Summary: Examines the life and legacy of African American poet, memoirist, and civil rights worker Maya Angelou, from her upbringing in the Depression-era South to her work with Malcolm X in Ghana to the recitation of her inaugural poem for President Bill Clinton. Includes Angelou's own words woven together with archival photographs and videos as well as interviews with Angelou's friends and family.

Format: moving image

Publisher / Publication Date: 2017

Copies Available at Peninsula

1 available in Digital Video Disc, Call number: DVD MAY

Summary: Words from a Bear gives a thorough survey of Momaday's most prolific years as a doctorate fellow at Stanford University, his achievement of the Pulitzer Prize for Literature in 1969, and his later works that solidified his place as the founding member of the 'Native American Renaissance' in art and literature, influencing a generation of Native American artists, scholars, and political activists.

Format: moving image

Publisher / Publication Date: 2019

Copies Available at Woodmere

1 available in E-TV DVDs, Call number: DVD E-TV N.SC

Summary: Author Zora Neale Hurston's anthropological work challenges assumptions about race, gender and cultural superiority that had been defined by the field in the 19th century.

Format: moving image

Publisher / Publication Date: 2023

Copies Available at Woodmere

1 available in E-TV DVDs, Call number: DVD E-TV ZOR

Summary: An unvarnished look at the unlikely author whose autobiographical fiction helped shape American ideas of the frontier and self-reliance. A Midwestern farm woman who published her first novel at age 65, Laura Ingalls Wilder transformed her frontier childhood into the best-selling Little House series.

Format: moving image

Publisher / Publication Date: 2021

Copies Available at Woodmere

1 available in E-TV DVDs, Call number: DVD E-TV LAU

Summary: Edgar Allan Poe: buried alive draws on the rich palette of Poe's evocative imagery and sharply drawn plots to tell the real story of the notorious author. Featuring Tony Award-winning actor Denis O'Hare, the film explores the misrepresentations of Poe as an alcoholic madman. It reveals the way in which Poe tapped into what it means to be a human in the modern and sometimes frightening world.

Format: moving image

Publisher / Publication Date: 2017

Copies Available at Woodmere

1 available in E-TV DVDs, Call number: DVD E-TV EDG

Summary: "Backs Against The Wall: The Howard Thurman Story explores the extraordinary life and legacy of one of the most important religious figures of the 20th century. Born the grandson of slaves, Thurman became a "spiritual foundation" for the Civil Rights Movement, inspiring many of its leaders including Martin Luther King, Jr, Jesse Jackson and Congressman John Lewis. In the mid-1930s, Thurman was...

Format: moving image

Publisher / Publication Date: 2019

Copies Available at Woodmere

1 available in Documentary DVDs, Call number: DVD DOC BAC

Summary: Examine the visionary work and turbulent life of one of the greatest and most influential American writers: Ernest Hemingway. Intimate and insightful, the series weaves together Hemingway's biography with excerpts from his work. The film penetrates the myth of Hemingway to reveal a deeply troubled and ultimately tragic figure.

Format: moving image

Publisher / Publication Date: 2021

Copies Available at Woodmere

2 available in E-TV DVDs, Call number: DVD E-TV HEM

Summary: Inside the Black Box spotlights the world's greatest Black artists within the entertainment industry. A 2022 Television Series. With ten-hour-long episodes with hosts Joe Morton and Tracey Moore. Reminiscent of "Inside the Actor's Studio with Robert Lipton." Features prominent actors, directors, writers, and producers of color and helps to further the never-ending dialectic on race in American...

Format: moving image

Publisher / Publication Date: 2022

Copies Available at Woodmere

1 available in E-TV DVDs, Call number: DVD E-TV INS

Summary: Story of Percy Julian's scientific breakthroughs and a biography of his life with period reenactments based on newly opened family archives and interviews with dozens of colleagues and relatives.

Format: moving image

Publisher / Publication Date: WGBH Boston Video 2007

Copies Available at Woodmere

1 available in E-TV DVDs, Call number: DVD E-TV PER

Summary: A look at the African-American photographer, poet, novelist, composer and filmmaker Gordon Parks.

Format: moving image

Publisher / Publication Date: HBO Video 2006

Copies Available at Woodmere

1 available in Documentary DVDs, Call number: DVD DOC HAL

Summary: Profiles six prominent heroes and villains of the American West.

Format: moving image

Publisher / Publication Date: WGBH Educational Foundation 2010

Copies Available at Kingsley

1 available in Digital Video Disc, Call number: DVD Doc Wi

Summary: Examines the life of Muhammad Ali in and out of the boxing ring, covering his ties with the Nation of Islam, his political postions, including his refusal to be drafted during the Vietnam War, his role as a symbol of Black masculinity, and life after boxing.

Format: moving image

Publisher / Publication Date: 2021

Copies Available at Woodmere

2 available in E-TV DVDs, Call number: DVD E-TV MUH

Copies Available at Peninsula

1 available in Digital Video Disc, Call number: DVD MUH

Summary: Eugene O'Neill was one of the greatest playwrights in American history. Through his experimental and emotionally probing dramas, he addressed the difficulties of human society with a deep psychological complexity. The program traces his life from his early days in New York to his last years in Boston when he suffered from tremors which kept him from his writing.

Format: moving image

Publisher / Publication Date: PBS Home Video 2006

Copies Available at Woodmere

1 available in E-TV DVDs, Call number: DVD E-TV EUG

Summary: International art sensation Keith Haring blazed a trail through the legendary art scene of '80s New York and revolutionized the worlds of pop culture and fine art. Haring's message targeted the underlying threat of violence, sexual exploitation, and political oppression. His art was shown in over one hundred group and solo exhibitions during his lifetime and he continues to be celebrated today.

Format: moving image

Publisher / Publication Date: 2020

Copies Available at Woodmere

1 available in E-TV DVDs, Call number: DVD E-TV KEI

Summary: Examines the life and career of the inspiring actor and entertainer, Raul Julia.

Format: moving image

Publisher / Publication Date: 2019

Copies Available at Woodmere

1 available in E-TV DVDs, Call number: DVD E-TV RAU

Summary: A biography of American author Ernest Hemingway, visiting places important to his life and work, sharing memories of friends and relatives, and excerpts from his letters and writings.

Format: moving image

Publisher / Publication Date: New Video 2005

Copies Available at Woodmere

1 available in Documentary DVDs, Call number: DVD DOC ERN

Summary: In the 1930s, William Randolph Hearst's media empire included 28 newspapers, a movie studio, a syndicated wire service, radio stations and 13 magazines. Nearly one in four American families read a Hearst publication. His newspapers were so influential that Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini and Winston Churchill all wrote for him. The first practitioner of what is now known as 'synergy,' Hearst...

Format: moving image

Publisher / Publication Date: 2021

Copies Available at Woodmere

1 available in E-TV DVDs, Call number: DVD E-TV CIT

Summary: Vanderbilt, Rockefeller, Carmegie, Morgan, Ford, the Men Who Built America. Meet the titans who forged the foundation of modern America and created the American Dream. The mini-series shines a spotlight on the influential builders, dreamers and believers whose feats transformed the United States. a nation decaying from the inside after the Civil War, into the greatest economic and technological...

Format: moving image

Publisher / Publication Date: History 2012

Copies Available at Peninsula

1 available in Digital Video Disc, Call number: DVD MEN

Copies Available at Woodmere

1 available in E-TV DVDs, Call number: DVD E-TV MEN

Copies Available at Kingsley

1 available in Digital Video Disc, Call number: DVD Me

Summary: Profiles American photographer Dorothea Lange, who came to the the attention of the world with her photographs documenting the Great Depression, and achieved lasting fame in the post-War years.

Format: moving image

Publisher / Publication Date: 2014

Copies Available at Woodmere

1 available in E-TV DVDs, Call number: DVD E-TV DOR

Summary: A portrait of one of the pre-eminent artists of the 20th century, and the inventor of an art form, the mobile. Shows Calder at work in his studio, includes archival films and photographs, and features interviews with contemporaries.

Format: moving image

Publisher / Publication Date: 2014

Copies Available at Woodmere

1 available in Documentary DVDs, Call number: DVD DOC ALE

Summary: Selfridges was the brain child of an American-Mr. Harry Gordon Selfridge. He brought about a complete revolution in the way that Londoners shopped, introducing a new American retail model which made shopping less of a practical pursuit and more of a luxurious adventure. But there was another side to the story-Harry's private life. When it began to seep into his business, the effect on him and...

Format: moving image

Publisher / Publication Date: 2013

Copies Available at Peninsula

1 available in Digital Video Disc, Call number: DVD SEC

Summary: In the 1950s, American women discovered they could earn thousands, even millions of dollars, from bowls that burped. "Tupperware ladies" fanned out across the nation's living rooms, selling efficiency and convenience to their friends and neighbors through home parties. The secret behind Tupperware's success: the women of all shapes, sizes, and backgrounds who discovered they could move up in...

Format: moving image

Publisher / Publication Date: WGBH Educational Foundation 2004

Copies Available at Woodmere

1 available in E-TV DVDs, Call number: DVD E-TV TUP

Summary: Profiles Theodore, Franklin, and Eleanor Roosevelt, three members of the most prominent and influential family in American politics. It is the first time in a major documentary television series that their individual stories have been interwoven into a single narrative. This seven-part, 14 hour film follows the Roosevelts for more than a century, from Theodore's birth in 1858 to Eleanor's death...

Format: moving image

Publisher / Publication Date: 2014

Copies Available at Peninsula

1 available in Digital Video Disc, Call number: DVD ROO

Copies Available at Woodmere

2 available in E-TV DVDs, Call number: DVD E-TV ROO

Copies Available at Fife Lake

1 available in Digital Video Disc, Call number: DVD ROO

Summary: This story begins on the steps on the Lincoln Memorial in August 1963 when a 34-year-old preacher galvanized millions with his dream for an America free of racism. It comes to a bloody end almost five years later on a motel balcony in Memphis, Tennessee. In the years since those events unfolded, the man at the center, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., has become a mythic figure, a minister whose...

Format: moving image

Publisher / Publication Date: PBS Home Video 2005

Copies Available at Woodmere

1 available in E-TV DVDs, Call number: DVD E-TV CIT