Home movies and tape recordings collected from 60 different American families comprise a composite lifetime which moves from childhood to adulthood, from innocence to experience.

The Family Album

Alan Berliner

Dark Circle

Wise Guys!

A heartbreaking yet hopeful portrait of three runaway girls with histories of abuse and neglect. Pinky, a Puerto Rican girl, refuses to go to school. Mars, on the streets since age 13, works as a stripper. Martha, who has lived in a dozen foster homes, confronts teenage motherhood. Music, humor, and intimate conversations play against the disturbing reality of these girls' lives.

Girltalk

On a hot summer night in Detroit, Ronald Ebens, an autoworker, killed a young Chinese-American engineer with a baseball bat. Although he confessed, he never spent a day in jail. This gripping Academy Award-nominated film relentlessly probes the implications of the murder in the streets of Detroit, for the families of those involved, and for the American justice system.

Who Killed Vincent Chin?

The debutante tradition is alive and well. Witness the annual Debutante Cotillion in Washington, DC -- a meticulously planned ritual where networking and meeting people who can help you later are as important to today's debs as the style of the gown or the height of the escort.

Coming Out

A stamp dealer from Los Angeles, a former school teacher form Miami, a born again Christian from Las Vegas, and a whiz-kid law student square off in the Jeopardy! $100,000 Tournament of Champions. Peek behind the scenes and into the fact-filled minds of contestants in one of America's favorite game shows.

Denounced by officials and shunned by broadcasters when it was first released, this exploration of the personal and immediate impacts of the nuclear age carries a chilling thesis: The Bomb is killing ordinary Americans, even in the absence of a nuclear war.

A bold and unconventional film portrait of one of America's leading Social Realist painters doing what he does best: skewering corrupt politicians, raging over social injustices, and satirizing the petty foibles of humankind.

Jack Levine: Feast of Pure Reason

On the streets and subways of New York, 101 itinerant performers whirl firesticks, mimic passers-by, imitate Stevie Wonder, tap dance and perform classical music. A delightful mixture of music and magic moments, celebrating some joyful encounters in New York City streets.

No Applause, Just Throw Money

The untold story of a handful of Jewish youth who organized an underground resistance against the Nazis in the Lithuanian ghetto of Vilna.

Partisans of Vilna

Moved by the growing desperation of thousands of laid-off steel workers, a group of ministers in Pittsburgh begins to confront the city's government and powerful corporations. Their passionate, controversial, and unorthodox actions lead to profound soul-searching, Church rejection, and imprisonment.

The Fighting Ministers

Videomaker Lynn Hershman places herself center-screen for an intimate, humorous, and piercing narrative about her efforts to control her weight.

Binge

For more than a hundred years cowboys have written with feeling about the life and land they love. Several contemporary poet lariats keep that tradition alive — even on the Johnny Carson show.

Cowboy Poets

The inner and outer lives of identical twins Doug and Mike Starn, whose collaborative painting and photographic work is rapidly gaining acclaim in the art world.

Doug and Mike, Mike and Doug

The lives and struggles of a group of homeless people who've been moved into an "urban campground" in Los Angeles.

Lost Angeles

The home for the world's boldest contemporary filmmakers, celebrating intriguing personal stories that spark conversation and inspire action.

The Family Album

Seasons39

Season 2 Episodes14

Crew1

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Episode Summary