Short Films

This video takes us on a trip through six decades and over twenty countries in tracing the development of Betty LaDuke, one of America's leading multicultural artists. Her vision encompasses not only American culture, but also influences from Native American, Mexican and African cultures and lifestyles.

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.

This fascinating and informative video details the step-by-step procedures involved in modeling a clay sculpture, showing how professional sculptor and art instructor Margot McMahon creates a portrait of her model over several sessions (working from a knowledge of anatomy and a sensitivity to artistic rhythms) and then demonstrates the plaster mold-making process by which the final art work is cast in Fondu concrete for permanent exhibition.

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.

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 video, which documents one of the oldest cultural festivals in the Western Hemisphere, celebrates the vitality of calypso music today on the island of Barbados.

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.

This first video from the "Journey in Music" series surveys the history and musical heritage of string instruments, from ancient times to the present day, including string instruments from China (Zheng), Iran (Santuri), Greece (Bouzuki) and Spain (Guitar), among others, and concludes with an unusual jam session featuring all of these classic instruments.

A high school teacher and one of his students don Elizabethan garb and travel back in time to London in 1609 to have lunch with William Shakespeare at the Mermaid Tavern.