PBS
New film on Mark Twain highlights his religious doubts
By Kimberly Winston — October 16, 2017
(RNS) — A trip to the Holy Land in 1867 launched Twain from local journalist to international satirist and cemented his skepticism of organized religion.
‘The Vietnam Years’: How the conflict ripped the nation’s religious fabric
By Don Lattin — September 8, 2017
(RNS) — America is about to relive the horror and deep divisions spawned by the U.S. war in Vietnam — convulsions that also tore apart the nation’s religious fabric and still echo across the political and cultural landscape.
‘Dalya’s Other Country’ portrays Muslim American mother and daughter
By Kimberly Winston — June 23, 2017
(RNS) A new film follows a teenage Syrian girl, as she becomes the only Muslim in an all-girl Catholic school in Los Angeles, and her mother, whose marriage dissolves.
Hollywood composer writes Mass for his mother
By Kimberly Winston — May 11, 2017
(RNS) A new documentary shows how Stephen Edwards wanted to honor his mother, who died in 2006, and ended up finding a way out of his grief, too.
Can the Holocaust be funny? A new film says, ‘Why not?’
By Kimberly Winston — April 19, 2017
(RNS) Tragedy plus time equals comedy — unless some subjects are so taboo they can never be funny.
Will the PBS series ‘Wolf Hall’ tarnish St. Thomas More’s halo?
By David Gibson — April 23, 2015
(RNS) The show engages in some bold revisionism by depicting More not as a saint but as “a heresy-hunting, scrupulous prig,” as the Catholic writer George Weigel put it.
The ‘Splainer: The many Thomases of ‘Wolf Hall’
By Kimberly Winston — April 10, 2015
(RNS) There are four main characters named Thomas in PBS' "Wolf Hall." Here's a who's who and a look at why these four Thomases are important to religion today.
‘Sacred Journeys’ weds new pilgrims to old paths
By Kimberly Winston — December 12, 2014
(RNS) Popular pilgrimage features protagonists who go on long, transformational journeys of both feet and faith. It is that transformational nature that separates pilgrimage from travel -- pilgrimage is a vocation, not a vacation.
Simon Schama tells a new ‘Story of the Jews’
By Robert Bianco — March 18, 2014
PASADENA, Calif. (RNS) Beginning March 25 on PBS, this five-part series will examine the history and cultural contributions of the Jewish people.
PBS series ‘Life of Muhammad’ explores diverse opinions of prophet
By Menachem Wecker — August 15, 2013
(RNS) Narrated by Somai-born journalist Rageh Omaar, the PBS series "The Life of Muhammad" presents the Muslim prophet in a respectful, positive light, though it doesn’t shirk from the controversies that surrounded him.
The gospel roots of the ‘Godmother of rock ‘n’ roll’
By Daniel Burke — February 19, 2013
(RNS) Before Elvis and Chuck Berry and Johnny Cash. Before Aretha and Whitney and Beyonce. Before the blues met gospel and conceived rock 'n’ roll, there was Sister Rosetta Tharpe.
Is God the missing character in ‘Downton Abbey’?
By David Gibson — February 14, 2013
(RNS) The third season of the megahit television series “Downton Abbey” wraps up on Sunday (Feb. 17), capping another must-see run of ruin and redemption at Lord Grantham’s stately English manor. Yet some are still left puzzling over the absence of what should be a leading player in this colorful cast: God.
PBS series depicts American abolitionists as fired by faith
By Adelle M. Banks — January 4, 2013
(RNS) As the nation marks the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, PBS’ “American Experience” premieres “The Abolitionists,” a three-part series, on Tuesday (Jan. 8). Documentarian Rob Rapley, the writer and director of the series, talked with Religion News Service about the role religion played in the lives of the abolitionists featured in the series. By Adelle M. Banks.
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