Back to Show
Watch Preview
American Masters
How It Feels To Be Free
Season 35
Episode 1
A documentary that tells the inspiring story of how six iconic African American women entertainers – Lena Horne, Abbey Lincoln, Nina Simone, Diahann Carroll, Cicely Tyson and Pam Grier – challenged an entertainment industry deeply complicit in perpetuating racist stereotypes, and transformed themselves and their audiences in the process.
Support Provided By
1:23:36
Explore a versatile Puerto Rican actor whose work on stage & screen shook the world.
Unlock with PBS Passport
53:11
Trace the journey of one of America’s greatest choral music conductors.
1:52:53
Explore the entertainer’s life with unprecedented access to his archives. Director's cut.
1:24:03
See a new side of innovative writer Edgar Allan Poe, best known for Gothic horror tales.
Unlock with PBS Passport
53:37
Today he is known as a kitchen supernova, but Jacques Pépin's career began humbly.
53:11
Today’s American food movement can be traced back to one man: James Beard.
1:23:11
Composer Marvin Hamlisch gave the world "A Chorus Line," "The Way We Were," and much more.
53:20
Explore the creative genius of I.M. Pei as he reshapes the future of architecture in China
Unlock with PBS Passport
1:23:09
The first film biography about the celebrated author, Louis May Alcott.
1:24:22
Edward S. Curtis took over 40,000 images and recorded rare ethnographic photos.
55:29
Calder’s aesthetic revolution concerned a somewhat taboo topic in the art world - fun.
59:01
Though O'Keeffe has many imitators, no one since has been able to paint with such intimacy.