This is the story of two remarkable and extremely rare white lion cubs on their journey to adulthood. Both are female, sisters born as white as snow in May 2009 in South Africa’s Kruger Park. Growing up on the savanna, they must overcome not only the same survival challenges that all young lion cubs must face, they must also overcome the threats their high visibility brings.
Watch Nature Wednesday, May 9, 2012 at 7pm.
Watch The White Lions – Preview on PBS. See more from Nature.
PIONEERS IN AVIATION captures every significant aviation event, from the Wright Brothers’ first flight at Kitty Hawk and the birth of the airlines to the breathtaking culmination of the Apollo moon landing. PIONEERS IN AVIATION employs recently restored historical footage from the Boeing, Douglas, McDonnell and North American Aviation film archives to profile four legendary aviation pioneers. The three-part documentary series weaves the stories of William Boeing, Donald Douglas, Dutch Kindelberger and James McDonnell together with commentary from some of the United States’ foremost aviation scholars. Some of the more memorable sequences include the famous 1924 “Round-the-World Flight,” Tex Johnston’s barrel-roll of the Boeing 707 and a 19-year-old Marilyn Monroe modeling the cabin features and Pullman berth of the new Douglas DC-6 airliner. Episodes: “The Early Years,” “The War Years” and “The Race to the Moon.”
Watch this three-part series Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, May 7-9, 2012 at 8pm on KCPT2.
From draft dodging to the Dayton Accords, from Monica Lewinsky to a balanced budget, the presidency of William Jefferson Clinton veered between sordid scandal and grand achievement. In CLINTON, the latest installment in the critically acclaimed and successful series of presidential biographies, AMERICAN EXPERIENCE explores the fascinating story of an American president who rose from a broken childhood in Arkansas to become one of the most successful politicians in modern American history and one of the most complex and conflicted characters to ever stride across the public stage. It recounts a career full of accomplishment and rife with scandal, a marriage that would make history and create controversy and a presidency that would define the crucial and transformative period between the fall of the Berlin Wall and 9/11. It follows Clinton across his two terms as he confronted some of the key forces that would shape the future, including partisan political warfare and domestic and international terrorism, and struggled, with uneven success, to define the role of American power in a post-Cold War world. Most memorably, it explores how Clinton’s conflicted character made history, even as it enraged his enemies and confounded his friends. The program features unprecedented access to scores of Clinton insiders including White House Press Secretary Dee Dee Myers, White House Counsel Bernard Nussbaum, White House Chief of Staff Leon Panetta and Deputy Chief of Staff Harold Ickes, as well as interviews with foreign leaders, members of the Republican opposition, childhood friends, staffers from Clinton’s years as governor of Arkansas, biographers and journalists.
Watch Tuesday, May 8, 2012 at 7pm.
Watch Clinton Preview on PBS. See more from American Experience.
“Ferment,” the 56-foot tall stainless steel dendroid towering over the lawn at the Nelson-Atkins Museum, evokes many different reactions from those who pass by. Its creator, sculptor Roxy Paine, hopes it might spur us to think about nature, and the ways our culture tames and subverts it. If that happens, he believes he’s done his job.
Watch Monday, May 7 at 9pm and Thursday, May 10 at 8pm.
Putting Down Roots: Roxy Paine’s Ferment
A KCPT Production
Airs on KCPT May 7, 2012 at 9pm and May 10, 2012 at 8pm“Putting Down Roots: Roxy Paine’s Ferment” shows public television viewers the amazing
process which brought Kansas City its first dendroid. That’s the term Paine uses to describe his monumental metal tree‐like sculptures, which now populate the grounds of top tier museums and galleries around the world. “Ferment,” which he’s described as his most challenging piece to date, was installed on the front lawn of the Nelson‐Atkins Museum of Art in April, 2011. The 18,000 pound, 56 foot tall behemoth was chosen to honor Martin Friedman, the Kansas City Sculpture Park’s advisor, upon his retirement after more than twenty years of service.KCPT’s Randy Mason followed Paine’s progress, first at his snowy upstate New York studio, and a few months later, onto the Nelson’s front yard—to witness what Friedman calls an exciting piece of “outdoor theatre.” In just six days, Roxy and his crew rolled in with trucks, cranes, lifts, and torches and left behind “a chunk” of the artist’s soul.
“Putting Down Roots” blends art and engineering, as well as the bond that’s developed
between Paine and Friedman. In doing so, it also reveals a city whose commitment to great art is visible to all who pass by.
