Episode 1
Girltalk
July 15, 1989
A heartbreaking yet hopeful portrait of three runaway girls with histories of abuse and neglect. Pinky, a Puerto Rican girl, refuses to go to school. Mars, on the streets since age 13, works as a stripper. Martha, who has lived in a dozen foster homes, confronts teenage motherhood. Music, humor, and intimate conversations play against the disturbing reality of these girls' lives.
Episode 2
Who Killed Vincent Chin?
July 16, 1989
On a hot summer night in Detroit, Ronald Ebens, an autoworker, killed a young Chinese-American engineer with a baseball bat. Although he confessed, he never spent a day in jail. This gripping Academy Award-nominated film relentlessly probes the implications of the murder in the streets of Detroit, for the families of those involved, and for the American justice system.
Episode 3
Coming Out
July 23, 1989
The debutante tradition is alive and well. Witness the annual Debutante Cotillion in Washington, DC -- a meticulously planned ritual where networking and meeting people who can help you later are as important to today's debs as the style of the gown or the height of the escort.
Episode 4
Wise Guys!
July 23, 1989
A stamp dealer from Los Angeles, a former school teacher form Miami, a born again Christian from Las Vegas, and a whiz-kid law student square off in the Jeopardy! $100,000 Tournament of Champions. Peek behind the scenes and into the fact-filled minds of contestants in one of America's favorite game shows.
Episode 5
The Family Album
July 30, 1989
Home movies and tape recordings collected from 60 different American families comprise a composite lifetime which moves from childhood to adulthood, from innocence to experience.
Episode 6
Dark Circle
August 6, 1989
Denounced by officials and shunned by broadcasters when it was first released, this exploration of the personal and immediate impacts of the nuclear age carries a chilling thesis: The Bomb is killing ordinary Americans, even in the absence of a nuclear war.
Episode 7
Jack Levine: Feast of Pure Reason
August 13, 1989
A bold and unconventional film portrait of one of America's leading Social Realist painters doing what he does best: skewering corrupt politicians, raging over social injustices, and satirizing the petty foibles of humankind.
Episode 8
No Applause, Just Throw Money
August 20, 1989
On the streets and subways of New York, 101 itinerant performers whirl firesticks, mimic passers-by, imitate Stevie Wonder, tap dance and perform classical music. A delightful mixture of music and magic moments, celebrating some joyful encounters in New York City streets.
Episode 9
Partisans of Vilna
August 27, 1989
The untold story of a handful of Jewish youth who organized an underground resistance against the Nazis in the Lithuanian ghetto of Vilna.
Episode 10
The Fighting Ministers
September 3, 1989
Moved by the growing desperation of thousands of laid-off steel workers, a group of ministers in Pittsburgh begins to confront the city's government and powerful corporations. Their passionate, controversial, and unorthodox actions lead to profound soul-searching, Church rejection, and imprisonment.
Episode 11
Binge
September 17, 1989
Videomaker Lynn Hershman places herself center-screen for an intimate, humorous, and piercing narrative about her efforts to control her weight.
Episode 12
Cowboy Poets
September 17, 1989
For more than a hundred years cowboys have written with feeling about the life and land they love. Several contemporary poet lariats keep that tradition alive — even on the Johnny Carson show.
Episode 13
Doug and Mike, Mike and Doug
September 17, 1989
The inner and outer lives of identical twins Doug and Mike Starn, whose collaborative painting and photographic work is rapidly gaining acclaim in the art world.
Episode 14
Lost Angeles
September 24, 1989
The lives and struggles of a group of homeless people who've been moved into an "urban campground" in Los Angeles.
