BEHIND THE CURTAIN

FRIDAY, JULY 19 @ 7:00PM & 12:00AM

Offering unprecedented access, The Shaw Festival: Behind the Curtain captures a unique approach to theatre in one of North America’s longest-running, most distinctive and exciting theatre experiences. In following the process of getting plays from the page to the stage, this documentary provides insight into the production at a world-renowned repertory theatre festival.

Each year between April and October, the Shaw Festival presents 10–12 plays on four stages that attract patrons from all over the world. Located in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, Canada–the Shaw’s extended and one-of-a-kind schedule has actors and directors working on several plays at once. Over eight months, crews design and build sets on a finely honed schedule that is both frenetic, creative and amazingly well planned and executed.

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ELSA’S LEGACY: THE BORN FREE STORY

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 17 @ 6:00PM & 11:00PM

In 1960, a book written about raising an orphaned lion cub named Elsa and then releasing her back into the wild became a worldwide bestseller. Born Free was a game changer that essentially altered the way we perceive relationships between humans and animals. Because of the emotional bond George and Joy Adamson formed with Elsa, lions could no longer be dismissed simply as brutal killers to be shot while on safari. Elsa became an individual in the eyes of the world, and her story made her a symbol for all animals’ right to live free.

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SUNDAY, JUNE 4 @ 9:00PM

Over five centuries, Chatsworth Estate has been passed down through 16 generations of the Cavendish family and is presently the home of the current 12th Duke of Devonshire and his family. We discover the stories throughout its 500 years that have shaped the history of Chatsworth into the acclaimed and distinguished house it has become today.

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A LETTER TO ELIA

FRIDAY, JULY 12 @ 10:00PM

For Martin Scorsese, growing up in Little Italy, seeing On the Waterfront and East of Eden as a young man was a life-changing experience. Scorsese appears on and off camera throughout A Letter to Elia, taking us through Kazan’s life and through his own as well, and through his growing realization that there was an artist behind the camera, someone “who knew me, maybe better than I knew myself.” The film is about being exposed to the right movies at the right moment in your adolescent life, when you’re wide open and ready to connect, to be spurred on by the work up there on the screen, and then, maybe, to chart a course toward making your own movies.

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with GWEN IFILL

FRIDAY, JULY 12 @ 6:00PM & 11:00PM

This Week: Immigration Reform, Egypt, Revisiting Abortion Laws, Political Sex Scandals and Redemption.

The Senate-passed comprehensive immigration reform bill is facing significant hurdles in the House. Republican leaders want a smaller “bite-sized” approach according to House Speaker John Boehner. The biggest sticking point is over a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. Alan Gomez of USA Today will report on the competing priorities to reform including border security and will also explain President Obama’s role in promoting immigration overhaul.

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ALASKA’S WILD PENINSULA

THURSDAY, JULY 11 @ 12:30 AM

A narrow frontier between warm and cold latitudes extends 500 miles from the Alaskan mainland, separating the tempestuous Bering Sea from the Pacific: the Alaska Peninsula, a cloud-cloaked land of active volcanoes, rolling tundra and the greatest concentration of the largest bears on earth.

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ULTIMATE TUT

TUESDAY. NOVEMBER 3 @ 6:00PM & 11:00PM

More than 90 years ago, in 1922, in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings, archaeologist and Egyptologist Howard Carter made the greatest archaeological find in history: the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb and its golden treasures worth nearly a billion dollar. Carter’s find made Tutankhamun the most famous pharaoh in ancient Egyptian history. But the real story of King Tut has become shrouded in myth, with many mysteries around his tomb unsolved to this day.

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TWO AMERICAN FAMILIES

THURSDAY, JULY 11 @ 7:00PM

Since 1992, Bill Moyers has been following the story of two ordinary, hard-working families in Milwaukee — one black, one white — as they battle to keep from sliding into poverty. A remarkable portrait of perseverance, Two American Families raises unsettling questions about the changing nature of the U.S. economy and the fate of a declining middle class.

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THE JOURNEY OF THE CORPS OF DISCOVERY

TUESDAY, JULY 9 @ 6:00PM & 11:00PM

On February 28, 1803, President Thomas Jefferson won approval from Congress for a visionary project, an endeavor that would become one of America’s greatest stories of adventure.

Twenty-five hundred dollars were appropriated to fund a small expeditionary group, whose mission was to explore the uncharted West. Jefferson called the group the Corps of Discovery. It would be led by Jefferson’s secretary, Meriwether Lewis, and Lewis’ friend,William Clark.

Over the next four years, the Corps of Discovery would travel thousands of miles, experiencing lands, rivers and peoples that no Americans ever had before. (2 hours)

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THE SPENCERS

MONDAY, MARCH 4 @ 10:00PM

Althorp, childhood home and final resting place of Princess Diana, is currently the home of Diana’s brother, Charles, the 9th Earl Spencer. Nineteen generations of Spencers have presided over this grand estate for more than 500 years. The Spencer dynasty has produced politicians, military heroes, dukes and duchesses and will one day furnish Britain with a king: Diana’s son, Prince William. Noted for their generosity, the Spencers once came to the rescue of a distant cousin fallen on hard times: the great-great-great-grandfather of George Washington.

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