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Interview

National Geographic’s ‘Genius: Picasso’: Alex Rich Talks Playing the Artist as a Young Man

April 16, 2018 Lori Acken Comments Off on National Geographic’s ‘Genius: Picasso’: Alex Rich Talks Playing the Artist as a Young Man

Last year, National Geographic’s anthology series Genius earned 10 wide-ranging Emmy nominations for its stunning inaugural outing, which explored Albert Einstein’s personal and professional evolution. The series returns this month to spotlight another enigmatic intellect: prolific Spanish artist and proud bohemian Pablo Picasso. Like its predecessor, Genius: Picasso features two actors in the titular role — GLOW’s Alex Rich and movie star Antonio Banderas, this time — to capture the freethinker’s nine-decade life, a vast and colorful canvas of shifting personal and political alliances, fraught romances and astoundingly disparate artistic styles. Banderas’ connection to Picasso traces back to his youth […]

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Documentary

‘Elvis Presley: The Searcher’ on HBO: We Sit Down With Priscilla Presley And Music Documentarian Thom Zimny!

April 2, 2018 Lori Acken 6

Let’s start with what you do know about Elvis. Like “Hound Dog” and “Blue Suede Shoes.” “The Pelvis” nickname coupled with said pelvis’ Ed Sullivan Show debut. The stint in the Army, where he met a pretty girl named Priscilla. The feel-good films and the triumphant ’68 TV special. And the endless tabloid fodder that followed, even after his 1977 death at just 42. But do you know why Elvis moved the way he moved? Chose the songs he sang? Suffered so beneath the weight of the very fame he craved? Priscilla — Elvis’ only bride and lifelong confidante — […]

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Documentary

‘America Inside Out With Katie Couric’: The Veteran Journalist Puts Everyday Faces to National Agonies

April 2, 2018 Lori Acken Comments Off on ‘America Inside Out With Katie Couric’: The Veteran Journalist Puts Everyday Faces to National Agonies

For her 2017 National Geographic documentary Gender Revolution, veteran journalist Katie Couric crisscrossed the nation to put compelling faces and poignant personal stories to America’s complex relationship with gender identity. The experience proved so fulfilling that Couric hit the road again, delving into more crackling social issues that both inspire and undermine unity in our “United” States, challenging our individual moral compasses and coloring our outlooks far beyond any neighborly chat over the backyard fence. Issues like gender inequality; the plight of American Muslims; the economic uncertainty of the white working class; the intersection of history and oppression in our […]