Urban Studies

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.

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.

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, 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.