TV Eye

HBO Films' Grey Gardens

This week, a rundown of some notable TV events:

HBO Films' Grey Gardens (unscreened at press time): If there is a work that has inspired as many iterations as Albert and David Maysles' Grey Gardens, I'm hard-pressed to name it. The 1975 documentary followed six weeks in the lives of mother and daughter Big Edie and Little Edie Bouvier Beale, two highly eccentric and extraordinarily charming women.

The brothers Maysles eventually released a follow-up film, The Beales of Grey Gardens (2006), while other filmmakers looked at the impact of the original documentary on future filmmakers, tastemakers, and pop culture in Ghosts of Grey Gardens (2005). A Broadway play based on the Maysles' film opened in 2006, followed by another documentary Grey Gardens: From East Hampton to Broadway (2007), which explored the Maysles' journey making the film as well as its incarnation as an award-winning stage play. Now, HBO Films presents a narrative film by Michael Sucsy examining the 40 years leading up to and including the making of the Maysles' documentary.

Big Edie and Little Edie, who happened to be relatives of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy, opened their squalid East Hampton home to the filmmakers; that access, and the Beales' candidness, resulted in a film that showed with unfiltered honesty two defiantly free-spirited characters. The Maysles' film became a must-see for all filmmakers and created a cult following for the Beales. Sucsy's film creates a portrait of the women, especially Little Edie (played by Drew Barrymore), from archives he was able to collect from old family friends and relatives who had boxes of photos, diaries, and other ephemera previously untouched by others fascinated with the Beales.

Jessica Lange co-stars as Big Edie. The cast also includes Ken Howard, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Malcolm Gets, and Daniel Baldwin.

Grey Gardens premieres Saturday, April 18, 7pm on HBO with encores throughout the month. Check local listings.

Free screening of At the Death House Door: This elegant documentary from Steve James (Hoop Dreams) looks at the death penalty through the eyes of a former death house chaplain, Pastor Carroll Pickett. (See "TV Eye," May 23, 2008, for more on the film.) A free screening at St. Edward's University will be followed by a panel discussion addressing the death penalty in Texas. Participants include musician and human rights activist Sara Hickman, Brother Richard Daly of St. Edward's University, and associate director of the Texas After Violence Project Gabe Solis. Journalist Ellen Sweets moderates.

The At the Death House Door screening and discussion take place Friday, April 17, at 7pm in the Ragsdale Center at St. Edward's University (3001 S. Congress). The event is open to the public.

For reality show buffs: Flip This House (A&E) starring Armando Montelongo is currently shooting in Austin... The producers of The Real Housewives of New York City and Supernanny are searching for rebellious teenagers who would like to change their ways and host families/parents who think they have what it takes to make them fly right for a new reality series called The World's Strictest Parents. Information is available online (www.theworldsstrictestparents.com), by phone (888/418-3367), or through e-mail at [email protected].

For those who live in the real world, next week is Green Week, and the Discovery Channel's Planet Green block kicks off the week with a special hourlong edition of Focus Earth. ABC News anchor Bob Woodruff interviews six disparate individuals, all with one thing in common: They are coming up with new ways to clean up the planet and change the world. Focus Earth: Six People Saving Our Planet airs Sunday, April 19, at 8pm. In the meantime, check out the Discovery Channel's related websites, www.treehugger.com and www.planetgreen.com. Chock-full of information and how-tos – such as "How to Clean Green," "How to Not Drive Your Car," and even more radical concepts such as "How to Ditch Your Fridge (and What to Do If You Can't)" – the websites are required reading for anyone who takes living on planet earth seriously.

As always, stay tuned.

E-mail Belinda Acosta at [email protected].