Alive from Off Center

This program, the first in the series under its new title, "Alive TV," compiles memorable segments from past installments of "Alive From Off Center" into a thematically-organized montage. Highlights include the following: a discussion of David Gordon's work by ten characters, all played by Gordon himself; an Eric Bogosian piece about the defensive discomfort of an ambitious businessman who has gotten a promotion at the cost of a friend's job; a selection from Meredith Monk's "Book of Days" that takes a young girl from a village in the Middle Ages to modern Manhattan; a portion of a Blondell Cummings dance/performance piece in which a woman recalls collective female experiences and relationships from a time past in a stylized kitchen setting; and Laurie Anderson introduces her clone to an interviewer. Also includes pieces by Ann Magnuson, William Wegman, Micha Bergese and Pookiesnackenburger, Tom Cayler, Bill T. Jones, Spalding Gray, Peter Fischli and David Weiss.

This edition presents an updated, adult version of the famous seventeenth-century English puppet play about foolish, boastful Punch and his nagging wife, Judy. In this biting live-action interpretation -- which is manipulated and edited to have the look of a cartoon -- two actors play each of the principal characters and music from old Warner Bros. cartoons plays throughout. After an introduction by the clowns, this Punch-and-Judy show highlights the universality of the couple, taking their battle of the sexes from the Garden of Eden to a divorce court.

This program explores the programming of the promotional video channel MTV. Highlights of this episode include the following: brief clips of various videos from the 1980s; promotions for MTV; public service announcements created for MTV about voting, drugs, books, environmental awareness, racism, and AIDS; and a short entitled "Joe's Apartment," which tells the tale of a man who lives with cockroaches. Also, as the credits roll, shrieking comedian Gilbert Gottfried performs a stand-up routine about MTV.

This program features six short films. In "Thanksgiving Prayer," writer William Burroughs recites a cynical poem about America as related images are superimposed against his body. "Gotham" carries the message that "crime never pays," and features clips of violent behavior. "Pull Your Head to the Moon (Stories of Creole Women)" depicts a bitter young man seeking comfort in a visit to his Creole grandmother while someone very close to him is dying of AIDS. In "Too Darn Hot," a video from the AIDS benefit video program "Red Hot and Blue," pop duo Erasure perform Cole Porter's "Too Darn Hot." The video includes information intended to raise awareness over AIDS. Finally, "Sharp Rocks," dedicated to "all native brothers and sisters under the sky, over the earth," encourages Native Americans living in the larger society to return home and share their knowledge with their people.

This edition -- shot in black-and-white -- features an inside look at the current hip-hop dance scene in Brooklyn. The dancers talk fondly of their borough; discuss clothing and fashion trends; the development of hip-hop since the early 1980s "old school" days of breakdancing; and comment on the ever-changing club scene. Throughout, dancers are seen performing in various outdoor neighborhood locations and in the clubs. This program is closed-captioned.

This program presents an abridged version of the feature-length film "Looking for Langston," which examines the significance of homosexuality within the milieu of the Harlem Renaissance. Using the poet Langston Hughes as its centerpiece and reference point, the film blends archival footage, vintage jazz, and voice-over poetry into an audio-visual essay on the homosexual experience in Harlem during the jazz age. Includes visually-interpreted selections from the works of Hughes, Essex Hemphill, and Bruce Nugent.

This edition presents five short animated films. In the humorous "Creature Comforts" by Nick Parks, clay-animation animals discuss and critique their lives in a zoo, lamenting the lack of space, fresh meat, and native climate. "Wake Up Call" presents director Pooh Kaye awakening and starting her day amidst a fantastic animated world of shifting shapes and washes of brilliant color. In "Photocopy Cha Cha" by Chel White, photocopied body parts are animated to the rhythm of a cha cha enhanced by a contemporary dance beat. Animators Christoff and Wolfgang Lauenstein create a spartan world hanging in space in "Balance," as several tall thin animated figures in numbered overcoats contend with a mysterious musical object on the floating platform where they co-exist. The final film, "Picnic," by Paul Vester, uses cheery cartoon figures and colors intercut with photos of murder scenes, tortures, and executions, as some unknown being or force invades the sunny, but menacing, cartoon world.

Based on the folklore of Venezuela's Yekuana Indians, 'Watunna' tells an animated creation story. It begins with a good spirit who creates a likeness of himself on earth. When the likeness is born, however, it buries its placenta, which grows into an evil man who brings war and other evils into the world. The good spirit turns the evil people into animals as punishment. Later, he tells his nephew to guard a stone in which the spirits of many good people are kept. While his uncle is gone, however, the boy digs into his magic bag and lets out the darkness. The people are scared by the darkness, but a messenger from heaven soon delivers the sun, moon, and stars. The tale instills women with the power to harbor piranhas inside themselves, to house fire in their stomachs, and to turn into toads at will. At the conclusion of the piece, men dancing by a fire turn into colorful birds and fly up into the air, shedding many of their feathers. As a snakelike water queen leaps into the air, the feathers cling to her, and she forms the first rainbow. In the second segment, "Ogichidag" ('Warriors'), Jim Northrup reads a poem about the history of military men in his family and says that he himself joined the United States Marine Corps just in time for the Cuban Missile Crisis, and fought in Vietnam, the only war America didn't win. His son is a warrior now as well, and Northrup wonders what good can come out of it. Commercials deleted. This program is closed-captioned.