As PlayhouseSquare celebrates its first 90 years, “Staging Success: The PlayhouseSquare Story” pays tribute to the people who were instrumental in saving the theaters and shows how the community worked together to create a cultural showplace in the heart of downtown Cleveland. This new documentary, a production of WVIZ/PBS, in collaboration with Think Media Studios, reveals a Cleveland rags-to-riches tale as dramatic as any on Broadway.
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From the rains of Japan, through threats of arrest for 'public indecency' in Canada, and a birthday tribute to her father in Detroit, this documentary follows Madonna on her 1990 'Blond Ambition' concert tour. Filmed in black and white, with the concert pieces in glittering MTV color, it is an intimate look at the work of the icon, from a prayer circle before each performance to bed games with the dance troupe afterwards.
Jeff Wall is one of the most important and influential photographers working today. His work played a key role in establishing photography as a contemporary art form.
15 years after they first took the world by storm, a new musical about the girls called Viva Forever! is about to hit the West End. The programme looks at the creative process behind the show that is produced by Judy Craymer and written by Jennifer Saunders in collaboration with the Spice Girls themselves.
RHYTHM IS IT! records the first big educational project of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra under Sir Simon Rattle. The orchestra ventured out of the ivory tower of high culture into boroughs of low life for the sake of 250 youngsters. They had been strangers to classical music, but after arduous but thrilling preparation they danced to Stravinsky's 'Le Sacre du Printemps' ('The Rite of Spring'). Recorded with a breathtaking fidelity of sound, this film from Thomas Grube and Enrique Sánchez Lansch documents the stages of the Sacre project and offers deep insights into the rehearsals of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra.
Ohio is the Midwest's eastern gateway, a vast land originally controlled by the Iroquois Indians. An important rail link, Ohio is bordered by the Allegheny Mountains to the east and the farmlands of the Great Plains to the west. A century ago, Ohio's most famous residents, Orville and Wilber Wright, were two bicycle mechanics who ended up leaving their mark in aviation.
Daniel Johnston stars in this psychedelic short film about an aging musician coming to terms with the dreams of yesteryear.
The life and work of stage designer ADOLPHE APPIA, originator of the most profound agitations in contemporary theatre. Through the dynamic alternation of animated drawings and choreographies specially conceived for the film, we discover the steps of his artistic evolution.
A review of 25 years of theatre work by the Berliner Ensemble, dedicated mostly to plays by Bertolt Brecht. Interviews with stage hands and lighting technicians provide an interesting view behind the scenes.
A Cuban-American director travels to his exiled parents' homeland to mount a stage production of the musical, RENT, where he discovers an inspiring artistic family and embarks on a personal journey to reclaim his complicated heritage.
The work of legendary actor François Simon, son of Michel Simon.
For Eliot Ness, Al Capone was old news in 1935. It was Ness’ stint as Safety Director of Cleveland, and his face off with Cleveland’s Torso Murderer, that was plainly the defining episode in his career. The Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run tore through the headlines of Cleveland’s daily papers for years, and this serial killer -perhaps America’s first of its kind- left behind a bloody birthright that haunts the city still.
The actor Gøril Mauseth goes on a 11.000 kilometer travel with the Trans-Siberian to play Anna Karenina in a new language in Leo Tolstoj's Russia, discovering the language, and the reasons Tolstoj wrote what he wrote, changing her forever.
A documentary on the once promising American rock bands The Brian Jonestown Massacre and The Dandy Warhols. The friendship between respective founders, Anton Newcombe and Courtney Taylor, escalated into bitter rivalry as the Dandy Warhols garnered major international success while the Brian Jonestown Massacre imploded in a haze of drugs.
The Great Black Swamp was a wetland in northwest Ohio and extreme northeast Indiana that existed from the end of the Wisconsin glaciation period until the late 19th century. The Story of the Great Black Swamp is a folklife documentary that investigates the Black Swamp area from its creation during the glacial ages to its transformation into farmland.
Music DVD with rare live and TV performances from the period 1963-1975.