Summary: In 1925 Luigi Pirandello brought his troupe to England as part of a worldwide tour. This program re-creates one day in London as "The Einstein of the Theater" watches his plays and, away from the footlights, confronts the paradoxical nature of his life. Portions of Six Characters in Search of an Author; Henry IV; Right You Are, If You Think You Are; and The Rules of the Game are meticulously...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
View online at AVOD
Summary: Ridiculed by some, admired by others, and ignored by no one, Yukio Mishima has remained a paradox in both life and death. This program combines extensive archival footage of Mishima; interviews with colleagues, including his biographer, Henry Scott Stokes, and two of his translators; and readings by actor John Hurt to portray Japan's immensely popular novelist, playwright, actor, and patriot of...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: The German poet, playwright, and theatrical reformer who developed the drama as a social and ideological forum is the subject of this program, in which those who knew him discuss his life and many works. Excerpts from plays such as Mother Courage and Her Children, The Life of Galileo, The Good Woman of Setzuan, and Antigone highlight the development of Brecht's austere form of irregular verse....
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: Until recently, the serious works of Russian avant-garde writer Daniil Kharms-his absurdist pieces, the ones laced with irony and steeped in trenchant wit-were known only to the Soviet Union's literary underground. This production, reset in modern-day America, is the first film adaptation of Kharms' novella The Old Woman, a dark comedy about a man trying to get rid of a dead body.
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: My role as a writer is to create positive myths, says Amin Maalouf. The Lebanese-born novelist and journalist also acknowledges "the material that history gives me." This program features conversations with Maalouf about his imaginative, historically grounded novels and his identity as a Christian Arab living in Paris. On-screen readings by the author present excerpts and themes from Leo...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
View online at AVOD
Summary: Culture and multiculturalism are the dominant recurring themes in this program as Spanish writer Antonio Gala reflects on his heritage and the value of integrating immigrants into the fabric of society. The author of Poemas de Amor, Los Verdes Campos del Eden, El Manuscrito Carmesi, La Regla de Tres, and numerous other books also talks about how he first started writing and the process of...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
View online at AVOD
Summary: Forced to flee Chile after the military coup in 1973, Ariel Dorfman has focused his writing on the trials of tyranny and exile. This program looks at how he has fought for human rights as a novelist, playwright, essayist, journalist, and professor of literature and Latin American studies. Many of the works of this multi-genre author are examined, including Death and the Maiden, his successful...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: This story captures a man's journey to the mystical house of a father, son, and daughter, where strange events bring the traveler to a better understanding of the redemptive power of Christ's suffering and death.
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: Addressing themes too often neglected in our technology-worshiping global culture, Chilean poet Gonzalo Rojas exemplifies the complexity of 20th-century Latin American literature. This program records Rojas' musings on his life in poetry and the manifold settings and circumstances in which he has worked. The Cervantes Prize winner and author of The Misery of Man, Against Death, and Dark...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
View online at AVOD
Summary: Jacinto Benavente-a member of the Generation of '98, the winner of the 1922 Nobel Prize for Literature, and one of the most influential Spanish dramatists of the entire 20th century-penned more than 170 plays. This program tells the story of Benavente's life and the turbulent times in which he lived as it sheds light on aspects of his writing. A critic of the bourgeois class, he nonetheless...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
View online at AVOD
Summary: Probing the relationship between political and artistic identity, Spanish-born author Juan Goytisolo investigates rarely explored concepts at the heart of Spanish and Latin American culture. This program presents an overview of Goytisolo's outlook on past and present social dilemmas and their connection with his self-exile from his home country. The author of The Young Assassins, Marks of...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
View online at AVOD
Summary: She was the sort of woman who spared neither herself nor others-and arguably qualifies as 20th-century France's greatest femme de lettres. In this interview, the late novelist and filmmaker talks openly about the hardship and the romance of her childhood in French Indochina, sharing how this period haunted her life and shaped her work. Excerpts from her films and readings from her books by...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: From a poor goatherd in youth to a defeated soldier languishing in prison, the story of poet Miguel Hernandez is as romantic as it is tragic. Filmed on location, this program chronicles the life of Hernandez, a casualty of the Spanish Civil War whose poetry reflected all the beauty and sorrow of his native country. Manuscripts, photos, and documentary footage complement a thorough survey of his...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: In this story, a descendant of famous ancestors dreams of more heroic times .. until a serious accident takes him to the doors of death, where the past and the present mingle-and where he meets his final destiny.
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: The life of Boris Pasternak-crowned by a Nobel Prize he dared not accept-is a story of success soured by political oppression. Drawing on previously unavailable footage, this program parts what was the Iron Curtain to profile the renowned author, from his early achievements as an upcoming avant-garde poet to the humiliations and threats heaped upon him, late in life, as a result of writing the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: Imagine the conversation if some of the world's greatest minds in the sciences and arts convened in one room. In this program, host Sarah Montague moderates a unique, interdisciplinary round table discussion among seven 2008 Nobel Laureates: biochemists Martin Chalfie and Roger Tsien; physicist Makoto Kobayashi; virologists Luc Montagnier and Francoise Barre-Sinoussi; economist Paul Krugman;...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
View online at AVOD
Summary: A literary lion and a diehard political activist, Wole Soyinka has spent a long lifetime speaking truth to power. Part tribute and part retrospective, this program examines the Nigerian Nobel Laureate's actions and achievements through archival footage and insightful interviews. Commentary is provided by Soyinka; his sons Makin and Olaokun Soyinka; his friend Yemi Ogunbiyi; Nobel Laureate...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010
View online at AVOD
Summary: A novel is a "map of contradictions," says German-Austrian writer Daniel Kehlmann-an arena of clashing viewpoints, each with its own persuasive logic. This program presents an interview with Kehlmann in which he discusses his literary goals and his search for fertile soil in the dichotomous history of Western Europe. Specific topics include personal freedom, cultural and religious tolerance,...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
View online at AVOD
Summary: In this program, Mexican writer Carlos Fuentes offers insights into the writing of his book La Region mas Transparente, the Boom and Latin American literature, the elevated importance of writers living under dictatorship, his identity as a speaker of Spanish, and the organic unity of the Spanish language. The author of La Silla del Aguila, Diana o la Cazadora Solitaria, El Naranjo, Gringo...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
View online at AVOD
Summary: The Mexican writer and journalist Carlos Monsivais has frequently examined social and political issues at the heart of Latin American culture-and, in the process, the spiritual dilemmas of 21st-century modernity. This program introduces Monsivais' views on the growing disconnect between urban and rural life, the destructive impact of pervasive technology on language and conversation, and the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
View online at AVOD
Summary: As a child of the Spanish Civil War and the repressive post-war era, Carmen Martin Gaite found kindred spirits among the Madrid literati, led by her future husband Rafael Sanchez Ferlosio, during the '50s. In her long and uninterrupted literary career, Gaite chose socially critical topics such as the relationship between the sexes and the differences between provincial and city life. Using...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: What is it like to be a writer? In this program, Spanish novelist Eduardo Mendoza offers his views as he talks about the sheer pleasure of writing, the state of the novel as a literary form, the effect of censorship on writers during the Franco regime, changes in the business of publishing, and repercussions of the Latin American literary Boom. The author of La Ciudad de los Prodigios, La...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
View online at AVOD
Summary: This is a story of passion involving two brothers, inseparable in work and play, and a woman who comes between them. Soon all three are trapped in their own hell of jealousy and death. Contains mature themes.
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: Awarded the 1956 Nobel Prize in Literature, Juan Ramon Jimenez was a master of impressionistic language and imagery. This program explores the Spanish poet's life and career with the help of scholarly interviews, archival photographs, and excerpts from Jimenez' writings. Conveying his youthful interest in Romanticism and Symbolism, his subsequent emphasis on color and tonality, and his lifelong...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007