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Although he lived only 34 years, Gustavo Becquer is largely responsible for leading Spanish poetry toward the Modernist era. This program details his life and artistic journey, from his birth into impoverished nobility to his death in obscurity-and his posthumous fame as Spain's greatest post-Romantic poet. Outlining the author's education, friendships, and failed loves, the video focuses on the power of the Rimas and the political turmoil that prevented...
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English
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Based upon the novel by Emily Brontë, this video is part of a five-part miniseries produced in 1978. Wuthering Heights follows the self-destructive journey of Heathcliff as he seeks revenge for losing his beloved. In this episode, Mr. Earnshaw rescues Heathcliff from the streets of Liverpool. After Hindley leaves for college, Catherine and Heathcliff establish a close friendship.
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English
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This program highlights 100 years of the African-American experience through the life of Isaac Pope, an unassuming WWII hero who was the grandson of slaves and the son of sharecroppers. He reflects on his struggle to achieve the "American Dream" and reveals the path forward in order to achieve racial peace and harmony in the South. Pope was the First Sergeant of the 969th Field Artillery Battery and he fought in the Battle of the Bulge—one of the...
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English
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Thomas More's Utopia, one of the most significant texts of English humanism, has become the ideal for a society based on fundamental human principles of fairness and justice. This program follows the progress of More's intellectual development, from his early friendship with the influential humanist Erasmus of Rotterdam, to his rise to power as a member of Parliament and later Chancellor of England, through his tempestuous relationship with King Henry...
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English
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It was the best of times. It was the worst of times... Dickens' tragic tale of love, friendship, and sacrifice begins against the backdrop of the French Revolution. Using affecting dramatizations of key passages, Dickens experts Professor Margaret Reynolds and Professor John Rignall analyze the many nuances and themes of this work. Topics discussed include dualism in characterization and plot; the impact of the ideas of the French Revolution; the...
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English
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Amy, a sixteen-year-old expelled from her high school, thinks alternative education is the best thing to happen to her; Lolita takes her daughter, Jana, to a charter school, despite the inconvenience, because she believes in the curriculum. The first half of this NewsHour program on new patterns in education looks at a special breed of alternative school where disruptive students benefit from low teacher-pupil ratios and an emphasis on individualized...
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English
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Brothers, sisters, best friends, worst enemies-childhood is a world of constantly shifting alliances, but somehow it also produces lasting emotional bonds. This program looks at the challenges young children face as they cultivate one of the most tricky human skills of all: getting along with other people. Viewers are given insight into childhood social development as the video addresses a number of important questions: When do children acquire a...
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English
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Filmed in five countries, this program traces the life of New Zealand's most beloved writer from her birth in Wellington in 1888, to her untimely death in France in 1923. Mansfield's extraordinary ability as a writer was influenced by the many fascinating aspects of her complex and often enigmatic personality. The courage she displayed in flaunting many of the conventions of her day places her firmly in the category of "women ahead of their time."...
29) Deborah Garrison
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English
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The poetry of Deborah Garrison, who recently made her debut with her critically acclaimed collection A Working Girl Can't Win, speaks in a voice sometimes defiant and tinged with sarcasm, but humorous, too, and sweetened by tender longing. In this program, Bill Moyers and Ms. Garrison discuss topics centering on her experiences as a woman in the workforce. Readings by Ms. Garrison feature "The Boss," "Please Fire Me," "A Kiss," "A Friendship Enters...
30) Little Women
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English
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Louisa May Alcott's Little Women is one of the great young-adult novels of the 19th century. It describes the coming-of-age of the four March sisters, Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy, whose loving mother cares for them while their father serves in the Civil War. Jo, who falls in love and becomes a writer, is clearly an analogue for Alcott herself. This 1949 film adaptation stars Elizabeth Taylor as Amy, Janet Leigh as Meg, June Allyson as Jo, and Mary Astor...
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Español
Description
Jorge Luis Borges-"invented" in collaboration with virtually everyone, including himself-defies easy identification. In this birthday tribute, which begins with the master reading his classic Borges and I, the then-80-year-old short story writer, poet, essayist, and philosopher joins TV and radio personality Antonio Carrizo in a Borgesian discussion of the multiplicity of existence; the influence of his family, his friends, and writers from the past;...
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Español
Description
This portrait of Luis Sepúlveda plunges us into Latin America, against a background of male friendships and travels from the Amazon to Patagonia, and from Northern Europe to Andalusia. Gaining international fame with his first novel, The Old Man Who Read Love Stories, Sepúlveda's oeuvre is marked by political and ecological commitment as well as by the dictatorial repression of the 1970s, combined with a love of travel and interest in indigenous...
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English
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This installment of the Famous Composers series introduces the life and work of French composer Joseph-Maurice Ravel. Opening with pictures and a description of the composer's birthplace, the seaport of Ciboure in Basque country, the film characterizes Ravel's childhood and family as modest but pleasant. He entered the Conservatoire de Paris at 14, and while he was a piano major, he was also greatly influenced by literature, and the film discusses...
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English
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The Earnshaw children expect gifts from their father when he returns to Wuthering Heights after a trip, but are instead greeted with the arrival of Heathcliff, an adopted young Gypsy boy. Quiet and mysterious, Heathcliff is befriended by his new step-sister Cathy Earnshaw, and the two become inseparable. In adulthood their bond deepens to love, but a forced absence opens Cathy to the affections of a different suitor. Given the choice between a life...
35) Luis Bunuel
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English
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Completed a year after his death in 1983, this program presents the definitive biography of Spain's renowned Surrealist film maker and iconoclast, Luis Bunuel. Using photographs, film excerpts, and numerous interviews with Bunuel, the video chronicles his early friendships with Salvador Dali and Federico Garcia Lorca, the stormy reactions to many of his groundbreaking films, and the influence he has had on international cinema. Among those interviewed...
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English
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Donald Rumsfeld's "war crime," says Oscar-winning filmmaker Errol Morris, is "the gobbledygook, the blizzard of words, the misdirections, the evasions...and ultimately at the heart of it all...the disregard and devaluation of evidence." The former Secretary of Defense's complicated relationship with the truth is the subject of Morris' new documentary, "The Unknown Known," an extended conversation with Rumsfeld that focuses on his role in leading U.S....
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English
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Theo and Polly host a party in Dream Park to celebrate their daughter Hermia's engagement to James, but when Xander, Hermia's true love, shows up to dispute the betrothal, it takes magical intervention to set things right. Peter Bowker adapts Shakespeare's unusual romantic comedy where the problems of mortal love are mirrored in interlocking plots between Fairyland and the modern world. Bill Patterson plays Theo, Imelda Staunton is Polly, and the...
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English
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Constance is a young Nigerian refugee who is found washed up in a small boat, on the south coast of England, by Mark. Mark takes pity on Constance and takes her home to his wife Nicky. As Nicky and Constance strike up a friendship, it becomes clear that Constance is a devout Christian who is deeply troubled by her past but cannot remember what happened to her. At church, a young man, Terry, falls for her, but the feelings are not mutual. Constance...
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English
Description
The second installment in Ken Burns' eye-opening profile of the women's suffrage movement, this program depicts the later years of Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. With the help of rarely seen archival materials and voice-over portrayals by well-known actors, viewers learn how the struggle for women's rights gained momentum in America and coalesced around the right to vote.