February 20, 2009
Ben Burtt created some of the most famous movie sounds, including R2D2’s mechanical chatter and the whir of the light saber. Burtt is also the voice of WALL-E, the starring robot in Pixar’s 2008 animated movie. Kurt talks to Burtt about the legendary sounds of his career. Burtt is up for two Oscars for his sound editing and sound mixing work on WALL-E.
(Originally aired: June 27, 2008)
Nominated in the Best Foreign Language category, "The Class" looks so real, some might think it's a documentary - and a veteran teacher stars in the film. Sarah Elzas talked with director Laurent Cantet, who spent several months in a Paris high school preparing for the film.
Philippe Petit's unauthorized walk on a high wire between the World Trade Center towers transfixed the world in 1974. The Oscar-nominated documentary "Man on Wire" depicts how an acrobat and a rag-tag team of friends pulled off this extraordinary feat. Kurt visits the site of the walk (now Ground Zero) with Petit and director James Marsh.
(Originally aired: July 25, 2008)
Philippe Petit walks between the Twin Towers:
(an excerpt from Magnolia Pictures' "Man On Wire")
Gustavo Dudamel, the 28-year-old who will take over the Los Angeles Philharmonic, is making waves in classical music. Fellow Venezuelan Pilar Marrero went to see "the Dude" in action with some LA youngsters. Marrero reports for La Opinion and Feet in Two Worlds, a project of the Center for New York City Affairs at the New School.
Dudamel conducts the Simon Bolivar Youth orchestra:
At 14 he was fronting a signed punk band. Now a wise man of 27, Ben Kweller's music is full of lush melodies and plainspoken lyrics. Kurt talked with Kweller in 2007 and asked him what childhood was like as a famous kid rocker. Kweller's new record is called Changing Horses.
(Originally aired: January 12, 2007)
Studio 360 is a co-production of
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National Endowment for the Arts, and the Lily Auchincloss Foundation. Studio 360's American Icons series is supported in part by the
National Endowment for the Humanities. Our series on creativity and science is supported in part by the
Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Our series on Underground Heroes is supported in part by the New York State Music Fund, established by the New York State Attorney General at Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors. 
