Tag: Frontline

Season 3 of ‘Frankie Drake Mysteries,’ ‘Opiods, Inc.’ Among PBS Titles on DVD and Digital in September

Season three of “Frankie Drake Mysteries,” Frontline: Opiods, Inc. and And She Could Be Next are among the titles coming to DVD and digital from PBS Distribution in September.

Available now is Easy Yoga for Everything With Peggy Cappy. For more than 40 years, Cappy has been teaching yoga to students of all ages and abilities. These 10 workouts address how yoga can be used to alleviate pain and cope with various physical challenges from arthritis to heart health, back pain and diabetes. In these exercise routines, Peggy Cappy demonstrates her signature yoga approach in a workout that anyone can do in a standing or a seated position; with or without the aid of a chair; at home; one routine or one segment at a time. Programs include Easy Yoga for Arthritis, Heart Healthy Yoga, Easy Yoga for Easing Pain, Back Care Basics, Easy Yoga for Diabetes, Survival Guide for Pain-Free Living, Part 1: The Basics , Part 2: Lower Body, Part 3: Upper Body, Part 4: Preventing Pain, and Easy Yoga: The Secret to Strength and Balance.

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Also available is Prehistoric Road Trip, in which viewers join host Emily Graslie for a journey around the Dakotas, Montana, Wyoming and Nebraska to explore 2.5 billion years of Earth’s history. Each of the three episodes examines different eras in time, focusing on the geology and ecology of prehistoric environments to discover what the landscape may have resembled millions, even billions, of years ago. Graslie, chief curiosity correspondent at the Field Museum in Chicago and YouTube sensation, uncovers the geologic history of North America, helping scientists dig up dinosaurs and other extraordinary creatures.

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Due Sept. 8 is the documentary And She Could Be Next. It tells the story of a defiant movement of women of color transforming American politics from the ground up. Filmed during the historic 2018 midterm elections, the series follows organizers and candidates as they fight on behalf of black, brown, immigrant and poor communities — long neglected by politicians and pundits alike. As they harness the power of this New American Majority, the film asks whether democracy can be preserved — and made stronger — by those most marginalized. Made by a team of women filmmakers of color, And She Could Be Next features history-makers Stacey Abrams, Rashida Tlaib, Lucy McBath, Maria Elena Durazo, Veronica Escobar, Bushra Amiwala and Nse Ufot.

Also coming Sept. 8 is season three of “Frankie Drake Mysteries,” which delivers a slate of new adventures as the ladies of Drake Private Detectives take on more challenging cases and face off against some impressive foes. Frankie and Trudy continue to rely on Mary and Flo, who are always ready to lend a hand snooping through police files or sneaking a peek at an autopsy report. Mary’s newfound confidence at the police station, and in life, leaves her frustrated with her status as a morality officer and pushes her towards exciting new professional goals. Meanwhile, Flo finishes her in-class portion of medical school and looks forward to her clinical training in-hospital, all while juggling a long-distance beau and the varied demands of Drake Detective cases. As Trudy’s love life with Bill Peters heats up, she also excels at her investigative work, taking on some truly hair-raising risks as she works to solve cases. And finally, Frankie continues to lead the team with aplomb and ingenuity, while exploring a romantic connection with boxer Moses Page. The adventures take viewers from London with new mystery novelist friend Agatha Christie, to a mermaid-themed jazz club, and from swanky Toronto private schools to busy telephone exchanges filled with busybody operators.

Also due Sept. 8 is Let’s Talk Menopause, in which host Dr. Tara Allmen provides viewers with the tools every woman needs to enter this phase of their lives triumphantly. An estimated 6,000 women reach menopause every day in the United States, and by 2025, more than 1 billion women in the world will be experiencing menopause. In this one-hour documentary special, Dr. Allmen, alongside other women’s health experts, explains common symptoms, health risks and therapeutic options. Also, women share their first-hand experiences, personal journeys and successful strategies to effectively cope with perimenopause and menopause.

Coming Sept. 22 is Lucy Worsley’s 12 Days of Tudor Christmas. Worsley recreates how Christmas was celebrated during the age of Henry VIII — eating, drinking, singing, dancing and partying like people did 500 years ago. Filmed at some of England’s most historic and beautiful locations, she discovers the roots of some of the Christmas customs we still enjoy today and explores why other festive traditions were lost. With the help of food historian Annie Gray, she prepares two royal feasts in the kitchens of Hampton Court Palace. Dressed as Henry himself, Lucy samples a stuffed boar’s head; later, she tastes a giant forerunner of the Christmas cake. Lucy joins Tudor carol-singers to hear a festive hit written by Henry; experiences the rabble-rousing fun and chaos created by the Lord of Misrule; and enjoys the kind of spectacular entertainment staged at court. She also discovers how ordinary Tudors liked to enjoy themselves — and why the holidays were such a welcome break. On each of the traditional 12 days of Christmas, Lucy reveals a different aspect of the festivities — uncovering fresh insights into the Tudor mind and casting a new light on Christmas itself.

Due Sept. 29 is Frontline: Opiods, Inc. “Frontline” and the Financial Times investigate how the drug company Insys Therapeutics profited from a fentanyl-based painkiller up to 100 times stronger than morphine — and how some Wall Street investors looked the other way even as questions about the company’s practices mounted. A year in the making, Opioids, Inc. tells the inside story of how Insys profited from Subsys, a fast-acting fentanyl-based spray that’s been linked to hundreds of deaths. Tactics included targeting high-prescribing doctors and nurse practitioners known within the company as “whales,” misleading insurers, and holding contests for the sales team: the higher the prescription doses they got doctors to write, the larger the cash prize — despite the dangers to patients. But as the documentary traces in unprecedented detail, the scheme fell apart. With federal prosecutors using anti-racketeering laws designed to fight organized crime, Insys became the first pharmaceutical company to have its top executives sentenced to prison time in connection with the opioid crisis. Through the lens of one company’s spectacular rise and fall, “Opioids, Inc.” is a powerful look at the role pharmaceutical companies have played in fueling America’s epidemic of opioid addiction, how they and their stockholders have profited, and how they’re being held accountable.

‘In the Age of AI,’ ‘Fire in Paradise’ and ‘Nature’s Biggest Beasts’ Among PBS Docs on DVD and Digital in January

In the Age of AI, Frontline: Fire in Paradise, Nature: Nature’s Biggest Beasts, American Masters — Rothko: Pictures Must be Miraculous and Nova: Why Bridges Collapse are among the documentaries on DVD and digital from PBS Distribution this January.

A year after the devastating Camp Fire, who’s to blame and why was it so catastrophic? Fire in Paradise explores this question with accounts from survivors and first responders, telling the inside story of the most destructive fire in California history, its causes and the impact of climate change.

In the Age of AI, due Jan. 14, takes a journey into how this new technology will transform our world — and some of the ways it already has. It’s been called “The New Space Race.” This time it’s China taking on the United States, and the race is to seize control of a technology with the potential to change everything — the way we work; how we play; how our democracy functions; how the world could be realigned. “Frontline” explores some of the ways in which our world is being re-shaped and reimagined by the technology of artificial intelligence, whose development has been compared to the industrial revolution and the discovery of electricity as an epochal event in human history. The film traces the battle between the U.S. and China to harness its power, examining fears about what AI advances mean for the future of work and revealing how AI algorithms are ushering in an age of both great problem-solving potential and of new and troubling threats to privacy and democracy.

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Okavango: River of Dreams, explores the Okavango River in Southern Africa, an unlikely oasis and lush paradise in the middle of a hostile desert that supports and feeds an incredible abundance of wildlife. Unlike most rivers that flow toward the shores of a nearby ocean, it instead runs inland through Botswana, creating a huge river delta before finally disappearing into the Kalahari Desert. An all-star cast of charismatic African wildlife lives and dies in the timeless drama of survival revealed in the program.

Nature’s Biggest Beasts, due Jan. 14, covers the ingenious strategies that nature’s biggest beasts employ to conquer their environments, from the Komodo dragon with a deadly bite to the tallest giraffe to the bird-eating Armored ground cricket. Being massive can have its advantages, but it brings equally immense challenges to survive. Big bodies need more fuel, more space and can attract unwanted attention.

Bears, due Jan. 28, covers animals from the mighty grizzly bear to the endearing spectacled bear (the real-life “Paddington Bear”), from the bamboo-eating panda to the bizarre-looking sloth bear. Among the biggest land mammals on the planet, bears need a lot of resources to survive and must use all of their skills, brawn and brains to get what they need — whether they’re foraging for honeycombs or tasty plants, standing up to their rivals or raising cubs.

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Available now is Why Bridges Collapse, which experts compare what happened to the Morandi Bridge in Genoa, Italy, with other deadly bridge collapses, including Minnesota’s I-35W bridge over the Mississippi and the ill-fated Silver Bridge over the Ohio River. Thousands of bridges across the United States and Europe that are listed as structurally deficient. How can new technologies and engineering improvements make bridges across the world safer and more durable than ever before?

Look Who’s Driving, coming Jan. 14, explores autonomous vehicles, which are now being tested on public roads around the world. Dozens of startups have sprung up alongside established auto and tech giants — which are also testing the waters — to form what many hope will be a transformative new industry. But as innovators rush to cash in on what they see as the next high-tech pot of gold, some experts warn there are still daunting challenges to overcome — like how to train computers to make life-and-death decisions as well as humans can. “Nova” peers under the hood of the autonomous vehicle industry to investigate how driverless cars work, how they may change the way we live, and whether we will ever be able to entrust them with our lives.

Rise of the Mammals, due Jan. 21, explores how the course of life on Earth changed radically on a single day 66 million years ago. Blasting our planet, an asteroid caused the extinction of three of every four kinds of living things. The impact ended the Age of Dinosaurs and launched our age, the Age of Mammals. But our understanding of the asteroid’s aftermath has been spotty. Who survived? How quickly did mammals and their habitats spring back? How did our planet recover from this global cataclysm? Now a remarkable find — a trove of exceptionally preserved fossils from the critical first million years after the catastrophe — shines a revelatory light on what followed Earth’s darkest hour. With exclusive access, viewers see the discovery from the first moments of the initial find in 2016. Providing a rare record that combines plants, animals, and precise dates, the discovery paints a vivid portrait of the emergence of a brand-new world.

Dead Sea Scroll Detectives, coming Jan. 21, explores one of the greatest archaeological finds of all time — the Dead Sea Scrolls — was made by a Bedouin shepherd boy in 1947. Since the 2,000-year-old scrolls were first taken from a cave, they’ve intrigued scholars, religious leaders and profiteers alike. These fragile parchment relics include the oldest known versions of the Hebrew Bible and hold vital clues about the birth of Christianity. While some scrolls have survived intact, others have been ravaged by time — burnt, decayed, or torn to pieces — and remain an enigma. Now, scientists are using new technologies to read the unreadable, solve mysteries that have endured for millennia, and even discover million-dollar fakes.

Rothko: Pictures Must be Miraculous is a portrait of one of the most influential artists of the 20th century, Mark Rothko, whose luminous canvasses now set records at international auctions. Rothko’s signature style helped define Abstract Expressionism, the movement that shifted the center of the art world from Paris to New York. Interviews with Rothko’s children, Kate and Christopher, as well as leading curators, art historians and conservators present a comprehensive look at the artist’s life and career, complemented by scenes with Alfred Molina in the role of Rothko. Molina performs segments from Rothko’s writings, and the documentary features clips from the six-time Tony-winning play Red.

‘Frontline’ Series ‘Documenting Hate, ‘American Experience: The Swamp’ Due on Digital and DVD Feb. 12 From PBS

PBS Distribution is releasing two documentaries, Frontline: Documenting Hate and American Experience: The Swamp, on digital and DVD Feb. 12.

Frontline: Documenting Hate is a two-part investigation into today’s white supremacy groups in the United States. In the first part, “Charlottesville,” correspondent A.C. Thompson tracks down some of those at the center of the infamous and deadly rally in Charlottesville, Va., revealing that one participant in the violence was an active-duty Marine, and the other worked for a major defense contractor and held a U.S. government security clearance. This part also shows just how ill-prepared law enforcement was to handle an influx of white supremacists from across the country, some of whom had been part of a series of earlier violent confrontations in California and descended on Charlottesville specifically to fight. The second part, “New American Nazis,” presents a new investigation into white supremacist groups in America, in particular a neo-Nazi group, Atomwaffen Division, that has actively recruited inside the U.S. Military. This joint investigation documents the group’s terrorist objectives, examines how civilian and military authorities have responded, and shows how the group gained strength after the 2017 Charlottesville rally.

Also due on digital and DVD Feb. 12 is American Experience: The Swamp. Told through the eccentric lives of hucksters, politicians and activists, the documentary explores the Florida Everglades, which has some of natures’ most mysterious and unique ecosystems. The program is based, in part, on the book The Swamp: The Everglades, Florida and the Politics of Paradise by Michael Grunwald.

‘Frontline’ Docs ‘Left Behind America’ and ‘Our Man in Tehran’ on Disc, Digital from PBS in November

PBS Distribution will release two “Frontline” documentaries in November, Left Behind America and Our Man in Tehran on DVD and digital.

Frontline: Left Behind America is available on Digital HD and DVD ($24.99) Nov. 20. In the decade since the Great Recession, many American cities and towns have bounced back. But for some small and mid-size cities that were once hubs for innovation and manufacturing, economic recovery has remained elusive. This documentary asks why and is an in-depth look at one such city, Dayton, Ohio, as its citizens continue to fight for economic revitalization 10 years after the financial crisis. Although Dayton’s job market has recently seen a resurgence, the jobs coming back to the city aren’t the high-wage jobs that used to be there — and the poverty rate in Dayton has reached 34.5 percent, or nearly three times the poverty rate nationwide. In addition to the economic downturn, the city has also been hit hard by the opioid epidemic.

Frontline: Our Man in Tehran comes out Nov. 6 on DVD ($24.99) and is available now for download. As tensions rose between the United States and Iran over the summer, with threats of war and sanctions, this “Frontline” documentary is a portrait of life inside the Islamic Republic. New York Times reporter Thomas Erdbrink’s account of traveling around the country, meeting people, and learning stories about their lives, hopes and fears is revealed in the program. It journeys into the private world of Iran, documenting the people and the country in a way never before seen.