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America Imagine the World Without Her

   2014    Culture
Someone once observed: 'America is great because she is good; if she ever ceases to be good she will cease to be great.' Today that notion of the essential goodness of America is under attack, replaced by another story in which theft and plunder are seen as the defining features of American history-from the theft of Native American and Mexican lands and the exploitation of African labor to a contemporary foreign policy said to be based on stealing oil and a capitalist system that robs people of their "fair share"

The Great Invisible

   2014    Technology
On April 20, 2010, the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico. It killed 11 workers and caused the worst oil spill in American history. The explosion still haunts the lives of those most intimately affected, though the story has long ago faded from the front page.
At once a fascinating corporate thriller, a heartbreaking human drama and a peek inside the walls of the secretive oil industry, 'The Great Invisible' is the first documentary feature to go beyond the media coverage to examine the crisis in depth through the eyes of oil executives, survivors and Gulf Coast residents who experienced it first-hand and then were left to pick up the pieces while the world moved on.

Austin

   2014    Art
Foo Fighters prepare to record at the Austin City Limits Studio, with blues guitarist Gary Clark, Jr. In this episode is examined the roots of Austin's music scene, with interviews featuring Billy Gibbons from ZZ Top, and Roky Erickson from 13th Floor Elevators, who is considered one of the American fathers of psychedelic rock. Dave also chats with Terry Lickona, the executive producer of Austin City Limits. The song 'What Did I Do? / God As My Witness' is recorded during this chapter.
Series: Sonic Highways

Seattle

   2014    Art
Dave Grohl returns to his musical roots, while the Foo Fighters prepare to record at Seattle's Robert Lang Studio with Death Cab for Cutie's Benjamin Gibbard. Dave sets his focus on the Seattle music scene, mainly the grunge movement and its implications in American Rock Music. Interviews with Chris Cornell, Nancy Wilson, Bruce Pavitt.
Series: Sonic Highways

Foreigners in their Own Land

   2013    History
One hundred years after Columbus' arrival in the Caribbean, Spanish Conquistadors and Priests, push into North America in search of gold and to spread Catholicism. With the arrival of the British in North America, the two colonial systems produce contrasting societies that come in conflict as Manifest Destiny pushes the U.S into the Mexican territories of the South West. As the Gold Rush floods California with settlers, complex and vital communities are overwhelmed. The elites, including Mariano Vallejo and Apolinaria Lorenzana lose their land. Mexicans and Mexican Americans are treated as second-class citizens, facing discrimination and racial violence. Resistance to this injustice appears in New Mexico as Las Gorras Blancas (The White Caps), burn Anglo ranches and cut through barbed wire to prevent Anglo encroachment. At the same time, New Mexicans manage to transform themselves through education, managing to preserve Hispano culture in New Mexico and their standing in the midst of an era of conquest and dispossession.
Series: Latino Americans

Empire of Dreams

   2013    History
Widespread immigration to the U.S. from Latin countries begins – first with a small group from Cuba, then a larger one from Mexico. Both flee chaos and violence in their home country and are attracted by opportunities in the United States. In 1898, the U.S. helps liberate Cuba and Puerto Rico from Spain but then seizes Puerto Rico as its colony. The first Puerto Rican arrivals (now U.S. citizens) establish a network in New York.
Series: Latino Americans