American Studies

This fascinating and entertaining documentary celebrates the work of Reynold Brown, one of the most acclaimed movie poster artists of the Fifties and early Sixties, whose work colorfully encapsulated the nation's postwar social climate.

Profiles lithograph artist Robert Blackburn, one of the few black printmakers to emerge from WPA-sponsored arts projects, including the Harlem Art Center, during the Thirties. His prints have been exhibited widely and he has also had a long teaching career, but the now 77-year-old Blackburn is best known as the founder and director of the Printmaking Workshop, which recently celebrated its fiftieth anniversary.

Documents the life and work of Harry Devlin, whose long and varied career as a commercial and fine arts artist has spanned more than half a century, with work in virtually every medium in the fields of syndicated cartooning, publishing and advertising.

The Gibson Girl, the first popular image of the American woman, was created by Charles Dana Gibson, one of the nation's greatest illustrators, during the "Golden Age" of illustration, when America's national magazines, such as Life and Collier's, influenced every aspect of American culture.

Portrays a summer bagpipe school in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, where piping enthusiasts from all over North America gather to learn the craft and music of the traditional instrument of the Scottish highlands.

Captures the spirit and charm of the legacy of Elvis Presley by accompanying a fan through Elvis country, from Tupelo, Mississippi to Memphis, Tennessee. The video visits his birthplace and other shrines of Presleydom, meets people who were associated with Elvis, plus his adoring fans and impersonators.

Profiles Roy Smeck, a former vaudeville star known as "The Wizard of the Strings" because of his virtuoso talents on the guitar, banjo, ukelele and Hawaiian guitar, and who is shown to be still active, in his mid-80s, teaching students and giving occasional public performances.

A documentary portrait of Andrew F. Boarman, a 78-year-old West Virginia instrument maker and musician, featuring a number of lively musical performances and an illustration of Boarman's skills as a master craftsman of banjos, guitars, fiddles, and dulcimers.

This cinema-verite documentary explores the realities of life as a classical musician through the story of Hexagon, a newly-formed chamber ensemble. The documentary chronicles their challenging first year and a half, from the group's seemingly casual first rehearsal to its high-pressure launching into the mainstream of the classical music scene.

Hosted and narrated by singer Linda Ronstadt, this entertaining and informative look at ethnic music in America offers a rich sampling of the nation's culturally diverse musical styles, featuring performances of Irish, Greek, African-American, Jewish, Central Asian, Chinese and Puerto Rican music.

This behind-the-scenes documentary chronicles the collaborative efforts of young composer Peter Lieberson, pianist Peter Serkin, and conductor Seiji Ozawa as they shape Lieberson's first orchestral piece for debut by the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

This video portrays the big-band era in American entertainment, profiling the Lee Williams Band which, from 1938 to 1952, barnstormed throughout the Midwest, bringing Swing music to rural America.

This video features legendary musicians Dizzy Gillespie, Milt Hinton and Jonah Jones, who clear up the mystery of a fabled incident in jazz history in the early Forties when the three were members of Cab Calloway's famous band.

Kalmanoff, who studied composition at Harvard with Walter Piston, has written over fifty-four works for the musical theater, including seventeen operas, all of which feature lyrical, witty and inventive music.

This video traces the forgotten roots and celebrates the continuing legacy of Blues music in the Mississippi Delta, interweaving rare archival footage of the South's sharecropping era with performances by Blues veterans Muddy Waters, Mississippi John Hurt, Skip James and Howlin' Wolf.

Hosted by Cheech Marin, this documentary examines the work of several Hispanic- American writers and how their poems, short stories and novels reflect what it means and what it's like to grow up Hispanic in America.

Set against a background of farming, saw-milling and moonshining activities in rural Kentucky during the Depression, this short film dramatizes the use of violence as a socially accepted form of "folk justice."

Focusing on the beat poetry scene of the late Fifties, this film poem celebrates a colorful generation of American poets, featuring interviews with Stuart Perkoff, Aya, Jack Hirschman, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, and Allen Ginsberg, who read their poems and discuss what it means to be a poet in America.

This video memoir of one of the most talented and fascinating writers of the 20th century features rare archival footage and photos, plus interviews with Hemingway's son, Jack, as well as numerous friends and associates, and Hemingway biographers and scholars.

This video profiles five contemporary American performance poets who have taken their poetry and its celebration of language and creative expression into new public venues.