Catalog Search Results
Language
English
Description
Explore the history of a uniquely American art form: country music. From its deep and tangled roots in ballads, blues and hymns performed in small settings, to its worldwide popularity, learn how country music evolved over the course of the 20th century, as it eventually emerged to become America’s music. COUNTRY MUSIC features never-before-seen footage and photographs, plus interviews with more than 80 country music artists. The eight-part series...
Language
English
Description
As irreverent and bawdy as Aristophanes, but with more accessible humor, this pseudo-biography juxtaposes elements of Aristophanic plays with the activities of contemporaneous people to show how Aristophanes became the father of political satire and why his theatrical innovations are still staples of the contemporary theater. Aristophanes is shown as an artist living on the edge, who uses comedy to mock his enemies and wages a one-man campaign against...
Language
English
Description
On this episode of Camera Three, Padraic Colum, Frank O'Connor, and Tom Clancy examine Irish Literature from the 19th and 20th Century. Topics include William Butler Yeats, The Abbey Theater, John Millington Synge, James Joyce, Sean O'Casey, and contemporary trends in Irish plays and poetry.
Language
English
Description
This epic tale of the warrior-prince Arjuna confronting a life-or-death dilemma during civil war presents a unique and powerful philosophy of duty, discipline, and serving a higher purpose. Beautiful illustrations connect the story with its rich history and culture. Featured speakers include Sheldon Pollock, Professor of Sanskrit Studies and acclaimed composer Philip Glass.
Language
English
Description
Shahrazad must hold the interest of her despotic husband the sultan with nightly tales, lest she lose her life in the morning. This wellspring of storytelling, circulating from medieval Persia to Egypt to Iraq, like its wily raconteur, lives on in many modern adaptations. Art, performance, and film images are employed to show the collection's broad span of influence. Featured speakers include Marin Alsop, musical director of the Baltimore Symphony...
6) The Bacchae
Language
English
Description
The city of Thebes is torn apart by the conflicting demands of reason and religion, as the disguised god Dionysus returns to his home town demanding to be worshipped. Opposing him is the young king Pentheus, who is doomed to suffer the ultimate punishment for his disbelief. Featured speakers include world-renowned playwright/author Wole Soyinka, actor Alan Cumming, and Daniel Mendelsohn of Bard College.
Language
English
Description
What makes the promise of Camelot still resonate in the 21st century? In this program, Barbara and Alan Lupack, authors of King Arthur in America and Arthurian Literature by Women; Debra Mancoff, author of The Arthurian Revival in Victorian Art; and Kevin J. Harty, author of King Arthur on Film, New Essays on Arthurian Cinema, discuss the enduring fascination with King Arthur in Britain and America since the Victorian era. Tennyson's Idylls of the...
9) Robots
Language
English
Description
What if our creations turn against us? The idea of creating life has fascinated society since the earliest days of science fiction. The first installment of the four-part series, Robots transports viewers from the first steps of Frankenstein's monster to the threat provided by the Terminator and the world of Cyberspace. From HAL in 2001: A Space Odyssey to the Cylons of the reimagined Battlestar Galactica and the world of The Matrix, this is a journey...
10) Jorvik
Language
English
Description
A fascinating chapter in the history of the English language is illustrated by the 10th-century Norse village excavated in present-day York. A careful, scholarly reconstruction of the site demonstrates life in England around the time of the Domesday Book-roughly equidistant between Beowulf and The Canterbury Tales. The program explains the Norse element in the English language.
Language
English
Description
How do critics serve the public and the artistic community? Dr. Dwight DeWerth-Pallmeyer, director of the Department of Communication Studies at Widener University, spent several months traveling the country and interviewing prominent commentators-including Good Morning America film reviewer Joel Siegel, Time magazine film critic Richard Schickel, Nashville Scene music critic Bill Friskics-Warren, and Fresh Air book critic Maureen Corrigan. The result...
Language
English
Description
What is the essence of Irish music? If you answered Riverdance, you need to broaden your thinking. This is a fascinating look into Irish music that explains why the art form is so central to Irish culture and identity. This program explores the history of music in Ireland, including popular instruments and various styles of dancing and singing.
Language
English
Description
On this episode of Camera Three, Henderson Forsythe, Vinnette Carroll, Donald Hotton, and Joanna Roos recite poems, excerpts of plays, and reflections about trees. Writers include Anton Chekhov, A.E. Housman, Sir James Frazier, Robert Frost, Henry Thoreau, William Shakespeare, and Truman Capote.
Language
English
Description
This program, devoted to the 16th century, provides an introduction to the history, art, and architecture of Venice and the history of music in the city; covers Willaert and Andrea and Giovanni Gabrieli at the Basilica of St. Mark; and demonstrates the extraordinary acoustics and explains their influence on the music written for performance here. Live performances in San Stefano of Gabrieli's Gloria and Schutz madrigals in a palace on the Grand Canal....
15) Popol Vuh
Language
English
Description
The Mayan book of creation, the dawn of life, and the glories of gods and kings. This magnificent epic was saved from destruction at the hands of the Spanish by Quiché chroniclers. Once repressed, the story is now interwoven with the history of today's Mayan people. Featured speakers include archaeologist Richard Hanson, humorist Mo Rocca, and Guatemalan artist Shuni Giron.
Language
English
Description
In this foundational modern African novel, Chinua Achebe's story follows the lives of people trying to understand which belief systems deserve their loyalty. The protagonist, Okonkwo is a tribal leader who battles neighboring villages, the English, and his own demons in early colonial Nigeria. The perspectives of readers from around the world reveal the novel's universal themes. Cast members include playwright and professor, Tess Onwueme and theater...
Language
English
Description
Fraternal twins Rahel and Estha struggle to reclaim their lives after their childhood is destroyed by tragic circumstances. As past and present merge in this narrative of Indian society and politics, the many layers of the caste system are mirrored in the poetic and inventive language of the author. Featured speakers include Simon Gikandi of Princeton University, author Evelyn Ch'ien.
Language
English
Description
This definitive program traces the development of medieval drama, from Hildegard von Bingen's musical morality play Ordo Virtutum (The Ritual of the Virtues) to the seminal Everyman. Featuring extended excerpts from these influential works, as well as from The Second Shepherd's Play and the 1998 staging of the Mystery Cycle in York, England, the video also establishes the genre's socioreligious context. Expert commentary from a variety of scholars,...
19) Time
Language
English
Description
What if we could travel not just through space, but through time itself? If you could travel through time, would you change the past or the future? What if you found it couldn't be changed? What price does the time traveler - and the people they are closest to - pay? This is a journey from H. G. Wells' The Time Machine through ideas like The Grandfather Paradox and The Butterfly Effect to the professional time traveler that is the ever popular Doctor...
20) America's Blues
Language
English
Description
This program explores the impact the blues has had American society, culture, and the entertainment industry. Despite influencing nearly every form of American music, literature, television, film, and other art forms, its contributions often go unrecognized. Historians, performers, and artists discuss the origin of the blues and how it has evolved. Blues today only accounts for a small part of the music market, but it developed its own tourism industry...