Movies by Bill Moyers

Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media
A film about the noted American linguist/political dissident and his warning about corporate media's role in modern propaganda.
Living on the Edge
Bill Moyers tells the story of several hardworking Milwaukee families struggling with low-paying jobs after previous employers downsized their operations. Filmed over a period of five years, these families were first featured in Moyers’s 1992 documentary ‘Minimum Wages: The New Economy.’ FRONTLINE chronicles the families’ emotional and financial strains, their search for better jobs and job retraining, and looks at Milwaukee’s efforts to adapt to an ever-shrinking industrial sector.
Minimum Wages: The New Economy
Bill Moyers takes a piercing look at how global economic changes are destroying the lives and livelihoods of hardworking Americans. The documentary follows several individuals and their families in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, as they fight to make ends meet in the “new economy.” In sheer numbers, more jobs were created than lost in America during the last decade, but a look behind those numbers reveals a shortage of jobs that pay enough to support a family. The program intimately portrays the lives of workers and their families as they struggle to...

Anyplace But Here
A documentary part of CBS reports. The plight of mental patients fit for discharge, but who find themselves thrust into communities unprepared to treat or accept them is the focus of this documentary narrated by Bill Moyers. The dilemma of being as scared of getting well as of remaining ill and facing a world with no home or job to go to is vividly portrayed as the film follows three patients as they move into rare transition programs.

Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth
TV mini-series.

A Portrait of Samson Raphaelson
An interview with playwright and screenwriter Samson Raphaelson. First aired on PBS's "Creativity with Bill Moyers".

Bill T. Jones: Still/Here
Bill Moyers and filmmaker David Grubin give viewers a rare glimpse into dancer/choreographer Bill T. Jones’s highly acclaimed dance Still/Here. At workshops around the country, people facing life-threatening illnesses are asked to remember the highs and lows of their lives, and even imagine their own deaths. They then transform their feelings into expressive movement, which Jones incorporates into the dance performed later in the program. For this documentary, Jones demonstrates the movements of his own life story: his first encounter with w...
CBS Reports: The CIA's Secret Army
This program examines Cuban exile terrorists living in Miami. These terrorists were secretly trained and employed by the U.S. government in the early 1960s to fight Fidel Castro. Now, without U.S. support, terrorist activities continue in Miami and Latin America. The program reviews secret U.S. policies toward Cuba in the 1960s and includes interviews with Castro and former top CIA officials. Members of this group, formerly secretly trained and employed by U.S. Government until 1967, have been active in Watergate crimes and anti-Castro terro...

The Mythology of Star Wars
George Lucas discusses how Joseph Campbell and his concept of the Monomyth (aka the Hero's Journey) and other concepts from mythology and religion shaped the Star Wars saga.

Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You
Arguably the most influential creator, writer, and producer in the history of television, Norman Lear brought primetime into step with the times. Using comedy and indelible characters, his legendary 1970s shows such as All In the Family, Maude, Good Times, and The Jeffersons, boldly cracked open dialogue and shifted the national consciousness, injecting enlightened humanism into sociopolitical debates on race, class, creed, and feminism.

1980 First Presidential Debate
The first presidential debate took place on Sunday, September 21, 1980, at the Baltimore Convention Center in Baltimore, Maryland. The three invitees were Carter, Anderson and Reagan, though Carter refused to attend due to the presence of Anderson. Following a strong performance by Reagan, Anderson's poll numbers began to drop. Consequently, Anderson would not be invited to the second debate.