American Experience: Zora Neale Hurston: Claiming a Space (Photo courtesy of Yale University Library)
Zora Neale Hurston, Monopoly Docs on PBS Documentaries Prime Video Channel in February
January 23, 2023
American Experience: Zora Neale Hurston: Claiming a Space, “After Action” and American Experience — Ruthless: Monopoly’s Secret History are among the titles arriving this February on the PBS Documentaries Prime Video Channel.
The subscription rate for the PBS Documentaries Prime Video Channel is $3.99 per month with an Amazon Prime or Prime Video subscription.
The new biography of the trailblazing writer and anthropologist, American Experience: Zora Neale Hurston: Claiming a Space, starts streaming Feb. 6. Raised in the small, all-Black Florida town of Eatonville, Zora Neale Hurston studied at Howard University before arriving in New York in 1925. She would soon become a key figure of the Harlem Renaissance, best remembered for her novel Their Eyes Were Watching God. But even as she gained renown in the Harlem literary circles, Hurston was also discovering anthropology at Barnard College with the renowned Franz Boas. She would make several trips to the American South and the Caribbean, documenting the lives of rural Black people and collecting their stories. She studied her own people, an unusual practice at the time, and during her lifetime became known as the foremost authority on Black folklore.
Hosted by Air Force combat veteran Stacy Pearsall, the seven-episode “After Action” starts streaming Feb. 16. It reveals the experiences of 21 veterans from across the country through candid conversations about what life is like before, during and after action. Pearsall’s own struggles to reconnect with society challenges her fellow veterans to probe deeper into their stories, helping to provide a better appreciation for those who’ve served.
American Experience: Ruthless: Monopoly’s Secret History starts streaming Feb. 20. Part detective story, part sharp social commentary and part pop-culture celebration, the documentary presents the fascinating true story of those who created America’s favorite board game, which is a love letter to unbridled capitalism and — for better or worse — the impulses that make our free-market society tick.
Subscribe HERE to the FREE Media Play News Daily Newsletter!
Nova: Ancient Builders of the Amazon starts streaming Feb. 15. It chronicles recent discoveries exploding the myth of the Amazon as a primeval wilderness, revealing traces of ancient civilizations that flourished there for centuries. Dense settlements indicate populations in the millions, supported by sophisticated agricultural systems, while huge geometric earthworks and roadways bear witness to complex religious ideas and social networks. The evidence shows that, far from being an untouched wilderness, the Amazon has been shaped by human hands for millennia.
Other titles coming to the PBS Documentaries Prime Video Channel in February include the “Nova” documentaries London Super Tunnel, due Feb. 1; Star Chasers of Senegal, due Feb. 8; and New Eye on the Universe, due Feb. 22.