WGBH Educational Foundation.
Language
English
Description
In the era before antibiotics, tens of thousands of immigrant patients were separated from family, detained in the hospital on Ellis Island, and healed from illness before becoming citizens. 350 babies were born, and ten times that many immigrants died on Ellis Island and were buried in pauper's graves around New York City.
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English
Description
John Jasper is haunted and restless. Unhappily settled as choirmaster in the provincial cathedral town of Cloisterham, Jasper finds himself striving for the divine in his music even as he struggles against madness brought on by ennui and opiates. Aware of his unraveling, Jasper believes his salvation may be found in the arms of Rosa, his prized pupil. His only obstacle is her fiance, Edwin Drood - Jasper's nephew.
Series
Language
English
Description
The story of the unlikely rise of a gritty American original, Harry Truman. He was a farmer, a bankrupt businessman, an unknown politician from Missouri who suddenly found himself president. Of all the men who had held America's highest office, Harry Truman was the least prepared, but he would prove to be a surprise. Facing some of the biggest crises of the century, Truman would end the war with Germany, use the atomic bomb against Japan, confront...
Series
Language
English
Description
Using photos, letters, newsreels, archival footage and beautifully filmed reenactments, this program tells the story of a professor who became one of America's greatest presidents. It's the tale of an emotionally complex man who craved affection and demanded unquestioned loyalty. And it's a fascinating portrait of a towering intellectual, one who appeared to espouse unwavering moral principles but who nonetheless shredded civil liberties during wartime...
8) Panama Canal
Language
English
Description
On August 15th, 1914, the Panama Canal opened, connecting the world's two largest oceans and signaling America's emergence as a global superpower. This film, using an extraordinary archive of photographs and footage, interviews with canal workers, and firsthand accounts of life in the Canal Zone, unravels the remarkable story of one of the world's most significant technological achievements.
Language
English
Appears on list
Description
Explores the dramatic event that launched a worldwide rights movement. When police raided a Mafia-run gay bar in Greenwich Village, the Stonewall Inn on June 28, 1969, gay men and women did something they had not done before: they fought back. As the streets of New York erupted into violent protests and street demonstrations, the collective anger announced that the gay rights movement had arrived.
Language
English
Description
"City of the century tells how in just 60 years Chicago grew from a remote, swampy frontier town into one of the most explosively alive cities in the world"--Container. "Chicago by 'L'" is part travelogue, part history, and part tour of Chicago's neighborhoods by 'L', Chicago's elevated train.
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English
Description
Michelle Rhee, the former chancellor of Washington, D.C., public schools, is one of the most admired and reviled school reformers in America. Frontline examines her legacy in Washington, D.C., including her battles with the teachers' union and her handling of a cheating scandal in the District.
Series
Nova scienceNOW volume 2011, episode 4
Language
English
Appears on list
Formats
Description
Host Neil deGrasse Tyson will tackle one of science's major challenges in each video, framed as a simple question that ordinary people wonder and worry about. Neil will guide us as he explores dramatic discoveries and the frontiers of research that connect each central, provocative mystery. Episode includes: 1) How Smart Are Dogs? - Meet an extraordinary boarder collie and other dogs changing our view of canine intelligence. 2) How Smart Are Dolphins?...
15) Evolution
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English
Description
"Evolution" offers a groundbreaking and definitive view of the extraordinary impact the evolutionary process has had on our understanding of the world around us. Beginning with Darwin's revolutionary theory, this seven-part series explores all facets of evolution--the changes that spawned the tree of life, the power of sex, how evolution continues to affect us every day, and the perceived conflict between science and religion.
16) The Amish
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English
Formats
Description
Explores the insular religious community, whose intense faith and adherence to 400-year-old traditions have by turns captivated and baffled Americans for more than a century. The film examines the beliefs, lifestyle, and history of the Amish, as well as their complex relationship to mainstream American culture. Beautifully and lyrically photographed, The Amish is part history, part observational documentary that takes viewers into the world of the...
18) Triangle fire
Language
English
Description
The fire that tore through the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in New York City on March 25, 1911, was the gruesome culmination of years of unrest in America's most profitable manufacturing industry. Two years earlier, led by a spontaneous walkout in the same factory, twenty thousand garment workers, in the largest women's strike in American history, took to the streets of New York to protest working conditions. They gained the support of both progressives...