Muse Film And Television

HERB & DOROTHY
This feature length film tells the extraordinary story of an ordinary couple with modest means, Herb, a postal clerk and Dorothy, a librarian, who together managed to build one of the most important collections of Minimalist and Conceptual art.

Spending all of Herb's salary for art, and living on Dorothy's paycheck alone, they amassed over 3,000 works of art in 30 years. In 1992, the Vogels donated the major part of their collection, estimated at several million dollars, to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. The rest is planned to be distributed to other museums nationwide.

At the core of this film is a love story that celebrates not only the couple's passion for art but also their dedication to each other. It is through their loving partnership that the viewer experiences their remarkable story.

A Production of MUSE Film and Television and Fine Line Media, Inc. Produced and Directed by Megumi Sasaki.

APOCALYPSE THEN: THE BEATUS OF LIEBANA MANUSCRIPTS
This 60-minute film will look at three 9th-13th century illuminated and illustrated Romanesque manuscripts from the Cantabrian Mountains in Northern Spain, all dealing with Judgement Day. In the 8th century, fleeing from the Arab invasion of Spain to the monastery of Liebanna, the Spanish monk Beatus wrote a commentary on St. John's of Patmos Book of Revelation and the Book of Daniel. The monks in the scriptoria of the region surrealistically and brilliantly in dramatic colors illustrated codices depicting the end of the world. These manuscripts were admired by artists such as Leger, Miro, Dalí and Picasso.

Murray Grigor, who so successfully directed our film Work of Angels: The Book of Kells will direct Beatus, along with his team, which includes as advisor Professor John Williams, the eminent authority on Medieval Spanish Art, of the University of Pittsburgh. A five-minute trailer has been created. A research and development grant was provided by the Delmas Foundation.

THE BOOK OF THE PEOPLE ILLUMINATED: HEBREW MANUSCRIPTS
Five hundred years of illustrated and illuminated manuspcripts brought together by Dr. Sharon Mintz to explore the rich and diverse visual cutlure of the Sephardic and Ashkenazi Jewish art tradition in Bibles and Passover Haggadoth. Directed by Andrea Simon. Development grant provided by Targum Shlishi.

MILTON ROGOVIN
A documentary film about Milton Rogovin, the political activist and world-renowned social documentary photographer from Buffalo, New York. Fighting for justice through the lens of his camera, Rogovin, now 96, put a face on the faceless and brought many marginalized elements of society into the mainstream of social concern. The film is a production of MUSE Film and Television and Ezra Bookstein. Produced and directed by Ezra Bookstein.

THE MIND'S JOURNEY
A four-part documentary series made up of two two-hour programs entitled The Itinerant Thinker and Challenging Tradition. The programs will explore the history of the philosopher and the artist in China, examining that culture during its two most dynamic periods – the Zhou and Song dynasties. We will see how these scholar-artists put themselves at the centre of the imperial government and transformed the society and culture, creating the principles of progressive thinking.

The film will examine the confrontation between the two conflicting visions of the society – wen (civilization) and wu (force), and the extraordinary role the early scholars played in the history as reformers and innovators leading up to the social transformation under the First Emperor. We will probe the idea of art as a catalyst for social change and also look at China's unique contribution to philosophy – the Chan (Zen) movement. The two stories will be told by the scholars and artists who played a key role in the two revolutions in thinking.

The series is designed for public television and educational use and is a co-production of MUSE Film and Television, Les Films D'ici in Paris, and Erica Marcus of San Francisco. Partial funding provided by The National Endowment for the Humanities, the Christensen Fund, Alan and Marcia Docter, Marie and Shao-wai Lam, and the Annie Wong Art Foundation. A pilot DVD has been created. Directed by Peter Way and Wang Xiao Shuai.

TOUCHSTONES: THE FUTURE OF THE PAST
This four-part television series, with numerous ancillary products, will focus on the appreciation of cultural heritage, its global meaning and fragility and the preservation of cultural patrimony. Research and development for the film has been funded by the Getty Conservation Institute.

WHAT IN THE WORLD
MUSE, in conjunction with the University Museum of the University of Pennsylvania, is developing an archeological quiz show, to be aired on public television, which will resurrect "What in the World?" – the classic favorite television show from the 1950's, created by the University Museum.

ROBERT INDIANA: AMERICAN DREAMER
An hour-long documentary film on one of the more notable figures of the contemporary art world. As a young artist, Indiana came to prominence during the heyday of the pop art movement in New York City. Best known for his iconic "Love" image, which was exploited and reproduced on everything from postage stamps to pajamas, Indiana became the invisible artist whose work we all knew. His work, not easily categorized and often misjudged. combines bold, symbolic visual narratives with words, geometric figures, and hard-edges, bright colors. Often indecipherable unless studied and de-coded, Indiana's art is intriguing and full of historical overtones; it is rich with references to American history, autobiography, works of literature, geography, politics and popular culture. Directed by Eric Breitbart.