Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
In the year 2204, the Earth has become a dystopian wasteland. In order to maintain strict population levels, any newborn is only permitted to live if another person's life is traded in and a receipt issued. Edward K. Wehling, Jr. sits in Chicago Lying-In Hospital waiting for the birth of his triplets, except he has no receipts to collect them.
He was one of the best-selling authors of the 20th Century. His books became movies. His writings became music. He became an icon. He was Kurt Vonnegut. First, though, he was just a kid from Indianapolis, whose early idyllic life turned tragic. Things got tougher in World War II, when he was captured by the Germans and survived the Dresden firebombing. He overcame all of that to become a literary lion who was both proud of--and frustrated with--his hometown. But as his friend Morley Safer said, he never lost his Hoosier roots. Narrated by NPR Anchor Steve Inskeep, A Writer's Roots talks with Kurt's family and friends, including his daughter, Nan Vonnegut, and fellow writers Morley Safer, Dan Wakefield and James Alexander Thom.
An in-depth feature length documentary of one of America's greatest and least understood authors, Nelson Algren. This never before told compelling life story reveals a unique literary voice through rare interviews, archival footage and the gritty noirish voice of Algren on Algren. Kurt Vonnegut and Studs Terkel, literary giants in their own right, sing songs of praise along with many of his old friends, which makes this film seem like a hymn from the grave. This stylishly produced film embeds us in the 1950's cold war world when Algren worked. Algren's touching love affair with Simone de Beauvoir weaves it's way through the film along with the damaging impact of FBI and CIA surveillance.
Jeremy explains to John issues he faced in college while John tries to consolidate his old friend while nursing beers.
Sitting in a bar, Petar Lard decides to ring up his former sweetheart.
2081 depicts a dystopian future in which, thanks to the 212th Amendment to the Constitution and the unceasing vigilance of the United States Handicapper General, everyone is "finally equal...." The strong wear weights, the beautiful wear masks and the intelligent wear earpieces that fire off loud noises to keep them from taking unfair advantage.
Rico reunites with his ex-wife after serving a five year prison term for armed robbery. Upon Rico's release he encounters old and new forces conspiring to bring him down and tear him between what he holds dear and what he most fears.
Arguably the most influential person in American comics, Will Eisner, as artist, entrepreneur, innovator, and visual storyteller, enjoyed a career that encompassed comic books from their early beginnings in the 1930s to their development as graphic novels in the 1990s. During his sixty-year-plus career, Eisner introduced the now-traditional mode of comic book production; championed mature, sophisticated storytelling; was an early advocate for using the medium as a tool for education; pioneered the now-popular graphic novel, and served as inspiration for generations of artists. Without a doubt, Will Eisner was the godfather of the American comic book.
Sicko is a Michael Moore documentary about the corrupt health care system in The United States who's main goal is to make profit even if it means losing peoples lives. "The more people you deny health insurance the more money we make" is the business model for health care providers in America.
A portrait of a fictional town in the mid west that is home to a group of idiosyncratic and slightly neurotic characters. Dwayne Hoover is a wealthy car dealer-ship owner that's on the brink of suicide and is losing touch with reality.
An American spy behind the lines during WWII serves as a Nazi propagandist, a role he cannot escape in his future life as he can never reveal his real role in the war.
"All men are not created equal. It is the purpose of the Government to make them so." This is the premise of the Showtime film adaption of Kurt Vonnegut's futuristic short story Harrison Bergeron. The film centers around a young man (Harrison) who is smarter than his peers, and is not affected by the usual "Handicapping" which is used to train all Americans so everyone is of equal intelligence.
"Malowany chlopiec" - The first major mystification of the Holocaust was the novel "The Painted Bird" by Polish Emigrant Jerzy Kosinski, who in his book describes himself as an abandoned child who became mute, ended up in an orphanage and only later discovers his Jewish origin. "The Painted Bird" has since its publication in 1965 been the subject of discussion on its authenticity.
Kurt Vonnegut, the author of a collection of short stories called "Welcome to the Monkey House", hosts a series that displays dramatizations of several of his short stories. The anthology series aired on Showtime network from 1991 to 1993. The first three stories were produced as a television pilot in British Columbia, Canada, and broadcast together from 9:00–10:30pm on May 12, 1991. The later four were filmed and produced in New Zealand in 1992, as a co-production with South Pacific Pictures.
When he hears that the girl next door is getting married, Newt goes AWOL from the Army and hitch-hikes home to convince her to marry him.
Self-made millionaire Thornton Melon decides to get a better education and enrolls at his son Jason's college. While Jason tries to fit in with his fellow students, Thornton struggles to gain his son's respect, giving way to hilarious antics.
A documentary featured on BBC's Arena series in 1983. The author discusses his life, his work and his thoughts and opinions.
From a short story by Kurt Vonnegut. Christopher Walken is a shy hardware store employee. But whenever he takes a part in a local amateur theater production, he becomes the part completely--while on stage. Susan Sarandon is new in town, a lonely itinerant telephone company employee. On a whim, she auditions for and gets the part of Stella to Walken's Stanley when the theater group does A Streetcar Named Desire. Before anyone realizes the growing affection between Helene and Stanley, she falls deeply in love with the sexy brute, not knowing what the real man is like.
A rich, beautiful couple give birth to deformed alien twins who, when their heads are together, are the smartest kids on the planet.
David Potter, owner of a small town weekly newspaper, decides to get a more secure job. Despite his wife's misgivings, he applies to be a publicity writer at the mammoth Ilium Works. Although shaken at seeing how the company immediately plans out his entire career, he accepts the position. He is then given his first assignment, recording the capture of a deer that has slipped onto the grounds of the Works.
A three episode film. A woman puts an advertisement in the newspaper and receives an answer from someone called Hans-Eerik. They begin to correspond and even set up a date for marriage. The woman waits for Hans-Erik to arrive to her village.
Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., discusses his development as a writer, including references to some of his major novels, his themes and their meaning, his relationship to other writers, problems in sustaining his special vision of American life, and his future. Accompanied by photographs that chronicle the author’s life and selections from home movies taken during his youth.
Pilot for a proposed television anthology series with stories about love, either dramatic or comedic. In this pilot, there were three different segments: in the first, a computer falls in love with its programmer; in the second, a World War II vet falls in love with a murderer; in the third, a woman falls in love with a penniless painter.
A man named Billy Pilgrim tells the story of how he became unstuck in time and was abducted by aliens.
A poet-astronaut is shot through an area of space called the Chronosynclastic Infundibulum. He is duplicated into infinite copies of himself, each of whom finds himself in a bizarre situations on a different world. (These scenarios are all derived from the novels and short stories of 'Kurt Vonnegut Jr.', including Cat's Cradle, Welcome to the Monkey House, 'Harrison Bergeron', and 'Happy Birthday, Wanda June'
In this film we see how the members of a family react when the husband returns home, after he abandoned it seven years ago.
A documentary 33 years in the making, director and friend of Kurt Vonnegut seeks through his archives to create the first film featuring the revolutionary late writer.
A soldier fighting in Germany during World War II finds himself living two lives simultaneously.
