Latest in American Masters

Dick Cavett can still picture the exact moment and location in New York City when he first met the man who would become one of his most cherished pals. It was 1961 and Cavett, then a 25-year-old writer for Jack Parr on The Tonight Show, met the legendary Groucho Marx after they both attended the funeral…

PBS on Wednesday revealed its programming plans for the coming year, including a second season of Native America and the premiere of the American Masters documentary about Anthony Fauci. Native America is returning for four new episodes in 2023. Having first premiered in 2018, Season 2 presents stories of Native…

As she prepares for her upcoming 90th birthday, actress Rita Moreno can look forward to the release of Steven Spielberg's highly-anticipated take on West Side Story, in which she plays a significant role, and to the PBS debut of a new documentary about her life. Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who Decided to Go for It…

Editor’s note: Yoruba Richen is the director and Mehret Mandefro and Lacey Schwartz Delgado are executive producers of American Masters: How It Feels to Be Free, a documentary that looks at the historical importance and overlooked contributions of Black performers. Focusing on Lena Horne, Abbey Lincoln, Nina Simone, Di…

Hanukkah is just around the corner and Christmas is only a couple of weeks away, but the gifts are already piling up on the small screen. This weekend sees the return of Blue Bloods on CBS tonight for its 11th season, Showtime's Shameless is back for the start of its final season on December 6 and Starz's Power Book II…

EXCLUSIVE: Oliver Sacks: His Own Life, the Ric Burns documentary about the famed neurologist and author that the premiered this fall at the Telluride Film Festival, has been acquired by Zeitgeist Films in association with Kino Lorber. As part of the U.S. rights deal, the pic will open theatrically in May 2020 at Film…

The great photographer Garry Winogrand took more than a million pictures during his career. Among his preferred subjects was people at airports, especially those saddled with luggage. "When we talk about people psychologically and having issues we say, 'Oh, they've got baggage,'" notes Geoff Dyer, author of a book on…

EXCLUSIVE: Eagle Rock Entertainment and American Masters Pictures are teaming for Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool, the working title of a new feature-length documentary about the musical icon. Emmy winner Stanley Nelson (Freedom Riders) is directing the pic and also producing via his Firelight Media. Production is now…

Greenwich Entertainment has acquired U.S. distribution rights to Garry Winogrand: All Things Are Photographable, Sasha Waters Freyer’s documentary on the famed photographer that just won the Special Jury prize at SXSW after it world premiered there. A 2018 theatrical release is in the works, and the docu will have its…

Each with their own past experiences with Dr. Maya Angelou—the American poet, memoirist, and civil rights activist, most famous for her 1969 autobiography I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings—documentary filmmakers Bob Hercules and Rita Coburn Whack came together by chance on Maya Angelou: And Still I Rise, PBS’ American Ma…

The heralded, award-winning 28-year-old franchise will begin to chronicle not only American masters but also “emerging American masters,” Michael Kantor said in a New York Times interview  — industry speak for “targeting younger viewers.”  The franchise will stop emphasizing important cultural figures important to the…

After all the twists and turns on the Shane Salerno-directed docu Salinger that began with a January 2010 Deadline reveal that the film had been shot, how did the documentary do? The American Masters version totaled 2 million viewers, including repeat broadcasts and DVR viewers. This was strong considering the film…