THIS APRIL PBS DISTRIBUTION RELEASES
HIGHLY ANTICIPATED AND CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED TITLES
INCLUDING “VICTORIA, SEASON 3,” “MASTERPIECE: MRS. WILSON”
AND HENRY LOUIS GATES JR.’S “RECONSTRUCTION: AMERICA
AFTER THE CIVIL WAR” AMONG MANY OTHERS
Programs Available on DVD/Blu-ray and Digital Download
Arlington, VA – March 26, 2019 – This April, PBS Distribution will be releasing a plethora of new
programs on DVD and digitally, including the critically acclaimed, “VICTORIA, SEASON 3,” the
highly-anticipated “MRS. WILSON,” the fascinating “RECONSTRUCTION: AMERICA AFTER THE
CIVIL WAR,” and the eye-opening “CHARM CITY.” Information about each of the programs is listed
below.
MASTERPIECE AMERICAN MASTERS NATURE
Mrs. Wilson Joseph Pulitzer Attenborough and the Sea Dragon
Victoria, Season 3 Charley Pride: I’m Just Me Wild Way of the Vikings
Living Volcanoes
NOVA AMERICAN EXPERIENCE
Einstein’s Quantum Riddle Sealab
Kilauea: Hawaii on Fire Reconstruction: America After the Civil War
Decoding the Great Pyramid Charm City
Dictator’s Playbook
FRONTLINE Margaret: The Rebel Princess
Predator on the Reservation Boss: The Black Experience in Business
Right to Fail Homo Spatius
MASTERPIECE
MRS. WILSON
Ruth Wilson stars as her own grandmother in this true-life story of
spies, plot-twists, love and betrayal, and a woman’s search for her
husband’s real identity.
At the outset of World War II, Alison McKelvie, played by Ruth Wilson
(The Affair, Luther), took a secretarial job with the Secret Intelligence
Service. There, she fell in love with an older man – Major Alexander
Wilson, played by Iain Glen (Downton Abbey, Game of Thrones), a
popular author of spy novels then doing real intelligence work for the
war effort.
Fast-forwarding to 1963, Alison and Alec have been married for more
than 20 years. While working on his new novel, Alec suffers a fatal
heart attack. Prior to the funeral, Alison is confronted by a woman
claiming to be Alec’s real wife. Alec’s colleagues offer condolences
but refer to puzzling aspects of his work and personal life.
Nervously, Alison tracks down Coleman, Alec’s old spymaster, and enters the looking-glass world of
secret intelligence, where agents assume identities, pursue careers, fake romances, and undergo
public humiliations. Given Alec’s gift for creating plots, how much of what he confided to Alison was
true and how much did he make up?
- Street Date: April 9, 2019
- Run Time: 168 minutes on 1 disc
- SRP: DVD, $29.99
- Format: DVD, Digital
- Genre: British Drama
VICTORIA, SEASON 3
Jenna Coleman returns as her fearless Majesty Queen Victoria in
the long anticipated third season of VICTORIA. Hailed as
“tremendously engaging...immediately gratifying” by The New York
Times, and “captivating” by The Boston Globe, VICTORIA was a
runaway hit during its first two seasons. Continuing the story of
Victoria’s rule over the largest empire the world has ever known,
VICTORIA: SEASON 3 introduces fascinating new historical
characters, including Laurence Fox (Inspector Lewis) as the
vainglorious Lord Palmerston, who crosses swords with the queen
over British foreign policy. Also vexing the queen this season is
Kate Fleetwood (Harlots) as Victoria’s devoted but troubled half-sister, Princess Feodora, who seeks
refuge at Buckingham Palace due to political unrest back home in Germany.
- Street Date: April 16, 2019
- Run Time: DVD and Blu-ray: 415 minutes on 3 discs
- SRP: DVD, $49.99, Blu-ray, $59.99
- Format: DVD, Blu-ray, Digital
- Genre: British Drama
AMERICAN MASTERS
JOSEPH PULITZER
A groundbreaking exploration of a newspaper magnate whose work is largely unknown to wide
audiences, though ironically, the prize he endowed in his will has become recognizable around the
world. Pulitzer’s personal story is a riveting variation on the American Dream narrative. Joseph
Pulitzer (1847-1911) arrived in the United States during the Civil War as a penniless immigrant who
spoke no English and proceeded to create two best-selling newspapers -and a major fortune. This
immigrant was famous in his own time for the outsized financial success of his newspapers and his
outspoken, cantankerous editorial voice. From the start of his career as a journalist, Pulitzer
championed what he regarded as the sacred role of the free press in a democracy.
- Street Date: April 16, 2019
- Run Time: 90 minutes on 1 disc
- SRP: DVD, $24.99
- Format: DVD, Digital
- Genre: History: Biography
CHARLEY PRIDE: I’M JUST ME
Narrated by Grammy-nominated country singer Tanya Tucker, this new documentary traces the
improbable journey of Charley Pride, from his humble beginnings as a sharecropper’s son on a
cotton farm in segregated Sledge, Mississippi, to his career as a Negro American League baseball
player and his meteoric rise as a pioneering country music superstar. Along with exclusive new
interviews with Pride himself, the film incorporates original interviews with country music royalty,
including Garth Brooks, Dolly Parton, Brad Paisley, Darius Rucker and Marty Stuart, as well as
on-camera conversations between Pride and special guests such as Rozene Pride (his wife of 61
years), Willie Nelson and fellow musicians.
- Street Date: April 30, 2019
- Run Time: 78 minutes on 1 disc
- SRP: DVD, $24.99
- Format: DVD, Digital
- Genre: History: Biography
NATURE
ATTENBOROUGH AND THE SEA DRAGON
A remarkable chance discovery is about to reveal secrets that have laid hidden for 200 million years.
A “dragon” that ruled the ocean at the time of the dinosaurs was found in the eroding cliffs on the
southeast coast of England called the Jurassic Coast. It’s an Ichthyosaur, a fish lizard. This
fearsome predator had the very best characteristics of reptiles and mammals in one formidable
package. It could regulate its own body temperature, had astonishingly acute eyesight, and an
impressive set of blade-like teeth and powerful, gripping jaws to hunt and swallow its prey whole. As
the forensic investigation unfolds, fossil hunter Chris Moore and his team stumble into the 200-
million-year-old murder mystery of this extraordinary creature's fate. Sir David Attenborough hosts
this detective story, from the challenging on-site extraction of the fossils to the 3D reconstruction of
the creature. He looks at evidence from animals across the world to try and piece together how this
super predator lived and died.
- Street Date: April 2, 2019
- Run Time: 60 minutes on 1 disc
- SRP: DVD, $24.99
- Format: DVD, Digital
- Genre: Science & Nature: Archaeology & Anthropology
WILD WAY OF THE VIKINGS
Narrated by Golden Globe Award-winner Ewan McGregor, viewers experience the natural world
through the eyes of the Vikings, when nature meets history in a journey showcasing the wildlife of
the North Atlantic. Combining blue-chip natural history filmmaking and dramatic recreations,
NATURE travels from Norway to Newfoundland, just as the seafaring warriors did in 1,000 A.D., to
get a glimpse of the Vikings’ world in the Americas hundreds of years before Columbus. Audiences
will witness the deep history and cultural respect the Vikings had for the land and sea, from the
puffins and otters of the Scottish coast to the vast herds of reindeer in Norway to the eider duck
farms of Iceland. Viewers discover how the Vikings practiced the true spirit of the Wild Way of the
Vikings: take everything that you need from nature, but value it for as long as you can.
- Street Date: April 23, 2019
- Run Time: 53 minutes on 1 disc
- SRP: DVD, $24.99
- Format: DVD, Digital
- Genre: Science & Nature: Animals
LIVING VOLCANOES
Our planet is bursting at the seams. Around the world, up to 30 volcanoes erupt every day – and
hundreds more could explode at any moment. Meet the people and wildlife that live alongside these
volcanoes, from Kilauea to Mount Etna. Discover how volcanoes cause destruction but also create
and nurture life. At the “burning heart” of this documentary is a daring expedition of scientists and
adventurers to one of the world’s most dangerous volcanoes, located in the Pacific island nation of
Vanuatu. Viewers will take a terrifying descent into the Marum Crater with biologist Jeffrey Marlow,
who risks a boiling lava lake to collect and analyze rock samples for signs of life. His discoveries
could lead to a better understanding of the origins of life and a picture of what life might look like
outside of Earth.
- Street Date: April 30, 2019
- Run Time: 53 minutes on 1 disc
- SRP: DVD, $24.99
- Format: DVD, Digital
- Genre: Science & Nature: Earth
NOVA
EINSTEIN’S QUANTUM RIDDLE
Over the past century, scientists have made huge strides in understanding the mind-bending rules
that govern the microworld of atoms and subatomic particles. But these rules, called quantum
mechanics, contain one particularly bizarre, unexplained phenomenon: quantum entanglement.
Imagine two subatomic particles that mirror changes in each other instantaneously over any distance
without communicating. Einstein called it "spooky action at a distance" and although no one can
explain how it works, scientists have already begun to harness its power. So-called quantum
computing could give rise to computers that can shatter existing data encryption in minutes and use
the laws of physics to create a totally secure, unhackable network. But even as researchers are
poised to transform the digital world with entanglement, a few doubts about it remain, and to rule
them out will take a ground-breaking experiment. NOVA takes viewers to a frigid mountaintop in the
Canary Islands where physicists will use massive telescopes to catch light from quasars at opposite
ends of the universe to control detectors in a record-breaking experiment that might settle the
remaining questions once and for all.
- Street Date: April 2, 2019
- Run Time: 60 minutes on 1 disc
- SRP: DVD, $24.99
- Format: DVD, Digital
KILAUEA: HAWAII ON FIRE
In May 2018 the Kilauea volcano erupted, obliterating neighborhoods with devastating force and
uprooting thousands of local residents. It is Hawaii’s most destructive volcanic eruption in
generations. How can one of the most beautiful places on Earth suddenly transform into a roaring
inferno, sputtering molten lava and bombs of volcanic rock the size of refrigerators? On the ground
in the early days of the eruption, NOVA joins scientists and residents alike on a breathtaking journey
to investigate Kilauea’s recent spike in activity. Along the way, some of Hawaii’s biggest secrets are
revealed: Why did these geologically distinctive volcanoes form in the middle of the Pacific? How did
life establish itself on the remote islands? What does this tell us about the future of Hawaii? And
what dangers lurk for the inhabitants of the island paradise?
- Street Date: April 16, 2019
- Run Time: 60 minutes on 1 disc
- SRP: DVD, $24.99
- Format: DVD, Digital
- Genre: Science & Nature: Earth
- Genre: Science & Nature: Technology & Inventions
DECODING THE GREAT PYRAMID
The 6 million-ton Great Pyramid of Giza is the last surviving wonder of the ancient world. How did
the Egyptians engineer the mighty pharaoh Khufu’s tomb so precisely, with none of today’s
surveying and power tools? And who were the thousands of laborers who raised the stones? Were
they slaves or volunteers, and how were they housed, fed, and organized? DECODING THE
GREAT PYRAMID presents the latest evidence from groundbreaking archaeological research that
has transformed our understanding of the ancient world’s most ambitious engineering project,
revealing a "lost city" and intimate details of the lives of the laborers and officials who toiled on the
vast construction. French archaeologists recently found the logbook of a labor team leader that
delivered limestone blocks to build the Great Pyramid, yielding crucial insights into the planning and
logistics behind the operation. The program also traces how mobilizing the colossal labor and
resources invested in the monument transformed ancient Egypt, uniting a nation behind the common
goal of ensuring eternity for the pharaoh and continuing prosperity for everyone in this life and the
next.
- Street Date: April 30, 2019
- Run Time: 60 minutes on 1 disc
- SRP: DVD, $24.99
- Format: DVD, Digital
- Genre: History: Ancient
FRONTLINE
PREDATOR ON THE RESERVATION
This program investigates the decades-long failure to stop Dr. Stanley Weber, a government
pediatrician, who moved from reservation to reservation abusing young boys despite warnings about
his behavior. Drawing on interviews with hospital administrators and staff, tribal police officers,
victims and their families, interrogation recordings and top Indian Health Service (IHS) officials, the
film explores how Weber was able to see patients for years despite warnings to IHS officials and
hospital staff on the Blackfeet reservation and the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota. The film
not only uncovers Weber’s story, but it reveals that doctors and other people on both reservations
who worked with Weber were concerned about his behavior with young boys for years and accounts
of other problematic doctors within the agency. As of February 2019, federal prosecutors have
charged Weber with the abuse of four boys on Pine Ridge and two on the Blackfeet reservation in
Montana. No one knows how many victims of Weber’s abuse are still out there, or how many other
people in the IHS could have stopped it.
- Street Date: April 23, 2019
- Run Time: 60 minutes on 1 disc
- SRP: DVD, $24.99
- Format: DVD, Digital
- Genre: History: Native-American
RIGHT TO FAIL
After decades in institutions, a man with schizophrenia faces violence and death to live on his own.
This program is an investigation into a court-ordered effort to move hundreds of those with mental
illness into independent living. Under a landmark settlement in 2014, this approach is meant to be a
national model for the rights of the mentally ill to live independently. But more than 200 interviews
and thousands of pages of medical, social work and housing records reviewed show that for some
residents, the sudden shift from an institution to independence has proved perilous, and even
deadly. Of course, there are many people who flourish when given the chance to live independently,
but unfortunately that is not the case for all.
- Street Date: April 30, 2019
- Run Time: 60 minutes on 1 disc
- SRP: DVD, $24.99
- Format: DVD, Digital
- Genre: Issues/Events: Society
AMERICAN EXPERIENCE
SEALAB
In the spring of 1964, explorers were preparing for a new mission, diving into the sea as one of the
Navy’s newly-minted “aquanauts.” Aquanauts were divers who attempted to chart the ocean’s
depths and faced barriers that had thwarted humans for centuries: near total blackness, bone-jarring
cold, and intense pressure that could disorient the mind and crush the body. Aboard Sealab,
explorers would attempt to break through those barriers – going deeper and staying underwater
longer than anyone had done before.
An audacious feat of engineering — a pressurized underwater habitat, complete with science labs
and living quarters — Sealab aimed to prove that humans were capable of spending days or even
months living and working on the ocean floor. Sealab would pioneer what is known as “saturation
diving,” which would allow divers to remain undersea — and emerge unscathed — for more
extended periods of time. After a tragic accident the Sealab program was subsequently suspended
and completely shut down in 1970, however the lessons learned were used in numerous covert
Naval operations for years to come.
- Street Date: April 16, 2019
- Run Time: 60 minutes on 1 disc
- SRP: DVD, $24.99
- Format: DVD, Digital
- Genre: Science & Nature: Marine
RECONSTRUCTION: AMERICA AFTER THE CIVIL WAR
Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. presents the definitive
history of one of the least understood chapters in
American history — the transformative years following
the American Civil War, when the nation struggled to
rebuild itself in the face of profound loss, massive
destruction and revolutionary social change. The film
takes a broad view of the Reconstruction era and its
aftermath.
The first half of the documentary centers on the pivotal
and hopeful decade following the Civil War rebellion, charting black progress and highlighting the
accomplishments of the many political leaders who emerged to usher their communities into this
new era of freedom. The series’ second half looks beyond that hopeful decade, when the arc of
history bent backwards. Tracing the unraveling of Reconstruction and the rise of Jim Crow
segregation in the closing years of the 19th century, the film looks at the myriad ways in which black
people continued to acquire land, build institutions and strengthen communities amidst increasing
racial violence and repression.
The film also explores the flowering of African American art, music, literature and culture as tools of
resistance in the struggle against Jim Crow racism, and the surge of political activism that marked
the launch of iconic civil rights organizations.
- Street Date: April 30, 2019
- Run Time: 240 minutes on 2 discs
- SRP: DVD, $29.99
- Format: DVD, Digital
- Genre: History: United States
CHARM CITY
An official selection at the Tribeca Film Festival, the
Maryland Film Festival, the Nashville Film Festival and at
AFI Docs, this feature documentary was filmed over a
violent three-year period when Baltimore’s nickname,
Charm City, never seemed less apt. The film profiles a
group of police, citizens, community leaders and
government officials who, with grit, fury and compassion,
are grappling with the consequences of violence and
trying to reclaim their city’s future.
On the streets of Baltimore, shooting is rampant, the murder rate is approaching an all-time high and
distrust of the police is at a fever pitch. With nerves frayed and neighborhoods in distress, dedicated
community leaders, compassionate law enforcement officers and a progressive young city
councilman try to stem the epidemic of violence. Filmed during the lead up to, and aftermath of
Freddie Gray’s death in police custody, CHARM CITY is a powerful cinema vérité portrait of those
surviving in, and fighting for, the vibrant city they call home.
- Street Date: April 23, 2019
- Run Time: 107 minutes on 1 disc
- SRP: DVD, $24.99
- Format: DVD, Digital
- Genre: Issues/ Events: Domestic
DICTATOR’S PLAYBOOK
The DICTATOR’S PLAYBOOK examines the historical, sociological and psychological foundations
of 20 th century dictatorships, and provides fresh insight into six brutal men who impacted world
history, how they functioned, how they influenced each other and why they succeeded or failed. Six
episodes focus on one dictator, including: Kim Il Sung, Saddam Hussein, Benito Mussolini,
Manuel Noriega, Francisco Franco, and Idi Amin.
- Street Date: April 2, 2019
- Run Time: 360 minutes on 2 discs
- SRP: DVD, $34.99
- Format: DVD, Digital
- Genre: History: World
MARGARET: THE REBEL PRINCESS
MARGARET: THE REBEL PRINCESS focuses on Princess Margaret, Queen Elizabeth’s beautiful
and rebellious younger sister. This program features rare footage and interviews with those who
knew her best and offers unparalleled insight into Margaret’s turbulent life and times. Her unique
position as the Queen’s younger sister in a changing Britain left her free to experiment and push
boundaries, yet she was forever judged by the public and press beginning to question the very idea
of a monarchy. While Margaret often followed the rigid rules under which she was raised, she also
stepped outside those rules and into scandal.
- Street Date: April 23, 2019
- Run Time: 120 minutes on 1 disc
- SRP: DVD, $24.99
- Format: DVD, Digital
- Genre: History: Biography
BOSS: THE BLACK EXPERIENCE IN BUSINESS
Directed by Peabody- and Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Stanley Nelson (Tell Them We Are
Rising: The Story of Historically Black Colleges, The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution
and Freedom Summer), BOSS: THE BLACK EXPERIENCE IN BUSINESS shines a light on the
story of resilience and resistance within the black American experience in the face of racial hostility
and violence, economic exclusion, segregation and discrimination. The new two-hour documentary
traces the lives of African American entrepreneurs over 150 years, from those bound by bondage to
moguls at the top of million-dollar empires.
Stories featured in the film include those of entrepreneur Madam C.J. Walker, publisher John H.
Johnson, Motown CEO Berry Gordy, and business pioneer and philanthropist Reginald F. Lewis,
among many others.
BOSS: THE BLACK EXPERIENCE IN BUSINESS brings viewers on a journey from the end of
Reconstruction through the present, tracing the emergence of a stable black business community
alongside the greater struggle for civil rights.
- Street Date: April 23, 2019
- Run Time: 120 minutes on 1 disc
- SRP: DVD, $24.99
- Format: DVD, Digital
- Genre: History: African American
HOMO SPATIUS
Can Homo sapiens evolve into Homo spatius? For over 50 years now, we have been testing our
human nature in our effort to conquer outer space, and still 30 years away from a possible human
exploration of Mars, a question remains: Can our body take such travels? Will it ever adapt?
Accelerated aging, muscular atrophy, slowed-down brain functions, euphoric hallucinatory spells - as
soon as we leave our usual environment towards extra-terrestrial horizons, we face conditions which
our bodies are unfit for. However, the pull of exploration is stronger and space medicine is at work to
prepare astronauts for travelling to new worlds - in a near or more distant future. Combining human
adventure and the exploration of the human body, this film offers unique insights into the physical
and psychological effects of space travel on the astronauts and measures the impact on medical
sciences.
- Street Date: April 30, 2019
- Run Time: 60 minutes on 1 disc
- SRP: DVD, $24.99
- Format: DVD, Digital
- Genre: Science & Nature: Biology
About PBS Distribution
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