What drove a company of American soldiers--ordinary young men from around the country--to dehumanize and murder more than 300 unarmed civilians? Were they "just following orders" as some later declared? Or, did they break under the pressure of vicious war in which the line between enemy soldier and civilian had been intentionally blurred? Today, as the United States once again finds itself questioning the morality of actions taken in the name of war, Barak Goodman focuses his lens on the 1968 My Lai massacre, its subsequent cover-up, and the heroic efforts of the soldiers who broke rank to halt the atrocities. My Lai draws upon the eyewitness accounts of Vietnamese survivors and the men of Charlie Company and recently discovered audio recordings from the Peers Inquiry to recount one of the Vietnam War's darkest chapters.
What made America? What makes us? These two questions are at the heart of the new PBS series Faces of America with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Building on the success of his series African American Lives (called by The New York Times "the most exciting and stirring documentary on any subject to appear on television in a long time,") and African American Lives 2, Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates, Jr. again turns to the latest tools of genealogy and genetics to explore the family histories of twelve renowned Americans.
Senior Producer:
Barak Goodman
Producers: John Maggio, Asako Galsjo, Sue Williams, Amanda Pollack and Steve Ives
Digital Nation is a new, open source PBS project that explores what it means to be human in an entirely new world -- a digital world. It consists of a Web site as well as a 90-minute FRONTLINE documentary. Our production team posted rough cuts and raw footage on the web for a year leading up to the broadcast, gathering input, feedback and stories from users along the way.
Harvard
professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. travels the country in search of the
"real" Abraham Lincoln in this ground breaking two hour
television special. The film shows how the Lincoln legend
grew out of controversy, greed, love, clashing political perspectives,
power struggles, and considerable disagreement over how our 16th
president should be remembered. Gates' quest to piece together
Lincoln’s complex life takes him from Illinois to Gettysburg
to Washington, D.C. to Los Angeles and beyond and face-to-face with
people who live with Lincoln every day – relic hunters,
re-enactors, and other surprising guests for whom the study
of Lincoln is a passion.
Produced and Directed by: John Maggio and Muriel Soenens
Senior Producer: Barak Goodman
As the nation celebrated the end of the Civil War, President Abraham
Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth. Joy turned to
panic as authorities launched the largest manhunt in American
history. Unraveling what school children are taught
year after year, The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln
re-examines the two figures who define the extremes of character:
Lincoln, who had the strength to transform suffering into infinite
compassion, and Booth, who allowed hatred to curdle into destruction.
A generation with a radically different notion of privacy and personal
space, today's adolescents are grappling with issues their parents
never had to deal with: from cyber bullying to instant "Internet fame,"
to the specter of online sexual predators. FRONTLINE investigates the risks, realities, and misconceptions of teenage self-expression on the World Wide Web.
Produced and Directed by: Rachel Dretzin and John Maggio
Now considered one the most infamous
medical mistakes in American history, lobotomy began as an idealistic
remedy for mental illness. The story of how one man's energy and
conviction could lead medicine down a blind alley, The Lobotomist is as
scarily relevant today as it was 50 years ago.
Produced and Directed
by: Barak Goodman and John Maggio
In this short film for The New York Times website, baby boomers in New York City share how their feelings about intimacy have changed as they grow older.
In A Hidden Life, Ark Media and FRONTLINE
explore how a front-page scandal exposed some of the most deeply buried
issues surrounding homosexuality in America. With unfettered access to
all the key players, the one-hour documentary sheds new light on
questions of sexual identity, journalistic ethics, and the experience
of homosexuals living far from the front lines of America's culture
wars.
Produced by: Rachel Dretzin and Muriel Soenens
Directed by: Rachel Dretzin and Barak Goodman
In his own time, many regarded David's 12-year odyssey inside his bubble as a triumph of technology. To others, it was a bizarre experiment that exemplified medical hubris. The Boy in the Bubble is a story of medical perseverance and personal tragedy.
Produced and Directed by:
Barak Goodman and John Maggio Written
by: Barak Goodman
Since the earliest days of movies, Hollywood has been obsessed by cops and robbers. In this fast-paced and exciting documetary, Ark Media covers more than three decades of cop movies from Serpico to Narc.
Produced and Directed by: Muriel Soenens and Rachel Dretzin
Written by: Rachel Dretzin
Alfred Kinsey was a little-known biologist at Indiana University when, in the 1940s, he began compiling exhaustive data from tens of thousands of interviews about the sexual practices of men and women. The results of that research were the explosive, best-selling Kinsey Reports.
Produced and Directed by: Barak Goodman and John Maggio
Written by: Barak Goodman
The rematch between the African American heavyweight Joe Louis and his German opponent Max Schmeling was riveting. But for most spectators the fight was much more than a boxing match; it was an historic event freighted with symbolic significance, both a harbinger of the civil rights movement and a prelude to World War II.
In The Persuaders, FRONTLINE explores how the cultures of marketing and advertising have come to influence not only what Americans buy, but also how they view themselves and the world around them. The 90-minute documentary draws on a range of experts and observers of the advertising/marketing world, to examine how, in the words of one on-camera commentator, "the principal of democracy yields to the practice of demography," as highly customized messages are delivered to a smaller segment of the market.
Produced and Directed by: Barak Goodman and Rachel Dretzin
Produced by: Muriel Soenens
Written by: Barak Goodman and Douglas Rushkoff
When should a parent lose the right to raise a child? FRONTLINE goes behind the scenes of one state's child welfare system in a two-part series to probe one of the most drastic and unchecked governmental powers.
Produced and Directed by: Barak Goodman and Rachel Dretzin
Written by: Barak Goodman
In Rollover: The Hidden History of the SUV, FRONTLINE examines whether America's most popular vehicle may also be one of its most dangerous, and investigates why automakers and government regulators failed to do more to protect and inform American consumers.
Produced and Directed by: Barak Goodman and Marc Shaffer
Written by: Barak Goodman and Marc Shaffer
In 1931, two white women stepped from a box car in Paint Rock, Alabama to make a shocking accusation: they had been raped by nine black teenagers on the train. So began one of the most significant legal fights of the twentieth century.
Produced, Directed and Written by: Barak Goodman
Produced and Co-Directed by: Daniel Anker
FRONTLINE correspondent Douglas Rushkoff examines the tactics, techniques, and cultural ramifications of these marketing moguls in The Merchants of Cool. The program talks with top marketers, media executives and cultural/media critics, and explores the symbiotic relationship between the media and today's teens, as each looks to the other for their identity.
Produced and Directed by: Barak Goodman and Rachel Dretzin
Written by: Barak Goodman
The Lost Children of Rockdale County explores how a 1996 syphilis outbreak in a well-off Atlanta suburb affected over 200 teenagers and revealed their lives unknown to parents: group sex, binge drinking, drugs and violence. Some were as young as twelve and thirteen years old.
Produced and Directed by: Rachel Dretzin and Barak Goodman
Written by: Rachel Dretzin and Barak Goodman
This documentary explores the changing world of American medicine and the controversial money and medical issues surrounding the rise of HMOs. The new market approach to health care has halted skyrocketing health costs - but what's been the impact on doctors, nurses and patients?
Produced, Directed, and Written by: Rachel Dretzin
The story of the last great urban political machine and the titanic figure at its helm: Richard J. Daley. Chronicles Daley's rise from his Irish immigrant roots to the helm of the Chicago political machine and his epic battles with Martin Luther King and the protestors at the Democratic National Convention in 1968.
FRONTLINE untangles the mysterious web of satanic ritual abuse, psychiatric treatment, and insurance claims that escalated into millions of dollars. Were these professed victims of secret satanic cults really helped by the psychiatric care they received?
Produced and Directed by: Ofra Bikel and Rachel Dretzin
Written by: Ofra Bikel
In 1969, Hillary Rodham Clinton and four hundred other smart, privileged, young women graduated from Wellesley College into a world that for the first time was opening its doors to women. But what about her classmates who left college believing they could do anything? In 1969, Hillary Rodham Clinton and four hundred other smart, privileged, young women graduated from Wellesley College into a world that for the first time was opening its doors to women.
Produced, Written and Directed by: Rachel Dretzin and Jane West
