This Month's
WETA Focus

February 2012

Living in the national capital area, we Washingtonians have a unique relationship with America's presidents. While they work on the national and international stages, they of course reside here, becoming part of the fabric of our local community while in office. They are our neighbors in a way, local personalities whose political and personal lives — and leadership, charisma, successes and failures — are uniquely on display in our city.

Perhaps our familiarity with them is what fuels our fascination with their individual stories: their pathways to the presidency, their leadership and legacies, and their journeys after leaving office.

This month, an intriguing new American Experience fi lm spotlights our 42nd president. On February 20 and 21, WETA Television premieres the two-part documentary Clinton, which explores that charismatic president’s complex story as it examines a transformative epoch in the nation’s history between the fall of the Berlin Wall and 9/11.

Clinton is the 16th American Experience film in the series’ engaging Presidents Collection. These extraordinary, critically acclaimed profi les of American presidents have illuminated, among others, the lives of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan and, most recently, George H.W. Bush.

The films educate us about our leaders and about the nation’s history as well, focusing on the presidents’ public role and private life, their politics and policies, their character, and the events they navigated in office.

Also this month, WETA presents In Performance at the White House: Red, White and Blues, the 48th production in our long-running series, which we celebrate in this magazine. In the program, which airs February 27 nationwide on PBS stations, President and Mrs. Obama host an all-star lineup of performers paying homage to iconic Blues artists.

Thank you for tuning in — and for your support of WETA.