This Telecourse series examines American filmmaking as an industry, an art form, and a barometer of American culture. Each half-hour program focuses on a single aspect of the cinema. The series features a rich array of interviews with leading directors, producers, industry executives, stars, film historians, screenwriters, editors and cinematographers. Students enhance their ability to think, speak, and write critically in an increasingly visual and technological culture. The series host is critically acclaimed actor, John Lithgow.
http://www.pbs.org/als/amer_cinema/index.html
Upcoming Episodes Not Found
03:00 AM
Episode # 113
Today offers a wide spectrum of thought on the way America views the world and the way the world views America through film. Through interviews with a leading contemporary director, a studio-era veteran, a top European filmmaker, a young American independent, and articulate scholars and critics, the program probes Hollywood's influence on American life and world culture.
Rebroadcast
Saturday, January 14, 2012
Length : 28 min
MPT2
02:30 AM
Episode # 112
Provides a close formal and cultural analysis of a classical film sequence-a detailed, hands-on demonstration of practical film criticism. Here, students are offered a range of interpretive possibilities, a critical how-to guide for those new to film critique.
Rebroadcast
Saturday, January 14, 2012
Length : 28 min
MPT2
02:00 AM
Episode # 111
Teaches students the formal and technical vocabulary of the cinema _ essential terms that help them to see the way films are constructed. What is a tracking shot? How are shots edited together? What is a zoom? What does the 180&#deg; axis mean, and how is it used? These are some of the terms illustrated in this innovative program.
Rebroadcast
Saturday, January 14, 2012
Length : 28 min
MPT2
04:00 AM
Episode # 110
While many of the old rules are still in force, independent filmmakers today often add their dissenting voices to the forum. This program looks at some alternative visions from new talents including Spike Lee, Joel and Ethan Coen, Jim Jarmusch, and Quentin Tarrantino. With limited budgets, they are challenging the stylistic status quo of the Hollywood film.
Rebroadcast
Saturday, January 07, 2012
Length : 56 min
MPT2
03:00 AM
Episode # 109
Maverick filmmakers of the 1960s and '70s, including Brian DePalma, Martin Scorsese, and Steven Spielberg, capitalized on new technology and borrowed from classical Hollywood and French New Wave as they reinvented the American film. The financial and cultural forces that contributed to their success and commercial clout are explored.
Rebroadcast
Saturday, January 07, 2012
Length : 56 min
MPT2
02:00 AM
Episode # 108
Television first arrived in American homes just as the Hollywood studio system was collapsing. As the new medium took hold, so did a new era of motion picture entertainment. Top directors, actors, and film scholars trace the influence of each medium on the other, from the live and fresh dramas of the Golden Age of Television and the growth of Hollywood spectacles, to the megalithic entertainment industry of today.
Rebroadcast
Saturday, January 07, 2012
Length : 56 min
MPT2
