ITVS Beyond the Box » American Masters

PBS Arts Festival Begins with Bill T. Jones: A Good Man

ITVS Staff — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 15:51:13 +0000

The ITVS-funded documentary follows acclaimed director/choreographer Bill T. Jones as he and his company create their most ambitious work, an original dance-theater piece in honor of Abraham Lincoln’s Bicentennial. The film premieres on Friday, November 11 on American Masters as part of the first installment in the PBS Arts Fall Festival.

Watch a preview of the film after the jump.

Live Coverage of PBS at TCA Press Tour

ITVS Staff — Sat, 30 Jul 2011 19:15:18 +0000

This weekend, PBS will present some of this year’s lineup at the TCA Press Tour in Los Angeles. BTB is at The Beverly Hilton and will be relaying updates from the conference in a series of live posts.

Live From TCA Press Tour

I.M. Pei: Building China Modern premieres tonight on American Masters on PBS

ITVS Staff — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 16:23:31 +0000

I.M. Pei, a leading figure in international architecture, returned to his Chinese homeland after seventy years, and designed a modern museum to house the antiquities of Suzhou, in the region where his forebears lived for centuries. I.M. Pei: Building China Modern follows Pei’s personal and architectural journey from west to east over the seven-and-a-half-year process of placing a modern building in the most ancient neighborhood of a 2,500-year-old city. With intimacy and immediacy, we experience the realization of Pei’s lifelong dream—and biggest challenge—a work that he ultimately defines as “my biography.”

Check out a preview of tonight’s broadcast below:

I.M. Pei: Building China Modern premieres tonight, Wednesday, March 31 at 10:00 on American Masters on PBS (check local listings). A co-production of Pacem Distribution International and ITVS in association with South Carolina ETV.

Watch GARRISON KEILLOR Tonight on American Masters

ITVS Staff — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 22:19:23 +0000

“This documentary, created for PBS’ American Masters series, is an amiable portrait of this somewhat enigmatic radio performer…”
- San Francisco Chronicle

Garrison Keillor is an author, a highly sought public speaker and is credited with reviving the lost art of live radio. His weekly program, A Prairie Home Companion, began in 1974 and has more than four million listeners. GARRISON KEILLOR: The Man on the Radio in the Red Shoes follows a year in his life as he performs in large and small towns across the country, bringing wit, commentary and his unique take on America.

Watch a preview below:

GARRISON KEILLOR: The Man on the Radio in the Red Shoes airs tonight at 8:00 PM on American Masters on PBS (check local listings)

It’s hard to believe, but sometimes Keillor’s funniest moments happen off the camera. Check out these hilarious video outtakes from his journey across the country. See more video >>

Filmmaker Profile: Peter Rosen, GARRISON KEILLOR: The Man on the Radio in the Red Shoes

ITVS Staff — Fri, 29 May 2009 15:30:17 +0000

Peter Rosen’s career wasn’t always in filmmaking. Shortly after graduating from Cornell University with a degree in architecture, he changed course and decided to pursue his passion––film.

“Once I saw you had to work for some company for about 30 years before they would actually let you design anything, I quit after a year or so,” Rosen says.

Since he was a teenager, Rosen had enjoyed taking still photographs and received several awards for his work. His love of photography led naturally to filmmaking and in college he began making documentaries. Today, he has produced and directed over 100 full-length films and television programs, which have been distributed worldwide and have won awards at many major film festivals.

In 1990, while directing the PBS special Carnegie Hall at 100: A Place of Dreams, Rosen and his production team brought back all the performers who played on the famous stage, including Garrison Keillor, best known for his role as host of the radio program A Prairie Home Companion. At the time, Rosen decided Keillor would be a great subject for a documentary, and 16 years later, he got the chance to make the film.

In GARRISON KEILLOR: The Man on the Radio in the Red Shoes, airing July 1 on American Masters on PBS (check local listings), Rosen follows Keillor for a year as he performs in large and small towns across the country. The film attempts to illustrate Keillor’s internal thoughts with visuals that abstract or counterpoint his words, an idea that occurred to Rosen after watching Keillor at work.

“He [Keillor] is always typing his stories on his laptop–– in cars, in planes, at the airports, at home––everywhere. He was always writing something,” Rosen says. “As we shot that, I began to wonder what was going on inside his head, and then actually tried to illustrate that.”

One of Rosen’s most memorable moments happened before production when he met Robert Altman, director of the film A Prairie Home Companion (2006), written by Keillor.

“I always thought he [Altman] was the genius of American cinema,” Rosen says. “As a documentary filmmaker, I always admired how he would create very natural action and dialog in front of several cameras, and just let it play out in overlapping words and movement that were unpredictable and very natural.”

When Rosen told the esteemed Altman that he was working on a documentary about Garrison Keillor, he was thrilled with Altman’s response: “Oh, wonderful. You will be working with the only genius I ever worked with!”

When looking for funding, Rosen approached ITVS because his project was truly an independent film––with no other funding at the time or outside help. After meeting ITVS Vice President of Programming Claire Aguilar at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2006, he pitched the idea, and the rest is independent film history.

Watch a clip below:

GARRISON KEILLOR: The Man on the Radio in the Red Shoes premieres July 1 on American Masters on PBS (check local listings)