Imagining America | |
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Directed by | Ralph Bakshi Mustapha Khan Edward Lachman Matt Mahurin |
Written by | Ralph Bakshi |
Produced by | Richard Singer |
Starring | Harvey Keitel Ron Thompson Richard Singer |
Cinematography | Kent L. Wakeford |
Production companies | |
Distributed by | PBS |
Release date |
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Country | United States |
Language | English |
Imagining America is a 1989 anthology film consisting of four shorts with the central theme being life in the United States. It was originally broadcast on the PBS television series American Playhouse . [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]
Imagining America is an anthology of four short films by different directors. Ralph Bakshi's This Ain't Bebop is about a man's odyssey through surreal downtown Los Angeles as he tries to find the life he once had. Ed Lachman's Get Your Kicks on Route 66 tells the story of America's famous highway. Tribe by Matt Mahurin examines myths in American society. Reflections of a Native Son by Mustapha Khan is a stylized portrait of the South Bronx district of New York City.
The original TV series American Playhouse is produced by John H. Williams, and it is from this series the four pieces to this anthology comes. Together they give a personal view of America. Only one of the four, Ralph Bakshi's This Ain't Bebop, is a narrative, while two others are documentaries: Ed Lachman's Get Your Kicks on Route 66 is about the great American '50s highway and Mustapha Khan's Reflections of a Native Son is a vivid look at the teenage subculture of South Bronx. The fourth piece is Matt Mahurin's Tribe, a cross between impressionist documentary, music video and live-action photo-essay. [3]
Ralph Bakshi is an American retired animator and filmmaker, known for his fantastical animated films. In the 1970s, he established an alternative to mainstream animation through independent and adult-oriented productions. Between 1972 and 1994, he directed nine theatrically released feature films, predominantly urban dramas and fantasy films, five of which he wrote. He has also been involved in numerous television projects as director, writer, producer and animator.
Neal Paul Hefti was an American jazz trumpeter, composer, and arranger. He wrote music for The Odd Couple movie and TV series and for the Batman TV series.
The Lord of the Rings is a 1978 animated epic fantasy film directed by Ralph Bakshi from a screenplay by Chris Conkling and Peter S. Beagle. It is based on the novel of the same name by J. R. R. Tolkien, adapting from the volumes The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers. Set in Middle-earth, the film follows a group of fantasy races—Hobbits, Men, an Elf, a Dwarf and a wizard—who form a fellowship to destroy a magical ring made by the Dark Lord Sauron, the main antagonist.
Wizards is a 1977 American animated post-apocalyptic science fantasy film written, directed and produced by Ralph Bakshi and distributed by 20th Century-Fox. The film follows a battle between two wizards of opposing powers, one representing the forces of magic and the other representing the forces of technology.
Hallmark Hall of Fame, originally called Hallmark Television Playhouse, is an anthology program on American television, sponsored by Hallmark Cards, a Kansas City–based greeting card company. It is the longest-running prime-time series in the history of television; it began airing in 1951 and aired on network television until 2014, with episodes largely limited to one film in a span of several months since the 1980s. Since 1954, all of its productions have been broadcast in color. It was one of the first video productions to telecast in color, a rarity in the 1950s. Many television films have been shown on the program since its debut, though the program began with live telecasts of dramas and then changed to videotaped productions before finally changing to filmed ones.
Fire and Ice is a 1983 American animated dark fantasy adventure film directed by Ralph Bakshi. The film, a collaboration between Bakshi and Frank Frazetta, was distributed by 20th Century-Fox. The animated feature, based on characters co-created by Bakshi and Frazetta, was made using the process of rotoscoping, in which scenes were shot in live-action and then traced onto animation cels.
Last Days of Coney Island is a 2015 American adult animated short film written, produced, directed and animated by Ralph Bakshi. The story concerns a NYPD detective, the prostitute he alternately loves and arrests, and the seedy characters that haunt the streets of New York City's run-down amusement district. It is notable for being the last film that Bakshi directed and animated before he retired from animation.
Fritz the Cat is a 1972 American adult animated black comedy film written and directed by Ralph Bakshi in his directorial debut. Based on the comic strip of the same name by Robert Crumb, the film focuses on its Skip Hinnant-portrayed titular character, a glib, womanizing and fraudulent cat in an anthropomorphic animal version of New York City during the mid-to-late 1960s. Fritz decides on a whim to drop out of college, interacts with inner city African American crows, unintentionally starts a race riot and becomes a leftist revolutionary. The film is a satire focusing on American college life of the era, race relations, and the free love movement, as well as serving as a criticism of the countercultural political revolution and dishonest political activists.
The Nine Lives of Fritz the Cat is a 1974 American adult animated anthology black comedy film directed by Robert Taylor as a sequel to Ralph Bakshi's Fritz the Cat (1972), adapted from the comic strip by Robert Crumb, neither of whom had any involvement in the making of the film. The only two people involved in the first film to work on the sequel were voice actor Skip Hinnant, and producer Steve Krantz. The film's music score was composed by jazz musician Tom Scott, and performed by Scott and his band The L.A. Express.
An anthology series is a written series, radio, television, film, or video game series that presents a different story and a different set of characters in each different episode, season, segment, or short. These usually have a different cast in each episode, but several series in the past, such as Four Star Playhouse, employed a permanent troupe of character actors who would appear in a different drama each week. Some anthology series, such as Studio One, began on radio and then expanded to television.
Bill Kauffman is an American political writer generally aligned with the localist movement. He was born in Batavia, New York, and currently resides in Elba, New York, with his wife and daughter.
The Price of the Ticket is an anthology collecting nonfiction essays by James Baldwin. Spanning the years 1948 to 1985, the essays offer Baldwin's reflections on race in America.
Video Anthology Vol. 1 is an album of Nas' music videos in DVD format. Its songs are presented in a slightly altered chronological order and feature songs from all of his first six albums. It was released when the Illmatic: 10th Anniversary Platinum Edition was released to commemorate the last 10 years of Nas' career. It also features four music videos from Illmatic, a disproportionately higher amount than any other album. Nas provides commentary for all of the videos, except "The World Is Yours".
Edward Lachman is an American cinematographer and director. He has primarily worked in independent film, and has served as director of photography on films by Todd Haynes, Ulrich Seidl, Wim Wenders, Steven Soderbergh and Paul Schrader. His other work includes Werner Herzog's La Soufrière (1977), Desperately Seeking Susan (1985), Sofia Coppola's The Virgin Suicides (1999), Robert Altman's final film A Prairie Home Companion (2006), and Todd Solondz's Life During Wartime (2009). He is a member of the American Society of Cinematographers.
Matthew S. Mahurin is an American illustrator, photographer and film director. Mahurin's illustrations appear in Time, Newsweek, Mother Jones, Rolling Stone, Esquire, Forbes, and The New York Times.
Stompin' at the Savoy – Live is an album by American R&B/funk band Rufus with singer Chaka Khan, released on the Warner Bros. Records label in 1983.
Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse is an American television anthology series produced by Desilu Productions. The show ran on the Columbia Broadcasting System between 1958 and 1960. Three of its 48 episodes served as pilots for the 1950s television series The Twilight Zone and The Untouchables.
Kent Lon Wakeford was an American cinematographer, the co-founder of Wakeford / Orloff Productions, and founder of Kent Wakeford and Associates, two commercial production companies.
J. R. R. Tolkien's novels The Hobbit (1937) and The Lord of the Rings (1954–55), set in his fictional world of Middle-earth, have been the subject of numerous motion picture adaptations across film and television.
S.A. Griffin is an American poet, actor, performance artist, and publisher. He co-edited The Outlaw Bible of American Poetry. He spells his name without a space between the first two initials.