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Alice Walker Core curriculum video libraries (Cambridge educational (Firm)) Core curriculum video library Great writers of the modern world Great writers of the twentieth century Ironing out life Language of life Native American novelists Power of the word Sounds of poetry with Bill MoyersFilter By Series
Alice Walker Core curriculum video libraries (Cambridge educational (Firm)) Core curriculum video library Great writers of the modern world Great writers of the twentieth century Ironing out life Language of life Native American novelists Power of the word Sounds of poetry with Bill MoyersSummary: Read by noted actors Michael Gough, Edward Fox, and Eileen Atkins, T. S. Eliot's The Waste Land powerfully expresses the disillusionment and disgust of the post-World War I era in Europe. In this program, Professor Frank Kermode, of Cambridge University; Eliot biographer Peter Ackroyd; and poets Sir Stephen Spender and Craig Raine examine the complex nature of Eliot's influential poem, analyze...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
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Summary: In this incisive program, two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright August Wilson returns home to the Hill District of Pittsburgh in 1990 to review his life and career. Archival footage and interviews with Wilson, former New York Times theater critic Frank Rich, fellow writers, and others provide insights into the African-American experience, from the Great Black Migration to more recent...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
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Summary: In the 1950s, Senator Joseph McCarthy set up the Un-American Activities Committee to combat the growing "threat" of communism in the U.S. Playwright Arthur Miller was one of many writers summoned to testify at this political witch-hunt. Miller, who was nearly ruined, said that until that time he had not understood the "inexplicable darkness" that prevented people from seeing evil and denouncing...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
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Summary: This outstanding program traces the life of Tennessee Williams, revisiting the locations in the southern states that were his inspiration. Scenes from Williams' most memorable works, including The Glass Menagerie and A Streetcar Named Desire, evoke the atmosphere, characters, and conflicts of the Deep South, while footage of a rare television interview and a dramatic reenactment of the life of...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: Hosted by Eli Wallach, this program dissects Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun through the sharp insights of Joe Morton (Walter Lee Younger); Kim Yancey (Beneatha Younger); Phylicia Rashad (Lena Younger); Ruby Dee, Audra McDonald, Starletta DuPois, and Ernestine Jackson (Ruth Younger); Ralph Carter (Travis Younger); John Fiedler (Carl Lindner); directors Lloyd Richards and Jack Hofsiss;...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
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Summary: Following acclaimed poet and memoirist Maya Angelou on a visit to her childhood surroundings in Stamps, Arkansas, this Bill Moyers interview remains a classic of broadcast journalism and a valuable teaching tool for African-American studies. "I was terribly hurt in this town," Angelou tells Moyers, "and vastly loved." She recalls her rapturous discovery of Shakespeare (while savoring a favorite...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010
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Summary: In Grover's Corners, New Hampshire, the time is 1901 and the place is America's collective memory. But Thornton Wilder's Our Town is not the sentimental nostalgia piece most people perceive. This program hosted by Eli Wallach offers wide-ranging and extraordinarily deep insights into the play from those who arguably know it best: Our Town alumni who over the years have brought the play to life...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
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Summary: Lorna Dee Cervantes began writing poetry at the age of eight and founded her own press to publish the works of Mexican-Americans. Dr. Shirley Geok-lin Lim, an English professor and Fulbright Distinguished Lecturer, uses her Chinese/Malaysian roots to bring a unique Asian-American perspective to her writing. In this program, Bill Moyers and the two poets discuss topics that revolve around the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: Robert Pinsky, Poet Laureate of the United States for an unprecedented third term, finds his inspiration in common things, transforming the culturally unpoetic into masterpieces of verbal expression. In this program, Bill Moyers and Mr. Pinsky discuss topics including his love of the English language, the pervasive influence of history, and the flourishing of poetry on the Internet. Readings by...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
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Summary: From the jazz-laced street speech of African-American poet Sekou Sundiata's Harlem nights to Palestinian-American Naomi Shihab Nye's delight in the wonder of everyday objects, this program celebrates the cultures of today-and the way those cultures have become part of the American mosaic. Filmed at the Biennial Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival.
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
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Summary: Maggie sees the old family quilt-an heirloom already promised to her-as something with practical utility as well as tradition. Her educated, social activist sister wants to hang it on the wall as folk art. With whom will their mother side? A study in class differences and the reclamation of Black history, Alice Walker's short story "Everyday Use" is beautifully realized in this dramatization.
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: This program features poets who turn to the past and to their own cultural heritage to understand the present. They eloquently reflect their own personal journeys through poetry. Garrett Kaoru Hongo's work reflects his Japanese-American heritage. Hongo began to write poetry because he wanted "more than anything to belong to the history of Asians in America. Joy Harjo's poetry is influenced by...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
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Summary: On a "bright, frozen day" in Mississippi, 95-year-old Phoenix Jackson makes her mythic journey into town for the medicine her grandson needs. Touching upon themes of family, love, aging, and poverty, this dramatization of Eudora Welty's classic story "A Worn Path" provides both a heroic image of the human spirit enduring against tremendous odds and a poignant commentary on the African-American...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
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Summary: Few writers conveyed the spirit of the roaring twenties as accurately as F. Scott Fitzgerald. In this program, writer Jay McInerny, Fitzgerald biographer Scott Donaldson, and others talk about Fitzgerald's life, writing, and marriage to the ill-fated Zelda. Fitzgerald's ascent to the dizzying heights of Paris literary society and later failure as a Hollywood screenwriter are documented. The...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
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Summary: Flannery O'Connor is often likened to Faulkner for her portrayal of the character and lifestyle of the South, Kafka for her fascination with the bizarre, and Beckett for her dark humor-comparisons that underscore the fact that her voice has a unique place in the canon of American literature. This program provides a biographical sketch of O'Connor that illuminates her efforts to come to terms...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
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Summary: Part Blackfoot, part Gros Ventre Indian, Welch finds his subject matter in his Indian heritage and his plots in the human emotions and trials common to all humans. Here, Welch discusses his background, his sources, his vision, and his personal way of particularizing the universal.
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
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Summary: This program is a comprehensive portrait of John Steinbeck and the America he depicted, providing students with an appreciation of one of the 20th century's definitive literary voices. Incorporating historic events ranging in magnitude from the devastating Dust Bowl to poignant local histories, Steinbeck portrayed a nation ravaged by poverty and injustice, in which his characters, often drawn...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: This program features poets James Autry and Quincy Troupe, both of whom work with the oral tradition to lift poetry off the page and bring it into the community. James Autry, a businessman and publisher, writes poetry about the business world and the Southern culture of his youth. His work includes such poems as "Thoughts on Firing a Salesman. In this program, Autry reads his poetry at a...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
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Summary: She is insulted at being called "the most intelligent woman in America" because it implies that the category of intelligent women is substantially smaller than that of men. Should she feel honored to be considered an outstanding member of a spurned caste? In this program, Susan Sontag, discoverer of camp and diagnostician of the intellectual and artistic ills of late-20th-century America, tells...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
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Summary: This moving dramatization of Tillie Olsen's frequently anthologized "I Stand Here Ironing" is an unvarnished exploration of an impoverished single mother's ambivalence toward her worth as a parent and her 19-year-old daughter's future. Rich in subtext, the highly metaphorical story-penned in a stark and dramatic fashion devoid of cliche and sentimentality-raises important questions about...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: In this compelling program, world-renowned author Toni Morrison candidly answers questions regarding how she became a writer, the pain of empathizing with her characters, the sensual nature of her novels, and how it felt to win the Nobel Prize. In addition, she pulls no punches discussing how she first became aware of her racial otherness, how writing for a black audience has kept her work from...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: Tennessee Williams' masterpiece The Glass Menagerie is a prime example of the memory play in modern literature. In this program hosted by Eli Wallach, former cast members and directors of Menagerie discuss plot and thematic elements, the characterization of some of theater's most memorable and enduring dramatic figures, and the era in which the play was written. Commentary is provided by Ruby...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
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Summary: John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men, a portrait of friendship and loneliness, is a tribute to the half million who headed to California in search of work and the American dream. In this program, Dr. Susan Shillinglaw of the Center for Steinbeck Studies discusses labor exploitation in the Salinas valley during the Depression era to reinforce an appreciation of the precarious lifestyle faced by...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
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Summary: The effect of Jane Hirshfield's reading is almost transcendental, like the sound of distant echoes in a canyon. "I know that many of my poems don't evoke clapping," she says, "and I want to assure you that I take silence as a high compliment. In this program, Bill Moyers and Ms. Hirshfield discuss topics including her experience as a practitioner of Zen and the relative merits of sound and...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006