Dolly Parton discusses her life, career, music and movies. Punctuated by rare footage, it also includes comments from Jane Fonda, Dolly’s siblings Stella and Randy Parton, and others.
Category: Biography
A one-hour public television (PBS) biography of Dashiell Hammett, creator of the “hardboiled” modern detective novel and author of “The Maltese Falcon” and “The Thin Man.” It follows Hammett’s life from Pinkerton detective in San Francisco to his career as fiction and screen writer, companion of playwright Lillian Hellman, and leftwing political activist. The biography investigates why Hammett stopped writing at the height of his fame.
Biography of the legendary musician Huddie Leadbetter “Leadbelly” that deals with the problems he had in his youth due to racial segregation including his time and prison and his efforts to conquer a position in the world of music.
This fictional biography of Sigmund Freud features the pioneering Austrian psychoanalyst’s days as a young man. Squeamish at the sight of blood, Freud opts out of medical school, and eventually develops his theories of psychoanalysis, even finding an “ultimate patient” to test his innovative ideas on. Later, Freud develops a relationship with nurse Martha Bernays, who is not shy about her feelings for the renowned thinker.
An insightful illumination of author Paul Bowles’ original and lesser-known career as an avant-garde composer, Owsley Brown’s Night Waltz is an elegant and soulful document of discovery. Interviewed in Morocco during the last months of his life, Bowles journeys back to his early years as a contemporary and occasional collaborator of other such iconic figures as Aaron Copland, Virgil Thomson and Orson Welles. Bowles’ uncut compositions–performed by the Eos Orchestra–are punctuated with stunning visual essays by filmmakers Nathaniel Dorsky and Rudy Burckhardt. Long after retiring from his more well-known profession, Bowles kept music as a vital part of his life, tapping out fresh rhythms on his Tangier table tops until the end of his days.
Told in flashback as Prince Mieszko I lies feverish in his bed just before the Battle of Cedynia, Gniazdo recounts how the revered leader extended Poland’s borders, formed an alliance with Emperor Otto I, and ultimately strengthened his country’s autonomy by achieving victory during that crucial battle in the year 972.
Affectionately known as “Smithy”, Sir Charles Kingsford Smith astonished the world in 1928 with his pioneering Trans Pacific flight from America to Australia. He went on to establish Australian National Airways and set many air distance and endurance records. Director Ken G. Hall’s last feature film is a gripping and inspiring tribute to a national hero and his fellow pioneers. Contributing to the stunning aerial shots, Smithy’s famous plane, the Southern Cross, appears in what was to be its last flight. Released in 1946, the film was a smash hit and achieved worldwide recognition.
Based on a short story by Paul Gallico, this drama stars Sissy Spacek as Verna Vane, a small-town girl who dreams of hitting it big in show business. Verna isn’t much of a singer or a dancer, but she is able to land a job with a U.S.O. troupe entertaining American soldiers in Europe during World War II. Verna imagines this is a major stepping stone in her career as an entertainer, but even though Maureen and Eddie, two veteran vaudevillians touring with Verna, know better, they don’t have the heart to tell her. While in Belgium, Verna meets Walter, a Lieutenant in the U.S. Army who becomes smitten with her. Verna: USO Girl was first aired in 1978 as part of the PBS series Great Performances.