Recut of the miniseries "Billy, How Did You Do It?": In 1988, Oscar-winning German filmmaker Volker Schlondorff ("The Tin Drum") sat down with legendary director Billy Wilder at his office in Beverly Hills, California and turned on his camera for a series of filmed interviews. The conversation went on for two weeks. The results were aired on German TV in 1992 and debuted on U.S. television when it was shown on Turner Classic Movies in 2006. We are presented with a generous smattering of film clips, rare photographs and artwork, but mostly Wilder just sits in his office and talks with the off screen Schlondorff, moving easily between English and German.
Documentary - Admired and praised by the likes of Irving Berlin and Cole Porter, Johnny Mercer has been described as "one of our great folk poets" and "the most perfect American lyricist." Throughout his extraordinary career, he collaborated with hundreds of composers to write legendary movie songs such as "Hooray for Hollywood," "Jeepers Creepers" and "Moon River." Mercer then went on to co-found Capitol Records in 1942 and became a successful Broadway producer of St. Louis Woman and L'il Abner. - Bill Charlap, Julie Andrews, Harold Arlen
The story of the gold-plated statuette that became the film industry's most coveted prize, AND THE OSCAR GOES TO... traces the history of the Academy itself, which began in 1927 when Louis B. Mayer, then head of MGM, led other prominent members of the industry in forming this professional honorary organization. Two years later the Academy began bestowing awards, which were nicknamed "Oscar," and quickly came to represent the pinnacle of cinematic achievement.