Welcome to Lee Maine is a documentary film about a small, close-knit town (population 845) in rural Maine. As the smallest town in America to lose two sons in the Iraqi Conflict, the town of Lee learns how to cope with such a startling loss. Lee is a typical American town: patriotic, bucolic, with strong Christian values and a long tradition of service in the US Armed Forces. The film follows the community as it pulls together to overcome tragic loss and heartbreak. While opinions are hotly divided about America’s role the war in Iraq, the people of Lee bypass the common trappings of political disagreements and instead unite in their support of families, neighbors, and each other in this emotional time.
Art of Nom is a film about a revolutionary group of five Vietnamese artist/scholars, called the Zenei group. They are reviving a thousand-year- old Vietnamese script called Nom. For more than 1,000 years Chinese Han was the script used in Vietnam. Then in the 11th century, the Vietnamese created their own script. A charismatic and very idiosyncratic artist named Le Quoc Viet leads the Zenei Group. Their art explores Vietnamese history within contemporary society. Using calligraphy and Nom, Zenei wants Vietnam’s contemporary culture to interact with the nation’s rich history. Le Quoc Viet and Zenei are trying to halt the erosion of traditional Vietnamese culture. For centuries many Vietnamese could read and write both the Chinese characters and the Nom characters. In 1945 Vietnam shifted to its current phonetic script based on the Latin alphabet. Except for scholars, very few Vietnamese can still read Nom and now contemporary Vietnamese are faced with losing touch with much of the nation’s past that is preserved in the archives written in Nom.
The Zenei group hopes to revive interest in Nom by bringing it into the modern culture by using Nom in their artwork, installations and performances, thereby preserving the culture in a modern context.
Gray Matters is a series about highly accomplished older people discussing their current work, their plans and the wisdom they have gained through long, colorful and often celebrated careers.
“These masters are people who don’t retire. They reign.”
- - Lewis Lapham
The masters in Gray Matters continue to work with great energy in their studios, at their cameras, in their offices, on their farms and in many other settings. They have seen extraordinary changes and lived through epic events. They draw wisdom from vivid experiences while still making music, visual art, books and poetry, practicing medicine and running businesses, among many other activities.
Our guests on Gray Matters are making the world more humane, beautiful, healthier, exciting and easier to understand.
This is not a series about reminiscing or lamenting the loss of the golden days, when everything was purportedly better but rather of older Americans fully engaged in the here and now and looking to the future, while richly informed by their extraordinary experiences. As the cohort of older Americans rapidly increases, the lessons from these highly accomplished individuals for people of all ages will resonate more and more.
This episode is with illustrator and animator RO Blechman in his studio in upstate New York.
Running with Luci follows the journey of a 6-man ultramarathon team that competed in a 150-mile foot race through the Himalayan mountains in November of 2011, raising awareness for a rare incurable affliction.
Our story begins with Luci, the 5-year-old daughter of Mike Horvath. Luci lives with a rare growth hormone deficiency known as panhypopituitarism that prevents her and her family from leading a normal life. Struggling with insurance agencies, doctors, and the difficulties of maintaining a daily routine has taken a toll on the family – but their burden and perseverance grew into inspiration for Mike’s colleague George Chmiel. George took it upon himself to raise awareness for their cause while competing in marathons and competitive events. A highly motivated individual, George began competing in ultramarathons and raising money for The Magic Foundation – a Chicago based non-profit that helps families dealing with rare health conditions such as PHP, get the treatment and information they need to live.
This documentary film TWO PILLARS -NGUYEN TU NGHIEM, was made from film shot by the friends of the Indochina Arts Partnership (IAP) two weeks in Hanoi during the summer of 1994. It was made with the cooperation, assistance, and support of the Fine Arts Department of the Ministry of Culture and Vietnam Fine Association
Filmed originally in 1994 in Hanoi by the Friends of Indochina Arts Partnership. The original films of were lost. They had been stored in an unmarked box. They were discovered in 2015. The precious and rare interviews films of these two revered Vietnamese Masters needed to be edited. These films are the result of this effort. Twenty nine years in the making. These films include commentary from contemporary artists, Phan cam Thoung, Nguyen The Son, and Vu Kim Thu.