Roundup: Pop Culture & the Arts ... Movies, Documentaries and Museum Exhibits

Wilberforce, Lincoln, and the Abolition of Slavery (Website)

There is a movie coming out nationwide on February 23 called Amazing Grace. It tells the story of William Wilberforce, the British abolitionist who led the movement to abolish the transatlantic slave trade. The 200th anniversary of Parliament’s vote to abolish the trade is February 23. On its face, the movie doesn’t deal with American history, but Wilberforce had a profound impact on the abolitionist movement in the U.S. The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History has created an onl

Plan to bring down Britain from inside a concentration camp (movie)

It is believed to be the biggest counterfeiting operation of all time - a spectacular attempt to crush the British economy by flooding it with huge quantities of sterling and US dollar notes. Now the inside story of Operation Bernhard, in which 142 concentration camp prisoners were put to work for the last three years of the second world war to create millions of false British and American banknotes, has been dramatised for the cinema for the first time. The Counterfei

How 'Antiques Road Show' is flushing out historical treasures

Doug Johns remembers the photo album. It contained a series of photographs of San Francisco city views taken in 1856. They were the first, or among the first, such photos ever taken. Seven years ago, a family in San Mateo County wanted to sell the album to help pay for property improvements. Johns, manager of Johns' Western Gallery in San Francisco, thought the album would fetch $15,000 to $25,000 at auction. He hadn't realized that the photographs, by George Robinson

Twenty years after his death, Andy Warhol refuses to fade away. His darkness is his legacy.

Andy’s more alive than ever. The press loves him, young artists discuss him reverently, foreigners consider him essential. The filmmaker Ric Burns recently made a two-part documentary about him. A show of his late work was one of the most discussed exhibitions last year. Phaidon just published a giant book called Andy Warhol: “Giant” Size. A trendy downtown club on Chrystie Street is dolling itself up to look like the Factory, the name of Warhol’s tinfoil-wrapped studio. (Three weeks ago, this m

Engineer and director are alternative heirs to the throne (UK)

A retired engineer from Newcastle and a financial director from Berkshire emerge victorious today in a worldwide hunt to find alternative heirs to the English throne. They were among 500 people who responded to an English Heritage appeal to identify those who might have been crowned King or Queen had William the Conqueror not defeated King Harold at the Battle of Hastings. Claimants had to prove that they were linked to Edward the Confessor, whose death in 1066 led to a

Slave exhibits stir old passions at Civil War museum (VA)

Richmond, Virginia, whose statue-lined Monument Avenue has glorified Confederate heroes for a century, is making room for new voices to tell the story of the Civil War. The American Civil War Center, which opened in the one-time capital of the Confederacy in October, is the first museum in the U.S. to discuss the history of the war from the perspectives of three sides -- the North, the South and the slaves. A century and a half after the fighting ended, the museum i

Reclaiming a Black Research Scientist’s Forgotten Legacy (Nova documentary)

On the day that Percy L. Julian graduated at the top of his class at DePauw University, his great-grandmother bared her shoulders and, for the first time, showed him the deep scars that remained from a beating she had received as a slave during the last days of the Civil War. She then clutched his Phi Beta Kappa key in her hand and said, “This is worth all the scars.” Every February, when the curtain lifts on Black History Month, the cast of highlighted lives is often familiar: a Ma

China's terracotta army to invade British Museum

When the First Emperor of China was buried, ceramic bureaucrats and acrobats were laid alongside him to cope with paperwork and keep him entertained in the afterlife. The new finds are included in the biggest exhibition of treasures ever lent overseas from the emperor's burial site in Xian, which will open at the British Museum this September. Examples of the famous terracotta warriors, which have been hailed as one of the greatest archaeological discoveries of the 20t

The triumphant return of La Môme (Edith Piaf) to Paris (Movie)

Of the 12 avenues which converge at the Arc de Triomphe, the Avenue Macmahon is probably the dullest and least visited. If you walk down its right-hand side, there is nothing - no plaque on the wall, no marker - to tell you that popular musical history was made here, 71 years ago. In October 1935, two tiny, emaciated young women in ragged skirts came to the angle of the Avenue Macmahon and the Rue Troyon from the poor districts of north-eastern Paris. They stood on a corner which w

London's historic Victoria & Albert museum devotes first show to a pop star

LONDON -- Kylie Minogue made an exhibition of herself on Tuesday as one of Britain's most venerable museums staged the first show it has ever dedicated to a pop star. The Australia pop diva's leopard-skin catsuits and pink-bejeweled corsets were draped across the halls of the Victoria and Albert Museum whose advance bookings record has been broken by the Kylie show. "I was absolutely speechless," Minogue said after touring the exhibition which displays lavish

'The First Emperor,' and a flutter of Chinese fans —in New York

NEW YORK -- One of Beijing's most anticipated events in this busy winter performing arts season did not even take place in China: the world premiere of Tan Dun's "The First Emperor" at the New York Metropolitan Opera. The opera was conceived, composed and conducted by Tan. It featured a creative team that was largely Chinese, including the renowned filmmaker Zhang Yimou as director and the National Book Award-winning author Ha Jin as co-librettist with Tan. It had a Chines

Tourist trail from Hendrix to Oasis: putting England's rock locations on the map

For decades the done thing has been to bury Britain's rock heritage rather than praise it. Two of the country's most famous music venues - the Cavern Club in Liverpool and Manchester's Hacienda - ended their lives under a wrecking ball. But the era of official neglect is over. A new map of England's rock and pop heritage aims to celebrate nearly 200 destinations linked to famous musicians, from Britpop boozer The Good Mixer in Camden to Jimi Hendrix's 1960s London address to Knebworth House, ven

New Exhibition Pays Tribute to 100,000 Years of Sex

Ancient phalluses, the world's oldest condom, a naked anatomically correct Neanderthal: visitors to the new exhibition "100,000 Years of Sex" will find plenty to stimulate their brains -- not to mention other organs. Most people have enough trouble imagining their parents having sex. But your ancestors from 100,000 years ago? Yes, they had sex too, strange as it may sound. In fact, humans have been having sex since ... well, since humanity existed. Now a new e

Tom Stoppard's ‘Utopia’ Is a Bore. There, I Said It.

THE question was straightforward, but it was voiced in a tone fraught with frustration, even desperation. It sounded more like a cry for help: “Are you understanding it?” It emerged from a woman in her 60s, or perhaps a little older, who was slowly making her way across the Lincoln Center plaza, leaning heavily on a walker, as evening fell after a matinee performance of the second installment of Tom Stoppard’s “Coast of Utopia” at the Vivian Beaumont Theater. She called

Taiwan's famed museum reopens to expand scope across Asia

Taiwan's National Palace Museum (NPM), world renowned for its collection of ancient Chinese treasures, is scheduled to reopen this week after a three-year renovation with plans to expand its scope into other Asian cultures. The museum, three main buildings in elegant pale yellow and white bricks with green-glazed roofs in imitation of a traditional palace facade, sits at the foot of a suburban Taipei mountain. It fittingly houses more than 655,000 artefacts from China s

Jane Austen to be the latest teenage sensation

Step aside Britney Spears. Movie moguls, television producers and publishers believe this year's teen hit will be the 19th-century "lit girl" Jane Austen. The life and works of the author, who died a spinster at the age of 41 in 1817, form the basis of no fewer than six forthcoming films and television series, along with plans for new editions of her works, tailored to the teenage market. A host of young stars, including Billie Piper, best known for her role a

History and Civil Rights in Yonkers, New York (documentary)

In 1985, the US vs. Yonkers ruling challenged the institutionalized housing and educational discrimination of an entire city. The linkage of housing discrimination with a segregated school system was an historical watershed. Through the courts a ruling codified a remedy for both. Critics believed the ruling illustrated an out of control judiciary while supporters of the decision hoped social justice was on the way. Instead, the fallout from the decision exposed racial fault lines in Yonkers, New

History Channel to air blacks' D-Day story

The story of black U.S. soldiers who stormed Normandy's beaches is the focus of the History Channel's "A Distant Shore: African Americans of D-Day." The Feb. 24 presentation includes recollections from living veterans on the invasion of Normandy and the troop buildup in England prior to the invasion, the network said. Before World War II, the Marines and the Air Force barred blacks. In the Navy, blacks served as cooks, stewards or longshoremen. The Army h

Complex, Contradictory Robert Moses (Exhibit/NYC)

Few shows force you to rethink an urban legend. That’s the challenge posed by “Robert Moses and the Modern City,” a sweeping, scholarly exhibition that breathes fresh air into one of the most tired, overworked and misunderstood subjects in the city’s history. Shown at three New York locations, the exhibition traces Moses’ remarkable career as parks commissioner from 1934 to 1960 and as a leader of the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority from 1934 to 1968, when he oversaw a radica

Revisionist take on Robin Hood (movie)

Universal Pictures has scored a bull's-eye, winning a heated bidding war for a revisionist take on the legend of Robin Hood with Russell Crowe attached to play the Sheriff of Nottingham. The script revolves around Crowe's character's investigation of a series of murders in which Robin Hood is the suspect. The project hails from Ethan Reiff and Cyrus Voris, creators of the series "Sleeper Cell." Imagine Entertainment is producing. "Part of