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Thelonious “Monk” Ellison’s writing career has stalled because his work isn’t deemed “Black enough.” Monk, a writer and English professor, writes a satirical novel under a pseudonym, aiming to expose the publishing world’s hypocrisies. The book’s immediate success forces him to get deeper enmeshed in his assumed identity and challenges his closely-held worldviews.
An original mix of fiction and reality illuminates the life of comic book hero everyman Harvey Pekar.
When 11-year-old Gitty discovers that her father, Abe, a good and beloved farmer, is holding a wealthy man hostage in their abandoned silo in order to save their suffering farm, she befriends the captive in secret. As the truth unfolds about who he is and what will happen if he escapes, Gitty chooses to confront the thin line between reality and fiction.
Samual Curtis’s first mission in this bizarre science fiction musical comedy requires him to take a cat to a saloon on an asteroid. There, he meets his former dance partner (the Blueberry Pirate) and collects his payment: a device capable of producing a Real Live Girl. Including music by alternative rock group The Billy Nayer Show, this film began life as a live show with a loyal following.
An impressionistic portrait of the iconic actor Harry Dean Stanton comprised of intimate moments, film clips from some of his 250 films and his renditions of American folk songs.
What if the Doomsday Preppers were right all along? Hacking into urban infrastructures isn’t science fiction anymore – it’s in the news every day. A 90-minute docu-drama, “American Blackout” reveals in gritty detail the impact of what happens when a cyber attack on the United States takes down the power grid. The question is: when the lights go out, what do we do next.
The highly fictionalized making and breaking of Norman Selby, more recognizable as Kid McCoy, the real life American middleweight world boxing champion from the turn of the 20th century.
An American movie company wants to shoot a science-fiction film using a British army barracks as a location, and its soldiers as actors.
Laura Ingalls Wilder: Prairie to Page presents an unvarnished look at the unlikely author whose autobiographical fiction helped shape American ideas of the frontier and self-reliance. A Midwestern farm woman who published her first novel at age 65, Laura Ingalls Wilder transformed her frontier childhood into the best-selling “Little House” series. The documentary delves into the legacy of the iconic pioneer as well as the way she transformed her early life into enduring legend, a process that involved a little-known collaboration with her daughter Rose.
This powerful, nuanced portrait arrives just in time celebrate the bicentennial of American abolitionist and political activist Harriet Tubman. Parts of her story are well known; born into slavery, Tubman escaped and subsequently made some 13 missions to rescue approximately 70 enslaved people, including family and friends, using the network of anti-slavery activists and safe houses known as the Underground Railroad. But the film delves deeper, illuminating her spirit and strength through exploits as a union scout and spy during the Civil War, an activist for women’s suffrage and a singular figure who defied categorization at every turn. The foremost chronicler of the Black experience working in nonfiction film today, Stanley Nelson, alongside co-director Nicole London, brings rich, deeply researched historical detail to the story of this remarkable woman.
Meet a diverse group of men, real men across the globe all sharing the same name: James Bond. Australian director Matthew Bauer’s energetic exploration of masculine identity features a gay New York theatre director, a Swedish 007 super-fan with a Nazi past, an African American Bond accused of murder, the ornithologist whose name was stolen by author Ian Fleming to name his fictional secret agent, and two resilient women caught up in it all.
On 6 March 1906, four men were executed for the attempted murder of Colombian president Rafael Reyes. The event was photographed, and the photos were later used for a fictionalised film on the failed coup. From then on, cinema in this South American country has been inextricably linked to its violent history. Moving images have been used for historiography, propaganda, disinformation and to instil unity in a nation that refuses to come together. Falsos positivos, murdered youths disguised as guerrillas by the army to simulate military success, are a common element.
In the Cold War years of the 1970s, an American patrol boat meets a Soviet ship off the east coast of the United States for talks about fishing rights in the Atlantic. In the midst of this, while Russian commanders are aboard the U.S. Coast Guard vessel where the talks are being held, a Lithuanian sailor jumps across the ten feet of icy water separating the boats. Crash-landing on the deck of the American ship, he desperately begs for asylum. Though they try, the Americans ultimately fail to provide protection and the Soviets are allowed to capture him and brutally return him to their vessel. Thus begins a stranger-than-fiction story of imprisonment, discovery, fame, and freedom. Through rare archival footage and a dramatic first-person re-enactment of that fateful day by Simas Kudirka, the would-be defector himself, this tale of one of the biggest Cold War muddles takes us on a journey of uncanny twists of fate, and the emotional sacrifices of becoming a universal symbol of freedom.
An embellished account of the 1803 expedition by famed frigate U.S.S. Constitution–a.k.a. “Old Ironsides”–against the Barbary pirates then terrorizing American shipping, focusing on the crew and passengers of a fictional merchant ship, The Esther, who fall afoul of the same pirates and thus become involved with the Constitution’s mission.
Hee Haw is an American television variety show featuring country music and humor with fictional rural Kornfield Kounty as a backdrop. It aired on CBS-TV from 1969–1971 before a 20-year run in local syndication. The show was inspired by Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In,[1] the major difference being that Hee Haw was far less topical, and was centered on country music. Initially co-hosted by musicians Buck Owens and Roy Clark, the show was equally well-known for its voluptuous, scantily-clad women in stereotypical farmer’s daughter outfits, male stars Jim and Jon Hager and its cornpone humor.
A privately-financed scientist and his colleagues hire an ex-Navy officer to conduct an Alaskan submarine expedition in order to prevent a Red Chinese anti-American plot that may lead to World War III. Mixes deviously plotted schoolboy fiction with submarine spectacle and cold war heroics.
Top Coppers follows the adventures of cops John Mahogany and Mitch Rust, as they attempt to rid the fictional world of Justice City from its deranged criminal underworld. The universe and its characters are derived from the conventions of American and British cop shows of the Seventies and Eighties, from Starsky & Hutch to The Professionals, but is set in no specific time or country. With big, silly characters and hilarious stories, Top Coppers is filled with familiar tropes and references from the police and action genres, as well as drawing on relatable British situations, problems and relationships.
Married… with Children is an American sitcom that aired for 11 seasons. It featured a dysfunctional family living in a fictional Chicago, Illinois, suburb. The show, notable for being the first prime-time television series to air on Fox, ran from April 5, 1987, to June 9, 1997. The series was created by Michael G. Moye and Ron Leavitt. The show was known for handling nonstandard topics for the time period, which garnered the then-fledgling Fox network a standing among the Big Three television networks.
The series’ 11-season, 259-episode run makes it the longest-lasting live-action sitcom on the Fox network. The show’s famous theme song is “Love and Marriage” by Sammy Cahn and Jimmy Van Heusen, performed by Frank Sinatra from the 1955 television production Our Town.
The first season of the series was videotaped at ABC Television Center in Hollywood. From season 2 to season 8, the show was taped at Sunset Gower Studios in Hollywood, and the remaining three seasons were taped at Sony Pictures Studios in Culver City. The series was produced by Embassy Communications on its first season and the remaining seasons by ELP Communications under the studio Columbia Pictures Television.
Las Vegas is an American television series broadcast by NBC from September 22, 2003 to February 15, 2008. The show focuses on a team of people working at the fictional Montecito Resort & Casino dealing with issues that arise within the working environment, ranging from valet parking and restaurant management to casino security. The series originally aired on Monday nights, though NBC later moved the series to Friday nights first to 9 PM Eastern/8 PM Central and then to 10 PM Eastern/9 PM Central. The show ended syndication in the United States in July 2013 after a long run of weekday back to back episodes it was moved to a graveyard slot of 4 am- then removed totally from TNT’s lineup.
The series originally centered around Ed Deline, a strict ex-CIA officer who went from being Head of Security to becoming President of Operations of the Montecito, whose job is to run the day-to-day operations of the casino. Following his departure from the series in Season 5, former Marine Danny McCoy, Ed’s former protégé, became the Montecito’s new President of Operations.
The series abruptly ended with a cliffhanger because NBC canceled Las Vegas in the offseason following season five.
Earth 2 is an American science fiction television series which aired on NBC from November 6, 1994 to June 4, 1995. The show was canceled after one season of 22 episodes. It follows the journey and settlement of a small expeditionary group called the Eden Project, with the intent to journey to an Earth-like planet called G889 in an attempt to find a cure to an illness called “the syndrome”. The series was created by Michael Duggan, Carol Flint, Mark Levin, and Billy Ray, produced by Amblin Entertainment and Universal Television, and filmed primarily in northern New Mexico around the Santa Fe area. The series’ music was composed by David Bergeaud, and the executive producers were Michael Duggan, Mark Levin, and Carol Flint.
Initially, the show’s audience was quite large, reaching eighth place; however, by April 23 of the next year, Nielsen ratings share had dropped from 23% to 9%. During its run, it had been nominated for a Primetime Emmy, Saturn, and other awards. In 2005, the entire series was released on DVD in a 4-disc set.
Earth 2 is an American science fiction television series which aired on NBC from November 6, 1994 to June 4, 1995. The show was canceled after one season of 22 episodes. It follows the journey and settlement of a small expeditionary group called the Eden Project, with the intent to journey to an Earth-like planet called G889 in an attempt to find a cure to an illness called “the syndrome”. The series was created by Michael Duggan, Carol Flint, Mark Levin, and Billy Ray, produced by Amblin Entertainment and Universal Television, and filmed primarily in northern New Mexico around the Santa Fe area. The series’ music was composed by David Bergeaud, and the executive producers were Michael Duggan, Mark Levin, and Carol Flint.
Initially, the show’s audience was quite large, reaching eighth place; however, by April 23 of the next year, Nielsen ratings share had dropped from 23% to 9%. During its run, it had been nominated for a Primetime Emmy, Saturn, and other awards. In 2005, the entire series was released on DVD in a 4-disc set.
An American filmmaking couple retreat to the island for the summer to each write screenplays for their upcoming films in an act of pilgrimage to the place that inspired Bergman. As the summer and their screenplays advance, the lines between reality and fiction start to blur against the backdrop of the Island’s wild landscape.
A first-hand account of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police beat following Jake Adelstein, an American journalist who embeds himself into the Tokyo Vice police squad to reveal corruption. Based on Jake Adelstein’s non-fiction book of the same name.
Star Wars: Clone Wars is an Emmy Award- and Annie Award-winning American animated microseries set in the Star Wars universe.
Chronologically, the series takes place during the three-year time period between the prequel films Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith. The show depicted the actions of various characters in the Star Wars prequel trilogy, including Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Mace Windu, and other Knights of the Jedi Order during the conflict, leading the clone trooper forces of the Galactic Republic against the battle droid armies of the Confederacy of Independent Systems and the Sith.
The series was produced by Cartoon Network Studios in association with Lucasfilm Ltd., and was aired both online and on Cartoon Network in 25 chapters from 2003 to 2005. The first two seasons, comprising Volume One, were produced in a two to three minute “micro” format, while season three was produced as fifteen minute episodes making up Volume Two. Both volumes were later released on home video edited as feature length films. It was ranked 21 on IGN’s Top 100 Animated Series list. Entertainment Weekly ranked the series 20th out of 25 of the best science-fiction films or television of the past 25 years.
Manifest: The Chryzinium Era is a 2017 American science fiction short film drama, written, directed and produced by Rick Lord, Phillip Wade and Tim Wade, in which Madison and her father are outcasts in a society ruled by an alien civilization. Survival is becoming more difficult, forcing Madison to make a decision that will change her life forever. The film stars Phoebe Jacobs, Rick Lord and Tim Wade.
30 Rock is an American television comedy series that ran on NBC from October 11, 2006, to January 31, 2013, and was created by Tina Fey. The series, which is loosely based on Fey’s experiences as head writer for Saturday Night Live, takes place behind the scenes of a fictional live sketch comedy series depicted as airing on NBC. The series’ name refers to 30 Rockefeller Plaza in New York City, the address of the GE Building, in which the NBC Studios are located.
Spanning the years 1945 to 1955, a chronicle of the fictional Italian-American Corleone crime family. When organized crime family patriarch, Vito Corleone barely survives an attempt on his life, his youngest son, Michael steps in to take care of the would-be killers, launching a campaign of bloody revenge.
An American girl on vacation in Italy finds an unanswered “letter to Juliet” — one of thousands of missives left at the fictional lover’s Verona courtyard, which are typically answered by a the “secretaries of Juliet” — and she goes on a quest to find the lovers referenced in the letter.
Adapted from the 1951 non-fiction account by psychoanalyst Georges Devereux, “Psychotherapy Of A Plains Indian,” the film follows the true story of Picard (Del Toro), a Plains Indian of the Blackfeet nation, as he returns from WWII and begins experiencing unexplainable symptoms shortly thereafter. He travels to the famous Winter Hospital in Topeka, Kansas, where he meets Devereux (Amalric), thus beginning a professional and personal friendship guided by compassion and understanding of Native American culture.
Fictional account of what might have happened if Hitler had won the war. It is now the 1960s and Germany’s war crimes have so far been kept a secret. Hitler wants to talk peace with the US president. An American journalist and a German homicide cop stumble into a plot to destroy all evidence of the genocide.
In real life, mystery writer Agatha Christie disappeared for 11 days in December 1926. To this day, no one knows the details of what she did during that time. The film gives a fictional account of Christie’s time away, showing her as a woman fleeing her own life after the death of her mother and the announcement from her husband that he is leaving her. She flees to a spa in Harrogate. With the whole country looking for her, an American reporter finds her and ultimately tries to help her.
In 1946, to prevent the Chinese civil war, Zhou Enlai who represented the Communists held a talk with the Chinese Nationalist Party, and George C. Marshall, who represented the Americans at Plum Village in Nanjing. A lost notebook stirred the already turbulent peace talk. The ripples alert the three sides and a battle of spy and anti-spy began. Many historical figures like Zhou Enlai, George Marshall, Chiang Kai-shek, Soong May-ling, He Yingqing, Chen Cheng, and Hu Zongnan are depicted in the movie. Other fictional persona such as the ace agent Xiong Huiquan, the female journalist, and a secret spy who belongs to the Confidential Bureau adds tension to the critical moment.
A fictionalized account of the early life of the American president as a young lawyer facing his greatest court case. Ten years in the life of Abraham Lincoln, before he became known to his nation and the world. He moves from a Kentucky cabin to Springfield, Illinois, to begin his law practice. He defends two men accused of murder in a political brawl, suffers the death of his girlfriend Ann, courts his future wife Mary Todd, and agrees to go into politics.
Inspired by a 1970’s science fiction novel entitled ALTERNATIVE 3, one man, armed with nothing but a camera and an open mind, sets forth on a journey to reveal the truth behind what may well be one of the most startling secrets: An elite group is said to be secretly building an exclusive off-world survival colony on planet Mars. Credible individuals have begun to emerge claiming to have been actual Mars recruits including the great granddaughter of a historically significant American president.
An astonishing fictional account of the unending series of murders of young women in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, which began in 1996. Most of the victims are low-paid laborers who have been drawn to the town by the possibility of work at American-owned factories. In the film Mexican police officer Blanca Bravo is sent to Cuidad Juarez to investigate and comes to learn realities of these women’s lives, as well as the truth about a police force and local power structure embodied by entrepreneur Mickey Santos that has ceased to care.
Patricia Arquette stars as American widow Laura Bowman, a young doctor who’s unwittingly drawn into political turmoil while vacationing in Burma in the late 1980s, in this fictionalized drama based on actual events. Bowman initially left San Francisco with her sister (Frances McDormand) in an attempt to escape painful memories of her husband and son’s violent deaths. But her fight to escape to Thailand could prove just as harrowing.
The Boondocks is an American adult animated sitcom on Cartoon Network’s late night programming block, Adult Swim. The series premiered on November 6, 2005 and was created by Aaron McGruder, based upon McGruder’s comic strip of the same name. The show begins with an African-American family, the Freemans, having moved from the South Side of Chicago, Illinois to the fictional, peaceful and mostly white suburb of Woodcrest. The perspective offered by this mixture of cultures, lifestyles, socioeconomic classes, stereotypes, and races provides for much of the comedy and conflict in this series.
There have been a total of 45 episodes over the course of the shows first three seasons. The two part season two finale “The Hunger Strike” and “The Uncle Ruckus Reality Show” was never aired on American television as Adult Swim feared legal actions against them from BET. Both episodes were aired on Teletoon and were released on DVD in the United States. The season three episodes “Pause” and “The Story of Jimmy Rebel” have been pulled from general episode rotation following the television debuts and no longer appear in reruns. A fourth season containing twenty episodes has been announced to air in January 2014.
