Until his death at the age of 106, Tyrus Wong was America’s oldest living Chinese American artist and one of the last remaining artists from the golden age of Disney animation. The quiet beauty of his Eastern-influenced paintings had a pioneering impact on American art and popular culture.

Slacker. Indie filmmaker. Oscar nominee. Writer, director, producer, actor Richard Linklater is all these things and more, a poster boy for the fiercely independent style of filmmaking that emerged out of Austin, Texas in the late 1980s and 1990s.

Jacques Pépin is known as a kitchen supernova, a working whirlwind of creative energy even at 80 years old, but his surprising journey began in the countryside of wartime France, where his family’s tradition of entrepreneurial women running homegrown restaurants pushed young Jacques into an early culinary career.

A portrait of an American woman who helped pioneer the fresher and simpler cuisine that emerged in California in the later 1970s.

Today’s American food movement can be traced back to one man: cookbook author, journalist, television celebrity and teacher James Beard. A champion of local-ism and sustainability long before those terms had entered the culinary vernacular, Beard appreciated what America had to bring to the table at a time of “all things French.”

Julia Child was not a natural-born cook - when she married, she could barely boil an egg. But she fell in love with French food, and soon enrolled at the Cordon Bleu where she learned the great tradition of Classical French cuisine. Later, with two French women, she devoted years to writing a manuscript finally published as "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" which became a culinary classic.

Patsy Cline defined modern country music by using her singular talent and heart‐wrenching emotional depth to break down barriers of gender, class and genre. In her music and her life, she set a standard of authenticity towards which artists still strive.

Distinctly referred to as “a redwood tree, with deep roots in American culture,” icon Maya Angelou gave people the freedom to think about their history in a way they never had before. Dr. Angelou’s was a prolific life; as a singer, dancer, activist, poet, and writer she inspired generations with lyrical modern African-American thought that pushed boundaries.

Film legend Sidney Lumet (1924-2011) tells his own story in a never-before-seen interview shot in 2008. With candor, humor and grace, Lumet reveals what matters to him as an artist and as a human being.