Finally. PBS Distribution has released the new American Masters program, Sammy Davis , Jr.: I’ve Gotta Be Me, the first major film documentary to examine the performer’s vast career and his journey for identity through the shifting tides of civil rights and racial progress during 20th-century America. Sammy Davis, Jr. had the kind of career that was indisputably legendary, vast in scope and scale.
And yet, his life was complex, complicated and contradictory. Davis strove to achieve the American Dream in a time of racial prejudice and shifting political territory. He was a veteran of increasingly outdated show business traditions and worked tirelessly to stay relevant, even as he frequently found himself bracketed by the bigotry of white America and the distaste of black America. Davis was the most public black figure to embrace Judaism, thereby yoking his identity to that of another persecuted minority. In Duke Ellington’s words, he was “beyond category.”
Featuring interviews with such luminaries as Billy Crystal, Norman Lear, Jerry Lewis, Whoopi Goldberg and Kim Novak, with never-before-seen photographs from Davis’ vast personal collection and footage of his electric performances, this film explores the life and art of a uniquely gifted entertainer whose trajectory highlighted the major flashpoints of American society from the Depression through the ’80s.
We are always writing about PBS’ specials and programs because they are, well, special programs.
A few choices:
NOVA: Pluto and Beyond
When the New Horizons spacecraft whizzed by Pluto in 2015, we Earthlings were dazzled by the breathtaking images it beamed home. They revealed a never-before-seen alien landscape – a world of mountains made of ice mixed with plains of frozen-solid methane and nitrogen. After more than two years of poring over the data, NASA has made remarkable new discoveries about everyone’s favorite dwarf planet.
But New Horizons didn’t stop there. On New Year’s Day 2019, the probe flew by an object known now as Ultima Thule, believed to be a primordial building block of the solar system. This is the most distant flyby in NASA’s history – 4 billion miles from Earth. If successful, it will shed light on one of the least understood regions of our solar system: the Kuiper Belt. NOVA was embedded with the New Horizons mission team as the team uncovered in real time the secrets of what lies beyond Pluto.
NATURE: Equus: The Story of the Horse Ever since the beginning of time, humans and horses have had an extraordinary and unusual partnership. As a result, horses have helped shape the human world. In this program, viewers join anthropologist Dr. Niobe Thompson and equine experts on a two-part adventure around the world and throughout time to discover the origins of the horse and what makes us so perfect for each other. In part one, Origins, viewers experience a stunning 3D reconstruction as a realistic animation of the 45 million-year-old ancestor of the horse, the Dawn horse, rises from a fossil bed and begins a transformation into the magnificent animal we know today. Viewers discover why horses have almost 360-degree vision and gallop on a single toe.
In part two of the program, Chasing the Wind, viewers encounter extraordinary horse breeds old of the Siberian Arctic to the scorching heat of the Arabian Desert. Filmed over 18 months across three continents, the program not only explores the horse and its biology but how humans have partnered with the horse throughout the centuries, creating more than 400 breeds found all around the world.
USS INDIANAPOLIS: The Final Chapter In the waning days of World War II, less than three weeks before the Japanese surrendered, the U.S. Navy experienced a catastrophic disaster. The USS Indianapolis,the pride and joy of the U.S. Navy, had just delivered the components of the atomic bomb destined for Hiroshima when she is sunk by a Japanese sub. 300 sailors go down with her, and the 900 survivors drift for four and a half days, battling the sun, thirst, sharks, and their own fear. Ultimately, only 316 of them are pulled from the sea alive.
The sinking of Indianapolis remains the U.S. Navy’s worst single loss of life at sea. The program flashes back and forth in time between the Indianapolis’ history and her ultimate fate, and 2017, when explorers finally found the ship’s remains 18,000 feet below the surface of the Philippine Sea. Viewers will hear first-hand accounts from survivors about those horrific days trying to survive and how they feel today, now that the USS Indianapolishas been found.
Victoria & Albert: The Wedding
This two-part British drama produced by BBC Studios for PBS and BBC gives an insider’s look into the elaborate planning that went into one of the most famous weddings of all time: the romantic 1840 union of Queen Victoria and her consort Prince Albert. Host and Royal historian Lucy Worsley, along with a team of experts, oversees the meticulous recreation of the most important and fascinating elements of the wedding celebration, from the food and the music to the tiered cake, exquisite white wedding dress, and more.
Scouring all available materials, including Victoria’s own diaries for details, the program reveals how the pomp and pageantry secured the nation’s unwavering attention as Victoria gained favor with her subjects and invented the modern ideal of marriage.
Whenever we hear about a new Steven Seagal flick, we prepare for the high-octane adventure. The latest example: General Commander, arriving on Blu-ray, DVD, Digital and On Demand May 28 from Lionsgate. Sonia Couling and Byron Gibson round out the cast.
Seagal takes on a global crime syndicate in this powerful action saga. After CIA agent Jake Alexander (Seagal) sees a member of his team killed during a sting operation, he demands revenge against guilty mob boss Orsini. But the CIA won’t sanction the hit, so Jake and his crew quit the agency and form a task force with just one mission: vengeance. Full of explosive action, thrilling stunts, and bone-crunching fights, General Commander never lets up.
A woman wakes up in a blindingly white cuboid cell, where a general uses increasingly sophisticated and cruel methods to torture her for information . . . information she claims not to have. As questions of trust are placed both on captor and captive, they find themselves embroiled in an increasingly spiraling journey into the nature of authority.
This is the United Kingdom in the near future. Civil war rages, and martial law has been declared by a military government hellbent on squashing the opposition.
Fake news? Tense, shocking, and all-too relevant, White Chamberasks the question: can there even be such a thing as certainty in these most uncertain of times?
A solid and riveting film, coming to Blu-ray and DVD from Dark Sky Films on May 21. Shauna MacDonald plays the woman; Oded Fehr is the general.
We hear about important programs being released on DVD by PBS Distribution, and we must share the news. Rise of the Rockets (NOVA) An explosion of private companies is sparking the development of new technologies and lowering costs to bring space closer than ever. And at the same time, NASA is returning to crewed spaceflight with gusto, building a rocket more powerful even than the storied Saturn V to take us far beyond Earth.
Will today’s optimism prove prescient, or nothing more than hype and wishful thinking? As costs come down and rockets with new capabilities come online, a new generation is reaching for the cosmos, daring to dream big and yearning to go farther, in greater numbers than ever before.
Watch for it May 7.
In The Next Pompeii, NOVA joins investigators as they hunt for clues hidden beneath the surface of Italy’s lesser-known volcano Campi Flegrei, and assesses the risk of a new and potentially devastating eruption. The program also follows historians and geologists as they discover the latest evidence of Pompeii’s fiery destruction, unpacking the chain of events that led to the ancient world’s most notorious disaster.
https://youtu.be/tzjUV0RiOJ8
What lessons does the tragedy of Pompeii hold for Naples’ citizens, who may face a mounting threat from the unseen forces beneath their feet?
Watch for it May 14.
The Roman emperor Nero is considered one of history’s greatest criminals, a cruel, insane and brutal ruler. His name has become synonymous with evil, and he stands accused of killing his step-brother, his wife, and his mother, as well as burning Rome to the ground for his own artistic inspiration. But are these stories true? Can they be proven?
Recent research, modern interpretations of historical sources, and new discoveries cast a different light on the accusations levelled at the Roman emperor. The Nero Filesinvestigates Nero’s reign with the help of criminal psychologist Thomas Müller, using “cold case” methodology. Did history get it wrong? Was Nero a far better ruler than he’s ever been given credit for?
Watch for it May 14.
In the aftermath of the brutal wars that decimated Yugoslavia in the early 1990’s, former Bosnian Serb General Ratko Mladic was accused of genocide and other war crimes—including the massacre of more than 7,000 Muslim men and boys in the town of Srebrenica in July 1995—considered the worst crime perpetrated on European soil since World War II. The Trial of Ratko Mladic(Frontline) chronicles the horror.
After 16 years on the run, Mladic was apprehended and brought to The Hague to stand trial before the UN’s International Criminal Tribunal, the biggest and only truly international war crimes tribunal since Nuremburg.
In the two-hour special Frontline goes inside the historic five-year trial, with unprecedented, behind-the-scenes access to the prosecution and defense teams, as well as to witnesses from both sides who came to present evidence. The Trial of Ratko Mladic provides haunting insights into a war criminal’s motives, and the genocide he commanded his troops to carry out—as well as an intimate look at the victims left behind, who remain haunted by what their families endured. It tells an epic story of justice, accountability and a country trying to escape its bloody past.
Watch for it May 28.
PBS Distribution welcomes May with two knock-out DVDs. May we introduce them?
When human remains are found by a motorway near London, the crime-solving duo, Cassie and Sunny are called to the scene. Dogged work leads the team to Hayley Reid, a 16-year-old girl who went missing on the eve of the millennium. The police’s failure to find out what happened to Hayley wrecked her family’s life. Cassie’s compassion makes her determined to correct the mistakes made by the original investigating team—whatever the cost is to herself.
Welcome Unforgotten, Season 3.
A close-knit group of old school friends hold the key to what happened: Doctor Tim Finch, television host James Hollis, failing salesman Pete Carr and artist Chris Lowe.
As the four suspects find themselves under the spotlight, their tight bond is put to the test. They all have secrets in their past, events that have pulled their lives apart. None of them are quite who they seem to be, but is one of them capable of murder?
Watch for it May 7.
A blockbuster novel for over 150 years comes vividly to life in award-winning screenwriter Andrew Davies’ multi-layered retelling of Victor Hugos’ Les Misérables by Victor Hugo. This enthralling six-episode adaptation stars Dominic West as Jean Valjean, the most famous fugitive in literature; David Oyelowo stars as his relentless pursuer, Javert; and Lily Collins as the tragic seamstress, Fantine; Ellie Bamber plays her adolescent daughter, Cosette; Olivia Colman and Adeel Akhtar are Cosette’s cruel overseers, the Thénardiers; and Josh O’Connor is the student and reluctant revolutionary Marius, who falls in love with Cosette at first sight.
Joining the extensive cast are David Bradley as Marius’s formidable grandfather, Monsieur Gillenormand; and Derek Jacobi as the kindly Bishop of Digne, who rescues Valjean at his lowest ebb. London’s The Guardian calls this Les Misérables “a rich feast…c’est magnifique!”
Watch for it May 21.
Leave it to Arrow Video US and Arrow Academy US to release flicks you just got to have. Two of the best DVDs coming . . .
Have you ever heard the saying “it’s a man’s world”? Well don’t dare repeat that to The Man-Eaters – a raucous, rowdy and randy gang of female bikers who ride their men just as viciously as they do their motorcycles. When they’re not racing each other to get first pick of the “stud line-up”, these female hellcats are busy terrorizing the town and clashing with the rival male gangs.
Adapted by acclaimed screenwriter Jonathan Latimer from a novel by the equally renowned crime author Kenneth Fearing, The Big Clock (available May 14) is a superior suspense film which brilliantly combines screwball comedy with heady thrills. Overworked true crime magazine editor George Stroud (played by Ray Milland) has been planning a vacation for months. However, when his boss, the tyrannical media tycoon Earl Janoth (Charles Laughton), insists he skips his holiday, Stroud resigns in disgust before embarking on an impromptu drunken night out with his boss’s mistress, Pauline York (Rita Johnson).
When Janoth kills Pauline in a fit of rage, Stroud finds himself to have been the wrong man, in the wrong place, at the wrong time: his staff have been tasked with finding a suspect with an all too familiar description . . . Stroud’s very own!
Directed with panache by John Farrow (yes, his daughter is Mia, whose mother, the film’s Maureen O’Sullivan, is her mother and his wife), who stylishly renders the film’s towering central set, the Janoth Building, The Big Clock benefits from exuberant performances who make hay with the script’s snappy dialogue. A huge success on its release, it is no wonder this fast-moving noir was remade years later as the Kevin Costner vehicle No Way Out.
Wild! Vicious! With motorcycles as their lovers! Experience sights and sounds beyond your very imagining as “Godfather of Gore” Herschell Gordon Lewis tackles the biker chick sub-sub-genre with She-Devils on Wheels! (May 21). Have you ever heard the saying “it’s a man’s world”? Well don’t dare repeat that to The Man-Eaters, a raucous, rowdy and randy gang of female bikers who ride their men just as viciously as they do their motorcycles.
When they’re not racing each other to get first pick of the “stud line-up”, these female hellcats are busy terrorizing the town and clashing with the rival male gangs. Billed as “by far the most exciting picture of its type ever filmed”, She-Devils on Wheels sees splatter pioneer H.G. Lewis going full throttle with the most shocking biker flick of its kind – now accompanied by his other vicious gang opus Just for the Hell of It for a thrilling, pulse-racing double-bill!
Guess who? Guess who is the subject of a hot new DVD? Randy Bachman. As a member of The Guess Who, he was part of the first- ever No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 by a Canadian band with “American Woman/No Sugar Tonight,” and then topped the Hot 100 again in 1974 with another band, Bachman-Turner Overdrive, with “You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet.”
“That’s a pretty rare thing for a recording artist who gets two No. 1s with two different bands,” notes John Einarson,” biographer and music historian, at the start of the new documentary, Bachman (FilmRise).
The documentary chronicling the life of this 74-year-old who is still regularly making music and performing. The film follows Bachman as he looks to the past for inspiration from rarely seen footage, pictures and documents that have been stored at the National Archives in Ottawa for decades.
Among the other hits Bachman has written or co-written are “These Eyes,” “No Time,” “New Mother Nature,” “Takin’ Care of Business,” “Let It Ride,” and “Roll On Down The Highway.”
“He was like my biggest influence when I was a kid,” says Neil Young in the film. “Watching him play guitar, he had an amazing sense about the way he played. And the feeling that you got when you listened to him. It was more than just chops.”
Young, who has known Bachman for about 55 years, addsed, “I hear Randy – when I see him, I hear him, and I feel him.”
The documentary made its world premiere in Toronto at Hot Docs 2018 before a festival run, and eventual airing in Canada on CBC’s Documentary Channel. Incorporating numerous present-day interviews with family, management and fellow musicians, director John Barnard touches on everything from Bachman’s childhood to his various rock bands—The Guess Who, Brave Belt, Bachman-Turner Overdrive, Bachman-Turner—as well as his solo work.
There’s no need to worry about having to read small print. We announce the news, as transparent as this clean, fresh font.
MPI Media Group will be releasing a favorite TV classic on DVD on May 14. Save the date! Originally airing on ABC-TV from 1958 to 1966, The Donna Reed Show is one of the most popular and enduring family sitcoms in television history. Starring Oscar-winning Donna Reedas homemaker Donna Stone, Carl Betzas her pediatrician husband Alex, Shelley Fabares as daughter Mary, Paul Petersen as son Jeff and, later, Patty Petersen as adoptee Trisha, the series is a humorous and heartwarming slice of Americana that has earned a legion of new fans through showings on Nick at Nite, TV Land and MeTV.
Guest stars include Harvey Korman, Cloris Leachman, Buster Keaton, Bob Crane, Marion Ross, Gale Gordon, John Astin, Ted Knight, Richard Deacon, Don Drysdale, Esther Williams, Tony Martin and Jimmy Hawkins. This special collection presents all 186 episodes from Seasons 1 through 5 in complete versions and digitally remastered.
The set also includes new featurettes and interviews with Shelley Fabares and Paul and Patty Petersen, vintage promotional spots, original cast and sponsor commercials, Donna Reed’s tribute on This Is Your Life, rare footage and much more.
The Pacific island nation of Kiribati is one of the most remote places on the planet, far removed from the pressures of modern life. The tiny nation (formerly called Gilbert Islands) is in danger of being engulfed by rising water levels or wiped out by patterns of extreme weather.
Kiribati president Anote Tong races to find options, from mass migration to building underwater cities. But the water grows higher and citizens are fleeing the island, leaving behind 4,000 years of Kirabati culture.
Montreal filmmaker Matthieu Rytz’s debut film, Anote’s Ark, is a study of the situation; the sweeping cinematography captures the shifting dynamics of climate change while crafting a portrait of the Kiribati people that reveals their strength as they face the looming waters head on.
“The country will be drowned in the next 50 years, no matter the investments and agreements” said in his Kickstarter pitch for the film. “I am so honored and I feel like I need to tell the story of this nation before it completely drown out.”
Guest stars include Harvey Korman, Cloris Leachman, Buster Keaton, Bob Crane, Marion Ross, Gale Gordon, John Astin, Ted Knight, Richard Deacon, Don Drysdale, Esther Williams, Tony Martin and Jimmy Hawkins. This special collection presents all 186 episodes from Seasons 1 through 5 in complete versions and digitally remastered.