In a feat of musical extreme sports, violinist Daniel Hoffman has just one week to learn to play Irish fiddle with master fiddler James Kelly, in County Clare, Ireland. and then somehow, perform with him in concert. His attempt to achieve the impossible, as well as his encounters with a range of Irish philosophers, musicians, and dancers, reveals unexpected secrets about Ireland and about himself.
airs 12/31 at 4 a.m.
Robert Penn Warren is the only person to have won Pulitzer Prizes for both fiction and poetry and was named U.S. Poet Laureate in 1986. His 1946 novel about political corruption, All the King’s Men, was translated into an Academy Award winning film. The documentary explores the life and career of one of our nation’s most acclaimed writers and features previously unreleased home movie footage of the author and his family.
airs 12/31 at 3 a.m.
POV presents an array of groundbreaking and distinctive perspectives on contemporary life as chronicled by some of America’ s and Europe’s most visionary non-fiction filmmakers.
When the Taliban puts a bounty on Afghan director Hassan Fazili’s head, he is forced to flee with his wife and two young daughters. Fazili shows firsthand the dangers facing refugees seeking asylum and the love shared between a family on the run.
airs 12/30 at 10 p.m.
Double Take: The Art of Elizabeth King illuminates the aesthetic and engineering questions sculptor Elizabeth King puzzles over with an acute sensitivity to both life, and the life-like. She has created her own genre at the intersection of the classical and automata. An accomplished artist with an eye for the intimate meaning of gesture, King obsessively manipulates her materials to produce pieces that both approximate and challenge the viewer. Newly retired from 40 years of teaching, King is more than ever able to focus on her work, and examine her motives and making. With major solo shows driving her, King seems poised to get her due. In studio visits, conversations with peers and art world figures, Double Take: The Art of Elizabeth King invites the viewer to consider what looking and seeing one another means in our increasingly visual world.
airs 12/31 at 2 a.m.
airs Mondays 3 a.m. beginning 12/9 (600 series has 5/30 minute programs) (500 series has 6/30 minute programs) – Top Black Studies scholars engage with projects and research focused on education, performance and youth empowerment.
Hoberman details the hidden world of police steroid use. Lewis and Nicole Conway explore successful reentry from mental and physical incarceration. Dr. Gerstenblatt confronts her own racism in the journey of raising mixed race kids.
airs 12/30 at 3 a.m.
Featuring over 20 different lighthouses along the shores of the Seaway Trail, from the Barcelona Lighthouse on Lake Erie to the Ogdensburg Harbor Light on the St. Lawrence River. Discover the first lighthouse on the Great Lakes the lighthouse destroyed by a collision with a ship… the lighthouse tended by a former pirate and the lighthouse that disappeared for nearly 60 years!
airs 12/29 at 4 p.m.
Three young people explore Indiana to see how their state is moving into the future. In this new Roadtrip Nation special, follow the journeys of three post-secondary students from Indiana on a life-changing road trip to see how Indiana-grown ingenuity is keeping their home state at the cutting edge of rapid technological change. They’re spending two weeks exploring some of the exciting industries powering Indiana’s growth-including healthcare services, advanced manufacturing, biosciences, and technology-and connecting with the Hoosiers working at the forefront of these fields. Follow along with their journey, and see how the state nicknamed the “Crossroads of America” is driving the future forward for us all.
airs 12/30 at 1 a.m.
Miriam Beerman: Expressing The Chaos is the retrospective of a remarkable artist whose personal demons and empathy for human suffering colored a lifetime of her work.
airs 12/31 at 1 a.m.