Garrison Keillor

After 30 years of live radio broadcasts of "A Prairie Home Companion," the popular show comes to DVD for the first time, offering a rare inside look at one of radio´s most beloved shows. Taped before live audiences at the Fitzgerald Theater in Saint Paul, MN , the DVD features the 30th anniversary broadcast with Keillor and cast performing their singular blend of folk, blues and gospel songs and topical comedy sketches. The broadcast includes appearances by special guests BR549, Philip Brunelle, Jearlyn Steele and Inga Swearingen, in addition to cast regulars Sue Scott, Tom Keith, Fred Newman and Tim Russell, and music by The Guy´s All-Star Shoe Band.

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Voices in Wartime is a 2004 documentary that explores the human experience of war through poetry. Combining interviews with soldiers, journalists, and historians, it reveals how war affects individuals and societies across time and place. The film features poets from around the world – from Homer and Wilfred Owen to Shoda Shinoe and modern writers in Iraq and Nigeria – showing how poetry expresses the pain, trauma, and truth of conflict. By linking verse with real-life accounts, Voices in Wartime highlights how poetry helps us understand the emotional and moral impact of war.

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Each week Bill Maher surrounds himself with a panel of guests which include politicians, actors, comedians, musicians and the like to discuss what's going on in the world.

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Humorist Roy Blount Jr. takes viewers on a journey down the Mississippi River, showcasing everything from areas with spectacularly beautiful scenery to ugly and dangerously polluted stretches bordered by industrial development.

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The origins of Halloween are explored in this engrossing program on the subject. A ghoulish array of costumes, make up, and decoration descend on communities every year on October 31st, but few people are aware of how the celebration came to exist. Harry Smith attempts to get to the bottom of the mystery in THE HAUNTED HISTORY OF HALLOWEEN, which delves into the 3,000 years of hoopla that traditionally unfolds when October comes around. As the history is explained, so are various failed attempts to co-opt the festival by various religious groups; but the most compelling revelation is how little the festival has changed over the centuries. A marvelous way to gain a historical perspective on this entertaining holiday, Smith's program is almost as fun as carving a pumpkin, donning a spooky costume, and undertaking a little trick or treating!

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The Big One is an investigative documentary from director Michael Moore who goes around the country asking why big American corporations produce their product abroad where labor is cheaper while so many Americans are unemployed, losing their jobs, and would happily be hired by such companies as Nike.

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Years after failing to catch Little Red Riding Hood, the obsessed Wolf tries again.

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On August 8, 1908, at a racetrack outside Paris, Wilbur Wright executed what was, for him, a routine flight: a smooth take-off banking into a couple of tight circles, ending in a perfect landing. The flight took less than two minutes, but it left spectators awestruck. While the combined talents of Wilbur and Orville Wright had produced the first plane capable of controlled flight , their distrust of others had almost cost them the credit for their invention. Now, having proved to the public that they had mastered the sky, the reserved brothers from the small town of Dayton, Ohio, became world celebrities.

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The history of the sport of baseball in America, told through archival photos, film footage, and the words of those who contributed to the game in each era. Writers, historians, players, baseball personnel, and fans review key events and the significance of the game in America's history.

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In 1862, when Minnesota was still a young state, the people of the Eastern Dakota Nation had been relegated to a reservation on a narrow strip of land along the Minnesota River. Times were hard and Dakota families went hungry. When the U.S. government broke its promises and failed to send treaty payments, some of the Dakota went to war against the white settlers. Many Dakota did not join in, choosing to aid and protect settlers instead. The fighting lasted six weeks and many people on both sides were killed or fled the state. 1600 Dakota were imprisoned in a camp below Fort Snelling in present day Minneapolis. Dakota men were tried in a military court and on December 26, 1862, thirty-eight were hanged in Mankato in the largest mass execution in U.S. history.

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For 50 years radio dominated the airwaves and the American consciousness as the first “mass medium.” In Empire of the Air: The Men Who Made Radio, Ken Burns examines the lives of three extraordinary men who shared the primary responsibility for this invention and its early success, and whose genius, friendship, rivalry and enmity interacted in tragic ways. This is the story of Lee de Forest, a clergyman’s flamboyant son, who invented the audion tube; Edwin Howard Armstrong, a brilliant, withdrawn inventor who pioneered FM technology; and David Sarnoff, a hard-driving Russian immigrant who created the most powerful communications company on earth.

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This is the touching story of the benevolent naturalist who roamed the Ohio valley in the early 1800's, planting apple orchards, making friends, and spreading goodwill along his way. Known to early settlers as a gentle soul with a reverence for all life, Johnny never missed a chance to save an abandoned animal or to savor a delicious apple pie.

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Here the parables of The Sower, The Good Samaritan and The Prodigal Son come to life against the backdrop of Jesus journeys through Galilee and Judea. The parables are put into a context that makes their simple truths resonate with meaning for young audiences.

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A documentary on the American Civil War narrated by Ken Burns, covering the secession of the Confederacy to the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.

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For 200 years, the United States Congress has been one of the country's most important and least understood institutions. In this elegant, thoughtful and often touching portrait, Ken Burns explores the history and promise of this unique American institution. Using historical photographs and newsreels, evocative live footage and interviews with David Broder, Alistair Cooke, Cokie Roberts, Charles McDowell and others, the award-winning film chronicles the personalities, events and issues that have animated the first 200 years of Congress and, in turn, our country.

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TV's most-watched history series brings to life the compelling stories from our past that inform our understanding of the world today.

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The life, career, and music of Irving Berlin are celebrated live on stage with musical performances.

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Minneapolis’ West Bank neighborhood was once an epicenter of the music world. From the early 1960s, this perennial immigrant landing strip proved an irresistible draw for artists from far and wide, an ever-evolving cauldron of creativity and cultures. This film is a funky flashback, bursting at the seams with musical memories, all visualized with rare and rich archival photography, footage, and artistic ephemera. From household names to forgotten favorites, The Wild West Bank Sound comes alive in this multi-sensory trip through time.

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