Bill Moyers

From the success of Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass, through the founding of A&M Records, to giving away more than $150 million to arts and education programs across the country, we’ll witness the humanity and the humility inherent in everything he does, as well as come to understand the power of creativity to entertain, inspire, heal and transform.

It’s a central premise of the American dream: If you’re willing to work hard, you’ll be able to make a living and build a better life for your children. But what if working hard isn’t enough to get ahead — or even to ensure your family’s basic financial stability? Two American Families: 1991-2024, a special, two-hour documentary filmed over more than 30 years, is a portrait of perseverance from FRONTLINE, Bill Moyers, and filmmakers Tom Casciato and Kathleen Hughes that raises unsettling questions about the changing nature of the American economy and the impact on people struggling to make a living. This is the saga of two families in Milwaukee, Wisconsin — one Black, the Stanleys, and one white, the Neumanns — who have spent the past 34 years battling to keep from sliding into poverty, and who refuse to give up despite the economic challenges that their stories reveal.

Arguably the most influential creator, writer, and producer in the history of television, Norman Lear brought primetime into step with the times. Using comedy and indelible characters, his legendary 1970s shows such as All In the Family, Maude, Good Times, and The Jeffersons, boldly cracked open dialogue and shifted the national consciousness, injecting enlightened humanism into sociopolitical debates on race, class, creed, and feminism.

This artful and intimate meditation on the legendary storyteller examines her life, her works, and the powerful themes she has confronted throughout her literary career. Toni Morrison leads an assembly of her peers, critics, and colleagues on an exploration of race, history, the United States, and the human condition.

This film from Bill Moyers is the first documentary to focus exclusively on people formerly detained in New York City’s notorious Rikers Island Jail. They tell their compelling stories direct to the camera, revealing the violent arc of the Rikers experience – from the trauma of entry to extortion and control by inmates, to oppressive corrections officers, violence and solitary confinement.

A TV documentary following two American families from 1991 to 2013, chronicling their struggles while trying to maintain their place in the American middle class

From the earliest versions of the script to the blockbuster debuts, explore the creation of the Star Wars Trilogy.

A Biography of George Lucas.

The dramatic story of two blue-collar Milwaukee families over two decades. As they struggle to find their place in the new economy, living from paycheck to paycheck through good times and bad, the Neumanns and Stanleys confront choices for themselves and their families that have far-reaching consequences for the American way of life.

In 2003, the United States pre-emptively attacked Iraq in a war that would last for eight years claiming an estimated 189,000 lives, costing over $2 trillion and causing untold economic and emotional devastation for the Iraqi people. In this 2007 documentary that originally aired on Bill Moyers Journal, Moyers investigates big media’s role as cheerleader in the clamor for war in the months preceding the March 19, 2003 invasion. How did the mainstream press get it so wrong in the run-up to the Iraq War?

It’s one of the most popular and beloved songs in the English language. Transcending race, creed, geography, generation, and social station, Amazing Grace has been recorded more times than any other hymn and is widely credited with transforming lives. Bill Moyers explores the song’s origins and enduring power in conversations with Johnny Cash, Judy Collins, Jean Ritchie, Jessye Norman and members of the Harlem Boys Choir.

A film about the noted American linguist/political dissident and his warning about corporate media's role in modern propaganda.

George Lucas discusses how Joseph Campbell and his concept of the Monomyth (aka the Hero's Journey) and other concepts from mythology and religion shaped the Star Wars saga.

Performance and conversation with husband-and-wife poets Donald Hall and Jane Kenyon at a New Jersey festival, in their Wilmot, NH hometown and their Eagle Pond farmhouse.

Bill Moyers and filmmaker David Grubin give viewers a rare glimpse into dancer/choreographer Bill T. Jones’s highly acclaimed dance Still/Here. At workshops around the country, people facing life-threatening illnesses are asked to remember the highs and lows of their lives, and even imagine their own deaths. They then transform their feelings into expressive movement, which Jones incorporates into the dance performed later in the program. For this documentary, Jones demonstrates the movements of his own life story: his first encounter with white people, confusion over his sexuality, his partner Arnie Zane’s untimely death from AIDS, and Jones’s own HIV-positive status.

Biography of Norman Corwin, the great writer, producer and director of the Golden Age of Radio. Actors in his radio plays included Orson Welles, Jimmy Stewart, Charles Laughton, Danny Kaye, Paul Robeson and Judy Garland.

Bill Moyers takes a piercing look at how global economic changes are destroying the lives and livelihoods of hardworking Americans. The documentary follows several individuals and their families in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, as they fight to make ends meet in the “new economy.” In sheer numbers, more jobs were created than lost in America during the last decade, but a look behind those numbers reveals a shortage of jobs that pay enough to support a family. The program intimately portrays the lives of workers and their families as they struggle to make it in today’s job market.

Hate has many faces: racism, anti-Semitism, homophobia, sectarianism, domestic violence. But do we really understand its roots, and are there practical ways to cope with it? What is hate doing to us? And what does hate do for us?

Bill Moyers tells the story of several hardworking Milwaukee families struggling with low-paying jobs after previous employers downsized their operations. Filmed over a period of five years, these families were first featured in Moyers’s 1992 documentary ‘Minimum Wages: The New Economy.’ FRONTLINE chronicles the families’ emotional and financial strains, their search for better jobs and job retraining, and looks at Milwaukee’s efforts to adapt to an ever-shrinking industrial sector.

In September 1986, "48 Hours on Crack Street" provided a glimpse into America's drug crisis. Executive producer Lane Venardos and head of special unit Joan Richman dispatched eighteen camera crews and twenty-five producers to follow ten correspondent around, including Bernard Goldberg in Greenwich Village, Diane Sawyer in Livingston, N.J, Dan Rather in Brooklyn, and Bob Schieffer in New Jersey, as well as Ed Bradley, David Martin, Bill Moyers, and Richard Roth. They filmed and interviewed pushers, buyers, and victims, ranging from high school girls to Wall Street brokers.

In this documentary profile, Bill Moyers travels with Maya Angelou to Stamps, Arkansas, the segregated Southern town where she grew up. Revisiting the landscapes and memories of her youth, Angelou reflects on race, memory, and the experiences that shaped her voice as one of America’s most celebrated writers. (Note: Originally produced as an episode of the PBS series "Creativity with Bill Moyers" (1982), this program has circulated independently under the title Portrait of Maya Angelou through library and educational distribution, justifying its treatment as a standalone documentary listing.)

TV mini-series.

Bill Moyers interviews film director and actor John Huston who discusses his career and the process of filmmaking. Includes a documentary segment on Huston's life, excerpts from some of his films, and an the on-set production of his latest film. (Note: Originally produced as an episode of the PBS series "Creativity with Bill Moyers" (1982), this program has circulated independently and has been distributed and exhibited separately, supporting its treatment as a standalone documentary listing.)

An interview with playwright and screenwriter Samson Raphaelson. First aired on PBS's "Creativity with Bill Moyers".

In the revealing 24 minutes of the PBS video documentary The Secret Government available for free viewing below, host Bill Moyers exposes the inner workings of a secret government much more vast that most people would ever imagine. Though originally broadcast in 1987, it is even more relevant today. Interviews with respected top military, intelligence, and government insiders reveal both the history and secret objectives of powerful groups in the hidden shadows of our government.

This special news report, hosted by Bill Moyers, explores the recent societal changes in black American families and communities. Moyers explains that currently, 60% of black children are born out of wedlock to single mothers without partners.

Racial tensions soared as the Spencers, a middle-class black family moved into Rosedale, a Queens white working-class neighborhood. In this 1976 documentary, Bill Moyers examines the fear, hatred and courage generated as the have-nots of our society battle for a tiny piece of the good life.

This program examines Cuban exile terrorists living in Miami. These terrorists were secretly trained and employed by the U.S. government in the early 1960s to fight Fidel Castro. Now, without U.S. support, terrorist activities continue in Miami and Latin America. The program reviews secret U.S. policies toward Cuba in the 1960s and includes interviews with Castro and former top CIA officials. Members of this group, formerly secretly trained and employed by U.S. Government until 1967, have been active in Watergate crimes and anti-Castro terrorism including bomb explosion on Cuban Airline killing seventy-three. Includes interviews with Castro, E. Howard Hunt, Bernard Barker, and Rolando Martinez.' - The Paley Center For Media

A documentary part of CBS reports. The plight of mental patients fit for discharge, but who find themselves thrust into communities unprepared to treat or accept them is the focus of this documentary narrated by Bill Moyers. The dilemma of being as scared of getting well as of remaining ill and facing a world with no home or job to go to is vividly portrayed as the film follows three patients as they move into rare transition programs.

A group of black, male addicts in recovery meet and reflect on their experiences with life, alcohol and drugs.