The Women’s List: Rosie Perez: Roles for Women of Color
(View full post to see video) Rosie Perez, an Oscar-nominated actress, questions the roles offered to women of color, particularly to those over the age of 40. Brooklyn-born and of Puerto Rican...
View ArticleThe Women’s List: Preview the Film
(View full post to see video) Meet 15 women who have created and defined contemporary American culture in American Masters: The Women’s List, premiering nationwide Friday, September 25, 9-10 p.m. on...
View ArticleHarper Lee: Live Q&A with Director Mary McDonagh Murphy
Filmmaker Mary McDonagh Murphy (left), with Harper Lee (center) and Lee's friend Joy Brown (right) on June 30, 2015. Credit: 2015 Mary Murphy Company LLC On Monday, July 13 at approximately 7 pm ET,...
View ArticleNorman Lear, TV Legend, Subject of New Documentary
(NEW YORK – June 3, 2015) Today, Loki Films and THIRTEEN’s American Masters series announced they are co-producing a new documentary about television legend Norman Lear (born July 27, 1922). American...
View ArticleAmerican Ballet Theatre: Filmmaker Interview with Ric Burns
(View full post to see video) In this filmmaker interview, Ric Burns describes what camera techniques he used to capture the ephemeral nature of dance on film, as well as how he came to discover ballet...
View ArticleBob Simon Interview on His Early Career: An In Memoriam Tribute
(View full post to see video) Peabody Award-winning journalist Bob Simon (1941 – 2015) was interviewed for American Masters – Don Hewitt: 90 Minutes on 60 Minutes, which premiered in May 1998. Simon’s...
View ArticleBing Crosby: Bing Crosby Biography
Photo courtesy of Bing Crosby Enterprises.Essay by Gary Giddins, © 2007 To most Americans, he was the eternal Crooner: a much celebrated and beloved performer of unparalleled popularity. Yet Bing...
View ArticleGeorge Plimpton: Collaborative Filmmaking with Two Directors
Luke Poling and Tom Bean talk about their interest in their subject, George Plimpton, and about the process of collaborative documentary filmmaking, from archival research to editing. Poling and Bean...
View ArticleAlice Walker: #SheDocs Online Film Festival Kicks Off With Alice Walker:...
This year’s #SheDocs online film festival kicks off with a screening of Alice Walker: Beauty in Truth, the documentary that celebrates the Pulitzer Prize-winning author and activist. Simply click this...
View ArticleJames Baldwin: Online Screening & Chat with Filmmakers of James Baldwin: The...
As part of Black History Month, join American Masters for a free online screening and discussion of James Baldwin: The Price of the Ticket (1 hour and 25 minutes) with the film’s co-writers/producers...
View ArticleMel Brooks: American Master Mel Brooks Talks about Friend and Mentor Sid Caesar
Comedic legend Sid Caesar passed away February 12, 2014, at the age of 91. Caesar was a friend and mentor to Mel Brooks and the two worked together through much of Brooks’ early career. See Brooks talk...
View ArticleAlice Walker: Interview with Film Director Pratibha Parmar
Pratibha Parmar is the writer, director and producer of Alice Walker: Beauty in Truth. This first film biography about writer and activist Alice Walker tells Walker’s dramatic life story with poetry...
View ArticleJD Salinger: Six Degrees of Salinger
Playing fast and loose with the Six Degrees of Separation game, American Masters looks into its archives to see what the great American writer J.D. Salinger has in common with the lives and careers of...
View ArticleMel Brooks: Film: Mel Brooks: Make a Noise
(View full post to see video) Mel Brooks: Make a Noise journeys through Brooks’ early years in the creative beginnings of live television — with Sid Caesar on Your Show of Shows — to the film genres he...
View ArticleMel Brooks: Spaceballs: The Art of the Trope (or, making the cliché absurd)
What came first: the Mel Brooks movie or the cliché? The classic Hollywood Sci-Fi spaceship always gets gratuitous screentime from every camera angle. Mel Brooks’s Hollywood spaceship appears in a...
View ArticleMel Brooks: Young Frankenstein: The Art of the Homage (or, to spoof with...
For Mel Brooks the spoofing is in the details. The classic Hollywood Horror film is always black-and-white and includes scene transitions like iris outs, wipes and fades to black. Mel Brooks’s...
View ArticleMel Brooks: Blazing Saddles: The Art of the Stereotype (and it on its head)
Mel Brooks never met a stereotype he couldn’t upend. The classic Hollywood cowboy is always white. Mel Brooks’s Hollywood cowboy is black. And his Indian chief speaks Yiddish. Designer: Ricardo Galvez....
View ArticleMel Brooks: #ComedyFest Live: Mel Brooks & Carl Reiner with Judd Apatow
Mel Brooks and Carl Reiner in conversation with director and writer Judd Apatow, marking the day on which the 2000 Year Old Man joins Twitter. Mel Brooks: Make a Noise premieres nationally Monday, May...
View ArticleMel Brooks: Film Excerpt: The Difference Between Comedy & Tragedy Is…
The logic here is, as long as it isn’t happening to Mel Brooks, it’s funny. (View full post to see video) Mel Brooks: Make a Noise premieres nationally Monday, May 20 on PBS (check local listings)
View ArticleMel Brooks: Film Outtake: Do You Want To Know How ‘The Critic’ Came About?
In 1963, Mel Brooks and director/animator Ernest Pintoff came up with the animated short film The Critic, a satire of arty, esoteric cinema. Brooks supplied running commentary as the baffled moviegoer...
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