This Fall, American Experience will celebrate its 25th anniversary. That's 25 years of documentaries broadcast on PBS -- 287 films, 399 hours of programming, and 428 nights of television. Everyone has a favorite, including all of us on staff at American Experience, and we want to share that with you. As part of our 25th anniversary celebration, we are going to publish a Staff Favorite Film blog post every month, starting today.

Mark your calendars for American Experience, airing on your local PBS station this summer! We will broadcast two films from our ever-so-popular Wild West Collection, biographies of two American titans, and on July 2, Mount Rushmore will air as part of PBS's Independence Day programming. We hope you enjoy our upcoming Summer schedule, which kicks off with "Jesse James" on May 7 at 8/7C.

May 7, 8pm ET: Jesse James
May 14, 8pm ET: Annie Oakley
June 18, 8pm ET: The Rockefellers
June 25, 8pm ET: Henry Ford
July 2, 9pm ET: Mount Rushmore

Stay in touch with AMERICAN EXPERIENCE! Like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, and sign up for our e-newsletter. 

Last week we asked our fans on Facebook and Twitter what has been your favorite AMERICAN EXPERIENCE film over the past two seasons. You gave us a great response, and we would like to share the results. Many of the films are streaming for free on our website, so if you have not had the chance to see some of the films listed below, you never know -- you may soon have a new favorite!

Watch a short video about our upcoming Winter shows, with a message from Executive Producer Mark Samels. We hope you enjoy our upcoming Winter schedule, which kicks off with "The Abolitionists" on your local PBS station as a three night event January 8, 15, and 22 at 9/8C. 

Jan 8, 9pm: The Abolitionists, Part 1
Jan 15, 9pm: The Abolitionists, Part 2
Jan 22, 9pm: The Abolitionists, Part 3
Jan 29, 9pm: Henry Ford
Feb 5, 9pm: Andrew Carnegie (repeat)
Feb 12, 8pm: John D. Rockefeller (repeat)
Feb 19, 8pm: Silicon Valley

Got old photos? Win our Pin Drive Contest by putting them on our Abolitionist Map of America for a free Abolitionists DVD!

Our editor Glenn created this video for PBS' Annual Meeting, held May 14 this year in Denver. When we were there, we wanted to show off some of our successes from last year and get people excited about what's to come next year. Now, we can't show you anything for next year quite yet, (check back with us in a couple of months!) but here's our minute-long recap from last season.

Watch the video