Film and Television

In 1940s American cinema, they were made for each other. This magnificent program captures how Frank Capra used James Stewart to project a message of an ideal America, perhaps best illustrated in their 1946 collaboration, It's a Wonderful Life. It also details their biographies and first meeting on the set of 1939's Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. Stewart's later career is examined-primarily his collaborations with Hitchcock on Rope, Rear Window, and Vertigo-but the program argues that Stewart's time with Capra produced a cinematic ideal vision of what man could be." (27 minutes, color and b&w)"

After the veritable riot that ensued from his 1938 radio directorial effort, The War of the Worlds," Hollywood recognized the extraordinary genius of Orson Welles. A contract with RKO Studios and full creative control over his masterpiece Citizen Kane soon followed...and then he married Rita Hayworth. This robust program juxtaposes the biographies of Welles and Hayworth. Career pressure led to the end of their marriage: Hayworth's iconic portrayal in the title role of Gilda, and Welles' The Stranger are discussed, among others, as well as the testimony to their only collaborative effort, The Lady from Shanghai. (27 minutes, color and b&w)"

This program explores the characteristics that define a desirable audience, the history of audience ratings, and the ways in which audiences are assessed. Because the mass media is supported largely by selling time and space to marketers, it has evolved into the main delivery vehicle for advertising, in which the company offering a product or service is the true consumer and the attention of the viewer is the product that is being bought. With billions of advertising dollars at stake, marketers, social psychologists, and statisticians carry out sophisticated demographic and psychographic studies to narrow audiences into well-defined consumer groups. On the back end, the Nielsen television rating system uses people meters" on TVs to determine if viewers are in fact watching what advertisers thought they would. This program also debates the manipulative nature of television and includes a portion of Newt Minnow's "Vast Wasteland" speech. This video is an indispensable resource for understanding the dynamics of media/audience interaction. (30 minutes)"

What is it like to work in one of the world's most exciting communications industries? Going behind the scenes on the set of the TV show Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, this program provides an inside look at careers in television and film. Interviews with industry professionals provide a clear picture of the training, duties, and job opportunities offered by the positions of producer, assistant producer, director, assistant director, stuntperson, special effects technician, makeup artist, wardrobe specialist, camera operator, lighting technician, audio technician, gaffer, grip, and best boy. A Meridian Production. (26 minutes)

A pioneer of video art in the 1970s, Bill Viola has spent three decades creating evocative motion-picture and sound installations. This program gets inside his creative process, recording his reflections on his life and work. Exploring his childhood, his struggles as a student, and his feelings about his mother's death, the program focuses on Viola's intuitive sensibility and his approach to universal human experiences. His recollections of nearly drowning as a boy, and his statements on childbirth and its resonance in Medieval and Renaissance art, underscore the spirituality and scope of his vision. Also included is the bonus feature Bill Viola and the Making of Emergence, used with permission, (c) J. Paul Getty Trust. (75 minutes)

This program details the history of this dynamic medium from its modest beginnings. In 1949, cable meant television for locations that had very poor reception or were inaccessible to broadcast signals. By the mid-1970s, cable service began to expand rapidly due to the easing of government restrictions and the use of satellite transmissions. Fiber optics, new cable-ready TVs, and an explosion of programming by an ever-growing number of networks helped to increase the number of available channels from a mere handful to hundreds. In the 1990s, with nearly 60 percent of American households wired for cable, it drew close to parity with the Big Three networks and PBS. More recently, cable has come to mean Internet access as well. For many people, the TV is now a source of personal communication, expanded learning and entertainment, and shopping as viewers use e-mail and the World Wide Web from their TVs. As the world reaps the possibilities of media convergence, what else will come down the cable pipeline? (28 minutes)

As they assume greater prominence on the global stage, the nations of Asia are developing some of the world's most fertile movie industries. This four-part series investigates thriving hubs of film production in China, Korea, India, and Iran, giving students an informative tour of Asian cinema and its alternatives to-or emulation of-Western aesthetic conventions. Offering a rich mix of film clips and interviews with industry leaders and observers, each episode provides a window into an astonishing artistic milieu and a rarely seen cultural dynamic. Several film excerpts are included in each program. Portions are in other languages with English subtitles. 4-part series, 51 minutes each.

While northern India's 100-year-old film industry is best known for flamboyant dance sequences and romantic plot lines, its directors have begun to step outside established formulas and explore grittier subject matter. This program surveys the world of Bollywood filmmaking, examining the personalities as well as the commercial and thematic concerns that drive central Asia's answer to Tinseltown. Interviews with directors Karan Johar, Ashutosh Gowariker, and Yash Chopra are included, along with commentary from choreographers, musical directors, and Cinemaya Magazine editor Aruna Vasudev. The industry's newfound attention to poverty, homelessness, and other social concerns is examined. Several film excerpts are included. (Portions in Hindi with English subtitles, 51 minutes)

Forbidden to depict sex, obscenity, or violence, Iranian filmmakers carefully choose their subjects and practice skillfully indirect, allegorical storytelling. Movies featuring children-filled with intimacy and social commentary that would be harder to realize using adults-have become common. This program examines the evolution and enduring individuality of Iran's film industry while envisioning its future both at home and abroad. Interviews with directors Majid Majidi and Abbas Kiarostami, and with film scholar Dr. Hamid Naficy, provide an inside look at the past and potential of the Iranian cinema. Kanun, a cultural organization central to the development of Iranian film, is also studied. Several film excerpts are included. (Portions in other languages with English subtitles, 51 minutes)

While often dealing with pointedly Korean issues, South Korean movies and television shows have pushed beyond their domestic market and are now highly respected by audiences across Asia and the world. This program studies ways in which South Korean films have changed over the decades, profiling a new generation of Korean filmmakers and their industry's tightrope walk between a blockbuster mind-set and more introspective storytelling. Interviews with several South Korean directors and University of London film professor Dr. Chris Berry, along with numerous film excerpts, illustrate political, historical, and feminist insights emerging from Seoul's cinematic community. Several film excerpts are included. (Portions in Korean with English subtitles, 51 minutes)

An acclaimed photographer, filmmaker, and video artist, Iranian-born Shirin Neshat addresses the complex forces shaping the identity of Muslim women throughout the world and explores the social, political, and psychological dimensions of women's experiences. In this program, she explicates her haunting video installations Shadow Under the Web; Turbulent; Soliloquy; Rapture; and Fervor, as well as her seminal series of still images, The Women of Allah. In addition, she discusses being both an insider and an outsider in two different cultures, the narrative power of cinema, sexual taboos in Islamic society, the tension between traditional and modern values, the nature of expression when expression itself is forbidden, and the quiet strength and bravery of women that prompts them to rebel against repression. (42 minutes)

The Lumiere brothers and Thomas Edison would definitely be impressed if they could see how far the medium created with the invention of the movie camera has evolved. This program examines the history of film, from its beginnings in the late 19th century to the invention of VCRs. Filmmaking's roots as an entertainment and storytelling medium are examined, along with the emergence of Hollywood, the studio star system, and birth of the talkies. Film industry regulation, including censorship, is also discussed, along with the blacklist and competition from cable and broadcast television. (28 minutes)

In spite of competition by other media, movies have remained a perennial favorite of American viewing audiences. But what is it like to make them? This program analyzes the film industry from a variety of technical, financial, legal, and business perspectives. Topics explored include marketing and merchandising, financial influences on content, special effects and Hollywood action movies, the domestic versus international marketplace, the role of film critics, and the film business in the new media environment. (28 minutes)

For the cost of tuition, an independent filmmaker could do a feature-length movie-so why go to film school? Three film students at Columbia and New York Universities, along with NYU alumnus Spike Lee, talk about why school was right for them and how academic experience helps them as filmmakers. The strengths and differences of the two schools are discussed by numerous professors, including Mary Schmidt Campbell, dean of NYU's Tisch School of the Arts; Bruce Ferguson, dean of Columbia's School of the Arts; Janet Roach, Columbia screenwriting professor; Bill Reilly, NYU directing professor; and Annette Insdorf, Columbia film history professor. This program provides a good sense of what a film curriculum is all about and how these skills and opportunities can be put to use creatively as well as financially. (43 minutes)

Gary Hill's transformative films, performances, and video installations offer resonant philosophic and poetic insights as he explores the tensions that reverberate among electronic media, language, the senses, and the self. In this program, Hill uses a number of his pieces to investigate otherness and ambiguity, dislocation of the senses, the boundary between words and comprehension, the physicality of text, and figurative interactivity. Featured works include Wall Piece; Crossbow; Liminal Objects; Reflex Chamber; Conundrum; Remarks on Color; Suspension of Disbelief; I Believe It Is an Image in Light of the Other; Why Do Things Get in a Muddle? (Come on Petunia); CRUX; Primarily Speaking; and Mediations. Contains brief nudity. (54 minutes)