Arts Worth Watching At the beginning of the Oscar®-nominated documentary 5 Broken Cameras, Palestinian filmmaker Emad Burnat buys a camera to record the birth of his youngest son. What he winds up capturing is so much more—the growth of his boy within a deeply personal, firsthand account of life and nonviolent resistance between the residents in Bil’in, the West Bank village where he lives, and the Israeli soldiers and contractors erecting a security fence. Co-directed by Israeli filmmaker Guy Davidi and nominated for the Grand Jury Prize in the World Cinema Documentary category at Sundance, the film is an extraordinary document of the power of the human spirit and the value of visual storytelling. It comes to NPT and PBS stations nationwide via P.O.V. on Monday, August 26, at 9 p.m.
While 5 Broken Cameras was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance in 2012, it was The Law in These Parts that took it home. The film by acclaimed Israeli filmmaker Ra'anan Alexandrowicz is comprised of a series of thoughtful and candid interviews with some of the Israeli judges, prosecutors, and legal advisers who helped devise the Israeli occupation's legal framework. It’s a tour-de-force examination of the system of military administration used by Israel since the Six Day War of 1967 and a complex picture of the Middle East conflict and the balance among political interests, security, and human rights that has come with it. P.O.V. brings it to you on Monday, August 19, at 9 p.m. Filmmakers know that digital film and editing has changed the game. In Side by Side: The Science, Art, and Impact of Digital Cinema, airing Friday, August 30, at 8 p.m., over 70 filmmakers and industry professionals, including George Lucas, David Lynch, Lars von Trier, James Cameron, Steven Soderbergh, Christopher Nolan, David Fincher, Robert Rodriguez, and Walter Murch, reveal their experiences and feelings about working with film and digital—where we are now, how we got here and what the future may bring.
The first half of the month, for NPT and many PBS stations throughout the country, it’s drive time, which means plenty of unique and entertaining specials. Highlights include a new Sarah Brightman special, Dreamchaser in Concert, on Tuesday, August 6, at 8:30 p.m. As announced last year in Moscow, Brightman is anticipated to be the first musician to travel to the International Space Station. Her new album, Dreamchaser, is an exploration of her hopes and dreams for the trip. This unique special, based around the futuristic, otherworldly vision behind the Dreamchaser album and world tour, features both new songs and classic favorites, incredible lighting, elaborate costumes, and powerful video imagery. The following night, Wednesday, August 7, at 8:30 p.m., it’s a new show from a public television—and international— favorite. Gloria Estefan: The Standards finds the seven-time Grammy Award-winning superstar performing songs by some of the most important songwriters in pop history, Kern, Chaplin, and Gershwin among them. For this PBS concert special, Estefan performs the songs for the first time, backed by the Henry Mancini Institute Orchestra at the renowned New World Center. On Sunday, August 11, at 7 p.m., Scottish singer and songwriter Emeli Sandé, already breaking sales records in her native UK and selling three million albums worldwide, introduces herself to a wider U.S. audience with a PBS special. Filmed at the legendary Royal Albert Hall at the culmination of her fall 2012 tour, Live at the Royal Albert Hall includes performances of all of her hit singles so far, including "Daddy," "My Kind Of Love," "Heaven," "Beneath Your Beautiful," and the international smash "Next To Me." On Tuesday, August 13, at 8:30 p.m., Chris Isaak, an NPT and Nashville favorite, performs hits together with songs from his latest release, Beyond the Sun, from the ACL Live stage in Austin, Texas. Rockabilly queen Wanda Jackson guests.