SUMMARY: PBS "Masterpiece" has a new spin on an old story, with a six-hour serial version of “Les Miserables.” Unlike recent Broadway and film presentations, this one is not a musical, and its length offers the audience more time to connect to characters. Jeffrey Brown talks to stars Dominic West, David Oyelowo, and Lily Collins; and Executive Producer Rebecca Eaton, about the hero story's current relevance.
SUMMARY:"Green Book," a new film based on the true story of black concert pianist Don Shirley, explores what happens when he hires a white bouncer to drive him through the dangerous Deep South in the Jim Crow era. Director Peter Farrelly explains to Jeffrey Brown how the movie proves that "ultimately, we're all the same."
SUMMARY: James Baldwin was one of the nation's most prominent novelists, social critics and civil rights activists of the 20th century. Now his critiques of racism and segregation are the subject of a new Oscar-nominated documentary titled, “I Am Not Your Negro.” Jeffrey Brown sits down with director Raoul Peck to discuss his tribute to a man he sees as a civil rights prophet.
JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour): Next, James Baldwin was one of the nation's most prominent authors, public speakers, social critics and civil rights activists.
A new Oscar-nominated documentary opening today explores his life and legacy.
Jeffrey Brown has our look. It's part of our series Beyond the Red Carpet.
And a warning: It contains offensive language.
JAMES BALDWIN, Author/Civil Rights Activist:There are days — this is one of them — when you wonder what your role is in this country and what your future is in it.
JEFFREY BROWN (NewsHour): His words never really went away, but the writer James Baldwin, speaking here on public television in 1963, feels as relevant as ever.
JAMES BALDWIN:I'm terrified at the moral apathy, the death of the heart, which is happening in my country. These people have deluded themselves for so long, that they really don't think I'm human.
NARRATOR: “The story of the Negro in America is the story of America. It is not a pretty story.”
JEFFREY BROWN:The clip is from a new documentary that draws a portrait of the artist, though not as a traditional film biography, and of the fractured and racially divided world he shone a searing light on.
NARRATOR: “I was free only in battle, but never free to rest.”
JEFFREY BROWN: It's called “I Am Not Your Negro.”
RAOUL PECK, Director, “I Am Not Your Negro”: James Baldwin is probably, for me and for many other people, one of the most extraordinary authors in this country, black or white. And he is somebody who changed my life.
SUMMARY: One of the most controversial elements of President Obama’s national security policy is the use of drones to kill terrorists. The newly released movie "Eye in the Sky" provides a front-row seat to the debate taking place among national security officials. Jeffrey Brown reports on the movie and the implications of the use of drones.
JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour): A movie thriller being released nationally today delves into the practical, legal and moral issues surrounding drone warfare.
Jeffrey Brown is back with that.
ACTOR: What’s the plan, Captain?
HELEN MIRREN, Actress: We need to put a Hellfire through that roof right now.
JEFFREY BROWN (NewsHour): It’s a new kind of warfare, advanced technology that tracks, identifies, and has the power to destroy enemies by remote control from thousands of miles away.
HELEN MIRREN: We have two suicide vests with explosives inside that house.
JEFFREY BROWN:But as the film “Eye in the Sky” asks, should it be used? If so, when, especially if innocent lives may also be taken?
HELEN MIRREN: Harold, this is a very time-sensitive target. Do I have authority to strike?
ACTOR: The rules of engagement you’re operating under only allow for a low collateral damage estimate.
ACTRESS: Yes. Yes.
JEFFREY BROWN: The film follows British military commanders, including Helen Mirren as Colonel Katherine Powell, as they debate with Cabinet officers and politicians over a strike against Al-Shabaab terrorists in Nairobi, Kenya, who appear to be on the verge of a suicide bombing.
ACTOR: I told you, they came to witness a capture, not a kill. Give me a capture option.
HELEN MIRREN:We no longer have a capture option. Any action on the ground will lead to an armed confrontation, which we will not be able to contain.
JEFFREY BROWN: Director Gavin Hood, who joined us recently at the E Street Cinema in Washington, has the action play out in real time.
SUMMARY: Haskell Wexler, 93, was a giant in the world of cinematography in the 1960s and '70s. The Oscar-winner helped create new looks for films like "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" and "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" Ellsworth Kelly, 92, was one of America's leading abstract artists. Jeffrey Brown looks back at their distinguished careers.
JEFFREY BROWN (NewsHour): And finally tonight, we remember two major figures from the world of the arts who died this weekend, an Oscar-winning cinematographer, and a master of the abstract modern art scene.
Haskell Wexler was a pioneer in the world of cinematography in the 1960s and ’70s, directing the photography and creating new looks for films like “Coming Home.”
ACTOR: I wanted to be a war hero, man. I wanted to go out and kill for my country.
HASKELL WEXLER: I hope we can use our art for peace and for love. Thanks.
RICHARD BURTON: Martha, I warn you.
ELIZABETH TAYLOR: I stand warned.
JEFFREY BROWN: That film used handheld cameras to elevate the tension between the characters by Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton.
Wexler earned another Oscar in 1976 for “Bound for Glory,” which told the story of Woody Guthrie. It was the first film to use a steady cam shot.
For “Medium Cool” in 1969, a film he wrote and directed, Wexler blended real and fictional footage to tell the story of a TV reporter covering the turmoil of the 1968 Democratic National Convention. That cinema verite style would influence many other aspiring filmmakers.
Wexler was also an outspoken liberal activist and documentarian who used the tools of film to champion his causes.
MAN: It’s war. And that’s the only thing that you could do, and it’s either you or them.
JEFFREY BROWN: He won an Oscar for a short documentary in 1970 called “Interviews with My Lai Veterans” about the U.S. massacre in Vietnam.
He continued working until recently. Haskell Wexler died yesterday. He was 93 years old.
Ellsworth Kelly was one of America’s leading 20th century abstract artists, becoming known for his geometric shapes and simple color schemes inspired by the world around him.
Stephanie Barron is senior curator at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
STEPHANIE BARRON, Senior Curator, Los Angeles County Museum of Art: The humanity comes from his uncanny ability to distill the visual and the physical that he sees. And whether it’s a leaf or an awning or a rock, things that we might just walk right by, he would pick up, and he would ponder, and he would find the essence in them and distill it into a very simple form.
SUMMARY: For the first time in 20 years, all of the Academy Award nominees for leading and supporting acting roles are white. Gwen Ifill asks Mike Sargent of Pacifica Radio and Ann Hornaday of The Washington Post about the surprises and snubs of the 2015 Oscar nominations, and what it says about power and diversity in Hollywood.
GWEN IFILL (NewsHour): It took only minutes after this year’s Oscar nominations were announced this morning for the criticism to begin.
Much of the reaction centered on what was missing, namely, diversity among nominees for actor, actress, directing and screenwriting. For the first time since 1995, all of the actors nominated for lead and supporting roles are white. One prominent snub, the civil rights film “Selma,” which snagged a best picture nod, but nothing for its director, actors or writers.
What, if anything, does any of this tell us about the Academy or about the films themselves?
For that, we turn to two film critics, Mike Sargent of Pacifica Radio and Ann Hornaday of The Washington Post.
Welcome to you both.
So, Ann Hornaday, what do today’s nominations tell us about the kinds of films that Hollywood is making and the kinds of films that Hollywood is awarding?
ANN HORNADAY, The Washington Post: Well, at least for today, it looks like it’s kind of a boys show.
And even when you look at the best picture nominees — and, gratifyingly, “Selma” did make it into the best picture — to be nominated for best picture. But so many of those are movies are journeys undertaken by men, either the great men of “The Theory of Everything” and “Imitation Game” or the young man of “Boyhood” or the actor of “Birdman.”
So it is a striking sort of tableaux of men and their stories being represented in that group.
I am Retired U.S. Navy (22yrs) and a Vietnam Veteran. After my Navy retirement I was in the computer related industry, now retired. In 2000 I was a registered Republican and voted for George W. Bush. Six months of having Bush in the Whitehouse forced me to re-evaluate my political stance. I had always thought of myself as a Moderate Republican, but was a Republican by "default" NOT because of close examination of the GOP. Due to what has happened in America since 2000, I now consider myself a progressive, and registered as a Non-Affiliated voter.
*Anti-First Amendment policies that attempt to turn America into a theocracy by enshrining ANY religious belief as law.
* Any attempt to suppress human or Constitutional rights.
* Any law or policy that supports discrimination based on religion, ethnicity, race/color, gender, sexual orientation, or any law that does NOT support Equal Treatment under the law.
*Any law or policy that attempts to suppress Freedom of the Press or Free Speech.
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