Virgil Thomson: Creating the American Sound

Virgil Thomson ranks alongside Aaron Copland and Leonard Bernstein as a 20th Century master, yet his compositions, hauntingly resonant of the midwestern prairie, are all too forgotten. This feature-length documentary celebrates the composer who more than anyone else originated the American sound in classical music.

Courtmaker: John Marshall and the Forging of America’s Supreme Court

Through landmark rulings and bold vision, Chief Justice John Marshall transformed the Supreme Court into a coequal branch of government, shaping the foundation of American democracy, a legacy explored in this 2-hour documentary with insights from scholars, judges, and Supreme Court justices.

Maryland By Air

Made for large format and IMAX theater screens, this breathtaking film showcases the natural beauty of the Free State from its picturesque western hills to its pastoral farmlands to its thundering shoreline, narrated by legendary Marylander Cal Ripken Jr. 

Chesapeake Decoys: The Nature of Waterfowl Art

They began as humble tools made to lure ducks close to gunners, but skilled carvers transformed them into sculptural masterpieces. The film celebrates this unusual folk art tradition and the rich culture that has arisen around such resplendent waterfowl.

Troubled Tributary: Maryland’s Patuxent River

Follow Fred Tutman, the nation’s only African American riverkeeper, as he advocates for clean water, fights for environmental justice, and holds the entrenched Chesapeake Bay-wide conservation organizations accountable.

Chesapeake Beacons

They’ve illuminated harbors and shorelines for centuries. Now see these amazing structures by land, sea, and air, sentinels of safety that still stand on Chesapeake Bay’s coastline guiding ship captains home.

What the World Needs Now: Words by Hal David

Working primarily with composer Burt Bacharach, and dominating the pop-music charts of the ’60s and ’70s, lyricist Hal David wrote some of the most enduring songs in American popular music: Walk On By, Do You Know The Way To San Jose?, The Look of Love, Raindrops Keep Fallin’ On My Head, I’ll Never Fall In Love Again, and the immortal What the World Needs Now Is Love.

Mister Rodgers: It’s You I Like

Hosted by actor Michael Keaton, the star-studded and heartfelt PBS tribute features best-of moments from the beloved Mister Rogers children’s television series, with commentary from John Lithgow, Yo Yo Ma, Sarah Silverman, Itzak Perlman, Whoopi Goldberg, Judd Apatow, Chris Kratt, Esperanza Spalding, and show cast members.

Les Paul Chasing Sound

Les Paul, the father of the electric guitar, inventor of multi-track recording, and architect of Rock n’ Roll performs his final shows in a NY jazz joint and tells his own rags-to-riches story. He first performed at a local hamburger stand in Waukesha, Wisconsin, then hit the big time with Bing Crosby while jamming with the Jazz Greats on the side. In the 1950s he achieved pop superstardom, popularized the electric guitar, and developed sound-on-sound overdubbing. Music’s biggest legends acknowledge his genius: McCartney, Clapton, Beck, Page, B.B. King, Slash, Sambora, Carpenters, and Phil Ramone.

Chesapeake Bay Bridge

​Authored by John and Erin Paulson, the book chronicles the dramatic change in Maryland ushered in by the construction of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge in 1952. Spanning the nation’s largest estuary was a colossal feat of engineering and when it opened, the towering landmark became a vital connection between two widely separated parts of Maryland.

Conowingo Dam

Second in size only to the massive hydroelectric works at Niagara Falls when it began generating power in 1928, Conowingo Dam across the Susquehanna River was a miraculous engineering achievement. The book recounts the pioneering men who built it, the massive components installed inside of it, the village of Conowingo that vanished underwater because of it, and the “storm of the century” that threatened to topple it.

Chesapeake Bay By Air

A critically acclaimed and poetically breathtaking aerial survey, from serene wetlands and wildlife habitats, to tiny fishing villages, hidden tourist towns and broad-shouldered cities. The rhythms of life in the country’s largest estuary are captured from a stunning vantage point.

Spanning the Bay

At its opening in 1952, the towering Chesapeake Bay Bridge was the third largest over-water span in the world, and it forever changed Maryland by uniting a geographically divided state. Includes a joyous ride over the bridge in a vintage 1950s Cadillac convertible.

A Raisin In The Sun Revisited

This performance-doc captures the legacy of Lorraine Hansberry’s groundbreaking 1959 drama depicting the strength and humanity of an African-American family as it strives for the American dream by buying a house in a white neighborhood in Chicago. Fifty years later, playwright Bruce Norris created Clybourne Park, a sardonic Pulitzer Prize-winner that takes place in the same Chicago house, reigniting the questions of race and real estate in America.