Top Picks: 'The Party' on DVD and Blu-ray, 'Breaking Big' on PBS, and more

A new National Geographic video, 'Behind the Scenes: Life Below Zero,' provides a look at how the people who work on the show create a time-lapse in such difficult weather conditions, the National Women’s History Museum’s new exhibit, 'Inventive Women,' explores the lives of women in the United States who patented important inventions and technologies, and more top picks.

Impressive acting ensemble

A who’s who of acclaimed actors appears in the film The Party, which tells the story of a politician (Kristin Scott Thomas) who brings together her friends for a dinner party. Timothy Spall, Bruno Ganz, Patricia Clarkson, Cillian Murphy, Cherry Jones, and Emily Mortimer costar. Monitor film critic Peter Rainer highlights Ganz’s performance in the movie in particular, calling him “very funny.” “The Party” is available on DVD and Blu-ray.

Filming below zero

National Geographic has been airing the Alaska-based show “Life Below Zero” since 2013. Now a new video, Behind the Scenes: Life Below Zero, provides a look at how the people who work on the show create a time-lapse in such difficult weather conditions. (One solution involves putting a hat on the equipment.) You can find the video at http://bit.ly/filminglifebelowzero. There’s occasional crude language.

Courtesy of Ozy Media
Trevor Noah

Big names

PBS recently debuted an intriguing series titled Breaking Big, which highlights the life stories of some of the leading figures in various fields, such as Trevor Noah of “The Daily Show,”  chef Eddie Huang, and writer Roxane Gay. An episode starring “Black Panther” actress Danai Gurira airs June 29 at 8:30 p.m. Catch up on recently aired episodes at www.pbs.org.

Women’s achievements

The National Women’s History Museum’s new exhibit, Inventive Women, explores the lives of women in the United States who patented important inventions and technologies, including Mary E. Walton, who created a chimney for locomotives, and Josephine Garis Cochran, who created the first practical dishwasher. The exhibit is online for you to view at www.nwhm.org/exhibits/inventive-women.

Warner Bros./AP
‘Ocean's 8'

Highlighting a story

The Austin Film Festival was founded in 1994 and puts writers for film in the spotlight. The festival’s podcast, On Story, brings TV writers into the discussion as well. The podcast features interviews with writers and creators for projects including “Ocean’s 8” and “The People v. O.J. Simpson.” Find “On Story” at www.onstory.tv/podcast.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Top Picks: 'The Party' on DVD and Blu-ray, 'Breaking Big' on PBS, and more
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Arts/2018/0622/Top-Picks-The-Party-on-DVD-and-Blu-ray-Breaking-Big-on-PBS-and-more
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe