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Screen Time: Week of Sept. 3

By Tom White


A scene from RBG, airing Sunday Sept. 9 on CNN. Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures.Screen Time is your curated weekly guide to excellent documentaries and nonfiction programs that you can watch at home.   

The geographical dead center of North America and the beloved birthplace of Guy Maddin, Winnipeg, is the frosty and mysterious star of Maddin’s My Winnepeg, which streams this month on Mubi. Fact, fantasy and memory are woven seamlessly together in this work, conjuring a city as delightful as it is fearsome.

RBG, which continues to rack up impressive numbers at the box office, airs on CNN this Sunday, September 9, in a special encore broadcast. The film, directed by Betsy West and Julie Cohen, profiles Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg who, at age 85, shows no signs of waning in her steely commitment to the rule of law.

Premiering September 4 on PBS is Ex Libris: The New York Public Library, the latest in Frederick Wiseman's remarkable 50-year career. Here, Wiseman goes behind the scenes of one of the greatest knowledge institutions in the world and reveals it as a place of welcome, cultural exchange and learning. With 92 branches throughout Manhattan, the Bronx and Staten Island, the library is a resource for all the inhabitants of this multifaceted and cosmopolitan city, and beyond.

Premiering September 7 on Netflix, Madeleine Gavin's City of Joy tells the story of the first class of girls at a remarkable center in Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. The film profiles the visionaries who imagined a revolutionary place where women who have suffered horrific rape and abuse learn to lead amidst a war driven by green, economics and colonialism.

Also premiering September 7 are two docs from American Masters' Artists Flight project: Everybody Knows…Elizabeth Murray and Wyeth. The first, from Kristi Zea, profiles maverick painter and printmaker Elizabeth Murray exploring the relationship between her family life and career, and reconsiders her place in contemporary art history. The second film, from Glenn Holsten, tells the story of one of America’s most popular, but least understood, artists – Andrew Wyeth.