American Masters Pictures

Born to Chinese immigrant parents into 1950's America, it would be decades before Amy Tan would come to fully understand how her mother's self-destructive tendencies were rooted in watching her own mother kill herself after being forced into the former marital system of concubinage. This painful family legacy inspired her stories of women without the power to choose their lives. An interweaving of archival imagery, artful animation and live performance...

During his eight-decade career, Bob Hope was the only performer to achieve top-rated success in every form of mass entertainment: Vaudeville, Broadway, movies, radio, television, popular song and personal appearances, including hosting the Academy Awards a record 19 times and his annual USO Christmas military tours. Includes film, television, and radio clips; readings of excerpts from Hope's writings; and interviews with prominent entertainment industry...

Documentary on Marian Anderson, an African American woman and international singing star in the twentieth century, who succeeded over racial prejudice and became an inspiration for America's civil rights movement.

Changing the world one pirouette at a time. It celebrates Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo for 45 years home to some of the world's most beautiful dancers, male ballerinas who have taken great risks to practice their dazzling version of ballet parody. A film full of beauty and fun, it seduces viewers into facing issues of gender, inclusion, and social justice. It interweaves a tour of the Carolinas (the epicenter of efforts to walk back LGBTQ...

Helen Keller, who was deaf and blind since early childhood, was a passionate advocate for change, using her celebrity and wit to champion rights for women, people with disabilities, and people living in poverty. Becoming Helen Keller examines the complex legacy of this author, advocate, lecturer, and human rights pioneer.

"Worlds of Ursula K. Le Guin is a feature documentary exploring the remarkable life and legacy of the late feminist author Ursula K. Le Guin ... Produced with Le Guin's participation over the course of a decade, Worlds of Ursula K. Le Guin is a journey through the writer's career and her worlds, both real and fantastic. Viewers will join the writer on an intimate journey of self-discovery as she comes into her own as a major feminist author, opening...

Experience a century of food through the life of James Beard, who spoke of the importance of localism and sustainability long before those terms had entered the vernacular. A cookbook author, journalist, television celebrity and teacher, Beard helped to pioneer and expand the food media industry.

Examines the life and career of the inspiring actor and entertainer, Raul Julia.

What do the most ravishingly beautiful actress of the 1930s and '40s and the inventor whose concepts were the basis of cell phone and Bluetooth technology have in common? They are both Hedy Lamarr, the glamour icon whose ravishing visage was the inspiration for Snow White and Cat Woman and a technological trailblazer who created brilliant engineering concepts for a radio guidance system to control torpedoes during WWII, and which became the basis...

Follow Dr. Anthony Fauci as he grapples with the COVID-19 pandemic and his 50-year career as the Nation's leading public health advocate. Witness a rarely seen side of the physician, husband, and father as he confronts political backlash, a new administration, and questions of the future.