Coming Up!

Programming Highlights include:

“News War” goes to the front lines of the media’s battle for a free press (premiering May 1st).
“American Eats” dishes up the history behind some of America’s favourite foods (premiering May 7th)
Fidel Castro’s oratory mesmerizes a nation in “Voices in Time” (May 29th)

TRUE-CRIME TUESDAYS

True Crime Authors
This thrilling series goes in-depth with the men and women who have written the definitive accounts of some of the most infamous crimes in American history. Each episode features surprising revelations, previously undisclosed insights, and a revealing look at what it takes to bring a balanced story to an eager public.
Tuesdays at 9pm ET / 7pm MT

Murder in Greenwich
On a cold October night in 1975, 15-year-old Martha Moxley was bludgeoned to death with a golf club in her own backyard. Nearly a quarter of a century later, former LAPD detective Mark Fuhrman uncovered a top-secret report that led to evidence implicating Kennedy-cousin Michael Skakel. In 1998 Fuhrman published Murder in Greenwich, his moment-by-moment analysis of just what happened the night of Martha Moxley's savage murder.
Tuesday, May 6th at 9pm ET / 7pm MT

A Sniper in the Tower
In 1966, after killing his wife and his mother, Charles Joseph Whitman climbed the tower at the University of Texas and shot 45 people, leaving 16 dead. Gary M. Lavergne's true-crime classic, A Sniper in the Tower, gives the most complete analysis of the killings, the murderer, and the dark secrets of Whitman’s relationship with his father.
Tuesday, May 13th at 9pm ET / 7pm MT

The Westies
Through the partnership of two sadistic thugs, James Coonan and Mickey Featherstone, The Westies rose out of the inferno of New York’s Hell's Kitchen. They became the most notorious gang in the history of organized crime, excelling in extortion, numbers running, loansharking, drug peddling, and their specialty: execution by dismemberment. Their reign lasted for almost 20 years – until their own violent natures got the best of them. Author T.J. English covered their trial in The Westies: Inside the Hell's Kitchen Irish Mob.
Tuesday, May 20th at 9pm ET / 7pm MT

ROMANCE & CLASSICS WEDNESDAYS

Heart of a Poet
Poets enjoy flourishes of creativity only to suffer interminable droughts of inspiration. This charming 13-part series delicately probes the particular creative heart of the Canadian poet, unraveling the sometimes fascinating, sometimes drab day-to-day realities of their struggles with the muse.
Wednesdays, starting May 7th at 8:30pm ET / 6:30pm MT

Featured this May on “Heart of a Poet”:

Christian Bök – Wed. May 7th at 8:30pm ET / 6:30pm MT

Sandra Alland – Wed. May 14th at 8:30pm ET / 6:30pm MT

Stuart Ross – Wed. May 21st at 8:30pm ET / 6:30pm MT

Jill Hartman – Wed. May 28th at 8:30pm ET / 6:30pm MT

A Hard Chance
In this true story, follow a husband as he rediscovers his love for his wife after she suffers a catastrophic brain injury on the final night of their marriage. He tries to reassemble the pieces of their life together – a life that she can no longer remember. Inspired by Tom Gallant's award-winning novel.
Wednesday, May 21st at 9:30pm ET / 7:30pm MT

American Eats
BookTelevision Premiere
Ever wonder who came up with the idea for the first pizza…how the ice cream cone was invented…how the hot dog got its name? This fun, fascinating series dishes up the truth behind the dishes with a quirky look back at the history, mystery, and technology behind some of America's favourite foods.
Wednesdays, starting May 7th at 11pm ET / 9pm MT

Barbecue
From its arrival in America with the Spanish, to its adoption by cattle drivers in the 1800s, to the invention of the charcoal briquette, "American Eats" takes a mouthwatering journey through the history of barbecue – an American culinary tradition.
Includes interviews with chef and author Jami Purviance.
Wednesday May 7th at 11pm ET / 9pm MT

Beer
Whether light, dark, bottled, tapped, great tasting, or less filling, America loves beer. As old as civilization, pre-dating even bread, beer has a long and fascinating history. America's love of suds goes back to the very beginning when the Mayflower dropped anchor in Plymouth due to shortages in provisions – including "beor" ale. Visit some of America's biggest and best beery destinations to drink deeply of hoppy history.
Wednesday May 14th at 11pm ET / 9pm MT

Ice Cream
Immigrants arriving at Ellis Island were once served ice cream as part of their first meal. And it was immigrants who helped popularize this oh-so-American treat – Italian pushcart vendors in New York introduced "Penny Licks" at the turn of the century – and we've been screaming for ice cream ever since. Whether in a sundae, ice cream sandwich, banana split, parfait, or baked Alaska, ice cream is a dessert we can't desert. Includes interviews with chef and author Shannon Jackson Arnold.
Wednesday May 21st at 11pm ET / 9pm MT

Pizza
When Dean Martin sang "When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie, that's amore," he wasn't crooning to his favorite thin-crust creation. But for well over a century, America has been head-over-heels for the slice, the pie, the deep dish, and all the other permutations of pizza. Includes interviews with chef and author Jeff Ruby.
Wednesday May 28th at 11pm ET / 9pm MT

NON-FICTION THURSDAYS

News War
BookTelevision Premiere
With behind-the-scenes access to today's most important players, this five-part series examines the challenges facing the mainstream news media. Tracing the recent history of journalism – from the Nixon administration's attacks on the media to the new challenges presented by the war on terror – "News War" examines the global forces now changing the role of the free press.
Thursdays, May 1st through 22nd, at 9pm ET / 7pm MT

Voices in Time
Season Two
BookTelevision Premiere
King in Memphis… JFK in Berlin… Mandela in a courtroom… FDR by a fireside… Great speeches have created defining moments that helped shape our century. They have provided both intense insight and brilliant theatre. This fascinating 13-part series explores both the famous, and the infamous moments in time where one person gave one public address that, through both its vision and the quality of its performance, seemed to change everything.
Thursdays, starting May 22nd at 10pm ET / 8pm MT

Robert Kennedy
His remarkable, impromptu speech given on the night of Martin Luther King's assassination helped calm and inspire a troubled nation.
Thursday, May 22nd at 10pm ET / 8pm MT

Theodore Roosevelt
America's first media President uses unforgettable oratory from the bully pulpit to lay out a vision for his nation that resonates into the next century
Thursday, May 29th at 10pm ET / 8pm MT

CINEMA SATURDAYS

The Mighty
BookTelevision Premiere
The funny and poignant story of two outcast thirteen-year-old boys, one a slow giant and the other a tiny genius. Ostracized as freaks by the other kids in town, the two misfits emerge triumphant thanks to their powerful and unique friendship.
Starring: Sharon Stone, Gena Rowlands, Harry Dean Stanton, Kieran Culkin, Gillian Anderson, Elden Henson, Meat Loaf, and James Gandolfini
Saturday, May 3rd at 8pm and midnight ET / 6pm and 10pm MT

Before Night Falls
Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the 2000 Venice Film Festival, "Before Night Falls" is a richly imagined journey into the life and writings of the brilliant, passionate, and dedicated Cuban author and exile Reinaldo Arenas. It is a portrait of a man whose search for freedom – artistic, political, and sexual – defied poverty, censorship, persecution, exile and death.
Starring: Javier Bardem
Saturday, May 10th at 8pm and midnight ET / 6pm and 10pm MT

Deconstructing Harry
Returning in glory to the college from which he was expelled, philandering, pill-popping writer Harry Block can find no companions for his trip – except, that is, for a hooker he's hired. The trouble with Harry is that he's alienated everyone in his life, from a string of wives and psychotherapists to all his living relatives, by rehashing their dirty little secrets in his idiotic, mean-spirited writing.
Starring: Woody Allen, Richard Benjamin, Kirstie Alley, Billy Crystal, and Judy Davis
Saturday, May 17th at 8pm and midnight ET / 6pm and 10pm MT

Don Juan de Marco
In this breezy romantic comedy, an aging psychologist gets a new lease on life when he's assigned the task of "curing" a young man who's convinced he is the legendary lover Don Juan de Marco. During the sessions that ensue, the doctor is forced to rethink his beliefs about life, love, and passion, and whether or not Don Juan's alive and well – and sitting in his office.
Starring: Johnny Depp, Marlon Brando, and Faye Dunaway
Saturday, May 24th at 8pm and midnight ET / 6pm and 10pm MT

An Ideal Husband
Cate Blanchett and Jeremy Northam head up a star-studded cast in this adaptation of Oscar Wilde's social satire. Sir Robert Chilton, a well-off, successful government minister with a loving wife finds his perfect life suddenly in jeopardy when a woman arrives with damning evidence of a past misdeed in hand and blackmail in mind.
Starring Cate Blanchett, Jeremy Northam, Rupert Everett, and Julianne Moore
Saturday, May 31st at 8pm and midnight ET / 6pm and 10pm MT