Filmed study of Bunraku, the classical Japanese puppet art, which uses three-quarters life-sized figures, handled by black-clothed manipulators who remain in plain view of the audience, convention rendering them invisible. These scenes trace Bunraku from the making of the puppets and the way in which their limbs are articulated, to their costuming and reflections on their relationship to kabuki theater. It includes complete performances of traditional Bunraku plays. Commentary by the well-known authority on dance and Asian arts, Faubion Bowers.
Category: Television
Gisela May, star of Bertolt Brecht’s East German theater, “The Berliner Ensemble” sings songs on texts by Brecht to music by Kurt Weill, Hanns Eisler, and Paul Dessau. May introduces each song with an English explanation.
A black and white production concerns the efforts of two bored social workers, Shahid and Ash, who reluctantly agree to reunite the cast of legendary Bollywood musical ‘Pappa Kehta Hain’ for a return performance at the Pakistan Centre where they work. Starting with an elderly singing barber they manage to locate most of the actors but the hardest part is tracking down the elusive hero Sajid Hussain.
Peter Howson is one of the world’s most collected living artists, his work hanging on the walls of galleries and museums and in the homes of rock stars and actors. In 2008 he received the biggest commission of his career – to paint the largest-ever crowd scene in the history of British art – but the commission is fraught with so much difficulty its completion is in jeopardy from day one.
A young, impressionable communist Hugo is sent to kill a rogue party chairman, Hoederer, who slowly manipulates Hugo into working for him, but Hugo’s flirty wife Jessica will prove the downfall of them both.
Flo and Kay are the only female identical twin autistic savants in the world – they can remember an extraordinary amount of details including dates, record names and even what they have eaten on any given day over the last 30 years. News anchor and former DJ Dave Wagner has been following their lives and filming them for 13 years – his footage makes up much of this documentary.
Hollywood legend Shirley Maclaine sings, dances and does commentary on the times in this speculative look forward at the United States’ next 200 years. Her guests are Jimmie Walker, Don Rickles, Bob Hope, Dean Martin, Jimmy Stewart, and Orson Welles.