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NEH has already backed projects on Edgar Allan Poe and dramatist Lorraine Hansberry before Kantor arrived, producers had secured grant funding for a profile of Helen Keller. “This represents different areas of American culture artistically and geographically, and very different aspects of the voice of America.” and author William Faulkner as progress in this direction. Kantor cites pending grant applications to the National Endowment for the Humanities for films on entertainer Sammy Davis Jr.
#PBS AMERICAN MASTERS SERIES#
“I want to make sure that the focus of the series remains as broad and all-encompassing and, in a way, welcoming as it’s always been. With his wider lens, Kantor promises a continued emphasis on diversity. Any expansion of editorial boundaries of American Masters “would be of huge benefit to the documentary community.” “The more opportunities there are for documentary programs and documentary filmmakers the better,” he said. This openness to different story treatments is a welcome change to Michael Lumpkin, executive director of the Los Angeles–based International Documentary Association. Or, Segaller added, American Masters could work with a photographer or a painter setting up a new exhibit and use the event to focus on a relevant period of their careers. “Why not portray them through the prism of one month in their life when they’re doing that new album or tour?” he asked. “We’d like to do more films that are not so much chronological narratives but more what we might call ‘process films.’”įor example, he said, a filmmaker for American Masters might arrange to shoot a legendary rock star about to cut a new album and go on tour. “There are people who are hugely influential today who are still alive and still working, and who either aren’t interested in being portrayed in a cradle-to-grave way or they’re too busy to participate,” Segaller said. And it can limit the topics that the series can tackle. While traditional biographies are the series’ signature, the cradle-to-grave formula is not the only way to frame the subject, Segaller said. This year, American Masters stretched further into this storytelling form with “A Fierce Green Fire,” an Earth Day special that documented 50 years of the environmental movement, and “The Boomer List,” examining the cultural contributions of 19 famous boomers. Documentaries on Sun Records (2002), Atlantic Records (2007) and “Hollywood Chinese” (2009), on Chinese-American cinematic history, also followed this approach. “Actors Studio”, a 1997 documentary on the New York institution that taught Method acting and provided a venue for famous actors and playwrights to refine their craft, was the first of these. Nearly all of the 200-plus documentaries produced during her tenure focused on individual artists and their accomplishments, but a handful were framed as topical treatments. Lacy, who left WNET last year to direct documentaries as an independent producer, planted seeds for some of these changes. In reaching beyond the series’ traditional framework of biographies that chronicle the lives of its subjects from beginning to end, Kantor is developing episodes that focus on specific cultural trends and accomplishments, including some that spotlight several individuals in the same episode. “I want to continue to explore those stories that have more to do with cultural leaders than artistic leaders,” Kantor said. “But it was really as much about the rise of feminism as it was about Billie Jean King.” Similarly, he noticed a rare episode about a journalist, former CBS anchor Walter Cronkite the 2006 film was part traditional biography and part examination of media under the cultural microscope. “It was an extraordinary profile, a great film,” Kantor said. Up until then, the series had never profiled a sports star. In studying the series before he was hired, Kantor was struck by the 2013 film on tennis great Billie Jean King. He also intends break old rules about who could or should be subjects of profiles. Kantor, an award-winning producer who previously specialized in films on American musical theater, is pursuing plans to build on that track record while expanding the number of new episodes each year from eight to 10. of American Masters, he is rethinking how producers approach biographical subjects and who qualifies for the label of “master.” (Photo: Joseph Sinnott, WNET)ĭuring the series’ nearly three decades on PBS, its films have won 28 Emmys, 12 Peabodys, three Grammys and an Oscar. Comedian Will Ferrell and Kantor talk during filming of Make ‘Em Laugh, a six-part miniseries that Kantor produced for WNET as an independent.