American Masters

History Series / 11 Seasons

American Masters, committed to producing comprehensive film biographies about the broad cast of characters who comprise our cultural history.

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Alice Walker: Beauty in Truth - Trailer

1m 50s

Most famous for her seminal novel "The Color Purple," writer and activist Alice Walker was born into a family of sharecroppers in Georgia and her life unfolded during the violent racism and seismic social changes of mid-20th century America. Women, poverty and civil rights became the inherent themes in in the Pulitzer Prize-winner's writing.

Alice Walker Reads from The Color Purple

1m 15s / TV-PG

In this archival footage, Alice Walker reads from what she calls "the God section" of her novel "The Color Purple." She was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for the novel. The text is from a letter the novel's protagonist, Celie, writes to her sister about a conversation she had about God.

Alice Walker Describes Creativity

35s / TV-14

Alice Walker on creativity: "Creation is a sustained period of bliss, even though the subject can still be very sad. Because there's the triumph of coming through and understanding that you have, and that you did it the way only you could do it. You didn't do it the way somebody told you to do it. You did it just the way you had to do it, and that is what makes us us."

Alice Walker: Beauty in Truth - Preview

30s

Examine the dramatic life of writer/activist Alice Walker, author of The Color Purple. Her story is told with poetry and lyricism, and includes interviews with Steven Spielberg, Danny Glover, Quincy Jones, Howard Zinn, Gloria Steinem, Sapphire and Walker herself.

Howard Zinn on Alice Walker, His Former Student

47s / TV-14

The late Howard Zinn gave one of his final interviews for the first film biography of Alice Walker, "Alice Walker: Beauty in Truth." Zinn first met Walker when she became his student at Spelman College. In this web exclusive outtake from the film, Zinn likens Alice Walker to Zora Neale Hurston, Walker's "hero," saying Walker was not afraid to offend either whites or blacks. She was honest.

Alice Walker: What's in a Name

55s / TV-14

Alice Walker's great-great-great-great-grandmother was a slave who journeyed on foot with two babies on her hips, from Virginia to Eatonton, Georgia, which is considered Walker's ancestral home. In memory of that walk, Walker chose to keep and embrace her maiden name, Walker.

Gloria Steinem on Alice Walker, Her Friend

44s / TV-14

"It's not possible to separate Alice from her work," says writer and feminist Gloria Steinem. "Of anyone I've ever known or could possibly imagine, she's the most true .... When people used to ask me in the early days 'What is Alice Walker really like?' I always said, 'She's exactly like you think. There is not a private self and a public self.'" This outtake interview is a web exclusive.

Alice Walker Shines Light on Zora Neale Hurston

2m 29s / TV-14

Zora Neale Hurston's embrace of black culture and language was an inspiration to Alice Walker. "I realized that unless I came out with everything I had supporting her, there was every chance that she would slip back into obscurity," Walker says of the Harlem Renaissance writer and anthropologist.

Going to College on a Segregated Bus

1m 26s / TV-14

In this web exclusive video, Alice Walker talks about how her father loved education and read everything he could find, even though he was only educated through grade 4 or 5 and lived a life of poverty working on a plantation. Walker recalls the day he put her on a segregated bus to go to Spelman College, where she had earned a scholarship.

Salinger - Trailer

2m 28s / TV-14

Shane Salerno’s 10-year investigation gets beyond the author's wall of seclusion. American Masters’ 200th episode is the never-before-seen director’s cut of "Salinger," featuring 15 minutes of new material. The intricately structured mystery reveals how World War II influenced his life, his writing methods, his relationships with young women, and literary secrets he left behind after his death.

Salinger - Preview

34s

Salinger — the American Masters series’ 200th episode — is the first work to get beyond "The Catcher in the Rye" author’s meticulously built wall: his childhood, painstaking work methods, marriages, private world and the secrets J.D. Salinger left behind after his death in 2010. The film interviewed 150 subjects, including Salinger’s friends, colleagues and members of his inner circle.

The Making of American Masters with Creator Susan Lacy

10m

Susan Lacy, the creator and executive producer of American Masters, talks about the concept behind the series and the making of several films, including those on Martin Scorsese, Paul Simon and Charlie Chaplain. See clips from these films as well as from films on Marvin Gaye, John Lennon, Frank Gehry, Diego Rivera and more. This video is from the Pioneers of Thirteen series.

American Masters: 2000-2013 Highlights

3m 13s

A diverse array of talents have been presented by American Masters in the first two decades of the 21st century, among them Lucille Ball, I.M. Pei, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Judy Garland, photographer Edward S. Curtis, and Jimi Hendrix. On January 21, 2014, American Masters premieres its 200th episode: "Salinger," the director's cut, by Shane Salerno.

American Masters: 1990s Highlights

1m 12s

In the 1990s, American Masters turned the lens on those making images themselves: photographer Richard Avedon and filmmakers David Selznick and Alfred Hitchcock, whose collaborations include "Rebecca" and "Spellbound." The series also profiled the composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein. On January 21, 2014, American Masters premieres its 200th episode: "Salinger," by Shane Salerno.

American Masters: 1980s Highlights

2m 33s

Created and launched in 1986 by Executive Producer Susan Lacy, the American Masters series set the standard for documentary film profiles. Among its first films in the 1980s were "George Gershwin Remembered," "Aretha Franklin: The Queen of Soul," and "James Baldwin: The Price of a Ticket." On January 21, 2014, American Masters premieres its 200th episode: "Salinger," by Shane Salerno.

American Masters 2014 Season Trailer

33s

Premieres in 2014 include the director's cut of "Salinger," American Masters' 200th episode, the first film biography of writer and activist Alice Walker in "Alice Walker: Beauty in Truth," and "A Fierce Green Fire," the first big-picture exploration of the environmental movement. Favorites returning this year are "LENNONYC" and "Johnny Carson: King of Late Night."

Concert Pianist vs. Pop Composer

2m 9s

Marvin Hamlisch was a child prodigy at the piano and was expected to become the next Vladimir Horowitz. But as Hamlisch explains, "at a very early age it became very clear that that would drive me crazy because every time I would go to the concert to play something I would get so nervous."

"I Want to Be Cole Porter"

50s

Though classically trained, Marvin Hamlisch knew he was destined for something different from an early age. "I wanted to be like Cole Porter," Hamlisch explains. Though he did not want to become the next Vladimir Horowitz, he continued his classical studies at Juilliard so he could later apply the skills he learned to what he really wanted to do.

Writing "The Way We Were"

1m 20s

Hamlisch reveals what inspired the opening notes to "The Way We Were" and his collaborators, the lyricists Alan and Marilyn Bergman, describe the uncanny ability Hamlisch had in putting his thoughts to music.

Pianist Kevin Cole Performs Marvin Medley

6m 48s

Pianist Kevin Cole arranged this melody of Marvin Hamlisch songs and performed them before a live audience in tribute to the great composer. The piano medley is made from three Hamlisch songs: "The Way We Were," "At the Ballet" and "What I Did for Love." Kevin Cole was a friend of Hamlisch's and is known as an interpreter of Gershwin.

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