At his Long Island beach house, and on the occasion of the publication of his masterful nonfiction novel In Cold Blood, reporter Karen Dennison interviews celebrated writer Truman Capote, who displays his exuberant personality, makes witty jokes, shares his thoughts on writing, reflects on various aspects of the book and, in a sweet and endearing voice, reads and explains some of its highlights.
Workers in an auto parts warehouse in 1933 New York City inhabit a bleak, dead-end world in the depths of the Depression where, at least, they have jobs. Introduced by its playwright, Arthur Miller, it was the first in a series of NET Playhouse programs concerning life in America during the Depression years.
A collection of ten vignettes by Tennessee Williams offering various viewpoints on life, love, and death.
In 1967, Canadian documentarian James Beveridge traveled to Kolkata to film director Satyajit Ray at work. The resulting program, produced for the American public television series “The Creative Person,” features interviews with Ray, several of his actors and crew members, and film critic Chidananda Das Gupta.
A poet-astronaut is shot through an area of space called the Chronosynclastic Infundibulum. He is duplicated into infinite copies of himself, each of whom finds himself in a bizarre situations on a different world.
Brothers Grimm tales like "The Golden Goose," "The Bremen Town Musicians" and "The Blue Light" come to life in this stripped-down stage production, which forgoes elaborate sets and costumes in favor of creative acting techniques and storytelling.
A filmed version of Aaron Copland's most famous ballet, with its original star, who also choreographed.
This documentary reflects on the lives and aspirations of an African American family - the Johns - who moved to West Oakland from Louisiana, focusing on Robert Lee Johns and his mother Agnes.
Piri Thomas, a painter, poet, author, ex-con, and ex-junkie, describes the life of a Puerto Rican in the Spanish Harlem ghetto in New York City.
A commemoration of the four-year anniversary of the assassination of Malcolm X, featuring an intimate interview with his wife, Betty Shabazz.
In this intimate portrait—produced for a segment of National Education Television's "Black Journal" television program—legendary jazz musician Alice Coltrane plays the harp and discusses her thoughts on music, spirituality, family, and the legacy of her late husband, John Coltrane.
Documentary of the Symposium on the Dialectics of Liberation and the Demystification of Violence, held in London, July 1967, organized by R.D.Laing, with Stokely Carmichael, Allen Ginsberg, Paul Goodman, Herbert Marcuse, John Gerassi, and many others. An important record of the spectrum of left-wing politics and personalities during the turbulent Sixties.
The 1960s black student movement at Duke University evolved into a separate institution to study and engage with the history and culture of the African diaspora. This film was produced for the National Educational Television (WNET) Black Journal.
A series of programs designed for the adult layman who has a curiosity about the skies and the makeup of the universe in which we live. The terms used during the series are fully explained and materials from a number of great observatories and institutions of learning are used for visual illustration. It begins with the solar system and works outward, stimulating interest in this area and awakening a desire for further study and investigation.
A documentary that covers issues such as petroleum discovery, distribution of wealth, and new venture planning in Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates.
A short documentary subject made for National Educational Television's Black Journal television program documenting a political rally in Newark, the 1970 mayoral campaign of Ken Gibson, and an African-American voter registration drive with special musical performance by Stevie Wonder.
Documentary film about three veterans of the Civil Rights movement who have become peace spokesman for the new opposition activist. It traces their thought and action over the past year, as they see themselves moving from demonstration to political organizing.
Beginning as a city-symphony of Newark streets, buildings, and people set to wordless chanting, The New-Ark quickly arrives at its political imperatives: Black Power must be accomplished through nationalism, and "a nation is organization." The film focuses on black education, urban public theater, and political consciousness-raising inside and outside of Spirit House - director Amiri Baraka's Black nationalist community center.
This program profiles Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein, two of pop art's greatest icons. Back-to-back interviews highlight their differences. The voluble Lichtenstein, interviewed in his studio, discusses his methods and the use of familiar objects in his art. The reticent Warhol baits the interviewer, who attempts to extract concrete statements from the elusive artist. The Warhol segment is supplemented by footage of his band, the Velvet Underground; a clip of one of his short films, "Nancy Worthington Fish"; and brief comments from Edie Sedgwick, one of Warhol's proteges.
