Top Picks: The FoodieTV app, Greg Kot's Staples Singers biography, and more
The man behind Bond
Ian Fleming, creator of the iconic James Bond character, gets his own series in 鈥檚 Fleming: The Man Who Would Be Bond. The real-life man behind Agent 007 used his checkered life as a playboy and womanizer-turned-wartime spy as a road map for his cold-war era agent. As the typewriter that opens the series is careful to tell us, the events of the shaken-not-stirred Bond sagas all have a foundation in truth. It launches on Jan. 29.
Last audition
profiles a member of Hollywood royalty in Barrymore, part of the 鈥淕reat Performances鈥� series. Starring the equally masterly Christopher Plummer as handsome screen and stage legend John Barrymore, the film, set in 1942, focuses on the performer during the final months of his life as he prepares for a last audition. It airs Jan. 31.
Arab women
叠辞蝉迟辞苍鈥檚 photography exhibit She Who Tells a Story makes a remarkable book. The 12 photographers from Iran and the Arab world challenge 鈥渆xotic women鈥� stereotypes while exploring themes of personal identity and gender as well as war and national pride. From Rania Matar with her coming-of-age portraits to Jananne Al-Ani and her abstract landscapes, author and curator Kristen Gresh has selected masterful artists, each speaking through her unique approach, underscoring the individual as well as the collective voice.
Cuisine and culture
If you love food and travel, check out FoodieTV, the latest free app from . Each week, five mini-documentaries, each about five minutes long, are bundled into episodes easily viewed on smart phone screens. The topics range from farming, to chef profiles, to recipe instruction, to cuisines around the globe, and more. The bite-sized films are beautifully produced, and each reveals something about the interconnected world of food. It鈥檚 available in iTunes.
American history
has released its previously aired African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross on DVD. Narrated by Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr., the six-part series explores the progress African-Americans have made through the lenses of culture, politics, religion, and society as they forged a history of triumph against odds.
Anthems for a movement
Longtime music critic has written the definitive biography of one of America鈥檚 greatest family bands. I鈥檒l Take You There: Mavis Staples, the Staple Singers, and the March Up Freedom鈥檚 Highway chronicles the influential Chicago group whose uplifting gospel/soul music became the soundtrack to black pride and the civil rights movement. The group鈥檚 message still resonates around the world today via the powerful voice of the band鈥檚 youngest and sole performing member, Mavis, who, at 74 is still touring, belting out familiar anthems like 鈥淔reedom Highway鈥� and 鈥淩espect Yourself.鈥�
