8 Days: To the Moon and Back

8 Days to the Moon and Back

BBC

"Eight days, three hours, 18 minutes, 35 seconds. That is the total duration of the most important and celebrated space mission ever flown - Apollo 11 - when humans first set foot on the moon. It was a journey that changed the way we think about our place in the universe. But we only saw a fraction of what happened - a handful of iconic stills and a few precious hours of movie footage. Now it is time to discover the full story."

Back to the Moon

PBS, July 10, 2019

Back to the Moon

"On the 50th anniversary of the historic Apollo 11 Moon landing, NOVA looks ahead to the hoped-for dawn of a new age in lunar exploration. This time, governments and private industry are working together to reach our nearest celestial neighbor. But why go back? The Moon can serve as a platform for basic astronomical research; as an abundant source of rare metals and hydrogen fuel; and ultimately as a stepping stone for human missions to Mars and beyond. Join the next generation of engineers that aim to take us to the Moon, and discover how our legacy of lunar exploration won't be confined to the history books for long."

Chasing the Moon

Chasing the Moon

PBS July 8-10, 6 hours

IT TOOK MILLIONS OF STEPS TO MAKE ONE GIANT LEAP.

Film Description

“Chasing the Moon,” a film by Robert Stone, reimagines the race to the moon for a new generation, upending much of the conventional mythology surrounding the effort. The series recasts the Space Age as a fascinating stew of scientific innovation, political calculation, media spectacle, visionary impulses and personal drama..."

Oprah Winfrey Receives Cecil B. de Mille Award at the 2018 Golden Globes

89th Academy Awards: Best Picture La La Land / Moonlight (Classic!)

The Race Underground

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First Look: The Race Underground from American Experience

Oct. 1, 2016, 7pm-9pm

WGBH Yawkey Theater, One Guest Street, Brighton, MA 02135

Free, but RSVP is required

The Race Underground, By Doug Most

The Race Underground: Boston, New York, and the Incredible Rivalry That Built America's First Subway

Alex Gibney: Zero Days

Zero Days is a 2016 American documentary film directed by Alex Gibney. Zero Days covers the phenomenon surrounding the Stuxnet computer virus and the development of the malware software known as "Olympic Games."

PBS In Their Own Words: Muhammed Ali

The film follows Ali’s rise from the Columbia Gym in Louisville to international fame, as he transcended his great athletic achievements to become one of the most influential Americans of his time: how this once polarizing figure ultimately became a beloved and honored national hero.

Key events include Ali’s stunning Islamic conversion and name change, his dramatic stand against the Vietnam-era draft, his 3-year exile from the ring, his legendary comeback fights, his battle with Parkinson’s disease, and his inspirational reemergence on the world stage at the Atlanta Olympics.

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NOVA: Chasing Pluto

PBS NOVA New Horizons journey to Pluto

Chasing Pluto: Watch as the New Horizons spacecraft captures our first clear view of Pluto’s icy surface.

Aired July 15, 2015 on PBS

What Happened Miss Simone?

Using never-before-heard recordings, rare archival footage and her best-known songs, this is the story of legendary singer and activist Nina Simone.

Release June 26, 2015 (Netflix)

Ex Machina 2015

Christopher Nolan - Interstellar (2014)

Interstellar is a 2014 science fiction film directed by Christopher Nolan. The film features a crew of astronauts who travel through a wormhole in search of a new home for humanity. Not just science fiction, also based on real science facts.

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PRI Science Friday - Into the Wormhole: The Science of 'Interstellar'
NOV. 21, 2014

Flowers for Algernon

Flowers for Algernon is a science fiction short story and subsequent novel written by Daniel Keyes. The short story, written in 1958 and first published in the April 1959 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy; Science Fiction, won the Hugo Award for Best Short Story in 1960.

The eponymous Algernon is a laboratory mouse who has undergone surgery to increase his intelligence by artificial means. The story is told by a series of progress reports written by Charlie Gordon, the first human test subject for the surgery, and it touches upon many different ethical and moral themes such as the treatment of the mentally disabled.

I read it when I was 8 years old and now find it analogous to our life experience; attaining everything what life has to offer and losing everything at the end.

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Charly - 1968 film starring Cliff Robertson, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor. I watched it for the first time last month. At first I thought the film looked dated, but found I loved that the film is set in the Boston, Mass of my youth. 

National Geographic video: Rise of the Black Pharaohs

PBS: National Geographic, Rise of the Black Pharaohs
Premiered October 1, 2014

pbs.org:

"About the Program

The Egypt of the Great Pyramids, the Sphinx, and the Valley of the Kings was an empire of indomitable might. Then, around 800 BC, the impossible happened. Kush, a subject kingdom from the south, rose up and conquered Egypt, enthroned its own Pharaohs, and ruled for nearly 100 years.

These were the mysterious Black Pharaohs of what is today Sudan—the Nubian kings—whose reign has become legendary among Africans and written off as heresy by early archaeologists who refused to believe that dark skinned Africans could have risen so high.

But now, in the heart of Sudan, exciting new archaeological finds are revealing the truth about the great Kush dynasty. A sacred mountain holds the key to the Kush kings’ spiritual claim on the Egyptian throne; stunning statues are providing details about the true color of their skin and their long and prosperous reign; and a long-hidden tomb complex is shedding light on the trappings of their royalty and the extent of their empire."

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Crucible of Empire: The Spanish-American War 1999 Film

PBS: Crucible of Empire: The Spanish-American War, 1999 Film
(Entire 2-hour film on Youtube below)

One hundred years ago, United States celebrated victory in the Spanish-American War. Popular songs and headlines popularized Commodore Dewey's victories at sea and Theodore Roosevelt's ride up Kettle Hill. Although the Spanish-American War sparked unprecedented levels of patriotism and confidence, the defeat of the Spanish also raised new questions about the nation's role as a world power.

Akira Kurosawa - Rashomon

Rashomon is a 1950 Japanese drama directed by Akira Kurosawa. The film depicts the rape of a woman and the murder of her samurai husband through the widely differing accounts of four witnesses, including the bandit/rapist, the wife, the dead man (speaking through a medium), and lastly a woodcutter, the one witness that seems the most objective and least biased. Kurosawa when asked by his assistants to explain his script explained “Human beings are unable to be honest with themselves about themselves. They cannot talk about themselves without embellishing. This script portrays such human beings—the kind who cannot survive without lies to make them feel they are better people than they really are.”

Ken Burns - The Central Park Five

THE CENTRAL PARK FIVE, a new film from award-winning filmmaker Ken Burns, tells the story of the five black and Latino teenagers from Harlem who were wrongly convicted of raping a white woman in New York City’s Central Park in 1989. The film chronicles The Central Park Jogger case, for the first time from the perspective of these five teenagers whose lives were upended by this miscarriage of justice.

Watch The Central Park Five on PBS. See more from Central Park Five.

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The Daily Show with Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Ken Burns
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Indecision Political Humor The Daily Show on Facebook

My Neighbors the Yamadas

My Neighbors the Yamadas is a an extremely funny feature-length animated film directed by Isao Takahata released by Studio Ghibli July 17, 1999. This is the first Studio Ghibli film that was digitally produced without using cells. The movie captures Japanese daily life in a painted watercolor style accomplished by drawing three times the normal number of frames. The film plays like a series of comedy or sitcom episodes, many ending with a haiku poem. Released in the United States by Disney, I recommend watching the subtitled version, which captures the true spirit of the dialog in Japanese much better than the English dubbing and Hollywood character acting. 

Why We Fight - 2006 Documentary Film

Why We Fight is 2006 Documentary film by Eugene Jarecki about the "military–industrial complex". The title refers to the World War II-era eponymous propaganda movies commissioned by the U.S. Government to justify their decision to enter the war against the Axis Powers. It describes the rise and maintenance of the United States military–industrial complex and its 50-year involvement with the wars led by the United States to date, especially its 2003 Invasion of Iraq. The documentary asserts that in every decade since World War II, the American public was misled so that the government (incumbent Administration) could take them to war and fuel the military-industrial economy maintaining American political dominance in the world.

Film below but no sound, need to turn on CC, or download via bitTorrent.

The House I Live In - 2012 film

The House I Live In (2012)
Directed and written by Eugene Jarecki

2012 Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize: Documentary

Documentary tracks the history of the U.S. War on Drugs. After 44 million arrests, sales of illegal drugs are still on the rise. the documentary argues that America's War on Drugs needs a drastic rethinking.

Sundance Film Festival 2012: Grand Jury Prizewinner Eugene Jarecki on Drug War Doc, 'The House I Live In'
Hollywood Reporter
January 29, 2012

"The House I Live In": New Documentary Exposes Economic, Moral Failure of U.S. War on Drugs
Democracy Now!
January 31, 2012

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The House I Live In is also the name of a 1945 ten-minute short film starring Frank Sinatra. It was made to oppose anti-Semitism and racial prejudice at the end of World War II and received an Honorary Academy Award and a special Golden Globe award in 1946. In 2007, this film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".