FRAMED

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 26 @ 7:00PM & 11:30PM

London’s National Gallery houses some of the world’s finest masterpieces, and its curator, Quentin Lester, wants nothing more than to live among them, distraction-free, in a pure and simple life of the mind. When the Gallery’s Victorian-era plumbing fails and floods the museum, its paintings are brought to safety in an abandoned slate mine in Manod, North Wales — the very mine to which the collection was evacuated to during World War II. Quentin accompanies his beloved Raphaels, Titians, and Velasquez to safety, relishing a chance to tend to them in isolation.

Find out more »

THE CALLING

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 21 @ 7:00PM & 10:00PM

Through a growing series of interviews, videos, and articles, What’s Your Calling? pushes the notion of “calling” to explore all of the stuff that makes us human: our values, our passions, our doubts, and hopes. Join a conversation about notions of “calling” from both religious and secular perspectives.

Find out more »

ENDGAME

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 19 @ 7:00PM & 11:00PM

A nation teeters on the brink of civil war in this real-life political thriller about the negotiations that led to the end of apartheid in South Africa and the release of Nelson Mandela. Michael Young, a British businessman working in South Africa, has the audacious hope of bringing both sides of the apartheid conflict together — the entrenched government and the rebel African National Congress (ANC). But when his dream of secret talks is realized on an estate in England, it quickly becomes clear that common ground will be elusive as explosive tensions boil just below the surface. Against a backdrop of danger, terrorism and escalating unrest, a high-stakes chess match plays out, ultimately proving that peace is possible.

Find out more »

FEATURING NATALIE COLE…

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 24 @ 8:30PM & 11:30PM

Grammy Award-winner Natalie Cole and Pulitzer Prize-winner David McCullough join the world-renowned Mormon Tabernacle Choir in a magnificent Christmas celebration featuring some of the season’s most beloved songs. Natalie Cole joins the Choir to perform “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year,” and “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing,” and David McCullough reflects on “American Christmas Memories.” The program also includes “For Unto Us a Child is Born” from the Messiah, “Christmas Carols in the Air,” “Angels, from the Realms of Glory” and more.

PARIS THE LUMINOUS YEARS

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 18 @ 7:00PM

PARIS THE LUMINOUS YEARS tells the story of Paris from an unprecedented point of view, not as the familiar, glamorous backdrop for the revolutions that exploded there, but as active protagonist, catalyst and midwife to modernity. The film spotlights now-famous key figures in the art world’s first international avant-garde, including Pablo Picasso, Marc Chagall, Igor Stravinsky, Ernest Hemingway, Serge Diaghilev, Jean Cocteau, Gertrude Stein, Aaron Copland, Josephine Baker, Marcel Duchamp, Langston Hughes, Sylvia Beach, Janet Flanner and many more, as they recount their individual stories of why they came to Paris, whom they met, what they made there, and how being in Paris transformed them and their work.

Find out more »

CLOSE TO HOME

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 14 @ 7:00PM & 10:00PM

As the U.S. unemployment rate hits a 25-year high and the Dow Jones Industrial Average hits a six-year low, award-winning FRONTLINE producer Ofra Bikel chronicles the recession’s impact on one unlikely American neighborhood — New York’s Upper East Side.

In Close to Home, Bikel sets up her cameras in the hair salon she’s patronized for 20 years. It’s an intimate space where she has come to know well the surprisingly diverse clientele — from athletic trainers and housewives to high-end bankers, actors and opera singers. Despite expectations that this neighborhood is a secure bastion of privilege, these days, when clients get in the chair, they offer a window into the country in recession: Some are broke, others don’t have a plan, and they’re all looking to commiserate.
Find out more »

JOURNEY TO BETHLEHEM

MONDAY, DECEMBER 13 @ 7:00PM & 10:00PM

Nationally-recognized composer and conductor René Clausen of Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota re-imagines Christmas, taking viewers of all faiths and traditions on a musical journey. The college’s annual concert combines the pageantry of opera, the grandeur of choral orchestral masterworks, and the intimacy of delicate solos.

Find out more »

DANCE IN AMERICA

SAN FRANCISCO BALLET’S NUTCRACKER

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 14 @ 6:00PM & 9:00PM

San Francisco Ballet makes the beloved Nutcracker its own, resetting it during the 1915 Panama Pacific International Exhibition and introducing Dance in America viewers to the dazzling Maria Kochetkova and Davit Karapetyan. Recorded in December 2007 by KQED Public Television to help commemorate the company’s 75th anniversary, the work is choreographed by Artistic Director Helgi Tomasson and features sets and costumes by, respectively, Michael Yeargan and Martin Pakledinaz, both repeat Tony Award-winning designers. “Striking, elegant and beautiful,” assessed The New York Times.
Find out more »

L.A. HOLIDAY CELEBRATION 2010

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 13 @ 7:00PM& 10:00PM

L.A. HOLIDAY CELEBRATION 2010 is the best of the six-hour live L.A. County Holiday Celebration broadcast from Los Angeles Music Center in December 2009. The one-hour highlights version of this Emmy-nominated music and dance spectacular yields offbeat takes on holiday classics and a sampling of how world cultures mark the season.

Find out more »

PETER & THE WOLF

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 9 @ 8:00PM & 11:00PM

Sergei Prokofiev‘s fanciful musical tale “Peter and the Wolf” is given new life in this innovative new animated interpretation, which won the 2008 Oscar® for Best Animated Short Film. “Oldies will remember the work from school music lessons,” wrote London’s OBSERVER, “while those coming to the story for the first time will be delighted with this darkly comic modernization.” Originally composed in 1936, the piece famously uses personified instruments in the orchestra to tell the story — also penned by the composer — of young Peter and his animal friends the Duck, the Bird, and even a mischievous Cat (represented by an oboe, flute, and clarinet respectively). Peter, himself represented by the string section, becomes an unsuspecting hero and outwits the Wolf (French horns), who’s intent on menacing his small Russian village —

not to mention Peter’s beloved animal friends. Conceived and directed by award-winning animator Suzie Templeton, this modern-day “Peter & the Wolf” uses stop-frame model animation, puppets, and digital photography to retell the enduring classic story, and features the Philharmonia Orchestra under the direction of Mark Stephenson performing Prokofiev’s beloved score.

Find out more »