American Studies

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.

Scandalize My Name examines the way Red Scare politics were used to impede the emergence of African-Americans as full participants in the political, social, and cultural aspects of postwar American life. Because television was born into this era and adopted the political attitudes of the time, the story is told through the confrontations of African-American performers with blacklists, loyalty oaths, and discrimination in casting.

This video features poet Marc Levy, a Vietnam veteran who served in 1970 as a fighting medic in the U.S. First Cavalry Division, who reads poetic prose based on his combat and postwar experiences.

Tells the story of Eddie Torres, who recruits the best of New York's salseros-Hispanic club and street dancers-and, with the musical collaboration of Tito Puente, molds them into a professional dance troupe.

Scenes of class sessions at the Marin Ballet in California, and the choreography and rehearsals leading to a public performance, are interspersed with interviews with three young dancers and commentary from their instructors on the intensely competitive world of professional dance.

This video tells a story in dance about two cultures-Native American and Anglo Saxon-and about the evolution of dance itself, from nature.

Traces the career of one of America's best-loved but least-seen actors. During his fifty year career, Daws Butler (1916-1988) provided the voices for such beloved animated characters as Yogi Bear, Huckleberry Hound, Quick Draw McGraw, Chilly Willy, Elroy Jetson, and dozens of others.

A documentary portrait of American silent screen star Viola Dana who began her career with the Edison Company in 1910 and starred in more than 100 productions before her retirement in 1929.

At the age of 90, cinematographer Karl Brown discusses his early work with D.W. Griffith, in particular the making of The Birth of a Nation and Intolerance.

Traces the colorful life and filmmaking career of one of Hollywood's most distinctive talents, who directed three classic bullfighting films, several crime thrillers and a series of low-budget Westerns that earned him a cult critical reputation. An outspoken interview with Boetticher is interspersed with clips from many of his films.

Profiles the career of Academy Award-winning screenwriter Howard Koch (1901-1995), best know for such classic films as The Sea Hawk (1940), The Letter (1940), Sergeant York (1941), Letter from an Unknown Woman (1948) and Casablanca (1942).

Examines the career of a traveling exhibitor who brought motion pictures to America's towns and cities when movies were in their infancy, from the early 1880s through the early 1920s.

This two-part video-including "1911-1940" and "1940-1990" - chronicles Latino participation in the American film industry, profiling major performers and other creative personnel and examining issues of typecasting and stereotypes.

This biographical video traces the career of one of Hollywood's most successful composers of film and television scores, including Conan the Barbarian, Robocop and Starship Troopers

This video chronicles the life and work of Carmen d'Avino- filmmaker, painter, sculptor, and photographer.

This film shows some of the things that are being done to divert water, and predicts what will happen to our dams and reservoirs in the future.

This video, which documents a controversy over plans to alter the original architectural design of the Whitney Museum of American Art, examines some of the problems raised by the decision, including Modernist and Post-Modernist styles, architecture as art, the responsibility of art museums to the public, and the role of the architect.