Channel 13

In the 70’s, before there was cable TV in New York, one would often hear people say “the only TV I watch is channel 13.”   Thirteen showed Masterpiece Theatre and occasionally foreign films, as well as opera and, sometimes, ballet.  Then along came cable, with its uncensored dramas and films on AMC, IFC and Sundance that were uncut and commercial-free.  Now the only station I watch on cable is Turner Classic Movies, the other channels having succumbed to mostly schlock and commercials.  Films that once might have been on cable are now more often found on channel 13 –which has stayed true to itself –especially in the Independent Lens and American Masters series.  Recently channel 13 showed in the latter series films about Loretta Lynn, movingly directed by Vikram Jayanti, and a film about Bob Dylan, directed by Martin Scorsese.

Scorsese’s 2005 film "No Direction Home" follows Dylan up to 1966 and includes lots of early footage of his performances and interviews, as well as lengthy excerpts from an interview of Dylan by his manager Jeff Rosen, in which Dylan talks about his work in a relative straightforward way.  Some of us who lived through Dylan’s progress from political folksinger to rock ‘n roll still have strong feelings about the changes, with some feeling betrayed (there were cries of “Judas” at his concerts) and others feeling that an artist has to pursue his vision in his own way, the explicit political songs being a dead end.  Scorsese covers it all in illuminating detail, including interviews with Dave Van Ronk, Pete Seeger and Allen Ginsberg.

On Independent Lens channel 13 showed "Birth of a Movement" recently, directed by Bestor Cramer and Susan Gray and focusing on African-American journalist William Monroe Trotter and his attempt to stop D.W. Griffith’s masterpiece Birth of a Nation in 1915.  He failed at stopping the film but his efforts did lead to an increase in awareness of the role of the black man in America.  Griffith himself was aghast that anyone could consider him a bigot and made the magisterial Intolerance in 1916.  Also recently on Independent Lens was Keith Maitland’s "Tower".  This extraordinary film depicts the shootings at the University of Texas in 1966, mostly from the point of view of the victims. I have always disliked so-called re-enactments of crimes and other events and Maitland has instead used rotoscoping, animation based on actual film footage.  This produces an effect of immediacy while still maintaining a proper distance, not attempting (as re-enactments typically try to do) to be realistic, while still capturing a depiction of reality.