PROGRAMS
THE PRESENCE OF THEIR ABSENCE
The story of Fred Zaidman, a Los Angeles son of Holocaust survivors, on a journey of discovery to trace his roots and “inherited trauma”. Armed with determination to push his limits with only scant clues from his late parents, Fred ventures into a world of unknowns.
Now, as he finds his roots in the ashes of the Shoah with helpers abroad, and a Baptist minister from Atlanta, Georgia, Fred unshackles his own pain, and through the puzzle of his ancestral past he reconstructs his future.
LUNCH (The Short)
For the past 40 years, a group of writers has been meeting for lunch every other Wednesday at the same restaurant, in the same booth. For 13 of those years they have had the same waitress who inevitably appears just at the punch line.
Featuring Shelley Berman, Rocky Kalish, Hal Kanter, Gary Owens, Paul Pumpian, John Rappaport, Gil Stratton, and waitress Valerie McCorkle. A story of friendship with hilarious stories.
This 38 minute documentary at the Valley Inn Restaurant in Sherman Oaks, California launched the later feature length LUNCH THE DOCUMENTARY that takes place across town.
LUNCH (The Feature)
For the past 40 years, a group of writers and directors has been meeting for lunch every other Wednesday. The members and their meeting places have changed over the years, but their appetites for the ties that nourish their friendships have remained. LUNCH goes beyond a single meal, and into the lives and successes of each comedy legend: Featuring Sid Caesar, Monty Hall, Arthur Hiller, Rocky Kalish, Hal Kanter, Arthur Marx, Gary Owens, John Rappaport, Carl Reiner, Matty Simmons, and Ben Starr.
A CIVIL ACTION: IN PURSUIT OF JUSTICE
This documentary investigates a landmark environmental in Woburn, Massachusetts. Based on the book and feature by the same name (A Civil Action), the film stars John Travolta and Robert Duvall. We weave news footage and exclusive interviews with the case’s principals and the reporters who covered the trial. Clips from the feature film enhance this compelling drama about a small New England town that triumphs after discovering that toxic waste had caused leukemia and the subsequent deaths of its children.
POPE JOHN PAUL’S VATICAN
One thousands years from its origins, atop the simple graveyard of a martyr, it is the most visited place in the world, and its smallest country. For a quarter of a century it had one spiritual leader: Pope John Paul II. From the things you’ve never heard or would least expect, join us Inside Pope John Paul II’s Vatican, where saints are proclaimed, cardinals are ordained, where American pilgrims renew their faith, and much of history finds its source.
FRIENDS FOR LIFE
At the height of World War II, young, innocent, Jewish photographer, Ludi Goldman, is on the run from the Germans with his family, over the Alps into northern Italy. When the cardinal of Florence and his diocesan priests hide Jews hunted by the Nazis, Ludi develops power in his secret refuge through his camera, and against his enemies.
Based on the book by the same title by Louis Goldman, editor Donna Kanter, adapted two chapters to create the short film for current expansion as a feature. Louis Goldman would survive his ordeal, and become one of the world’s most renowned feature film, still photographers, often called the ‘stillman’ on a film set.
LUCY: QUEEN OF COMEDY
She is the film and TV comic legend who launched the modern sitcom, and the world’s favorite redhead: Lucille Ball. As we tell the story behind the success of “I Love Lucy”, we also reveal the troubled marriage between Ball and her husband/co-star, Desi Arnaz, and the Desilu Empire that rose and fell with them.
ERTS: SAN DIEGO “THE TELL-TALE BOMB”
Michelle Ramskill-Estey, a pretty, single mother, is on the management “fast track” for the Bank of America in San Diego County when she becomes the victim of a violent crime that only the FBI’s ERTs can solve. As the ERTs feverishly work to unravel the mystery of the elaborate heist, the case begins to point to the bank’s manager…..Michelle. But a new wrinkle emerges: as agents interview suspects, they learn that their chief victim may, in fact, be the mastermind of an inside job. But was she?
COLD CASE COPS
Newark, New Jersey. When MAYLON JOHNSON was shot to death in 1971, her distraught 14-year-old daughter SUSAN told police she saw a man who looked like her mother’s boyfriend flee the house. Authorities investigated, but could never find found enough evidence to arrest the boyfriend, or any other men fascinated by the pretty factory worker and mother of three. Now, decades later, DETECTIVES RASHID SABUR and KEITH SHEPPARD of Newark’s COLD CASE SQUAD crack the emotional case and the heart that had its reasons: it was Johnson’s daughter — SUSAN WATSON — who shot and killed her.
COLD CASE COPS 2 – CASE RE-OPENED: AVENGING THE VICTIMS
We return to the tight community of Newark, New Jersey with cold case detectives Rashid Sabur and Keith Sheppard as they crack the murder cases of two men. A jailhouse leak takes the cold case cops on a suspenseful hunt for a name and face belonging to a body they have unearthed in a basement. The culprits will soon discover that others can play their lethal game…and win, for the families long awaiting justice.
CRIME SCENE SECRETS: FAMOUS PLACES, INFAMOUS CASES
Three world-renowned destinations each held hostage by a killer. In Yosemite National Park, a handyman snuffs out the lives of four nature lovers. Then, a world away, in Miami’s glitzy South Beach, a serial killer sets his sights on fashion superstar Gianni Versace. And in the 1960s, when a mysterious “Boston Strangler” murders thirteen women, construction worker Albert DeSalvo confesses to the crimes, Now, 40 years later, Casey Sherman is on a mission to find the true killer of his aunt, Mary Sullivan. Through the eyes of those who can never forget, we explore new revelations about three of America’s most notorious crimes.
CRIME SCENE SECRETS: GREAT HEISTS – D.B. COOPER HIGHJACKING & THE GARDNER MUSEUM HEIST
We examine the mystery that lingers over two of the most infamous unsolved crimes in American history: a Vietnam War veteran combs the sprawling woods of the Pacific Northwest to find the remains of hijacker D.B. Cooper, while a widow in Florida reveals evidence that her husband may have been Cooper. And in Boston, a reporter breaks open the case of the Gardner Museum heist that yielded the largest theft of art treasures in history.
ERTS: DALLAS – REVENGE RIDE
A young student at the mercy of intruders, 16-year-old Lisa Rene is grabbed from her Arlington, Texas apartment. The FBI’s ERTs put together leads from the shattered glass door and men seen in camouflage fleeing in an old Cadillac, swapping cars to stay ahead of investigators. The ERTs will discover how Lisa has become a victim of her brothers’ botched drug deal during an astounding chase after of Lisa’s deadly revenge ride into the depths of Arkansas forests.
PAYBACK
Practical Jokers: do you want to get even, take someone down a notch, or just give them an attitude adjustment? For a prank they’ll never forget, sting meisters teach the best of sweet revenge PAYBACK: a comedy-reality program, originally broadcast on NBC.
RINGLING BROS. REVEALED: THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH®
The circus is coming to town: magic words to anyone who has ever dreamed of running away to a life of adventure. Now, we run away with the circus for real to experience the great get-away of the imagination, and the longest running hit in show business history.
THE WHITE HOUSE: INSIDE THE GATES
A VIP tour through the most important house in the world: the People’s House at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue — workplace, celebration hall, and home to America’s First Family. We meet the staff of 450 movers, shakers, and policymakers – from the president’s personal photographer, to his communications and production design teams among press secretaries who clash with 80 reporters. We keep pace with President George W. Bush, from trips abroad, to the “Texas White House”. And near his retreat at Camp David, we hear stories that the staff has waited 25 years to tell.