El Greco: Rediscovering a Master

Eva 1 Communications

Spurned and then nearly forgotten, El Greco went on to be hailed as one of Spain's greatest painters. This program describes the life of Domenikos Theotokopoulos, nicknamed "El Greco," and how his artistic legacy was rescued by a group of young Modernists who discovered his works in a museum in Barcelona. Emphasis is given to the revival of El Greco's reputation in the late 19th and 20th centuries by such painters as Rusinol and Picasso. Their rediscovery not only brought a master back from obscurity but also influenced their own work, as evidenced in paintings like The Old Guitarist from Picasso's "Blue Period." (53 minutes)

Ten Great Writers: The Seminar

Deutsche Grammophon GmbH

In this lively round-table discussion, moderator Melvyn Bragg; the late writer and critic Anthony Burgess; Professor George Steiner, author of Language and Silence; literary critic Hermione Lee; and writer and series consultant Professor Malcolm Bradbury debate what constitutes modernist writing. New literary themes generated by the era’s political and social upheavals are also discussed, including time, the unconscious mind, alienation, the changing role of women, and the consequences of two world wars. In addition, the panel suggests that the atrocities of the post-modern world led writers to reject modernist narrative techniques and seek a new syntax and vocabulary. (53 minutes)

Sculptors at Storm King: Shaping American Art

Deutsche Grammophon GmbH

The 400-acre Storm King Art Center is America’s premier outdoor museum of post-1945 sculpture—and home to the works of more than a hundred of the world’s top talents. Through interviews, archival footage, and film clips of sculptors in action, this program offers a glimpse into the creative process of some of the century’s most influential artists while presenting a magnificent visual survey of the encyclopedic Storm King collection. Featured sculptors include Kenneth Snelson, Mark di Suvero, Richard Serra, and deceased artists David Smith, Louise Nevelson, Alexander Calder, and Isamu Noguchi. (47 minutes)

Diego Rivera: Art and Revolution

NewsHour Productions

Although an ardent Marxist, Diego Rivera cared little if a communist or a capitalist sponsored his murals and easel paintings, as long as the finished pieces were true to his convictions. In this program, NewsHour correspondent Jeffrey Kaye surveys the life and artwork of Diego Rivera, a larger-than-life figure and one of the 20th century’s truly revolutionary artists—both creatively and politically. Topics include Rivera’s success in melding the painting styles of European modernism with the art of ancient Mexico; his belief in the dignity of everyday life; the notorious Rockefeller Center mural; and, underpinning all, his deep love of Mexico. (12 minutes)

Daniel Libeskind: Welcome to the 21st Century

Deutsche Grammophon GmbH

Possessed of a genius for designing buildings that are as expressive as abstract sculptures, Daniel Libeskind-called "the respectable face of radicalism"-is no stranger to controversy. In this program, Libeskind, structural engineer Cecil Balmond, architectural writer Charles Jencks, the Kensington Society's Sir Ronald Arculus, and other supporters and skeptics air their views on the Jewish Museum Berlin; The Spiral, the visionary addition to London's Victoria and Albert Museum; the Imperial War Museum-North; and the Felix Nussbaum House. Are Daniel Libeskind's sensational aesthetics setting the standards for 21st-century architecture? (50 minutes)

Unamuno: Niebla

Ente Público Radiotelevisión

The most widely-read work of modern Spanish fiction is here presented in a brilliant production which makes the unravelings of its absurdist plot clear and turns its existentialist probings into logical, everyday conversation. The film is ideal as either a companion to reading or-where time is lacking-as a substitute. An RTVE Production. (Spanish, 60 minutes)

Goya: His Life and Art

Ente Público Radiotelevisión

An introduction, not only to Goya's work, but to the critical period in Spanish history which he recorded. In a period largely bereft of major literary masterpieces, it is to Goya that we look to find out what Spain was like in the period spanning the decline of neoclassicism, the devastation of the Napoleonic Wars, and the rise of Romanticism and Impressionism. An RTVE production. (44 minutes)

David Alfaro Siqueiros: Uno de Tres Grandes

Stromboli Productions

One of the Tres Grandes of Mexican mural painting, Siqueiros was a technical innovator and social activist. This documentary traces Siqueiros' emergence as an artist dedicated to social change. Archival material, his own murals, and interviews with those who knew him reveal a man whose life and work were inexorably intertwined. (Spanish, 29 minutes)

The Wild Riders

KERA TV

"If they are human, they're a separate species," said Charley Russell about cowboys. This episode shows us the West of Frederic Remington and Charley Russell, whose works transformed the working cowboy into the most enduring hero-figure in American folklore. Russell became a living representative of the West he portrayed, the poet laureate of the passing frontier. In their very different ways, he and Remington created a gallery of heroes that live on in the American imagination. (57 minutes)

Donde Digo Diego Rivera

Protele, Inc.

Rivera is the best known of Mexico's 20th-century artists. His murals are pictorial history books which recount the struggles of Mexico's peoples for spiritual and economic liberation. This program visits the Rivera Museum, which contains not only his works and the monuments of his life but his own superb collection of pre-Columbian artifacts. In Spanish. (56 minutes)

Siqueiros

Protele, Inc.

Jose David Alfaro Siqueiros was the Mexican muralist par excellence, making it an art form that is at once monumental and personal in scale. Drawing on the pre-Hispanic roots of Mexican culture, he played a leading role in the political revolution of the '30s; the power of his art to persuade is testimony to the powerful voice of his art. In Spanish. (56 minutes)

Rufino Tamayo

Protele, Inc.

Tamayo, who was born in Oaxaca, captured the beauty inherent in the simplicity of indigenous Mexico. This program covers a broad range of his work, showing his style and technical mastery while focusing on his ability to reveal the pain and hardship underlying the beauty that is Mexico, and the beauty underlying the pain. In Spanish.

Velazquez

M.I. Productions

A portrait of the extraordinary painter who chronicled the life and times of his friend King Philip the Fourth, who built the core of the Prado collection (which today houses almost all of his work), and who, with El Greco, Goya, and Picasso, comprises the quartet of the greatest painters of Spain. (36 minutes)

Persian Miniatures from the Shahnameh

Films for the Humanities & Sciences

The Shahnameh, Iran’s national epic, has been illustrated again and again over the course of Persian history. This epic poem, written by the poet Firdausi in the early 11th century, recounts Persia’s mythological and historical past. This program traces the development of Shahnameh painting over three centuries and under the patronage of three distinct Persian dynasties. Parallels between miniature painting and other art forms of the time are drawn, and the cultural settings in which this art flourished are examined. This fascinating look at a unique art form was produced with the assistance of the Fogg Art Museum. (28 minutes)

The Battle of Tsushima: 1905

Pathe Media

Japan Enters the World SceneThe West was stupefied when faraway Japan attacked and beat the fleet of the Tsar. This program traces the opening of Japan after 250 years of isolation; the modernist attitudes of the Meiji Emperor; Japan's declaration of war on China in 1894; the Treaty of Shimonosaki, which granted Japan huge reparations, the island of Formosa, Port Arthur in Manchuria, and a kind of protectorate in Korea; and the resulting alliance between Russia and China, which set the stage for the confrontation between Russia and Japan. The program sets the stage in St. Petersburg and on the seas, as the tempests that would batter the 20th century were set in motion. (41 minutes)

Paris: 1900 (in French)

Reseau Canope

It is the turn of the century—fin de siècle. This program captures that magical period in all of its glory on archival film by the renowned Lumière brothers. Take a personal tour of the World’s Fair, attend the Opéra Comique, view Rodin’s Gates of Hell, visit with Picasso and the Impressionists. This is Paris at the end of a major cultural epoch. (14 minutes) French

Color

The Arts Council of England

Color is perhaps the most powerful artistic element, but it is also the most difficult to control. In this program, artist June Redfern goes to Venice to see one of her favorite paintings—Titian’s Assumption of the Virgin. Analyzing Titian’s innovative use of color, Redfern traces other color innovations pioneered by artists like Monet, van Gogh, and Mark Rothko. (30 minutes)

Fernando Botero: Searching for the Heroic in Art

Zarafa Films

Fernando Botero's distinctive style-smooth inflated shapes with unexpected shifts in scale-reflects the Colombian artist's constant search to give volume presence and reality. This program combines commentary by Botero himself with abundant examples of his paintings and sculptures to examine the remarkable life and work of a world-renowned visionary. By integrating and reworking artistic themes from the Middle Ages, the Quattrocento, the Latin American colonial period, and the 20th century, Botero continues to flesh out his conception of a remarkably monumental and exaggerated world of pleasure and plenty. (53 minutes)

Political and Social Satire through Caricature

Deutsche Grammophon GmbH

In this program, the audacious satirical puppet team of Roger Law and Peter Fluck take viewers on an intriguing tour of political and social satire through caricature. Ranging from James Gillray's lampooning of King George III to Ralph Steadman's savaging of Richard Nixon, the program illustrates how masters of caricature have shaped public opinion through the mediums of drawing, painting, sculpture, and puppetry. The work of Honore Daumier and archival footage of George Grosz, Otto Dix, and David Lowe further underscore the power of satirical caricature to unmask-and to skewer. (57 minutes)

The Pyramids

Southern Star

Although their function and architecture have inspired centuries of debate, the Egyptian pyramids harbor yet another enigma, having to do with their location. This program looks at why particular places were selected for pyramid-building and why new sites were chosen as Egypt's culture evolved. Explaining the architectural leap from the mastaba to the Step Pyramid of Djoser, the program explores reasons for abandoning Saqqara, building on the Giza plateau and at Abu Roash, and returning to Saqqara. The availability of construction resources in these areas is analyzed, as well as an equally important religious factor-focusing on Heliopolis, the hub of sun worship. (25 minutes)

Construction

Visual Education Centre

In this program, three women with rewarding careers in the construction trades describe their work. Menyui Leung is a welder with experience in manufacturing and shipbuilding; Suzy Zaric is a restoration carpenter specializing in damage repair; Luce Gregoire is an electrician who works on lighting and heating equipment. Conversations with coworkers and supervisors add to the descriptions of each job. Part of the series Career Options for Women: Emerging Opportunities. (24 minutes)

Jeff Koons: A Man of Trust

Les Films d’Ici

One of the most controversial artists working today, Jeff Koons follows in the footsteps of Andy Warhol’s entrepreneurship, perfectionism, and appropriation of pop culture icons. This program provides an extensive look at Koons’s background, professional accomplishments, and personal challenges, articulated through intimate conversations with the artist as well as with collectors and associates. Works featured include Rabbit, Balloon Dog, Michael Jackson and Bubbles, Woman in the Tub, Pot Rack, Winter Bears, and Celebration. In one sequence, the camera follows Koons through a grocery store as he uses everyday packaged items to explain his thought process and aesthetic. (58 minutes)

The Moorish South: Art in Muslim and Christian Spain from 711 to 1492

BBC Worldwide Learning

Under Muslim rule, Spain became the most advanced, wealthy, and populous country in Europe, with great leaps forward in art, architecture, and many other fields. In this program, art historian Andrew Graham-Dixon travels from Córdoba to Seville and on to Granada as he tells the story of art in Islamic and medieval Spain. Richly designed and decorated buildings such as the Great Mosque in Córdoba, the Alcazar in Seville, and the Alhambra in Granada are examined, along with ornate gardens, other objects of art, and even culinary innovations. All of these striking visual examples help viewers understand the debt which both modern Spain and modern Europe owe to Moorish Spain. Contains some objectionable language and images. Original BBCW broadcast title: The Moorish South. (51 minutes)

The Mystical North: Spanish Art from the 19th Century to the Present

BBC Worldwide Learning

Northern Spain has produced some of the world's most celebrated artists, including Picasso, Miro, Dali-and Goya, who foreshadowed modern painting with his dark political consciousness. This program studies the artistic and social turmoil that engulfed Spain as the 20th century loomed, dawned, and rolled forward. Recounting Franco's tyranny against free expression, the program looks at Spanish artists who continued to create provocative work, such as exiled film director Luis Bunuel, and those with more spiritual motives, exemplified by Antoni Gaudi's uncanny structures. Today's visionary Spanish artists and architects, such as the esteemed Santiago Calatrava, are also profiled. Contains some objectionable language and images. Original BBCW broadcast title: The Mystical North. (51 minutes)

Cordoba-in Spanish

Ente Público Radiotelevisión

Once the largest city in Europe and the center of Islamic culture and scholarship, Cordoba now presents a richly textured urban landscape combining old and new. This program offers an informative itinerary through the city's monuments, religious buildings, and historic water routes. Visiting the Mezquita Mosque-Cathedral, the Medina Azahara, the Synagogue, and the Fortress of the Christian Monarchs, viewers will also encounter the Roman bridge, Cordoba's centuries-old Arabian mills, and the Gardens of Albolafia-a paradise within the city. The beauty of flamenco dancing and the significance of several festivals, including the famed Courtyard or Patio Festival, will further enlighten students.

Winslow Homer: Society and Solitude

The University of Memphis

The first major documentary study of Winslow Homer, this program features over 180 images of Homer oil paintings, watercolors, etchings, and illustrations, combined with in-depth commentary from respected art scholars and historians. Viewers will learn about Homer’s childhood, early work as an engraver, frontline Civil War experiences, European sojourns, and eventual renown as the reclusive dean of 19th-century American painting. (2 parts, 55 minutes each)

The Turning Torso, Malmo

Electric Sky

What happens when a city loses its trademark industry and the trademark architectural icon that goes with it? That was the problem facing the Swedish shipbuilding city of Malmo when the Kockums Crane was dismantled in 2002. This program illustrates the city’s radical solution—a dramatic reinvention of its skyline and its socioeconomic image with the Turning Torso apartment building. Viewers will learn about the tower’s unique sculptural origins, its twisted cube-stack shape, its unusual slanted windows, and its role in creating Malmo’s postindustrial identity. The civic controversy that frequently accompanies daring building design is also explored. (28 minutes)

Eureka Tower, Melbourne

Electric Sky

As globally recognized landmarks go, the Sydney Opera House is tough to beat. But the city of Melbourne has impressive features of its own. This program looks at the high life while going down under—exploring Melbourne’s 300-meter Eureka Tower, the tallest residential building in the world and the most exclusive address in the southern hemisphere. Featuring interviews with architect Nonda Katsalidis and developer Benni Aroni, the episode provides an in-depth tour of the dynamic structure and shows how its design is aimed at Australia’s highfliers. Viewers will learn about the building’s exterior color scheme, a tribute to the Victorian Gold Rush, and its relationship to the interior shapes and décor. (28 minutes)

Cologne Cathedral

Electric Sky

Any serious study of the modern skyscraper must acknowledge its precursor—the Gothic cathedral. This program examines the design, construction, and history of Cologne Cathedral—which, for a grand total of four years, was the tallest building in the world. Dr. Barbara Schock-Werner, the cathedral’s resident chief architect, describes political and cultural conditions during Cologne’s initial building years and guides viewers through the evolution of the colossal church. Dr. Ulrike Brinkmann, in charge of the cathedral’s acres of stained glass, sheds light on the religious meanings and architectural significance of the myriad colored windows. (28 minutes)

Desktop Publishing: Getting the Message Out

Meridian Education

From prehistoric cave paintings to the invention of today's high-speed printing presses, there has always been a need to "get the message out," and with the advent of computer technology, anyone can get their own message out with the services of a desktop publishing professional. Using computers and DTP software packages, these pros work in home offices and small design firms putting together everything from glossy business reports to restaurant menus to wedding invitations. It's an exciting career area and experienced DTP designers are much in demand. Desktop Publishing: Getting the Message Out introduces the world of digital design with a look at the work these artists do, the hardware and software needs of a DTP pro, and some of the elements of page design that go into creating an attractive, effective document. Desktop publishing is a career more students should consider and this video "look behind the scenes" will help your students do just that. A Meridian Production. (16 minutes)

How Computers Operate

Beneficial Books & Video

Information is one of the best ways to become comfortable with computers. Computer terms like circuit, byte, bit, megabytes, RAM, digital logic, motherboard, operating system, booting application, and many others will become familiar as viewers learn the basics shown in this program. One 26-minute video. A Meridian Production.

Toshiko Takaezu: Portrait of a Ceramic Artist

New Jersey Public Television

Renowned for her extraordinary pottery and highly respected as a teacher, Toshiko Takaezu is one of the most significant ceramic artists of the 20th century—and the 21st. This program, filmed both in New Jersey and the artist’s native Hawaii, presents the life story of the internationally acclaimed potter. Film clips of Ms. Takaezu at work—shaping clay in her studio, demonstrating pottery techniques at Princeton University, and overseeing raku firing—provide illuminating insights into her philosophical creative process, as do interviews with ceramic artists Claude Horan and Jennifer Owen; gallery owner Charles Cowles; Paul Smith, director emeritus of the American Craft Museum; poet Stephen Berg; and the artist herself. (29 minutes)

Lascaux: The Prehistory of Art

ARTE France

One of the world's most fascinating museums is by far one of the oldest. But can the paintings there really be called art? This program goes inside the Lascaux cave complex to examine the richest and most beautiful collection of Paleolithic cave drawings in France. Who were the artisans who rendered those arresting images, and how exactly did they do it? Different theories are presented as the cameras capture a site that never ceases to amaze and intrigue. (61 minutes)

The Lady and the Unicorn: Making Sense of the Senses

ARTE France

The National Museum of the Middle Ages in Paris is the home of The Lady and the Unicorn, the exotic set of six medieval tapestries that illustrates the five senses-and the Lady's deepest desire. This program seeks to unravel the mysteries woven into these enchanting wall hangings as it explores their history and symbolism. (33 minutes)

Wassily Kandinsky: Invisible Shapes

ARTE France

For Wassily Kandinsky, the father of abstract art, geometric form was the external expression of inner meaning. What sensibilities do art lovers need in order to decode the shapes behind the shapes in his colorful—and, in their day, controversial—paintings? This program introduces the subject of symbolism in Abstract Expressionism through a close examination of Kandinsky’s Yellow-Red-Blue. (33 minutes)

War

Digital Rights Group Limited

Segment one of this program addresses the anxiety and suffering surrounding World War I through Sir William Orpen’s Zonnebeke, Henri Gaudier-Brzeska’s Bird Swallowing a Fish, and Max Beckman’s Carnival. Segment two reflects on the fear and anguish of World War II with Salvador Dalí’s Mountain Lake and Francis Bacon’s triptych Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion. Segment three captures the doubts and deep-seated grief of post-war Europe through Jean Fautrier’s Large Tragic Head, Alberto Giacometti’s Standing Woman, and Hannah Collins’ In the Course of Time II, a chilling reminder of the Holocaust. (15 minutes)

Color and Fire: Defining Moments in Studio Ceramics, 1950-2000

Los Angeles City Museum of Art

Produced in conjunction with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art's exhibition of the same name, this lively program explores the evolution of late-20th-century ceramics. Using interviews and myriad examples of their works, leading figures in the field, including Ruth Duckworth, Wayne Higby, John Mason, Ron Nagle, Otto Natzler, Richard Shaw, and Peter Voulkos, discuss such major themes as Abstract Expressionism, Funk, vessels, form and function, and the debate over the decorative arts versus the fine arts. (51 minutes)

The Studio Glass Movement: Legacy of Glass

WGTE Toledo

This program chronicles the Studio Glass Movement from its inception in the early 1960s. In historic footage and interviews, Harvey Littleton, Dominick Labino, and others discuss the movement's rise and the innovations they pioneered that transformed glassblowing into a celebrated art form. The distinctive styles of three contemporary artists-Labino's sole protegee Baker O'Brien, Shawn Messenger, and Mark Matthews-are also profiled. (51 minutes)

The Sphinx in Context: Solving the Riddle

Adler Media

Starting when the first explorers laid eyes on the incomparable Sphinx, theories have proliferated about who built it and why. In this program, Zahi Hawass, of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities; Egyptologist Fayza Haikal; Kathryn Bard, editor of The Encyclopedia of the Archaeology of Ancient Egypt; authors Paul Jordan and Robert Schoch; and others employ the latest scientific scholarship and research to dispute those many theories while addressing a century of preservation and restoration efforts. Their keen insights, in combination with 3-D computer animations, vintage newsreel footage, archival photos, and artwork, bring to life a story of monumental proportions. (51 minutes)

Picasso and His Time (in Spanish)

RCR Producciones

This superb documentary covers the long and extraordinary life of Picasso, beginning with the first period of his life in Málaga, La Coruña, and Barcelona (the time of his classic painting) and continuing in Paris, Vallauris, and Vouvenargue. This beautifully photographed program follows the development of this genius through the Pink and Blue Periods, surrealism, cubism, sculpture, and ceramics: a unique artist who excelled in all styles and all media and remained—regardless of where he was—Spanish to the core. (Spanish, 57 minutes)

Picasso and His Time

RCR Producciones

This superb documentary covers the long and extraordinary life of Picasso, beginning with the first period of his life in Málaga, La Coruña, and Barcelona (the time of his classic painting) and continuing in Paris, Vallauris, and Vouvenargue. This beautifully photographed program follows the development of this genius through the Pink and Blue Periods, Surrealism, Cubism, sculpture, and ceramics: a unique artist who excelled in all styles and all media and remained—regardless of where he was—Spanish to the core. (34 minutes)

The Candid Image: A Portrait of Erich Salomon

Radio Netherlands Television

His camera hidden in his hat, he sat in a courtroom and photographed two accused murderers being sentenced; photographed Von Hindenburg from a bathroom window across from the presidential palace; hid his camera in a music stand to photograph Toscanini in performance. But he had artistic talent as well as nerve. This program tells Salomon's story, the famous photos augmented by some of the negatives hidden from the Nazis and now restored. Salomon was killed in Auschwitz, but his astonishing documentation of the 20th century survives. (50 minutes)

Jane Jacobs: Urban Wisdom

Don Alexander

Through her groundbreaking books, Jane Jacobs has influenced the planning and understanding of cities and economies with what she calls a "web way of thinking." In this program, Jacobs shares her insights into urban planning by tracing the progression of ideas in her books, including The Death and Life of Great American Cities; The Economy of Cities; Cities and the Wealth of Nations; Systems of Survival; and her most recent, The Nature of Economies. An extended interview with Jacobs is blended with scenes from various North American cities and footage of her 1997 seminar, "Ideas That Matter." (45 minutes)

Time and Money

INCA (London)

In this program, Dominic Fonti observes the effects of stress tests on a mock-up of the Worldwide Plaza exterior wall; laborers begin building the skyscraper's frame and pouring its floors; William Zeckendorf's staff deals with design changes demanded by future tenant Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide, which alters the schedule and budget of the entire project; and the architects and developers go head to head over the color of the structure's exterior bricks. A trip to Glen-Gery Brick, based in Wyomissing, Pennsylvania, demonstrates how the nearly 1.25 million bricks needed for the glass-and-masonry tower are manufactured. (53 minutes)

The Home Maker: Samuel Sambo Mockbee

Nightline

Award-winning architect and recipient of a 2000 MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, Samuel Mockbee had a practical approach to architecture that reflected his lofty ideals. Based out of the Rural Studio he cofounded at Auburn University, Mockbee and his students designed and built-free of charge-homes and other structures using recyclable materials for people in one of Alabama's poorest areas, Hale County. In this program filmed a year before Mockbee's death, ABC News correspondent Robert Krulwich talks with the architect about his philosophy and goals in a field that often forgets that buildings are for people, not other architects. (22 minutes)

Hokusai: The Suspended Threat

ARTE France

This program takes a deep look into Hokusai’s The Great Wave, interpreting the story it tells and scrutinizing formal aspects ranging from the perfect spiral that underpins the wave, to the spiritual balance between water and sky, to the fractal-like nature of the wavelets. Footage of artisans at work demonstrates how plates for The Great Wave were cut, inked, and successively impressed onto paper in vivid colors. Additional examples of Hokusai’s work illustrate his use of geometric elements to frame key parts of scenes, his application of perspective, how he played with the plasticity of nature, and his foray into erotic images. (31 minutes)

Landscape: The Invention of Nature

Lagardere Studio Distribution

Some of the earliest landscape paintings are found on the walls of Egyptian tombs—demonstrating that, since ancient times, panoramic scenes of nature have held spiritual significance. This program guides viewers through the history of landscape art and its various emotional, symbolic, and sacred meanings. Progressing through ancient Greek and Roman villa paintings, Byzantine art, and the proto-Renaissance advances of Giotto and Lorenzetti, the program shows how awareness and mastery of perspective evolved, leading to magnificent works by Giorgione, Brueghel, da Vinci, and other masters of landscape. (27 minutes)

The Scenario: Telling a Story Through Painting

Lagardere Studio Distribution

Can a painting be read the way a play or movie is watched? What stories do the shapes and colors of the world’s great pictures tell? This program encourages viewers to analyze the narratives in painted images, illustrating possible interpretations for a long procession of famous works. Piero della Francesca’s The Flagellation, Caravaggio’s Judith Beheading Holofernes, Rubens’ Medici Cycle, Brueghel’s Blind Leading the Blind, Vermeer’s Woman at the Scales, David’s Coronation of Napoleon, and Manet’s Luncheon on the Grass—these are a few of the masterpieces which, with the help of the film, reveal their author’s insights into the human drama. (27 minutes)

Digital Movie Maker: Guidance from an Expert

Jancy Movies

Help students build their shooting, lighting, and recording skills with this detailed guide to professional-quality video production. This program focuses on the real-world techniques of producer Bill Cote, a 25-year veteran of the television industry, who uses footage from a recently wrapped film to demonstrate proper equipment operation. Divided into four main chapters covering preproduction, camera work, lighting, and audio recording, the program explains shooting schedules, shot lists, storyboards, camera exposure, shutter speed, lenses, filters, three-point lighting, time code and logs, shotgun mics, lapel mics, mic levels, audio ambience, and much more. (58 minutes)

Judgment

Seventh Art Productions

If there is life after death, will it be one of bliss or torment? This program focuses on the moment of judgment in the belief systems of ancient Egypt, Judaism, Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism, and Christianity. Featured works of art include the Egyptian Book of the Dead; a Buddhist painted scroll; a mosaic from the Byzantine Church of San Apollinare Nuovo, in Ravenna; a mosaic in Venice's first cathedral, the Church of Santa Maria Assunta; Giotto's fresco Last Judgment; the doom painting over the chancel arch of the Church of St. Thomas, in Salisbury; Michelangelo's The Last Judgment, in the Sistine Chapel; The Last Judgement by John Martin; and Mark Wallinger's Threshold to the Kingdom, a slow-motion video installation filmed at London City Airport. (23 minutes)

Stryker's America: Photographing the Great Depression

Justin Schauble

Roy E. Stryker headed the Historical Division of the Farm Security Administration from 1935 to 1943. This program tells the story of how Stryker, a low-level federal bureaucrat with integrity and vision, managed a massive New Deal project to document the Great Depression. These photos-nearly 200,000 by both established and aspiring photographers, including Dorothea Lange, Gordon Parks, Arthur Rothstein, and many others-became the defining statement of the era. Many signature images of poverty and hardship are included. Narrated by Beverly Brannan, curator of photography at the Library of Congress; Alan Fern, retired director of the National Portrait Gallery; and Peter Kuznick, professor of history at American University. (23 minutes)

Bill Moyers Journal: Poet Martin Espada / The Yes Men

Doctoroff Media Group

Mike Bonanno and Andy Bichlbaum— The Yes Men— have discovered that high-visibility pranks can get major press attention for important issues that would otherwise be ignored. In this program, Bill Moyers gets in on the joke with these two impersonators, who use satirical “identity correction” to make serious points about media consolidation, journalism, business ethics, and separating fact from fiction in a world of spin. Also on the program: poet Martin Espada speaks about his love of language and the human need for poetry as he reflects on how heritage, immigration, violence, and war have influenced his work and reads from his latest book, The Republic of Poetry. In addition, Bill Moyers highlights some viewer mail. Broadcast date: July 20, 2007. (58 minutes)

From Romanticism to Realism

Films for the Humanities & Sciences

The 19th century brought tumultuous political change to Central and South America. This program shows how the cultural crucible of the region fused and realigned aesthetic movements considered sacrosanct in Europe—specifically, Romanticism, realism, and naturalism. In an eclectic matching game that became typical of Latin American literature, realist and historical novels existed cheek-and-jowl with Romantic poetry, Romantic novels competed with the anecdotes of Ricardo Palma, and newspaper serials vied for attention with costumbrismo—a genre that depicted everyday manners and customs. Jicoténcal, Jorge Isaacs’ Maria, and Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda’s Guatimozín, Last Emperor of Mexico are among the works discussed. An FFH&S/Tranquilo Coproduction. (51 minutes)

Architects at Work

NewsHour Productions

City planning that puts people before cars, sculptural museums that are as artistic as the masterpieces they contain, commercial spaces that redefine retail—these are some of the paradigm-shaking ideas of today’s architects at work. This compilation of recent NewsHour segments introduces viewers to Frank Gehry, Rem Koolhaas, Daniel Libeskind, Vincent Scully, and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk—visionaries in the world of architecture. Episodes include: • Frank Gehry on the Guggenheim Bilbao: Elizabeth Farnsworth talks with architect Frank Gehry about the process of designing and building the Guggenheim Bilbao. Segment also sold as a part of Pritzker Prize-Winning Architects. • Vincent Scully and the New Urbanism: Ray Suarez and architectural historian Vincent Scully discuss the rethinking of urban form through city planning that de-emphasizes cars and focuses on community. Segment also sold individually. • Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk and the New Urbanism: Ray Suarez interviews Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, coauthor of Suburban Nation, on the New Urbanism as exemplified by the Kentlands, a housing development in Gaithersburg, Maryland. • Rem Koolhaas and the Architecture of Shopping: Using the Prada store in Manhattan’s SoHo district as a springboard, Ray Suarez talks with architect Rem Koolhaas about a new approach to designing commercial space. • Daniel Libeskind on the Denver Art Museum: Jeffrey Brown and Daniel Libeskind discuss the Denver Art Museum and the Rocky Mountains, from which the architect drew his inspiration. (54 minutes)

Averroes and Al-Mutamid-in Spanish

Ente Público Radiotelevisión

Incorporating examples of building design and urban planning from the 12th century, this program studies the confrontations that took place between Christian and Muslim cultures as the reconquista of Spain progressed. Viewers will encounter the medieval city of Córdoba—the birthplace not only of King Al-Mutamid but of the Islamic philosopher known as Averroes, whom many scholars believe to be the founder of Western secular thought. The Christian recovery of Toledo is also explored, focusing on the mosques of Las Tornerías, castles with distinctly Arabian architecture, and other instructive cases.

Q1, Australian Gold Coast

Electric Sky

Once a trendy haven for beach bums, Surfers Paradise is fast becoming the Miami of the southern hemisphere, thanks to developers aiming to make it a resort for the rich and famous. Surfers' skyline is changing too, with the massive Q1 Tower now dominating the landscape. This program looks at the imposing structure from more than one angle, studying its extraordinary design elements while asking: how has its pristine environment been affected? Viewers will learn about Q1's massive exterior canopy, its honeycomb core that reduces weight while maintaining structural strength, and the system of 26 supporting piles that had to be buried in the sandy soil beneath the tower. (28 minutes)

Artful Architecture: The Getty Center and the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao

NewsHour Productions

Modern museums are nearly as artistic as the art that they house. In part one of this program, correspondent Jeffrey Kaye discusses the Getty Center's design with architect Richard Meier, architecture critic Leon Whiteson, and Los Angeles Times art critic Christopher Knight. In addition, Kaye examines the Center's manuscript and photograph collections, educational outreach program, and role in worldwide art preservation. In part two, journalist Elizabeth Farnsworth talks with Frank Gehry about the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao's remarkably innovative design. Gehry's efforts to reconcile the museum with the striking local topography and heritage led to the creation of a titanium-clad, ship-like gallery combined with a "village of shapes." Critics are unified in their praise, calling the museum an architectural miracle of major significance. (29 minutes)

Resorts: Paradise Reclaimed

Mobile Corporation

American pioneers had to overcome the dangerous wilderness; Americans at rest want to return to nature-not the wilderness, but a tamed and peaceful nature.Having cut down nature to build cities, we bring back the country through parks: New York's Central Park gives us a dreamlike, idealized New York with forests, lakes, hills, meadows, foot and bridle paths, and architecture to complement the picturesque settings; vacationers sought rusticity with comfort, and nature brought indoors became the fad. The ultra-rich built a private resort town around a country club (The Newport Casino, R.I.- both classical and colloquial, the first example of the Shingle Style); they found shelter in marble palaces (they called them cottages)-the Vanderbilts contributed to this genre; Addison Mizner concocted Palm Beach for it.Postwar Florida resorts bear the stong imprint of Hollywood-in the great hotels of Miami Beach and in the fantasy of Disney World, which gives us the elemental, mythically American Main Street. (58 minutes)

Glass and Ceramics

Filmoption International

Glass and ceramic are some of the oldest man-made materials. This program demonstrates two traditional glass-making techniques: glass blowing and the art of stained glass windows. It also follows the production of industrial ceramics, explaining that this material is constantly being used in new applications. Finally, we are shown the expanded use of glass in architecture, where it is increasingly replacing wood and stone. (23 minutes)

Architectural Techniques

Filmoption International

Like other technologies, architecture has changed across the centuries. The discovery of new materials, the understanding of physical principles, and the development of new construction techniques have permitted architects to extend the boundaries of the possible. This program demonstrates some of the basic architectural techniques, such as the arch and the use of beams; shows how lasers and photography are used in conjunction with traditional techniques to preserve endangered monuments; and reveals innovative uses of textiles in an architectural context. (23 minutes)

Istanbul City Guide: Pilot Guides

555 Productions

This episode of Pilot Guides follows Estelle Bingham's exploration of the ancient city of Istanbul, starting at the famous Topkapi Palace, former home of sultans and their concubines. From there she visits the former seat of Christendom, the beautiful Aya Sophia church. She interrupts her sight-seeing for a day trip to Gallipoli, the site of an infamous World War I battlefield in which thousands of Allied soldiers died. She makes time to visit the opulent Pera Palace hotel, take a belly dancing lesson from some gypsies, tour the Florence Nightingale museum, and shop around the Grand Bazaar, one of the largest markets in the world. She takes another day trip to the amazing Edirne Wrestling Festival, with over 1000 well-oiled men competing for the gold belt, before ending her trip by visiting the famous Blue Mosque and going to see some whirling dervishes. (48 minutes)

Plastic: The Secret Life of Materials

BBC Worldwide Learning

Science has created more new materials in the last 100 years than in all of the rest of history—and this is just the beginning. In this program, materials scientist Dr. Mark Miodownik explores the history, production, and use of plastic, including a new generation that takes its inspiration from nature. A BBC Production. (51 minutes)

Commercial Printing Processes

ClickView Pty Limited

This program examines common commercial printing processes in use today, including offset lithographic, digital, screen, and flexographic. Types of binding and finishing that will be used for books, food wrappers, plastics, and other applications are also discussed. In addition, industry experts explain how commercial printers can help clients decide on the best way to present their product by considering choices in paper quality, cost, and printing and finishing methods. A viewable/printable worksheet is available online. (25 minutes)

Rock Fresh

MVD Entertainment Group

Rock Fresh is an electrifying documentary on the world of the graffiti artist, presenting a raw and gritty snapshot of five of the world's most legendary street artists as they make the leap from graffiti art to commercial art. The artists Axis, Clae, Kofie, Trixter, and Tyer have been commissioned for work by a wide range of companies including Nike, Universal, Gucci, MTV, and Red Bull. Footage reveals step-by-step how colors blend, how angles sharpen, how shadows emerge, lifting the veil from a subculture so clandestine, it took 40 years to get this close. Explore surfaces as various as concrete, canvas, and metal, and locations such as rooftops, deserts, lofts, sewers, and the forest. Meet artists painfully coming of age, from childhood sketchbooks to the adult struggles of living off of art. Learn about the underground codes that butt against the lure of the mainstream in this fascinating program.

Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko: Icons of Abstract Expressionism

NewsHour Productions

The power of color. The power of freedom. The power of an aesthetic coming into its own in post-war America. Section one of this program explores the work of the rebel painter dubbed "Jack the Dripper" by Time magazine and launched into the American imagination by Life. Archival photos and film clips of Pollock in action provide a compelling glimpse of an artistic vision that defined its own space between art and chaos. Section two traces the career of the dissident modernist born Marcus Rothkowitz, from obscurity to celebrity. Joseph Solman-89-year-old co-founder of "The Ten"-and art historian Dore Ashton shed light on the works of an artist for whom success was both a triumph and a defeat. (23 minutes)

The Places Within

Mobile Corporation

The corridors of power, in business and government, lead to heroic interior spaces, and business has frequently appropriated the architecture of power-that is, of government. Interior spaces symbolize as well as contain function. The ambiguous relationship to nature is seen in the American desire to bring a scaled-down outdoors inside; the incorporation of the past takes different shapes.The town square concept reappears in guises as diverse as the great interior space under the Capitol dome and the glazed-over shopping mall that is Houston's Galleria; hotels and museums with indoor plazas seek to provide the same sort of community meeting space. Grand Central Terminal-with twinkling stars painted on its concourse ceiling-is both the nexus of a transportation network and a grand bazaar. The Pennsylvania Academy of Art demonstrates how the effort to combine tradition, function, and the symbols of industrial modernity may wind up a mixed metaphor.It took Frank Lloyd Wright to reconcile the dome of the pantheon and the arcaded market in the Marin County Civic Center. (58 minutes)

The Vocabulary of Film and TV

ClickView Pty Limited

Motion pictures have a language all their own, and media students need to become fluent in it. This video is the ideal primer, using an entertaining story line to teach basic film vocabulary. Set in an actual movie studio, the program explores the stylistic conventions of action, horror, and other genres, and demonstrates principles of camera placement, mise-en-scène, lighting, sound, shot size, and editing. The spine-tingling (but not too scary) horror plot keeps viewers focused on film language and how it is manipulated to tell a story with a logical flow that builds to an emotional conclusion. Viewable/printable educational resources are available online. (27 minutes)

Through the Eyes of the Sculptor

Asti-Trevi Productions

A sculpture comes alive in clay, dies in plaster, and is reborn in marble. This intense process has rarely been documented. The program takes viewers inside the Malibu studios of master sculptor Emmanuel Fillion as he creates a new piece-from a figurative clay model to a life-size marble sculpture. Educated as a restoration artist, Fillion worked on many important historical monuments in France including Notre Dame cathedral and the Louvre. In a program highlight, he visits a master carver restoring sculptures on the Pont Neuf, a 17th-century Parisian bridge. Comparing present-day carving and quarrying methods with those used centuries ago, scenes in the marble mountains of Pietrasanta and Carrara, Italy, evoke rich traditions dating back to Michelangelo's time.

Realism: The Artistic Form of the Truth

Films for the Humanities & Sciences

It is a creative impulse as old as humanity itself: to depict life faithfully, accurately, in words or in images. This program shows how that impulse led to Realism—a widespread artistic movement, born in the latter half of the 19th century, which rejected pretense, distortion, and sentimentality. Incorporating interviews with art historians and literary scholars, the program explores the sociopolitical origins of the phenomenon in the 1848 Revolution in France and the concurrent wave of industrialization that swept Europe and America. Luminous images by Édouard Manet, Gustave Courbet, Jean-François Millet, and Honoré Daumier—along with the unflinching writings of Honoré de Balzac, Gustave Flaubert, Émile Zola, Leo Tolstoy, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Anton Chekhov, August Strindberg, and Henrik Ibsen—are analyzed and compared with the work of Thomas Eakins, George Bellows, Mark Twain, Jack London, Stephen Crane, and others. The contributions of early photographers and filmmakers, as well as the first stirrings of feminism, are also examined. (54 minutes)

Journeys into Islamic India

Grand Brilliance

Muslims arrived in India the same year they entered Spain-and by the end of the 13th century ruled nearly all of the country. This program travels across India by way of Iran, Pakistan, and Maldives to examine the rich Islamic heritage of the region. The program also observes the Muslim way of life on the subcontinent as it exists today. Sites of note include the Taj Mahal, the Golkonda Fort ruins, and the Charminar monument. (50 minutes)

Frank Gehry: Architecture as Art

Ente Público Radiotelevisión

Part in-depth analysis, part whirlwind tour, this program captures the essence of Frank Gehry and his iconoclastic creations through the celebrated architect's own words; the insights of Cesar Pelli, Richard Serra, Hiro Yamagata, and Rafael Moneo; and a broad sampling of Gehry's many structures, which speak for themselves. The Davis studio and residence, Loyola Law School, the Edgemar Development, the Chiat/Day Building, the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, and the DG Bank Building are featured, among many others. Gehry's love of motion, aesthetic exuberance, and dynamic language of design are considered, along with the seven constants that characterize his works.

Dutch Art in Its Own Environment

Radio Netherlands Television

From Rembrandt's drawings and etchings of landscapes near Amsterdam and van Gogh's people and places in southern Holland to Mondrian's stern lines of the Zeeland coast and a host of depictions in every medium of houses, churches, streets and street scenes, work places and working people, this program shows us the Holland of its artists. (25 minutes)

The Art of Film

Digital Rights Group Limited

This program studies the art that underlies the craft of filmmaking-a painstaking process that culminates in the take, that shared moment of concentration when everything comes together. Twelfth Night director Tim Supple and his first assistant director, production designer, director of photography, costume designer, stunt coordinator, and others offer their insights into set design, the culture of the film set, creating a look through costuming, choreographing the action, creating moods with lighting, and the nature of directorial vision. (25 minutes)

Consuming Images

Doctoroff Media Group

This program looks at a society inundated with visual images. From billboards to bus stops, from rock videos to newsstands, mass-produced images have become the very air we breathe. What is this cultural atmosphere saying to us and about us? Why should we care? Ever since the pioneers of public relations and advertising spoke about the "engineering of consent," social critics have analyzed its effects. For some, it reveals pure manipulation-the appropriation of language and meaning, the trivializing of life and thought. For others, it is the dawning of a new era-the printed word is dead and art and commerce are now joined in ever more sophisticated ways. (60 minutes)

Our Infatuation with Fame: Leo Braudy

Doctoroff Media Group

The image of fame permeates America: celebrity athletes, movie stars, stars of rock music and television. Celebrity is a code we all learn to read. A name can sell a product, or stand for an idea. If, as Andy Warhol contended, everyone gets to be famous for 15 minutes, Leo Braudy can tell us why. Braudy, who is a professor of literature at the University of Southern California, has focused on the history of fame since ancient times and the phenomenon of celebrity in 20th-century America, and has traced how our collective attention has shifted from political leaders like Abraham Lincoln to television personalities like Vanna White. In this program with Bill Moyers, Braudy discusses the concept of fame in America and its recent further explosion in our culture. (30 minutes)

Georges Seurat

ARTE France

In 1886, at the last Impressionist Exhibition in Paris, an unknown painter, Georges Seurat, exhibited a large canvas which caused a scandal for its technical daring and lack of concern for the accepted conventions of painting. A multitude of small dots created an astonishing light, and "pointillism" was born. In this program, video graphics are used to focus on key elements of Seurat's A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte and to analyze its structure and composition. (32 minutes)English

Georges Seurat

ARTE France

In 1886, at the last Impressionist Exhibition in Paris, an unknown painter, Georges Seurat, exhibited a large canvas which caused a scandal for its technical daring and lack of concern for the accepted conventions of painting. A multitude of small dots created an astonishing light, and "pointillism" was born. In this program, video graphics are used to focus on key elements of Seurat’s A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte and to analyze its structure and composition. Please note this video is in French. (32 minutes)

Art and Design: Insights into the Visual Arts

Espresso TV

Where do abstract painters and fashion designers find their muses? To what extent does the creative process differ between video artists, sculptors, and fine art embroiderers? How do illustrators and mixed media artists handle the business side of their work? Using capsule interviews with contemporary figures on the U.K. visual arts scene, this program draws viewers into the studio space and immerses them in the hands-on processes and limitless possibilities of art and design. Section one, “Artists and Ideas,” explores sources of inspiration, the foundational importance of drawing, and a variety of functions for sketchbooks and journals. Section two, “Art Practice,” considers contextual referencing in art, the development of ideas, artistic materials and techniques, the relative merits of criticism, and the synergy between artist, environment, and tools. And section three, “Art at Work,” addresses making a living from doing art and the relevance and value of art in public spaces. (59 minutes)

China: Sustainable Homebuilding

System TV

Having overtaken the U.S. as the world’s biggest CO2 polluter, China is now responsible for 11 percent of all greenhouse gas production. Can the country reduce its carbon footprint without slowing its unprecedented economic growth? This program shows how that question is playing out in the Chinese construction industry, highlighting the creation and practical application of new homebuilding standards. Collaboration between French and Chinese experts has led to groundbreaking insulation techniques—illustrated here in conversations with architects, site managers, building residents, and instructors in the sustainable development program at the Wuhan University of Science and Technology. Part of the series Sustainable Development: The World Challenge. (27 minutes)

The Hungry Eye: Walker Evans

NewsHour Productions

The stark, deceptively simple photographs of Walker Evans have become a part of America's collective memory, forever capturing the places and faces of times long gone. In this program, NewsHour correspondent Ray Suarez outlines Evans' life while talking with Jeff Rosenheim, curator of photography at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Evans' close friend William Christenberry, about the late photographer's approach to his art, his collaboration with writer James Agee on Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, his love of advertising signage, and other topics. (15 minutes)

Vanishing Points: An Introduction to Architectural Drawing

University of Sheffield Learning Media Unit

From conceptual sketches to detailed blueprints, drawings serve as the vehicle for translating architectural visions into masterpieces of design and construction. This outstanding program provides a concise demonstration of axonometric, isometric, and one-point and two-point perspective drawing. Computer graphics are employed to help explain the underlying principles of architectural drawing, while student projects serve as examples of well-executed drafting. (20 minutes)

Aqueducts: Man-Made Rivers of Life (Modern Marvels)

Modern Marvels

Man-made rivers quenched the thirst of millions in the American west and around the world. Without these aqueducts some of the world's largest cities would turn into gigantic ghost towns. Their technology has been in use for over 2,000 years, but today these engineering marvels cost billions of dollars to build, requiring thousands of men to toil for years on end. Aqueducts have made some men famous and others fabulously wealthy. Distributed by A&E Television Networks. (45 minutes)

Lost Treasure of the Alexandria Library (In Search of History)

History Education

What did the legendary Alexandria Library look like? Where, exactly, did it stand? What did it contain? How—and why—did it vanish? This program searches for answers. Distributed by A&E Television Networks. (45 minutes)

Russia: A Closer Look

History Education

A&E’s miniseries Russia: Land of the Tsars illuminates the imperial past of the world’s largest nation. Russia: A Closer Look examines the making of that miniseries through interviews with the filmmakers and select segments of footage. Distributed by A&E Television Networks. (20 minutes)

Film History

Planet Pictures

The Lumiere brothers and Thomas Edison would definitely be impressed if they could see how far the medium created with the invention of the movie camera has evolved. This program examines the history of film, from its beginnings in the late 19th century to the invention of VCRs. Filmmaking's roots as an entertainment and storytelling medium are examined, along with the emergence of Hollywood, the studio star system, and birth of the talkies. Film industry regulation, including censorship, is also discussed, along with the blacklist and competition from cable and broadcast television. (28 minutes)

Sacred Space: Art, Architecture, and the Role of the State

Linguae

Roman, Gothic, Baroque, and Rococo religious art, along with Christian iconography, are examined as reflections of the religious and political attitudes of the periods in which they were created. This program also examines the role of the Christian Orthodox Church and the schism of 1054 that permanently divided its members. The degrees of reverence accorded to Mary as Christ's mother by Catholics and Protestants are compared. (59 minutes)

Goya

Ente Público Radiotelevisión

Under the direction of Paloma Chamorro, this RTVE production explores the life, works, and epoch of one of Spain's most beloved painters, utilizing images from his pictures, drawings, and exclusive imprints. Avoiding polemic interpretations of Goya's creations, it presents his work within the context of the events of his life and the period in which they were painted. (58 minutes)

Isfahan Is Half the World

Tele Images

During the 17th century, Abbas the Great renewed the city of Isfahan, turning the former Seljuk capital into a vast garden city of flowing water and lush vegetation. Although the shah is long deceased, his city is still an oasis in the desert, and the Imam Mosque has been a reassuring presence from his time until now. This program uses the restoration of the mosque’s dome as a point of entry into the life of the city: the practice of Islam, the work of men who craft tiles and women who weave carpets, and the peoples who have made Isfahan a cosmopolitan center since the time of the Silk Road. (53 minutes)

Rothko: An Abstract Humanist

Lagardere Studio Distribution

This program offers a rare examination of the life and work of Mark Rothko. Rothko gave abstraction the emotional power of music and poetry. He painted ideas rather than objects and, in the process, created a deeply original pictorial language. One of the most important artists of his generation, Rothko is perhaps best known for his work in the style of the New York School and was a peer of many other illustrious abstract artists: Jackson Pollock, Barnett Newman, Clyfford Still, Franz Kline, and Robert Motherwell, to name only five. (52 minutes)

Pigments: From Lascaux to Picasso

Lagardere Studio Distribution

This program explains how artists’ colors are made and applied by charting the development of various families of pigments—and by demonstrating that the compounding of colors is always a mixture of tradition and technology, experience and innovation. Pigments prepared from natural sources and derived from industrial processes are closely studied, noting failures as well as successes. Decorative applications of color to cloth-making, glass staining, and printing are considered as well. (27 minutes)

Heidegger and Modern Existentialism

BBC Worldwide Learning

In this program, world-renowned author and professor Bryan Magee and William Barret of New York University examine the basic theory of existentialism as founded by Martin Heidegger, and later propagated by Jean-Paul Sartre. Barret discusses Heidegger’s notions of being, existence as task, cosmic roots, and alienation. Sartre’s concept of absolute human freedom is discussed as having promoted human dignity and individualism in the impersonal modern society. A BBC Production. (47 minutes)

Painting on Portable Media

Lagardere Studio Distribution

The centuries-long era of painting on wooden panels culminated in magnificent works such as Grünewald’s Isenheim Altarpiece and van der Weyden’s Beaune Altarpiece. But then canvas finally came into its own: light in weight, low in cost, easy to prepare, and an ideal replacement for frescoes where climatic conditions did not easily permit mural painting, over time it became the artist’s medium of choice. This program traces the evolution of painting on portable media, giving equal attention to great wooden polyptychs of 30 to 40 panels and tiny canvases such as Vermeer’s The Lacemaker. (27 minutes)

Cataclysm: The Black Death Visits Tuscany

David Wesley

Until 1348, people in Siena and Florence enjoyed the richest, safest, and most comfortable lives in their history. But almost overnight, their certainty of life—and even any hope of a good death—was gone. This program assesses the aftermath of the ferocious damage unleashed by the bubonic plague on the two city-states. Historians Alexander Nagel and Nicholas Terpstra, from the University of Toronto, and professional artisans—chief among them, sculptor Marcello del Colle, from Opera del Duomo—comment on how dazzling works of architecture went unfinished, how artisans became more intrigued with the divine world than the natural, and how from the ashes a new spiritual inquiry would spring, paving the way for the High Renaissance. (49 minutes)

Rembrandt van Rijn

ARTE France

Even in his first paintings, Rembrandt positioned himself in the scene. In the following years, at least 100 times he used his face as the only subject in engravings, drawings, and paintings. Such single-mindedness, unique in the history of art, was very widely interpreted. This program explores his self-portraits and attempts to determine the secret meanings hidden in the various versions of Rembrandt's face. (30 minutes)

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

ARTE France

La Goulue, the celebrated cancan dancer and queen of late-night Paris during the Belle Epoque, asked her friend Toulouse-Lautrec to paint two panels to decorate her carnival booth. It is those canvases Décoration pour la baraque de La Goulue and their extraordinary destiny that are the subject of this program. Please note this program is in French. (32 minutes)

Documenting the Face of America: Roy Stryker and the FSA/OWI Photographers

Butler Films

Beginning in 1935, a group of New Deal–sponsored photographers roamed the American landscape, capturing the human face of the Great Depression. This film tells the story of the mammoth project, supervised by Roy Stryker of the Farm Security Administration and later made part of the Office of War Information. Viewers will encounter the poignant, iconic images and personal challenges of photographers Gordon Parks, Dorothea Lange, Walker Evans, Marion Post Wolcott, and other visionaries. Interviews with Parks, Louise Rosskam, and Bernarda Shahn—wife of painter and photographer Ben Shahn—shed light on a period in which artistic innovation formed a response to social and economic despair. (56 minutes)

Paper: Quirky Science

Looking Glass International

Although writing has been around for a long time, paper has not. In fact, putting thoughts down in written form wasn't always easy or practical. This program looks at the invention and evolution of paper, from the early forms of bamboo paper, made by the Chinese, to papyrus and paper made from cloth. Of course, a related question had also evolved over time: how do we put things on paper? The pen itself has undergone some revolutionary changes. But paper today brings other concerns, as its production is one of the largest contributors to greenhouse gases and other pollutants; thus, we now have e-paper, the one and only non-paper...paper. Part of the series Quirky Science. (25 minutes)

Underworld of Paper: All Things Paper

Looking Glass International

This program sees paper taking the form of environmentally friendly paper coffins and exquisite paper offerings for the dead according to the Chinese tradition. The Underworld of Paper explores how these intriguing paper offerings, paper servants, and paper luxury handbags from Hong Kong make shopping for the dead a brand-new experience—while away in England, amazing paper coffins from Eco Coffin are leading the way for environmentally friendly burials. Made from recycled cardboard, these paper coffins with customizable size and design are growing in popularity. From life to afterlife, our paper maestros have it all covered. Part of the series All Things Paper. (23 minutes)

Portraits: How to Take Stunning Photos

Carlton International Media

Celebrity photographer Harry Borden has photographed everyone from Robin Williams and Angelina Jolie to Tony Blair and Margaret Thatcher. In this inspiring program, Borden shares cool camera secrets with two aspiring photographers in a master class that shows how to turn snapshots of friends and family into professional-looking portraits. The students are then put to the test with assignments that include producing a heroic portrait for the charity Help for Heroes. Topics include separation of subject and background, finding unusual angles, creating painterly effects, evoking emotions, telling a story, and more. Part of the series How to Take Stunning Photos. (23 minutes)

Episode 1: Truth Against the World (Frank Lloyd Wright: A Film by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick)

Ken Burns

The first installment in Ken Burns’s compelling documentary on modernist architect Frank Lloyd Wright, this program depicts the early to middle years of Wright’s life and career. With the help of rarely seen archival materials and voice-over portrayals by well-known actors, viewers learn how Wright’s ideas developed and how they became the center of the modernist movement in architecture. Distributed by PBS Distribution. A part of the series Frank Lloyd Wright: A Film by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick. (81 minutes)