In The News: The Latest on ITVS Programs

[Werner Herzog] the last of the great auteur directors voices the role of a plastic grocery bag in [Plastic Bag], a philosophical short film by much-tipped director Ramin Bahrani.
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Old men with energy, high spirits and full capacities are inherently charming, and Pei, who has charmed his way across the planet and left a huge imprint on it, charms yet again [in I.M. Pei: Building China Modern].
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Host Michel Martin speaks with Edward Tom, principal of the Bronx Center for Science & Mathematics, and filmmaker Christopher Wong [of Whatever It Takes].
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Whatever It Takes is strongest when it makes precisely this point: that however much we embrace the “tough love” idea, it is by definition a small-scale effort.
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Lost Souls is the sort of documentary that approaches reality television terrain. Yet it seriously presents themes of personal responsibility and redemption.
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Tags: architecture, Bronx, China, education, IM Pei, Mexico, New York

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

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.

Tags: American Masters, architecture, China, I.M. Pei, Suzhou