November 13, 2009
Since the 1980s, the filmmaker has been giving audiences a tragicomic view of Spanish life the world had never seen before. His new release "Broken Embraces" has all of the hallmarks of his greatest films: a complex structure, an underlying mystery, and Penelope Cruz. It tells the story of a movie director who has lost his sight, and it reveals Almodóvar's own vision of cinema's meaning.
In Gulfport, Mississippi, Pulitzer-Prize winning poet Natasha Trethewey visits her cousin Tamara Jones, still battling financial problems triggered by the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. It inspired Trethewey's poem "Believer," and the visit was documented by photographer Joshua Cogan. Produced by Studio 360's Lu Olkowski.
Natasha Trethewey wrote her poem "Watcher" about her brother, who had a job looking for remains on the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina. He was later incarcerated for a time, and Trethewey's poem "Benediction" documents the moment of his release from jail.
Newcomer Gabourey Sidibe has been getting a lot of attention for her performance in the title role in the new film, "Precious." Studio 360's Jenny Lawton finds out what it's like for Sidibe to ride this wave of acclaim for a part that had her exploring the very depths of despair in the life of an abused teenager.
Broadway's "Wishful Drinking" stars Carrie Fisher as Carrie Fisher. Like memoir of the same name, the one-woman show blurs the line between person and performer for the movie star, as she draws from the most painful periods in her life for comic material. She tells Kurt that her public life started even before "Star Wars."
Old-timey piano music isn't the only way to watch the silent films of Buster Keaton. A new DVD features three Keaton classics with gorgeous and strange music by acclaimed jazz guitarist Bill Frisell. Frisell tells Studio 360's David Krasnow about his awe for Keaton and his attempt to capture the emotion of each scene.
"In Verse" is supported by Public Radio Makers Quest 2.0, an initiative of AIR, the Association of Independents in Radio. This project is made possible with funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and by a creative partnership with Virginia Quarterly Review.
Go behind the scenes of "In Verse" at Transom.org.
Studio 360 is a co-production of
Public
Radio International and
WNYC New York Public Radio, and is funded in part by
Ken and Lucy Lehman, the
National Endowment for the Arts, and the Lily Auchincloss Foundation. Studio 360's American Icons series is supported in part by the
National Endowment for the Humanities. Our series on creativity and science is supported in part by the
Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Our series on Underground Heroes is supported in part by the New York State Music Fund, established by the New York State Attorney General at Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors. 
