, DC; The French
Embassy, Washington, DC; German Cultural Television; French
Institute/Alliance Française, NYC; National Gallery of Art, Washington,
DC; University of Rome; broadcast on German, Austrian, Swiss,
Australian, and Japanese television
FORMAT: Video (60:00)
DISTRIBUTOR: Direct
Cinema Limited
Drama In this program, Samuel Clemens (1835-1910), known
as Mark Twain, reviews his life as if he were writing a story: the young
Sam joins and then deserts the Confederate army, becomes a newspaper
reporter, and learns to pilot a Mississippi riverboat.
PRODUCTION ORGANIZATION: Foundation for American Letters and Media,
Los Angeles, CA YEAR PRODUCED: 1979 PRODUCER: Marsha
Jeffer DIRECTOR: Larry Yust WRITERS: Gill Dennis, Larry
Yust CINEMATOGRAPHY: Howard Wexler CAST: Dan O'Herlihy, Lynn
Seibel, Kay Howell
AWARDS: CINE Golden Eagle; American Film Festival, Honorable Mention
FORMAT: 16mm, Video (58:00)
DISTRIBUTOR: Pyramid
Film and Video
Dramatic Series The series presents dramatizations of
several works by Mark Twain.
Program 1 Life on the Mississippi grew out of
Twain's experiences when, as a young man, he fulfilled his boyhood
ambition to become a river-boat pilot.
YEAR PRODUCED: 1980 (first broadcast on Great
Performances) DIRECTOR: Peter H. Hunt ADAPTATION: Philip
Reisman, Jr. CINEMATOGRAPHY: Walter Lassally EDITOR: Cynthia
Schneider MUSIC: William Perry HOST: Kurt Vonnegut CAST: Robert
Lansing, David Knell, James Keane, Donald Madden, John Pankow, Jack
Lawrence, Stanley Reyes, Marcy Walker
AWARDS: CINE Golden Eagle; International Film and TV Festival of New
York, Silver Medal; Prix d'Italia, Silver Award; American Cinema Editors
(ACE), Eddie Award; TV Guide, Top Ten Films of the Year
FORMAT: Video (120:00) Public
Media Inc.
Program 2 The Private History of a Campaign That
Failed concerns a group of fifteen boys from Hannibal, Missouri,
who face the reality of the war. Twain's later anti-war essay, "The War
Prayer," has been dramatized as an epilogue to the production.
YEAR PRODUCED: 1981 (first broadcast on Great
Performances) PRODUCER/DIRECTOR: Peter H. Hunt ADAPTATION:
Philip Reisman, Jr. DIRECTOR OF RESEARCH: Laurie
Zwicky CINEMATOGRAPHY: Walter Lassally EDITOR: Herbert H.
Dow MUSIC: William Perry CAST: Pat Hingle, Edward Herrmann, Joe
Adams, Garry McCleery, Henry Crosby, Kelly Peese
AWARDS: George Foster Peabody Award; CINE Golden Eagle; TV Guide, Top
Ten Films of the Year
FORMAT: 16mm, Video (90:00)
Program 3 The Mysterious Stranger is set in a
medieval Austrian town and involves the arrival of a supernatural being,
Number 44, at the town's printing shop.
YEAR PRODUCED: 1982 (first broadcast on Great
Performances) DIRECTOR: Peter H. Hunt ADAPTATION: Julian
Mitchell CINEMATOGRAPHY: Walter Lassally MUSIC: William
Perry CAST: Lance Kerwin, Chris Makepeace, Fred Gwynne, Bernhard
Wicki
FORMAT: Video (90:00)
AWARDS: CINE Golden Eagle; Association of Visual Communicators
(formerly IFPA), Silver Cindy Award; American Film Festival, Special
Screening
Program 4 The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson tells
how Roxy, a light-skinned young slave of the 1830s, fears separation
from her newborn son and switches him with her white master's child.
YEAR PRODUCED: 1983 (first broadcast on American
Playhouse) PRODUCER: Jane Iredale DIRECTOR: Alan
Bridges ADAPTATION: Philip Reisman, Jr. CINEMATOGRAPHY: Walter
Lassally MUSIC: William Perry CAST: Ken Howard, Lise Hilboldt,
Steven Weber, Tom Aldredge
FORMAT: 35mm, Video (90:00)
AWARDS: CINE Golden Eagle; National Educational Film and Video
Festival, Special Screening and Bronze Apple
Program 5 The Adventures of Huckleberry
Finn traces Huck's development from a trusting follower of Tom
Sawyer to an independent-minded individual who is willing to risk
eternal damnation rather than betray the black man he has come to
understand and love.
YEAR PRODUCED: 1985 (first broadcast on American
Playhouse) PRODUCER: Jane Iredale DIRECTOR: Peter H.
Hunt ADAPTATION: Guy Gallo CINEMATOGRAPHY: Walter
Lassally EDITOR: Jerrold L. Ludwig CAST: Jim Dale, Frederic
Forrest, Lillian Gish, Barnard Hughes, Richard Kiley, Butterfly McQueen,
Geraldine Page, Sada Thompson, Samm-Art Williams, Patrick Day MUSIC:
William Perry
FORMAT: Video (240:00) 4 (60:00) programs
AWARDS/FESTIVALS: American Film Institute, Special Screening
SERIES PRODUCTION ORGANIZATIONS: The Great Amwell Company, New York,
NY; Nebraskans for Public Television, Inc.; and Taurus Film,
Germany YEARS PRODUCED: 1980-1985 SERIES EXECUTIVE PRODUCER:
William Perry SERIES PRODUCER: Marshall Jamison
FORMAT: see individual listings
Documentary and Drama This program examines the life and
work of Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849), mixing dramatization of his stories
with new footage, still photographs, and interviews.
PRODUCTION ORGANIZATION: Film Odyssey, Inc., Washington, D.C. YEAR
PRODUCED: 1991 PRODUCER: Karen Thomas DIRECTOR OF DRAMATIC
SEQUENCES: Joyce Chopra WRITERS: Karen Thomas, Daniel Blake
Smith CINEMATOGRAPHY: James Glennon, Dyanna Taylor, Erich Roland,
Foster Wiley EDITOR OF DRAMATIC SEQUENCES: Joe Gutowski CAST: Treat
Williams, John Heard, Rene Auberjonois INTERVIEWS: Joyce Carol Oates,
Ira Levin, Philip Glass, and others
FORMAT: Video (58:00)
DISTRIBUTOR: PBS
Video
Drama Adapted from Vladimir Nabokov's lectures on
literature, which were delivered to undergraduates at Wellesley and
Cornell between 1940 and 1948, this program features his account of
Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosi.
PRODUCTION ORGANIZATION: Metropolitan Pittsburgh Public Broadcasting,
Inc. (WQED), Pittsburgh, PA YEAR PRODUCED: 1986 EXECUTIVE
ADMINISTRATOR: Danforth Fales PRODUCER/WRITER: James
Fleming DIRECTORS: Gilbert Cates, Paul Bogart CAST: Christopher
Plummer
FORMAT: Video (28:00)
DISTRIBUTOR: Monterey
Movie Company (home video)
Radio Drama and Documentary These two dramatic radio
programs are based on the medieval epic poem, Beowulf, with
readings from both the original Old English text and the modern
translation by Burton Raffel. Each program includes short segments
featuring interviews with scholars about the poem and related issues.
Part 1 Beowulf and the Grendel Kind recounts the
hero Beowulf's early battles with the monster Grendel and its mother.
Part 2 Beowulf and the Dragon relates the later
adventures of the old Beowulf and his final battle against a dragon,
with flashbacks to his youthful exploits.
PRODUCER/DIRECTOR: Charles B. Potter YEAR PRODUCED:
1978 ADAPTATION: Robert P. Creed MUSIC: Mary Remnant TECHNICAL
DIRECTOR: David Rapkin NARRATOR: Earl Hammond PERFORMERS: Robert
P. Creed, readings; Mary Remnant, music COMMENTARIES: John M. Foley,
Emory University, Atlanta, GA; Donald K. Fry, SUNY, Stony Brook, NY;
Mary Remnant, Royal College of Music, London, England; Bruce A.
Rosenberg, Brown University, Providence, RI
AWARD: CPB Award, Best Public Radio Local Program and Best Drama
FORMAT: Audiocassette 2 (59:00) programs
DISTRIBUTOR: contact Charles
B. Potter
Radio Series (Drama and Documentary) This eight-part
series dramatizes Homer's epic about the Greek hero Odysseus (Ulysses),
King of Ithaca, who is lost at sea and given up for dead after the
Trojan War. For twenty years he struggles to return home, as his wife,
Penelope, wards off aggressive suitors and his son, Telemachus, searches
for him. Each program dramatizes a portion of the work and contains a
documentary segment analyzing an aspect of ancient Greek civilization.
Program 1 The Suitors of Penelope Odysseus'
palace has been overrun by arrogant young nobles seeking Penelope's hand
and humiliating Telemachus. Athena, Odysseus' patron, appeals to
Telemachus to search for his father.
Richard Posner of the University of Chicago discusses law and
government in Homeric times.
Program 2 The Voyage of Telemachus In his
journey, Telemachus meets Nestor, aged counselor of the Greeks at Troy,
and Menelaus, king of Sparta, who reports on the possible whereabouts of
Odysseus.
Charles Bye, visiting professor at the University of Athens, explores
ancient Greek concepts of host, guest, and gifts.
Program 3 Free at Last Odysseus has been
shipwrecked and held prisoner since leaving Troy by the nymph Calypso.
The gods persuade Calypso to release Odysseus, who then travels to the
enchanted island of the Phaeacians.
Arthur Adkins and Wendy O'Flaherty of the University of Chicago and
Gregory Nagy of Harvard University discuss how the ancient Greeks
envisioned their gods and how they sought to gain their favor.
Program 4 The Great Wanderings The Phaeacians
implore Odysseus to tell them about his trials.
Wendy O'Flaherty of the University of Chicago examines the women,
both earthly and divine, who Odysseus meets in his wanderings.
Program 5 Monsters of the Sea Continuing his
saga, Odysseus describes his interviews in the Land of the Dead and his
subsequent adventures.
Arthur Adkins of the University of Chicago explores Homeric notions
of happiness and fulfillment.
Program 6 The Swineherd's Hut After describing
the destruction of his crew and his own escape to Calypso's island,
Odysseus returns to Ithaca, learns of the designs against his family,
and with Telemachus plots the downfall of the suitors.
Arthur Adkins of the University of Chicago examines the hierarchical
structure of ancient Greek society and the relationship between noble
freeman and slaves.
Program 7 A Beggar's Homecoming Disguised as a
beggar, Odysseus returns to his palace where he is abused by the suitors
and made to fight a much younger man.
Eric Hamp of the University of Chicago discusses Homeric concepts of
morality.
Program 8 The Contest of the Bow When none of
the suitors has the strength to bend the bow, Odysseus seizes it, kills
over 100 men, and at last reveals his identity to Penelope.
Albert B. Lord of Harvard University discusses elements of oral epic
poetry and Homeric style.
PRODUCTION ORGANIZATION: National Radio Theatre of Chicago, Chicago,
IL YEAR PRODUCED: 1981 PRODUCER/DIRECTOR/WRITER: Yuri
Rasovsky DOCUMENTARY PRODUCER/WRITER: Kerry Frumkin MUSIC: Eric
Salzman CAST: Irene Worth, Barry Morse, Shepperd Strudwick, John
Glover HOST/NARRATOR: Ed Asner
AWARD: George Foster Peabody Award
FORMAT: Audiocassette 8 (60:00) programs
DISTRIBUTOR: Currently unavailable.
Documentary This program chronicles the life and work of
a major American writer, who, from his U.S.A. trilogy to the
anti-war novel Three Soldiers, chronicled the first half of the
twentieth century and helped effect social and cultural change. (Dos
Passos, 1896-1970)
PRODUCTION ORGANIZATIONS: Educational Film Center, Annandale, VA
YEAR PRODUCED: 1993 EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: Ira H. Klugerman, Ruth
Pollak PRODUCER: Stephen Talbot WRITERS: Ruth Pollak, Stephen
Talbot EDITORS: Judith Sobol, Penny Trams NARRATOR: Robert
MacNeil VOICE OF DOS PASSOS: William Hurt
INTERVIEWS: Norman Mailer, Alfred Kazin, Daniel Aaron, William
Buckley, Townsend Luddington, Virginia Carr, Elizabeth Dos Passos, and
others
AWARD: CINE Golden Eagle
FORMAT: Video (60:00)
DISTRIBUTOR: PBS
Video
Drama In 1899, William Sydney Porter, who wrote under
the name of O. Henry, was sentenced to serve five years in the Ohio
State Penitentiary for embezzling bank funds. This is a dramatization of
his short story inspired by that experience.
PRODUCTION ORGANIZATION: Family Communications and Learning
Corporation of America, New York, NY YEAR PRODUCED: 1985 EXECUTIVE
PRODUCERS: Fred Rogers, Frank Doelger PRODUCER: Robert
McDonald DIRECTOR: Paul Saltzman ADAPTATION: Paul Lally CAST:
Victor Ertmanis, Marc Strange, Gary Reinecke, Chris Wiggins, Gerard
Parkes, Wendy Lyon
AWARDS/FESTIVALS: Birmingham International Film Festival; Columbus
(OH) International Film Festival; National Educational Film Festival,
Selected Films for Young Adults (American Library Association)
PRINT MATERIAL: Teacher's Guide available
FORMAT: 16mm, Video (two versions, 55:00 and 30:00)
DISTRIBUTOR: Coronet/MTI
Film and Video, Inc.
Drama This program contains three full-length
performances of Samuel Beckett's work written or adapted especially for
the screen - a medium Beckett called "peephole art" because "it allows
the viewer to see what was never meant to be seen." Introduced by Irish
actor Chris O'Neill, the featured works are: Not I, Quad I and
II, and What Where. (See also Waiting for
Beckett .)
PRODUCTION ORGANIZATIONS: Global Village, New York, NY YEAR
PRODUCED: 1993 EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: John L.
Reilly ASSOCIATEPRODUCER: Melissa Shaw-Smith WRITERS: Melissa
Shaw-Smith
PRINT MATERIAL: Study Guide
FORMAT: Video (36:00)
DISTRIBUTOR: Global
Village
Drama Adapted from the short story by John Updike, this
film follows the way a thoughtful teenager's realization of his own
mortality causes him to question what he has been taught about God and
the immortality of the soul. (See also The Hollow
Boy, Love and Other
Sorrows, and The Revolt
of Mother .)
PRODUCTION ORGANIZATION: Learning in Focus, Inc., Larchmont,
NY YEAR PRODUCED: 1987 (first broadcast on American
Playhouse) EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Robert Geller PRODUCER: Brian
Benlifer DIRECTOR: Sharron Miller ADAPTATION: Jan
Hartman CINGMATOGRAPHY: Hiro Narita EDITOR: Rachel Igel CAST:
Christopher Collet, Lenka Peterson, Jeffrey DeMunn, Caroline McWilliams
AWARDS: CINE Golden Eagle; American Film and Video Festival, Finalist
FORMAT: Video (38:30)
DISTRIBUTORS:
Coronet/MTI
Film and Video, Inc.
Monterey
Movie Company (home video)
Radio Series (Interviews/Discussion/Readings) This
thirteen-part series presents and interprets the poetry of twelve
contemporary American poets, from well-known authors to younger talents.
Each program focuses on one poet and typically features readings of five
or more poems.
Program 1 This introduction to Poets in Person
traces the evolution and varieties of poetry since the 1950s, examining
the trend toward finding poetry in ordinary American speech and personal
experience.
Program 2 Allen Ginsberg discusses the Beat writers, the
counter-culture of the 1960s, and the continuing influence of earlier
poets.
Program 3 Karl Shapiro explains why he first attacked T.S.
Eliot, Ezra Pound, and the academic establishment, what he loves about
Nebraska, and how he became known as "the bourgeois poet."
Program 4 Maxine Kumin reviews her friendship with Anne
Sexton, her roles as mother, grandmother, and writer, life on a horse
farm, and her transformation from a "light versifier" to a serious poet.
Program 5 W.S. Merwin considers the origin of images,
surrealism, alienation, the assault on the environment, and the search
for faith in the modern world.
Program 6 Gwendolyn Brooks recounts her first meeting with
Langston Hughes, the use of experiences from her own life in her work,
and her efforts to encourage children to write poetry.
Program 7 James Merrill reflects on the subjects of love
and loss, feeling and form in poetry, and how he came to write a
17,000-line modern epic with the help of a Ouija board.
Program 8 Adrienne Rich discusses coming of age in the
1950s and the evolution of her own life and work through the liberation
movements of the 1960s and 1970s.
Program 9 John Ashbery talks about the "New York School"
of poets and artists and the impact of movies, paintings, and popular
culture on his work.
Program 10 Sharon Olds discusses motherhood, metaphors,
teaching, and making art out of real life in the New York metropolis.
Program 11 Charles Wright remembers growing up in
Tennessee, discovering the power of language in fifth grade, and
becoming a poet in the U.S. Army at age 23.
Program 12 Rita Dove describes her parents and
grandparents, her adolescence in Akron, her early fascination with
German poetry, and the influence of slave narratives on her own work.
Program 13 Gary Soto talks about baseball games, tragedy
in a Chicano boyhood, the work and lives of migrant families, and his
unexpected beginnings and popularity as a poet.
PRODUCTION ORGANIZATION: Modern Poetry Association, Chicago,
IL YEAR PRODUCED: 1991 PRODUCER/WRITER/HOST: Joseph
Parisi INTERVIEWERS (by program): Lewis Hyde (2); Joseph Parisi (3,
13); Alicia Ostriker (4, 10); James Richardson (5); Alice Fulton (6);
J.D. McClatchey (7, 11); Diane Wood Middlebrook (8); David Bromwich (9);
Helen Vendler (12)
PRINT MATERIAL: Companion booklet forthcoming
FORMAT: Audiocassette 13 (29:00) programs
DISTRIBUTOR: Modern
Poetry Association
DramaIn The Revolt of Mother, adapted from a
story by Mary Wilkins Freeman, two young people witness the loving but
determined struggle of their mother to stand up to their father on a
matter involving the family farm. (See also The
Hollow Boy, Love and
Other Sorrows, and Pigeon
Feathers.)
PRODUCTION ORGANIZATION: Learning in Focus, Inc., Larchmont,
NY YEAR PRODUCED: 1986 (first broadcast on American
Playhouse) EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Robert Geller PRODUCER: Brian
Benlifer DIRECTOR: Victor Lobl ADAPTATION: Cynthia
Cherbak CINEMATOGRAPHY: Tom Houghton EDITOR: Rachel Igel CAST:
Amy Madigan, Jay O. Sanders, Katherine Hiler, Benjamin Bernovy
AWARDS: Houston International Film Festival Blue, Silver Award;
Christopher Award; American Film and Video Festival, Blue Ribbon; U.S.A.
Film Festival (Dallas), Finalist
FORMAT: 16mm, Video (46:30)
DISTRIBUTORS:
Coronet/MTI
Film and Video, Inc.
Monterey
Movie Company (home video)
Documentary
This film treats the life, work, and legacy of African American
author Richard Wright (1908-1960), including his difficult Southern
childhood; his experiences in Chicago and New York; his first major
writings, Native Son and Black Boy; his move to Paris after World War
II; and his growing commitment to pan-Africanism.
PRODUCTION ORGANIZATION: Mississippi Educational Television, Jackson,
MS YEAR PRODUCED: 1994 EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Guy Paul Land & Jef
Judin PRODUCER/DIRECTOR/WRITER: Madison Davis Lacy DIRECTOR
(DRAMATIC SCENES): Horace Ove CINEMATOGRAPHY: Ngaio
Killingsworth EDITOR: Adam Zucker NARRATOR: J.A.
Preston ASSOCIATE PRODUCERS: Art Cromwell, Denise Greene ORIGINAL
MUSIC COMPOSER/PERFORMER: Randy Klein ORIGINAL MUSIC RECORDED BY: Rob
Harari ORIGINAL BLUES BY: R.L. Burnside, Kenny Brown Cedric
Burnside VOICE OF RICHARD WRIGHT: W. Frank Lynch EXECUTIVE
DIRECTOR/MISSISSIPPI ETV: Larry Miller INTERVIEWS: Margaret Walker
Alexander, Julia Wright, Ralph Ellison, Maryemma Graham, Amiri Baraka,
Ben Burns, John Henrik Clarke, Allen Willis, Michael Dyson, Joyce Ann
Joyce, Cedric Robinson, Constance Webb, Mark Naison, Jerry Ward, Tom
Cripps, Willie Morris, Ollie Harrington, Michel Fabre, and others
AWARDS: CINE Golden Eagle; Regional Emmy
PRINT MATERIALS: Teachers' Guide available from Mississippi
Educational Television
FORMAT: Video (86:40)
DISTRIBUTOR: California
Newsreel
The Scarlet Letter
Dramatic Series
This is a four-part dramatization of Nathaniel Hawthorne's 1850
novel. (See also The
Scarlet Letter Radio Series.)
PRODUCTION ORGANIZATION: WGBH, Boston, MA YEAR PRODUCED:
1979 EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Herbert Hirschman PRODUCER/DIRECTOR: Rick
Hauser ADAPTATION: Allan Knee, Alvin Sapinsley MUSIC: John
Morris CAST: Meg Foster, John Heard, Kevin Conway
FORMAT: Video 4 (60:00) programs
DISTRIBUTOR: PBS
Video
Radio Series (Documentary and Drama)
This radio series is a two-part companion to the television
dramatization of Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter. (See also The
Scarlet Letter.)
Part I The Legacy of the Letter: The Scarlet Letter
Commentaries examines the major themes of the novel through four
half-hour documentary programs.
Program 1 Capital A traces the changing legal and
social views of adultery from colonial times to the present.
Program 2 The Dark Dilemma discusses
psychological, theological, and literary perspectives on sin, guilt,
revenge, and remorse in Puritan and modern American society.
Program 3 A is for Able analyzes the evolution of
the personal and cultural values of freedom and independence in America.
Program 4 The Legacy of the Letter examines the
values and attitudes that remain today from Puritan society and
Hawthorne's influence on later generations of writers and readers.
COPRODUCERS: Barbara Sirota, Clifford Hahn WRITER/EDITOR: Diane K.
Miller NARRATOR: Richard Provost
Part II Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter is a
series of eighteen half-hour dramatic readings of the novel.
PRODUCER: George Morency ASSOCIATE PRODUCER: Clifford
Hahn DIRECTOR: Joann Green CAST: Kevin Conway, Deborah Solomon,
Christopher Curry, Frank Licato, Lisa McMillan, Jon Polito SERIES
PRODUCTION ORGANIZATION: WGBH-Radio, Boston, MA YEAR PRODUCED:
1979 SERIES EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Barbara Sirota
FORMAT: Audiocassette 4 (30:00) documentary commentaries; 18 (30:00)
dramatic readings
DISTRIBUTOR: Currently unavailable.
A Sea of Language
Radio Documentary
A Sea of Language explores how language is created; how it
controls and affects us; how it is used as a tool of power; and how men
and women use language differently.
PRODUCTION ORGANIZATION: Western Public Radio, San Francisco,
CA YEAR PRODUCED: 1980 PRODUCER: Barbara Boyer Walter TECHNICAL
PRODUCER: Zane Blaney PROJECT COORDINATOR: Susan
Horwitz REPORTER/EDITOR: Shelley Fern, Leo Lee
FORMAT: Audiocassette (59:00)
DISTRIBUTOR: Pacifica
Program Service/Radio Archive
Seize the Day
Drama
This dramatization of Saul Bellow's Seize the Day (1956) follows a
brief period in the life of Tommy Wilhelm, a bumbling, clownish salesman
facing financial and personal ruin.
PRODUCTION ORGANIZATION: Learning in Focus, Inc., New York,
NY YEAR PRODUCED: 1986 (first broadcast on Great
Performances) EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Robert Geller PRODUCER: Chiz
Schultz ASSOCIATE PRODUCER: Brian Benlifer ADAPTATION: Ronald
Ribman DIRECTOR: Fielder Cook CAST: Robin Williams, Joseph
Wiseman, Jerry Stiller, Glenne Headly, Katherine Borowitz, Tony Roberts
AWARD/FESTIVALS: CINE Golden Eagle: Berlin Film Festival; Telluride
Film Festival; Jerusalem Film Festival; Time magazine, one of "Ten Best
of 1987"; New York Post, one of "30 Best Movies Ever Made for
Television"; Los Angeles Times, one of "30 Best Movies Ever Made for
Television"
FORMAT: 16mm, Video, Laserdisc (94:00)
DISTRIBUTOR: Monterey
Movie Company
The Shakespeare Hour
Dramatic and Documentary Series
This series is a reformatting of five of the BBC/Time-Life
Shakespeare plays into one-hour segments. Host Walter Matthau provides
introductory and concluding remarks for each hour and narrates the short
documentaries accompanying four of the dramas.
Program 1 A Midsummer Night's Dream with Peter
McEnery as Oberon and Helen Mirren as Titania. Directed by Elijah
Moshinsky. [2 (60:00) programs]
Program 2 Twelfth Night with Felicity Kendal as
Viola, Sinead Cusack as Olivia, and Alec McOwen as Malvolio. Directed by
John Gorrie. [3 (60:00) programs]
In Praise of Folly is a five-minute documentary that
follows the first segment of Twelfth Night. It offers a brief
history of the fool in literature, art, and society.
All the World's a Stage is an eight-minute documentary that
follows the final segment of Twelfth Night. It explores
Shakespeare's use of drama as both metaphor and theatrical device.
Program 3 All's Well That Ends Well with Ian
Charleson as Bertram and Angela Down as Helena. Directed by Elijah
Moshinsky. [3(60:00) programs]
The Woman's Part is a five-minute documentary that follows
the final segment of All's Well That Ends Well. It surveys
Shakespeare's resourceful and witty comic heroines in the context of
their real-life counterparts in England.
Program 4 Measure for Measure with Kate Nelligan
as Isabella and Tim Piggott-Smith as Angelo. Directed by Desmond Davis.
[3 (60:00) programs]
The Darkening of Comedy is a four-minute documentary that
follows the final segment of Measure for Measure. It explores
Shakespeare's mix of comedy and tragedy and the roots of this
combination in medieval English drama.
Program 5 King Lear with Michael Hordern as Lear
and Frank Middlemass as the Fool. Directed by Jonathan Miller. [4
(60:00) programs]
Poetic Illusion is a four-minute documentary that follows
the third segment of King Lear. It discusses the play's famous
Dover Cliff scene, exploring its use of Renaissance visual perspective
to create a metaphor for the "tragic fall" that "cures" despair.
The Promised End is a sixteen-minute documentary that
follows the final segment of King Lear. It discusses the
significance of the characteristically ambiguous ending of each of the
five plays.
PRODUCTION ORGANIZATION: WNET/13, New York, NY YEAR PRODUCED:
1985 EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Donald Johnson PRODUCERS: Harvey Bellin,
Tom Kieffer DIRECTOR: Tony Marshall WRITER: Kenneth
Cavander HOST/NARRATOR: Walter Matthau
PRINT MATERIAL: The Shakespeare Hour by Edward Quinn available, call
Penguin Books, 212-366-2000; Teacher and Viewer Guides no longer
available
FORMAT: Video (15 hours) 1,2,3 and 4 one-hour programs, see
individual listings
DISTRIBUTOR: Ambrose
Video (plays only available)
Documentary Radio Series
Three one-hour radio documentaries explore how a British poet from 400 years ago has and continues to influence American life—in politics, performance, and popular culture.
Episode 1
Shakespeare Becomes American: Shakespeare in American Performance
Shakespeare is everywhere in America, including musicals, festivals, television, and the movies. Explore how American Shakespeare has been shaped by the American experience. From the young nation's earliest days, when an "American" acting style first took shape, to the influence of African Americans on Shakespeare on stage, to method acting, to Hollywood, America and Americans—actors, directors, and audiences—have made Shakespeare our own.
Episode 2
The Father of the Man in America: Shakespeare in American Civic Life and Education
After the American Revolution, the nation wondered if it should adopt British culture and literature—including Shakespeare's plays—or create its own. Follow Shakespeare's path in the years that followed, including his surprisingly late arrival in the classroom and his role in major movements like the push west, the establishment of cities, the Civil War, and the immigrant experience. From Gold Rush mining camps to the final frontiers of Star Trek, Shakespeare is everywhere in America.
Episode 3
Shakespeare is a Black Woman: Shakespeare in American Politics
John Adams filled his diaries with mentions of Shakespeare's plays. Janet Reno assembled her staff to read King Lear. In 1849, disputes over British and American acting styles touched off a deadly riot. The most famous black Shakespearean of the nineteenth century was an American who went to Europe after he saw black actors arrested for performing Shakespeare in the US. In the 1980s, Shakespeare was drawn into battles over race and gender on college campuses. This program explores how Shakespeare's work has intertwined itself with American electoral politics, geopolitics, and racial, class, and academic politics throughout American history.
PRODUCTION ORGANIZATIONS: Rlpaul Productions, Washington, DC, and Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, DC
YEAR PRODUCED: 2007
PRODUCERS: Richard L. Paul, Esther Ferington, Garland Scott
DIRECTOR/WRITER: Richard L. Paul
EDITORS: Barbara A. Mowat, Heather Nathan, Gail Kern Paster, Alden Vaughan, Virginia Vaughan, Don Wilmeth, Georgianna Ziegler
NARRATORS: Sam Waterston, Lenny Williams
CAST: Morgan Duncan, Craig Wallace, Dolores King-Williams, Andy Clemence, Matt McKlesky, Michael Forrest, Brad Van Grack, Michael Thornton, Giles Gobert, Vladimir Frumkin, Dave Kane, Philip Boos, Joseph Schlenz, Phil Rosensteel
PRINT MATERIALS: A comprehensive website, www.shakespeareinamericanlife.org, includes the documentaries, extended interviews from the documentaries with transcripts, teacher resources, games and activities for children, and a wealth of visual and audio/video material relating to the topic from the collections of the Folger Shakespeare Library, Library of Congress, and the Performing Arts Library at Lincoln Center. Teacher kits available through the Folger Shakespeare Library.
FORMAT: Audio: Three one-hour (60:00) episodes
DISTRIBUTORS: Public Radio International (PRI), NPR Worldwide and
Public Radio Exchange (PRX)
SoundPlay/Horspiel
Radio Series (Drama and Documentary)
SoundPlay/Horspiel is an anthology of important works from the
tradition of radio drama (horspiel) in Germany and Austria. The
Endowment supported acquisition of some programs, production of new
versions of others, and all the introductory and documentary segments.
Breakfast in Miami was supported by other funders.
Program 1 The Flight of Lindbergh: A Radio Cantata
(1929) by Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill The cantata salutes Charles
Lindbergh's historic 1927 transatlantic flight.
The accompanying documentary examines the beginnings of radio drama
in Germany.
PRODUCTION ORGANIZATION: Voices International, New York, NY YEAR
PRODUCED: 1991 PRODUCERS: Everett Frost, Faith Wilding DOCUMENTARY
PRODUCER: Everett Frost WRITER: Bertolt Brecht TRANSLATION: Lys
Symonette MUSIC: Kurt Weill RECORDING PRODUCTION ENGINEERS:
Stephen Erickson, Edward Haber, Gene Curtis MUSIC PERFORMED BY: the
Stamford Master Singers, conducted by Steven Gross SOLOISTS: Jeffrey
Lentz, Charles Kaye, Edward Pleasant HOST: Alvin Epstein
FORMAT: Audiocassette (59:00)
Program 2 The Outsider (1947) by Wolfgang
Borchert The first radio play produced in Germany after World War II,
The Outsider tells the story of a soldier captured at Stalingrad
who returns to post-war Germany from Siberian concentration camp.
The documentary recreates the "sound" of German radio during the war
and post-war era through a montage of archival recordings including the
voices of Hitler, Goering, and an American Army colonel who helped set
up German radio after the war.
PRODUCTION ORGANIZATIONS: Voices International, New York, NY;
WGBH, Boston; and Deutsche Welle, Cologne, Germany YEAR PRODUCED:
1985 (Production by permission of Rowohlt Verlag Publishers, New York,
NY) PRODUCTION COORDINATOR/DOCUMENTARY PRODUCER: Everett
Frost DIRECTOR: Georges Wagner Jourdain WRITER: Wolfgang
Borchert TRANSLATION: Michael Benedikt RECORDING ENGINEER: Melanie
Berzon PRODUCTION ENGINEER: Volker Herder NARRATOR: Robert J.
Lurtsema CAST: Jeremiah Kissel, Jeremy Geidt, Judy Braha HOST:
Alvin Epstein
FORMAT: Audiocassette (89:00)
Program 3 Dreams (1951) by Gunter Eich This play
consists of five related dreams, each occurring on a different
continent.
The documentary includes interviews with Eich, who discusses his
experiences as a anti-Nazi writer and later as a prisoner, and
selections from tape recordings of listeners' angry phone calls after
the initial German broadcast.
PRODUCTION ORGANIZATION: Voices International, New York, NY YEAR
PRODUCED: 1990 (Production by permission of Suhrkamp Verlag Publishers,
Frankfurt) DIRECTOR/PRODUCER: Everett Frost ASSOCIATE PRODUCER:
Faith Wilding WRITER: Gunter Eich TRANSLATION: Anselm
Hollo COMMENTARY WRITER: Karl Karst PRODUCTION ENGINEER: Stephen
Erickson CAST: Ruth Maleczech, Frederick Neumann, Bill Raymond, Avery
Hart, Terry O'Reilly HOST: Alvin Epstein
FORMAT: Audiocassette (89:00)
Program 4 The Other and I (1952) by Gunter
Eich An American woman driving along the north Italian coast is drawn
into another life and past, from which she cannot return.
The documentary includes comments by the author.
PRODUCTION ORGANIZATION: Bay Area Radio Drama, San Francisco, CA
YEAR PRODUCED: 1984 (Production by permission of Suhrkamp Verlag,
Publishers, Frankfurt) DIRECTOR/PRODUCER: Erik Bauersfeld
WRITER: Gunter Eich TRANSLATION: Robert Goss ENGINEER: Danny
Kopelson CAST: Winifred Mann HOST: Erik Bauersfeld
FORMAT: Audiocassette (89:00)
Program 5 The Good God of Manhattan (1958) by
Ingeborg Bachmann The title character is on trial for plotting the
murder of two lovers and for having killed one of them.
The documentary features a discussion of the playwright.
PRODUCTION ORGANIZATION: Voices International, New York, NY YEAR
PRODUCED: 1990 (Production by permission of R. Piper & Co, Verlag
Publishers, Munich) PRODUCER: Faith Wilding DIRECTOR: Carey
Perloff WRITER: Ingeborg Bachmann TRANSLATION: Faith
Wilding MUSIC: Elizabeth Swados PRODUCTION ENGINEER: Stephen
Erickson CAST: Elizabeth McGovern, Patrick O'Connell, Bill Raymond,
Bob Gunton HOST: Alvin Epstein
FORMAT: Audiocassette (89:00)
Program 6 Experimental Radio Drama Program I This
three-part program includes works by four poets that illustrate the
ongoing interest of German radio drama in linguitic forms. The
documentary segments include discussion of these works.
Excerpt from the Ursonate (1932) by Kurt Schwitters A
pre-war experimental work for radio, the Ursonate reduces language to
the simplest syllabic sounds, anticipating the avant garde movement in
acoustic radio drama known as Neues Hoerspiel.
YEAR PERFORMED/RECORDED: 1932 REALIZATION: Kurt Schwitters
Ophelia and the Words (1969) by Gerhard Ruhm Ruhm took as
his text all the words spoken by Ophelia in Shakespeare's Hamlet.
PRODUCTION ORGANIZATIONS: Bay Area Radio Drama, Berkeley, CA, and
Westdeutsche Rundfunk (WDR), Cologne, Germany YEAR PRODUCED:
1987 TEXT: Gerhard Ruhm, from Shakespeare DIRECTOR/DRAMATURG:
Klaus Schoening ENGINEER: Danny Kopelson CAST: Sigrid Worschmidt
Five Man Humanity (1968) by Ernst Jandl and Friederike
Mayrucker In Mother Goose-style language, the story describes five
men who are born, raised, educated, conscripted, imprisoned, tried,
executed, and born again.
PRODUCTION ORGANIZATIONS: Bay Area Radio Drama, Berkeley, CA, and
Westdeutsche Rundfunk (WDR), Cologne, Germany YEAR PRODUCED:
1984 PRODUCER: Erik Bauersfeld DIRECTORS: Robert Goss, Klaus
Mehrlander WRITERS: Ernst Jandl, Friederike Mayrucker TRANSLATION:
Robert Goss RECORDING ENGINEER: Danny Kopelson CAST: Sigrid
Worschmidt, Leo Downey
For Experimental Radio Drama Program 1
PRODUCTION ORGANIZATION: Bay Area Radio Drama, Berkeley,
CA PRODUCER: Erik Bauersfeld ASSOCIATE PRODUCER: Maria
Gilardin TECHNICAL PRODUCTION: Jim McKee (Earwax Studio) HOST:
Erik Bauersfeld
FORMAT: Audiocassette (59:00)
Program 7 Monologue: Terry Jo (1968) by Max Bense
and Ludwig Harig This play is based on a French newspaper account of
the true story of an American family murdered during a vacation cruise
in the Caribbean.
The documentary examines the distinction between how language is used
in art and journalism, with Monologue: Terry Jo as a study of each.
PRODUCTION ORGANIZATIONS: Bay Area Radio Drama, San Francisco, CA,
and Westdeutsche Rundfunk (WDR), Cologne, Germany
YEAR PRODUCED: 1984 PRODUCER: Erik Bauersfeld DIRECTOR: Klaus
Schuning WRITERS: Max Bense, Ludwig Harig TRANSLATION: Robert
Goss ENGINEER: Danny Kopelson CAST: Sigrid Worschmidt HOST:
Erik Bauersfeld
FORMAT: Audiocassette: (59:00)
Program 8 Gertrude (1978) by Wolfgang Schiffer and
Charles Dorr This drama tells the true story of Gertrude, an
incurable schizophrenic and avid radio listener, who sent a series of
letters to radio station WDR in Cologne, where two producers took an
interest in her and began to document her struggles to find a new place
in society. The drama is an example of non-fiction recordings transposed
into radio art.
The documentary includes comments by the real Gertrude and by German
co-author Wolfgang Schiffer.
PRODUCTION ORGANIZATION: Bay Area Radio Drama, San Francisco,
CA YEAR PRODUCED: 1984 PRODUCER: Erik Bauersfeld DIRECTOR:
Oscar Eustis CONSULTING DIRECTOR: Wolfgang Schiffer WRITERS:
Wolfgang Schiffer, Charles Duerr TRANSLATION: Robert Goss MUSIC:
Maggi Payne ENGINEER: Danny Kopelson TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE: Karin
Brocco CAST: Abigail Booream HOST: Erik Bauersfeld
FORMAT: Audiocassette (59:00)
Program 9 Experimental Radio Drama Program
II This program illustrates two further directions of German
acoustic radio drama, Neues Hoerspiel.
Radio (1983) by Ferdinand Kriwet The author analyzes the
language of media connected to particular professions or activities, and
the listener is taken from America to Spain to Latin America to Germany
to Russia to hear similarly worded newscasts, entirely intelligible to
anyone anywhere.
PRODUCTION ORGANIZATIONS: Westdeutsche Rundfunk (WDR), Cologne,
Germany; Radio France, Paris; and Sveriges Riksradio, The
Netherlands YEAR PRODUCED: 1985 REALIZATION: Ferdinand Kriwet
Wind and Sea (1970) by Peter Handke In this brief work,
Handke explores the possibility of telling a story and evoking emotions
through the orchestration of sound.
PRODUCTION ORGANIZATION: Westdeutsche Rundfunk (WDR), Cologne,
Germany YEAR PRODUCED: 1971 DIRECTOR/WRITER: Peter Handke
Documentary segments include discussion of the works and Ferdinand
Kriwet's demonstration of his radio collage methods.
For Experimental Radio Drama Program II
PRODUCTION ORGANIZATION: Bay Area Radio Drama, Berkeley, CA YEAR
PRODUCED: 1991 PRODUCER: Erik Bauersfeld ASSOCIATE PRODUCER: Maria
Gilardin TECHNICAL PRODUCTION: Jim McKee (Earwax Studio) HOST:
Erik Bauersfeld
FORMAT: Audiocassette (59:00)
Program 10 Radio Play (No. 1) (1968) by Peter
Handke In this surreal drama, a young man is interrogated by five
questioners and a chief interrogator; it is never clear what, if
anything, the interrogators are trying to find out, whether the
Questioned knows anything or not, or whether he is "innocent" or
"guilty."
The documentary includes an interview with Handke, who discusses
Group 47, the influential post-war gathering of German writers concerned
about repairing the damage done to German language and literature and to
the careers of writers during the Third Reich.
PRODUCTION ORGANIZATION: Voices International, New York, NY YEAR
PRODUCED: 1988 PRODUCER/DIRECTOR: Klaus Schuning ASSOCIATE
PRODUCER: David Leveille WRITER: Peter Handke TRANSLATION: Robert
Goss ADAPTATION FOR AMERICAN RADIO: Faith Wilding RECORDING
ENGINEER: Marilyn Ries CAST: Bill McElhiney, Frederick
Neumann HOST: Alvin Epstein
FORMAT: Audiocassette (59:00)
Program 11 Houses (1969) by Jorgen Becker This
drama explores the varied and often contradictory feelings people have
about the suburban houses and apartments in which they live.
The documentary includes a discussion of the use of ordinary people
rather than actors in the drama and a comparison of the German and
English productions of the play and what each reveals about the two
societies.
PRODUCTION ORGANIZATIONS: Bay Area Radio Drama, San Francisco, CA,
and Westdeutsche Rundfunk (WDR), Cologne, Germany YEAR PRODUCED:
1991 PRODUCER/DIRECTOR/DRAMATURG: Erik Bauersfeld WRITER: Jorgen
Becker TRANSLATION: Robert Goss SOUND DESIGN/MUSIC & TECHNICAL
PRODUCTION: Jim McKee (Earwax Studio) ASSISTANT PRODUCER: Maria
Gilardin HOST: Erik Bauersfeld
FORMAT: Audiocassette (59:00)
Program 12 Centropolis (1975) by Walter
Adler This drama presents an imagined future in which the state,
Centropolis, has solved all problems and is bio-engineering a triumph
over death itself.
The documentary features a discussion of the play's effectiveness and
its popularity in Germany.
PRODUCTION ORGANIZATION: Bay Area Radio Drama, San Francisco,
CA YEAR PRODUCED: 1990 PRODUCER/DIRECTOR/DRAMATURG: Erik
Bauersfeld WRITER: Walter Adler TRANSLATION: Robert
Goss MUSIC/SOUND DESIGN/TECHNICAL PRODUCTION: Jim McKee (Earwax
Studio) CAST: Fredi Olster, Will Marchetti HOST: Erik Bauersfeld
FORMAT: Audiocassette (59:00)
Program 13 The Tribune (1980) by Mauricio
Kagel The play presents a Head of State rehearsing a long speech he
will give to his assembled people, while the taped reactions of an
absent but well-schooled crowd are played through loudspeakers.
The documentary includes comments by Kagel.
PRODUCTION ORGANIZATION: Voices International, New York, NY YEAR
PRODUCED: 1990 PRODUCER/DIRECTOR/DRAMATURG: Everett
Frost ASSOCIATE PRODUCER: Faith Wilding WRITER: Mauricio
Kagel TRANSLATOR: Anselm Hollo MUSIC: Mauricio Kagel (courtesy S.
Peters Verlag Publishers & WDR) PRODUCTION ENGINEER: Stephen
Erickson CAST: Bill Raymond HOST: Alvin Epstein
FORMAT: Audiocassette (59:00)
Program 14 Breakfast in Miami (1978 and 1989) by
Reinhard Lettau In this satiric play, six deposed dictators living in
retirement in Miami gather for a series of discussions about their
experiences as heads of state.
PRODUCTION ORGANIZATION: Voices International, New York, NY YEAR
PRODUCED: 1990 PRODUCER/DIRECTOR/DRAMATURG: Everett Frost WRITER:
Reinhard Lettau TRANSLATION: Reinhard Lettau, Julie Prandl
RECORDING AND PRODUCTION ENGINEER: Stephen Erickson CAST:
Norberto Kerner, Jeremy Dempsey, Christian Bruckner, William
Duff-Griffen, Miguel Perez, Hewitt Brooks HOST: Alvin Epstein
FORMAT: Audiocassette (59:00)
Program 15 Moscow Time (1988) by Helmut
Kopetzky Based on extensive field recordings, this program looks at
the Russian people during the beginnings of glasnost.
The program features a short introductory discussion by Kopetzky.
PRODUCTION ORGANIZATIONS: Voices International, New York, NY, and
Hessicher Rundfunk, Frankfurt, Germany YEARS PRODUCED:
1989-1990 REALIZATION/TRANSLATION: Helmut Kopetzky, Faith
Wilding MUSIC: Dmitri Shostakovitch ENGLISH NARRATOR: David
McBride HOST: Alvin Epstein
FORMAT: Audiocassette (59:00)
Program 16 Roaratorio: An Irish Circus on Finnegans
Wake (1979) by John Cage Created for German radio broadcast, the
drama contains 2,293 sound effects, all mentioned in James Joyce's
experimental novel, Finnegans Wake.
PRODUCTION ORGANIZATIONS: WDR, Cologne, Germany; SDR, Stuttgart
Germany; and KRO, Hilversum, The Netherlands YEAR PRODUCED:
1979 REALIZATION: John Cage, John David Fullemann PRODUCER/EDITOR:
Klaus Schuning TEXT ARRANGEMENT/ADAPTATION: John Cage CAST: John
Cage (Voice), Joe Heaney (Singer) HOST: Alvin Epstein
FORMAT: Audiocassette (59:00)
For the SoundPlay/Horspiel series
PRODUCTION ORGANIZATIONS: Voices International, New York, NY, in
cooperation with Bay Area Radio Drama (BARD), Berkeley, CA YEARS
PRODUCED: 1984-1991 PROJECT DIRECTOR: Everett Frost CODIRECTOR:
Faith Wilding ASSOCIATE PRODUCER: Molly Bernstein TECHNICAL
PRODUCER: Stephen Erickson BARD PROJECT DIRECTOR: Erik
Bauersfeld BARD ASSOCIATE PRODUCER: Maria Gilardin BARD TECHNICAL
PRODUCER: Jim McKee (Earwax Studio)
DOCUMENTARY INTERVIEWS (by program): Bertolt Brecht, Kurt Weill, Dr.
Reinhold Grimm, Dr. Kim Kowalke, Steven Gross (1); Hans Quest, Gotz
Naleppa, Dr. Georges Wagner Jourdain (2); Gunter Eich, Fritz
Schroder-Jahn, Klaus Schuning, Dr. Karl Karst (3); Gunter Eich, Klaus
Schuning, Erik Bauersfeld, Dr. Frederic Tubach (4); Dr. Karen Achberger,
Carey Perloff (5); Gerhard Rohm, Ernst Jandl, Friederike Mayrucker,
Klaus Schuning (6); Klaus Schuning (7); Gertrude, Wolfgang Schiffer,
Oscar Eustis (8); Erik Bauersfeld, Klaus Schuning, Ferdinand Kriwet (9);
Peter Handke (10); Dr. Frederic Tubach, Erik Bauersfeld (11); Walter
Adler, Dr. Frederick Tubach (12); Mauricio Kagel (13); Helmut Kopetzky
(15)
PRINT MATERIAL: English translations of most of the plays appear in
the anthology German Radio Plays, eds. Everett Frost and Margaret
Herzfeld-Sander [Volume 86 of the German Library series], published by
the Continuum Publishing Company, 370 Lexington Avenue, New York, NY
10017
FORMAT: Audiocassette Programs 2-5 (89:00); Programs 1,6-16
(59:00)
DISTRIBUTOR: The
Pacifica Program Service/Radio Archive [Note: Program 4 (89:00) and
Programs 1,9,10,13,16 (59:00) are Currently unavailable]
The State of the Language: So To Speak
Documentary
The program examines some of the challenges encountered by various
people directly involved in the translation process, from translators of
novels and plays to State Department interpreters and the foreign
language producer of Sesame Street.
PRODUCTION ORGANIZATIONS: The English-Speaking Union and Power/Rector
Productions, San Francisco, CA YEAR PRODUCED: 1983 EXECUTIVE
PRODUCERS: Jules Power, Richard R. Rector PRODUCER: Lynn O'Donnell
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Tom Tucker, Jim McCutcheon EDITOR: Michael
Chandler HOST: Edward Herrmann
PRINT MATERIAL: Companion book The State of the Language, eds.
Christopher Ricks and Leonard Michaels (University of California Press,
1990)
FORMAT: Video (27:00)
DISTRIBUTOR: The
English-Speaking Union
Staus: Growing Old in America
Drama
Set in the steel and mining region just south of Pittsburgh, this
drama, based on a short story by Mary Ann Rishel, centers on an aging
widower who is encouraged by his sisters to start his life again.
PRODUCTION ORGANIZATION: The Labor Theater/Realizations, Inc., New
York, NY YEAR PRODUCED: 1983 EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: C.R.
Portz ASSOCIATE PRODUCER: Bette Craig DIRECTOR: Bob
Walsh ADAPTATION: Nancy Musser, Peter Almond MUSIC: Martin
Burman CINEMATOGRAPHY: Jim Crispi CAST: Theodore Bikel, Hope
Cameron, Charlotte Jones, Rebecca Schuller
FORMAT: Video (40:00)
DISTRIBUTOR: Currently unavailable.
StoryLines New England
Documentary Radio
StoryLines America explores American culture and history
through the lens of outstanding regional literature. The series creates
an alliance of public radio stations, libraries, bookstores, the
American Library Association, and state humanities councils that
supports a lively and thoughtful cultural jambalaya of a talk show.
Through the intimacy of radio, StoryLines builds a regional
front porch where universal ideas and issues are shared and discussed,
using books as the catalyst, and where anyone from across the nation can
take a seat through their local radio station or a web site. Combining
listener call-ins with discussions by authors, hosts, and other guests,
StoryLines is a reading group on the air that generates a
provocative dialogue on what it means to live in various regions of the
United States today and how the heritage of the regions fits into and
influences the larger American culture. In an era when the increasing
homogenization of culture threatens to overwhelm individuality,
StoryLines celebrates regional distinctiveness as well as
cultural diversity by creating a unique and dynamic forum for the
discussion of each through literature. PRODUCTION ORGANIZATIONS:
American Library Association, Chicago, IL, and New Hampshire Public
Radio, Concord, NH YEAR PRODUCED: 2004 EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Paul
Zalis PRODUCERS: William Marcus, Keith Shields, Andrew Walsh
WRITERS and EDITORS: Paul Zalis, Keith Shields, Laura Knoy, Kevin
Gardner HOSTS: Kevin Gardner, Laura J. Knoy
PRINT MATERIALS: Book discussion guides and audio file available from
the American Library Association at www.ala.org/ala/ppo/currentprograms/storylines/storylinesneguides.htm.
Limited quantities of CDs of individual programs available free as a set
of 13 from the American Library Association.
AWARDS/FESTIVALS: Previous series award: The Michigan Association of
Broadcasters selected StoryLines Midwest for its Special
Interest Programming "Best Award" for 2001. FORMAT: Audio 13 weekly
programs, one hour each DISTRIBUTOR: American
Library Association
Tell About the South
Documentary SeriesAn exploration of African American and
white Southern literature in the context of their parallel histories and
cultures, this film analyzes the South's regional uniqueness, relating
literature to a sense of time, place, race, and gender. The film
features the work of William Faulkner, Zora Neale Hurston, Flannery
O'Connor, and many others, as well as interviews with writers such as
Alice Walker, William Styron, Shelby Foote, and Eudora Welty.
PRODUCTION ORGANIZATION: James Agee Film Project, Charlottesville,
VA YEAR PRODUCED: 1997 and 2000 EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Ross
Spears PRODUCER/DIRECTOR: Ross Spears WRITERS: Ross Spears, Silvia
Kersusan CINEMATOGRAPHY: Peter Hawkins, Neil Means EDITORS: Neil
Means, Ross Spears, Alex Searls, Reid Oechs NARRATOR: Rita
Dove INTERVIEWS: Cleanth Brooks, Pat Conroy, Rita Dove, Wilma
Dykeman, Shelby Foote, John Hope Franklin, Ernest Gaines, George
Garrett, Nikki Giovanni, Andrew Lytle, Willie Morris, Albert Murray,
Reynolds Price, Mary Lee Settle, Elizabeth Spencer, Alice Walker,
Margaret Walker, Eudora Welty, Joel Williamson VOICES: Charles
Wright, Vertamai Grosvenor, Earl McCarroll, Art Greene
PRINT MATERIAL: Available through AgeeFilms: http://www.ageefilms.org/
AWARDS/FESTIVALS: Best Series of the year 2000 nominee by the
International Documentary Association; Editor's Choice,
Booklist Magazine
FORMAT: Video 3 programs (60:00) and 1 (85:00)
DISTRIBUTOR: James
Agee Film Project Library
Tell Me a Story
Radio Series (Interviews/Discussion/Readings)
This multi-part, multi-year series is devoted to contemporary short
stories read in their entirety by the authors themselves. Then, through
conversation and commentary, the writers explore their own backgrounds,
their art, and the relationship of their stories to other fiction of our
era and past ages.
Program 1 Wright Morris, Victrola.
Program 2 Lucia Berlin, Maggie May.
Program 3 William Maxwell, Love and The Woman Who
Never Drew Breath Except to Complain.
Program 4 Kay Boyle, Winter Night.
Program 5 Tim O'Brien, How to Tell a True War Story.
Program 6 Linda Svendsen, Heartbeat.
Program 7 Richard Ford, Optimists.
Program 8 Jayne Anne Phillips, Heavenly Animal.
Program 9 D.R. MacDonald, Sailing.
Program 10 Stephanie Vaughn, Able, Baker, Charlie,
Dog.
Program 11 Kaye Gibbons, The Proof.
Program 12 Eudora Welty, A Visit of Charity.
Program 13 Ellen Gilchrist, Victory over Japan.
Program 14 John L'Heureux, The Anatomy of Bliss.
Program 15 Toni Cade Bambara, My Man Bovanne.
Program 16 William Trevor, Teresa's Wedding.
Program 17 Ron Hansen, Wickedness.
Program 18 Cynthia Ozick, A Drugstore in Winter.
Program 19 Robert Coover, The Gingerbread House.
Program 20 Don Carpenter, Road Show.
Program 21 James Alan McPherson, Why I Like Country
Music.
Program 22 Joy Williams, The Blue Men.
Program 23 Peter Taylor, Three Heroines.
Program 24 Ann Beattie, Desire.
Program 25 John Updike, The Persistence of Desire.
Program 26 Roald Dahl, The Great Switcheroo.
Program 27 Louise Erdrich, A Wedge of Shade.
Program 28 Leo Litwak, The Therapist.
Program 29 Jamaica Kincaid, Gwen.
Program 30 Ethan Canin, Star Food.
Program 31 Molly Giles, Heart and Soul.
Program 32 J.F. Powers, The Old Bird: A Love Story.
Program 33 Hannah Green, Mr. Nabokov.
Program 34 John Edgar Wideman, Presents.
Program 35 Lee Smith, Between the Lines.
Program 36 John Barth, Night Sea Journey.
Program 37 Paul Bowles, A Distant Episode.
Program 38 Amy Tan, Half and Half.
Program 39 Tobias Wolff, The Other Miller.
Program 40 Peter Matthiessen, Horse Latitudes.
Program 41 Gloria Naylor, Eve's Song.
Program 42 Charles D'Ambrosio, The Point.
Program 43 Deborah Eisenberg, Days.
Program 44 Charles Baxter, Horace and Margaret's
Fifty-Second.
Program 45 Joyce Carol Oates, Four Miniature
Narratives.
Program 46 Jim Shepard, Reach for the Sky and
Messiah.
Program 47 Denise Chavez, The Last of the Menu
Girls.
Program 48 E.L. Doctorow, Willi.
Program 49 Harriet Doerr, The Red Taxi.
Program 50 Charles Simmons, Wrinkles.
Program 51 Gail Godwin, A Sorrowful Woman.
Program 52 Wallace Stegner, In the Twilight.
PRODUCTION ORGANIZATION: Tell Me a Story, San Francisco, CA YEARS
PRODUCED: Programs 1-13, 1988; Programs 14-26, 1989; Programs 27-39,
1990; Programs 40-52, 1991 PRODUCERS: Marjorie Leet (Programs 1-26);
Marjorie Leet and David Litwin (Programs 27-52) TECHNICAL DIRECTORS:
Vance Frost (Programs 1-14,17,19,25); David Litwin (Programs
15-16,18,20-24,26-52) WRITER/INTERVIEWER Marjorie Leet HOST:
Herbert Gold
FORMAT: Audiocassette Programs 1-6,8-20,22-24,27-52 (30:00);
Programs 7,21 (45:00); Program 25 (two versions, 30:00 and 45:00);
Program 26 (60:00)
DISTRIBUTOR: Tell Me a
Story
Tennessee Williams: Orpheus of the American
Stage
Documentary
This film chronicles the life and career of American writer Tennessee
Williams (1911-1983)—including his Missouri childhood; his legendary
professional collaboration with Elia Kazan; and the way in which he
transformed his personal experiences into lasting and universal art.
PRODUCTION ORGANIZATION: International Cultural Programming, New
York, NY, in association with WNET/13, New York, NY YEAR PRODUCED:
1994 EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: Catherine Tatge, Susan Lacy PRODUCERS:
Catherine Tage, Merrill Brockway DIRECTOR: Merrill
Brockway WRITER: Brooks Haxton CINEMATOGRAPHY: Jerry
Pantzer EDITOR: Girish Bhargava NARRATOR: Frank
Langella INTERVIEWS: Gore Vidal; Edward Albee; Maureen Stapleton;
Robert Brustein; Jim Parrott; William Jay Smith; Donald Windham; Maria
St. Just; Elaine Steinbeck; Frank Corsaro; Charles Bowden; Paula
Laurence; and others
FORMAT: Video (two versions, 97:00 and 85:00)
DISTRIBUTOR: Films
for the Humanities and Sciences
To Be Young, Gifted, and Black
Drama
To Be Young, Gifted, and Black is a portrait of playwright
Lorraine Hansberry (1930–65), drawn largely from her unpublished
letters, poems, diaries, and scenes from her plays.
PRODUCTION ORGANIZATION: NET Educational Broadcasting Corporation,
New York, NY YEAR PRODUCED: 1972 PRODUCER: Robert
Fresco DIRECTOR: Michael Schultz ADAPTATION: Robert
Fresco CAST: Ruby Dee, Al Freeman, Jr., Claudia McNeil, Roy Scheider,
Blythe Danner, Barbara Barrie, Lauren Jones
AWARD: American Film Festival, Blue Ribbon
FORMAT: 16mm, Video (90:00)
DISTRIBUTOR: Indiana
University, Audio-Visual Center
To Render A Life: Let Us Now Praise Famous Men
and the Documentary Vision
DocumentaryTo Render a Life explores the legacy
and themes of Let Us Now Praise Famous Men (1941), the classic
work of American documentary literature by writer James Agee and
photographer Walker Evans. Along with scholarly reflection, the film
records the daily life of a contemporary poor rural family in southern
Virginia whose circumstances parallel those of the cotton tenant farmers
that Agee and Evans portrayed fifty years ago.
PRODUCTION ORGANIZATION: James Agee Film Project, Johnson City, TN
YEAR PRODUCED: 1991 PRODUCERS: Ross Spears, Silvia
Kersusan DIRECTOR: Ross Spears WRITERS: Silvia Kersusan, Ross
Spears CINEMATOGRAPHY: Ross Spears, Neil Means, Anthony
Forma EDITORS: Grahame Weinbren, Ross Spears COMPOSERS: Kenton
Coe, Edgar Meyer MUSIC: Performed by the Edgar Meyer
Group NARRATOR: Ross Spears VOICE/READINGS: Earl
McCarroll INTERVIEWS: Robert Coles, Jonathan Kozol, Ted Rosengarten,
Wilma Dykeman, Rev. Will Campbell, Fred Wiseman, Jonathan Yardley, Alex
Harris, Ruth Behar, William Allard, James Hubbard, and others
AWARDS/SCREENINGS: American Film Festival Blue Ribbon; Crystal Heart
Award; Golden Globe Nominee; Andrew Sarris, One of Year's Best Films;
Festival of American Film; Sinking Creek Film Festival; National
Gallery; Film Forum; Pacific Film Archives, Washington Film Festival
FORMAT: Video (88:00)
DISTRIBUTOR: James
Agee Film Project Library
Voices and Visions
Documentary Series
Voices and Visions presents the achievements of thirteen
American poets over the last 150 years, using archival materials,
location cinematography, drama, dance, animation sequences, and
interviews. In addition, each program includes a select group of poems,
presented by the author or actors.
Program 1 Elizabeth Bishop: One Art
(1911–79) illustrates the writer's wandering spirit, from a
childhood in Nova Scotia to travels in Brazil, and the central themes of
her work: geography, landscape, and the quest for consciousness and
identity through travel.
YEAR PRODUCED: 1987 DIRECTOR/PRODUCER/WRITER: Jill
Janows CO-PRODUCER: Ellen Weissbrod CINEMATOGRAPHY: Richard
Dallet EDITOR: Arnold Glassman ANIMATION: Anita Thacher CAST:
Blythe Danner as the voice of Elizabeth Bishop INTERVIEWS: Octavio
Paz, Mary McCarthy, Mark Strand, James Merrill, Howard Moss, Frank
Bidart, and others
FORMAT: 16mm, Video (56:30)
Program 2 Hart Crane (1899–1932) traces the
poet's boyhood in Ohio, his complex relationship with his parents, and
the sources of his ambition and inspiration.
YEAR PRODUCED: 1986 PRODUCER: Lois Cunniff DIRECTOR: Lawrence
Pitkethly WRITERS: Derek Walcott, Margot Feldman CINEMATOGRAPHY:
Jonathan David EDITOR: Jessica Bendiner NARRATOR: Jose Ferrer
CAST: Dan Ziskie as the voice of Hart Crane INTERVIEWS: Derek
Walcott, Richard Howard, Malcolm and Peggy Cowley, and others
FORMAT: 16mm, Video (56:00)
Program 3 Emily Dickinson (1830–68) explores
the reclusive poet's accomplishments, education, and interests, dispels
the belief that she was unworldly and naive, and considers why her poems
were not appreciated during her lifetime.
YEAR PRODUCED: 1987 PRODUCER: Jill Janows DIRECTOR: Veronica
Young WRITER: Judith Thurman CINEMATOGRAPHER: Jeri
Sopanen EDITOR: Lisa Jackson CAST: Jane Alexander as the voice of
Emily Dickinson INTERVIEWS: Richard Sewell, Joyce Carol Oates,
Adrienne Rich, Anthony Hecht, and others
FORMAT: 16mm, Video (56:00)
Program 4 T.S. Eliot (1888–1965) considers the
work of a writer many regard as the most influential American poet of
his century against the backdrop of a life beset by enormous unhappiness
and a troubled search for spiritual solace.
YEAR PRODUCED: 1987 PRODUCERS: Sasha Alpert, Lawrence
Pitkethly DIRECTOR/WRITER: Lawrence Pitkethly CINEMATOGRAPHER: Nic
Knowland EDITOR: Jessica Bendiner MUSIC: Performed by The
Endellion Quartet INTERVIEWS: Frank Kermode, Peter Ackroyd, Joseph
Ciari, Stephen Spender, and others
FORMAT: 16mm, Video (56:00)
Program 5 Robert Frost (1874–1963) examines the
poet's lengthy career, from his move to England at the age of 40 where
his work was first published and celebrated, to his return to New
England and the poetic speech with which he is most associated.
YEAR PRODUCED: 1985 PRODUCER: Robert Chapman ASSOCIATE
PRODUCER: Michael Hendricks DIRECTOR/EDITOR: Peter Hammer
RESEARCH SUPERVISOR: Minda Novek WRITER: Margot
Feldman CINEMATOGRAPHY: Tom Hurwitz, Jonathan David, Robert Fulton,
Peter Hoving COMPOSER: Michael Bacon NARRATOR: Laurence
Luckinbill
CAST: Jason Robards III, Joan Allen, Frank Maraden INTERVIEWS:
Seamus Heaney, Joseph Brodsky, Richard Wilbur, William Pritchard,
Richard Poirer, Alfred Edwards, and others
FORMAT: 16mm, Video (56:30)
Program 6 Langston Hughes: The Dream Keeper
(1902–67) explains how Hughes wrote about the problems, cares, and
dignity of African-Americans, as well as the way his poetry derives from
African-American musical sources and the vocabulary and dialect patterns
of black urban speech.
YEAR PRODUCED: 1986 PRODUCER: Robert Chapman DIRECTOR: St.
Clair Bourne WRITER: Leslie Lee CINEMATOGRAPHY: Arthur Albert, Don
Lenzer EDITOR: Sam Pollard COMPOSER: Stanley Cowell POETRY
NARRATED BY: Novella Nelson, Roscoe Orman INTERVIEWS: James Baldwin,
Amiri Baraka, Gwendolyn Brooks, Arnold Rampersad, George Houston Bass,
Faith Berry, Raoul Abdul, Rowena Jelliffe, Louise Patterson, and others
FORMAT: Video (56:00)
Program 7 Robert Lowell: A Mania for Phrases
(1917–77) examines the life of a writer who descended from old
Yankee stock and who incorporated the torments of his own psyche into
his art, amplifying them to reflect the turmoil he saw in American
society.
YEAR PRODUCED: 1987 PRODUCER: Robert Chapman COPRODUCER: David
Schmerler DIRECTOR/EDITOR: Peter Hammer COWRITERS: Lawrence
Pitkethly, Peter Hammer CINEMATOGRAPHY: Robert Levi COMPOSER:
Michael Bacon INTERVIEWS: Derek Walcott, Frank Bidart, Anthony Hecht,
John Thompson, Robert Hass, Robert Giroux, Elizabeth Hardwick, and
others
FORMAT: 16mm, Video (56:00)
Program 8 Marianne Moore: In Her Own Image
(1887–1972) treats the life and work of this inventive and
idiosyncratic poet, including her belief in a principled life and her
close observation of nature.
YEAR PRODUCED: 1987 PRODUCERS: David Schmerler, Robert
Chapman DIRECTOR: Jeffrey Schon WRITER: Vickie
Karp CINEMATOGRAPHY: Mark Trottenberg, with Brian O'Connell, Jonathan
David, Timothy Housel, Mead Hunt, Nic Knowland, Robert Levi EDITOR:
Joelle Schon ANIMATION: Veronika Soul COMPOSER: Richard
Einhorn NARRATOR: Peter Maloney CAST: Laurie Heineman as the voice
of Marianne Moore INTERVIEWS: Charles Tomlinson, Clive Driver, Grace
Schulman, Richard Howard, Patricia Willis, and others
FORMAT: 16mm, Video (56:30)
Program 9 Sylvia Plath (1932–63) examines the
work of a poet whose achievement has been obscured by the drama of her
suicide at age thirty.
YEAR PRODUCED: 1987 DIRECTOR/PRODUCER: Lawrence
Pitkethly COPRODUCER: Sasha Alpert WRITER: Susan
Yankowitz CINEMATOGRAPHY: Nic Knowland, Bob Chappell EDITOR:
Jessica Bendiner INTERVIEWS: Aurelia Plath, Wilbury Crockett,
Clarissa Roche, Dido Merwin, Margaret Shook, A. Alvarez, Sandra M.
Gilbert, and others
FORMAT: 16mm, Video (56:30)
Program 10 Ezra Pound: American Odyssey
(1885–1972) considers the life and work of this poet, musician,
editor, and essayist, who was one of the leading and most erudite forces
behind modernism.
YEAR PRODUCED: 1983 PRODUCER/DIRECTOR/WRITER: Lawrence
Pitkethly CINEMATOGRAPHY: Jonathan David ANIMATION CAMERA: Gary
Becker, Mead Hunt GRAPHICS AND ANIMATION: Jeffrey Schon EDITOR:
Variety Moszynski CONSULTING EDITOR: Peter Hammer NARRATOR: Paul
Hecht INTERVIEWS: Olga Rudge, Mary de Rachewiltz, James Laughlin,
Basil Bunting, Alfred Kazin, Hugh Kenner, and others
FORMAT: 16mm, Video (two versions, 56:30 and 87:00)
Program 11 Wallace Stevens: Man Made Out of Words
(1879–1955) contrast the writer's separate but connected identities:
his sedate public career as an insurance lawyer in Hartford,
Connecticut, and his exotic and adventurous inner life as a poet.
YEAR PRODUCED: 1987 PRODUCER: Jill Janows DIRECTOR: Richard P.
Rogers WRITER: Robert Seidman CINEMATOGRAPHY: Richard P. Rogers,
Nancy Schreiber EDITOR: Corey Shaff COMPOSER: Martin
Bresnick INTERVIEWS: Mark Strand, James Merrill, Harold Bloom, Joan
Richardson, Helen Vendler, A. Walton Litz, and others
FORMAT: 16mm, Video (56:30)
Program 12 Walt Whitman (1819–92) spans the
writer's career as a typesetter, journalist, and Civil War nurse and
considers why he is credited with revolutionizing American letters and
inaugurating modern poetry.
YEAR PRODUCED: 1983 COORDINATING PRODUCER: Lois
Cuniff DIRECTOR: Jack Smithie CINEMATOGRAPHY: Lloyd Freidus,
Robert Fulton, with Jonathan David, Robert Hanna, Pamela
Katz EDITORS: Peter Hammer, Mark Rappaport NARRATOR: Peter
MacNichol CAST: Louis Turenne as the voice of Whitman INTERVIEWS:
Justin Kaplan, Harold Bloom, Allen Ginsberg, Galway Kinnell, Donald
Hall, and others
FORMAT: 16mm, Video (56:00)
Program 13 William Carlos Williams
(1883–1963) examines the writer's bold experiments in verse and the
relationship between his art and his life as a family doctor in New
Jersey.
YEAR PRODUCED: 1986 PRODUCER/WRITER: Jill Janows DIRECTOR:
Richard P. Rogers CINEMATOGRAPHY: Richard P. Rogers, Gerry Cotts,
Lisa Rinzler EDITOR: Corey Shaff ANIMATION/GRAPHIC DESIGN: George
Griffin, Maureen Selwood COMPOSER: Martin Bresnick INTERVIEWS:
Hugh Kenner, Majorie Perloff, Allen Ginsberg, Robert Coles, Dickran
Tashjiam, James Laughlin, Dr. William Eric Williams, and others
FORMAT: 16mm, Video (56:00)
SERIES PRODUCTION ORGANIZATION: The New York Center for Visual
History, New York, NY YEARS PRODUCED: 1982–87
SERIES EXECUTIVE
PRODUCER: Lawrence Pitkethly SENIOR PRODUCERS: Robert Chapman, Jill
Janows
PRINT MATERIALS: Voices & Visions: The Poet in America, edited by
Helen Vendler (essays), Modern American Poets: Their Voices and Visions,
edited by Robert DiYanni (text/anthology), Viewer's Guide, Joseph Parisi
FORMAT: 16mm, Video (56:00)
DISTRIBUTOR: The
Annenberg/CPB Project
Waiting for Beckett: A Portrait of Samuel
Beckett
Documentary
This program profiles the life of Samuel Beckett (1906–89), the Nobel
Prize-winning author who shunned publicity throughout his life and yet,
through works like Waiting for Godot, became a worldwide cultural
influence. (See also Peephole
Art.)
PRODUCTION ORGANIZATION: Global Village, New York, NY YEAR
PRODUCED: 1994 EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: John L. Reilly PRODUCER:
Melissa Shaw-Smith DIRECTOR: John L. Reilly WRITERS: Robert
Seidman, Melissa Shaw-Smith, John L. Reilly CINEMATOGRAPHY: Frank
Merino, Pedro Caravajal EDITORS: Ray Benjamin, Pedro Caravajal
AWARDS/SCREENINGS: National Educational Film and Video Festival, Gold
Apple; Chicago Film Festival, INTERCOM, Silver Hugo; American Film
Institute, Los Angeles; New York University screening sponsored by
Ireland House and Irish Film Association
PRINT MATERIAL: Study Guide
FORMAT: Video (86:00)
DISTRIBUTOR: Global
Village
Willa Cather: A Look of Remembrance
Dramatic Radio Series
This series presents the life and legacy of the Nebraska novelist
(l876–1947) and an examination of the principal themes of her work.
Program l The Land traces Cather's early years
and her friendship with journalist Elizabeth Sergeant.
Program 2 The Cave explores Cather's ideas on art
and womanhood as she becomes increasingly reclusive.
Program 3 The Rock examines Cather's notions of
what the artist should be.
PRODUCTION ORGANIZATION: National Public Radio, Washington,
DC YEAR PRODUCED: 1983 PRODUCERS: Joe N. Gwathmey, Jo Ellyn
Rackleff, Frieda Werden DIRECTORS: Jo Ellyn Rackleff, Joan Micklin
Silver WRITER: Jo Ellyn Rackleff CAST: Colleen Dewhurst, Dianne
Wiest
AWARD: The National Commission on Working Women, Women at Work
Broadcast Awards Competition, Honorable Mention
FORMAT: Audiocassette 3 (30:00) programs
DISTRIBUTOR: Currently unavailable
Willa Cather—The Road Is
All
DocumentaryShe had riveting blue eyes and a deep voice.
She smoked cigarettes and talked tough. And she wrote some of the most
unforgettable fiction of the twentieth-century. Willa Cather—The
Road Is All is the story of a writer who invented herself from
scratch. As a child, Cather was taken from her comfortable home in
Virginia into the wild Nebraska frontier. Cather survived and even
thrived on the Plains, pioneering her way to New York City where she
wrote her great novels: O Pioneers!, The Song of the
Lark, My Antonia, Death Comes for the Archbishop
and the Pulitzer Prize-winning One of Ours. This ninety-minute
American Masters special interweaves interviews, rare
photographs, and scenes from Cather's novels to tell a story of the
transforming magic of art.
PRODUCTION ORGANIZATION: 13/WNET American Masters and
NET Television for American Masters NET Television, Lincoln,
NE YEAR PRODUCED: 2005 EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Susan
Lacy PRODUCERS: Christine Lesiak, Joel Geyer, Michele Wolford
DIRECTOR: Joel Geyer WRITER: Christine Lesiak CINEMATOGRAPHY:
Patrick Aylward, John Beck, Michael Chin, Eddie Marritz, Allen Moore,
Brian Seifferlein EDITOR: Patrick Aylward HOST/NARRATOR: David
Strathairn CAST: Marcia Gay Harden, Anna Bogaard, Yarrow Song-Brave,
R.W. Clark, Bjorn Halverson, Irene E. Hill, Christopher Allen Martin,
Seth Schulz, Samantha Thomas
FORMAT: Video 2 hours DISTRIBUTOR: American
Masters
William Faulkner: A Life on Paper
Documentary
A profile of the life of William Faulkner (1897–1962), this film
blends interviews with people who knew him, excerpts from his books, and
scenes in Oxford, Mississippi.
PRODUCTION ORGANIZATION: Mississippi Authority for
Educational Television, Jackson, MS YEAR PRODUCED:
1979 PRODUCER: Walter Lowe DIRECTOR: Robert Squier WRITER: A.
I. Bezzerides NARRATION/READING: Raymond Burr, Arthur Ed Foreman
INTERVIEWS: Jill Faulkner Summers, Malcolm Cowley, Tennessee
Williams, Robert Penn Warren, Lauren Bacall, Anita Loos, Howard Hawks,
Marc Connelly, Joseph Blotner, Carvel Collins, Albert Erskine, and
others
AWARDS: Dupont-Columbia Award; CINE Golden Eagle; Chicago
International Film Festival, Gold Plaque; CPB, Local Program Award;
Houston International Film Festival, Silver Award; New York
International Film and Television Festival, Gold Plaque
FORMAT: Video (120:00)
DISTRIBUTOR: Currently unavailable.
William Kennedy's Albany
Documentary
This program explores the concept of place in the fiction of William
Kennedy, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author whose work illuminates the
colorful Irish Catholic urban world of his native Albany.
PRODUCTION ORGANIZATIONS: WETA-TV, Washington, DC, and Richard Rogers
Projects, New York, NY YEAR PRODUCED: 1994 EXECUTIVE
PRODUCER: Richard Richter PRODUCER/DIRECTOR: Richard P.
Rogers WRITERS: Anna Reid Jhirad, Richard P.
Rogers CINEMATOGRAPHY: Richard P. Rogers, Allen Moore, David
Ford EDITORS: Miroslav Janek (Post Production: Darwin Silver, Todd
Holme) EXECUTIVE IN CHARGE: Tamara E. Robinson EDITORIAL DIRECTOR;
Alvin P. Sanoff
FORMAT: Video (56:44)
DISTRIBUTOR: contact WETA-TV
The World of F. Scott Fitzgerald
Radio Series (Documentary and Drama)
Each program in this series combines the dramatization of a short
story by F. Scott Fitzgerald (l896–l940) with a documentary examining
his life and times.
Program l The Death of Heroism documents the
naive heroism of Fitzgerald and his Ivy League classmates at the outset
of World War I, and includes the short story "Emotional
Bankruptcy."
Program 2 The Spoiled
Priest examines the conflict between rigid Catholic attitudes and
romantic glamorous visions in Fitzgerald's own life and as he wrote
about them in "Absolution."
Program 3 He Called It "The Jazz Age" portrays
the gaiety and irreverence of the 1920s, especially as depicted in "The
Offshore Pirates."
Program 4 The Golden Boom considers the "Jazz
Age" and Fitzgerald's bittersweet American success story, "Winter
Dreams."
Program 5 Lost and Lucky follows F. Scott
Fitzgerald and his wife Zelda to Europe in the 1920s with the short
story "One Trip Abroad."
Program 6 The End of an Era combines a look at
the stockmarket crash and Zelda Fitzgerald's breakdown with the short
story "Family in the Wind."
Program 7 The Most Forgotten Writer in
America satirizes Fitzgerald's deepening financial troubles in
"Financing Finnegan," the story of a famous but financially
irresponsible writer.
Program 8 The Last of the Novelists treats
Fitzgerald's film writing career and includes the story "The Lost
Decade," a fictional account of his search for success in Hollywood.
PRODUCTION ORGANIZATIONS: National Public Radio, Washington, DC
(documentary segments); National Radio Theatre of Chicago (dramatic
readings) YEAR PRODUCED: 1979 PRODUCERS: Jo Ellyn Rackleff,
documentaries; Yuri Rasovsky, dramatic readings ASSOCIATE PRODUCERS:
Robert Haslach, documentaries; Michelle M. Faith, dramatic
readings READINGS: Richard Thomas, Studs Terkel, Barbara Rush, Hugh
O'Brian, Jerry Orbach MUSIC: Hans Wurman INTERVIEWS: Scottie
Fitzgerald Smith, Malcolm Cowley, Marc Connelly, Ginevra King Pirie,
Morley Callaghan, Irving Howe, Warren Susman, Budd Schulberg, and others
FORMAT: Audiocassette 8(60:00) programs
DISTRIBUTOR: Currently unavailable
World Rep
Dramatic Radio Series
World Rep presents plays of Western literature, following their
chronological order to show the development of drama from Aeschylus to
Chekhov in tandem with other social, political, and philosophical
developments in Western history and thought.
Program l Promotheus Bound, by Aeschylus, and
Medea, by Euripides (5th century B.C.).
Program 2 The Frogs, by Aristophanes (c. 5th century
B.C.) and The Pot of Gold, by Plautus (3rd century B.C.).
Program 3 Abraham and Isaac and Everyman, two
anonymous medieval liturgical dramas. Dr. Faustus, by Christopher
Marlowe (c. 1588).
Program 4 The Tempest, by William Shakespeare (c.
1611).
Program 5 Phaedra, by Jean Racine (1677).
Program 6 The Imaginary Invalid, by Moliere (1673).
Program 7 The Beaux' Stratagem, by George Farquhar
(1707).
Program 8 Danton's Death, by Georg Buchner (1835).
Program 9 The Lady of the Camellias, by Alexander
Dumas (1852).
Program l0 An Enemy of the People, by Henrik Ibsen
(1882).
Program ll Uncle Vanya, by Anton Chekhov (1899).
Program l2 Arms and the Man, by George Bernard Shaw
(1894).
PRODUCTION ORGANIZATION: National Radio Theatre, Chicago, IL YEAR
PRODUCED: l986 PRODUCER/DIRECTOR/ADAPTATIONS: Yuri Rasovsky CAST:
F. Murray Abraham, Rene Auberjenois, Len Cariou, Rosemary
Harris, Barry Morris, Nancy Marchand, Lois Nettleton, Sam Waterston,
Fritz Weaver
FORMAT: Audiocassette 12 (120:00) programs
DISTRIBUTOR: Currently unavailable
Writing the Southwest
Radio Documentary Series
This series considers contemporary life and letters in the American
Southwest, with profiles of authors whose works are diverse in style,
but united by a sense of place and the heritage of this multicultural
and multilingual region. Each program features author interviews and
readings set with music and sound.
Program 1 Edward Abbey presents the work of the late
naturalist and award-winning author of thirty books of essays and
fiction. Larry McMurtry calls this former park ranger and environmental
activist the "Thoreau of the American West."
Program 2 Denise Chavez introduces a playwright known for
her comic dramas and her performances of the characters in them—from
high school tattoo artists to waitresses in a beauty salon.
Program 3 Joy Harjo features readings by the Creek poet and
screenwriter, accompanied by her jazz-reggae band and her own saxophone
playing.
Program 4 Tony Hillerman reveals the world of the Oklahoma
native whose best-selling mystery novels are set on the Navajo
reservation between New Mexico and Arizona.
Program 5 Linda Hogan considers the writing of a University
of Colorado professor who is recognized for her six books of passionate
environmental poetry and a dark, provocative novel about oil swindles in
Oklahoma.
Program 6 Barbara Kingsolver looks at the way this Arizona
novelist, originally from Kentucky, offers a newcomer's perspective on
her adopted region, with strong women characters making a place for
themselves in today's Southwest.
Program 7 Terry McMillan presents the best-selling writer
who is widely acknowledged for her telling and often humorous accounts
of contemporary urban black communities in the Southwest.
Program 8 John Nichols considers the work of a New England
born writer who moved to the Southwest twenty-five years ago. Perhaps
best known for The Milagro Beanfield War, about the clash between a poor
farmer and a developer, Nichols specializes in tragi-comic and satirical
novels set in New Mexico.
Program 9 Simon Ortiz explores the work of a poet and
translator whose writing is rooted in the oral tradition of his people,
the Acoma Pueblos of the Arizona-New Mexico border. His poems consider
the conflict between traditional tribal loyalties and the ambitions
created by mainstream American culture.
Program 10 Alberto Rios examines the work of this
award-winning poet and professor at Arizona State University. His
writing reflects his experience on the U.S.-Mexico border—torn not only
between two countries but between several cultures.
Program 11 Stan Steiner considers the work of a writer who
hitchhiked West from his native Brooklyn after getting out of the
service in World War II. Steiner's books trace the arrival of European
immigrants into the Southwest and document the Hispanic and Native
American civil rights movements of the 1960s.
Program 12 Luci Tapahonso introduces a leading Navajo poet
whose work incorporates the chants and songs of her tribe and characters
who experience racism and the tension between city and reservation.
Program 13 Frank Waters examines the work of the late "Dean
of Western Writers." Waters set his novels
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