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This three part series airing nationally on PBS on October 6, 13, and 20 at 8:00 PM is a dynamic, documentary-style road trip and cultural primer, with Michael Feinstein as the leader of an expedition through the glorious history of American popular song. Viewers follow him both on stage and back stage, hear him interpret great standards, listen in on personal stories about the songwriters and entertainers he’s known and worked with over three decades, and accompany him on his quest to find and preserve the treasures of classic American popular music. Rare archival audio and film footage combine to reveal the social and historical forces behind the music that helped shape the style, attitude, and self-image of America for more than a century. Filled with generous portions of live performance, this series offers both an intimate portrait of a unique entertainer, and a history of 20th Century pop culture.

Episode One, Putting On the Tailfins, focuses on the 1950s and ‘60s, when the Great American Songbook was in competition with new forms like rock ‘n’ roll, and rhythm & blues.  As Feinstein crisscrosses the country performing with big bands, symphony orchestras and jazz combos, viewers learn how iconic singers like Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole and Rosemary Clooney kept the Songbook alive by reinventing pop standards of the 1930s and ‘40s.

Episode Two, Best Band in the Land, examines how popular songs provided emotional solace and patriotic inspiration during World War II.  While preparing an original patriotic song, Michael weaves in the history of 1940s big bands, USO shows, V-disks, war bond rallies and the powerful role popular music played in boosting morale.

Episode Three, A New Step Every Day, explores the fast and furious 1920s and ‘30s, when jazz was hot, credit was loose, and illegal booze flowed freely in underground speakeasies.  Between performances, Feinstein illustrates the impact of talking pictures, the dawn of radio, and the fledgling recording industry.  Additionally, it introduces us to collectors and musicians who keep the spirit of the Jazz Age alive today.

Produced and Directed by Amber Edwards
Co-Producer and Director of Photography—Dave Davidson
Executive Producer—Ken Bloom

The little-known story of the last all-black, publicly funded, co-educational boarding school North of the Mason-Dixon Line.  In a segregated society, The Bordentown School was an educational utopia and cultural oasis for black citizens in the Northeast and beyond for more than 70 years.  Founded in 1886, and forced to close in 1955 after the Brown v. Board of Education decision, the story of Bordentown is also the story of black education in America, across three centuries.

PRESS MATERIAL
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A series of three documentaries about public schools, broadcast on NJN Public Television and nationwide on American Public Television in 1998, 1999, and 2000

In 1996, the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation put out a call for proposals from independent filmmakers to make a series of documentaries that would examine the triumphs and trials of educators and students in a new way.  Hudson West Productions was ultimately selected for the project.

Quicksand and Banana Peels: A Year in The Life of Two Principals follows two grade school principals from very different backgrounds and environments through an academic year–at the end of which, only one remained as a principal.

Brick City Lessons, produced in association with NJN Public Television, unearths success stories in the troubled Newark, NJ school district.

No Place To Be Smart - The Brightest Kids In Public Schools examines an innovative program for keeping gifted and talented kids engaged and challenged within the public school system.

Long before there was Hollywood, there was Fort Lee, New Jersey–the filmmaking capital of the world, at least for the first decade. This multiple Emmy-winning special tells the story of the inventors, promotors, and innovators who got the infant industry up and running–hard, fast, and furious.  And, as we learn, it wasn’t all the doing of Thomas Edison.

The story of a most unusual man–the one-legged tap dancer and resort owner Peg Leg Bates, who at the height of his fame created an all-black resort in the Catskill Mountains of New York.  Bates’ remarkable life starts in the cotton fields of South Carolina, follows him on the road in minstrel shows and vaudeville, to Harlem in its heyday, and to a record-breaking 22 appearances on the legendary Ed Sullivan Show.

A film portrait of a unique artist who “sings both sides.” Cissy Houston may be belting out gutbucket rhythm & blues in a smoky bar at midnight on Saturday, but at dawn on Sunday she is back in church wailing with her gospel choir. According to the Boston Globe: “An exquisite documentary. This is the story of a woman who has thought deeply about the roots of black music.”