GBH Openvault
New Television; Ena's Adventures, Part II
Part of New Television Workshop.
Approximate date: 1988
License Clip
This program cannot be made available on Open Vault.
More material may be available from this program at the GBH Archives. If you would like research access to the collection at GBH, please email archive_requests@wgbh.org.
- Series
- New Television
- Program
- Ena's Adventures, Part II
- Series Description
"New Television" began as a local pilot production of WNET (New York) in 1986. In 1987, WGBH signed on as co-producer, and the shows were aired in Boston and New York. In 1988 and 1989, KCET (Los Angeles) and WETA (D.C.) became producers in association. In 1991, PBS picked up "New Television," and it was broadcast nationally. The following year, the Wexner Center for the Arts in Columbus, Ohio, replaced WNET, WETA, and KCET as co-producer with WGBH. In 1993, WGBH ceased to be a co-producer for the series, and the "home base" moved to Connecticut Public Television (CPTV) in Hartford, CT.
"New Television" commissioned, produced, and acquired programming. In its early years, "New Television" broadcast works commissioned by The Contemporary Art Television (CAT) Fund. Increasingly, experimental films as well as video works were broadcast as a part of this series. Many of the later episodes of "New Television" contain works that play with and deconstruct the documentary genre. Series release date: 1986
- Program Description
"An inventive western fantasy based on radio serials of the 1930's that touches on the mysteries of clairvoyance, the dangers of the desert, and the socialist themes of labor and management." -- WGBH press release. A young woman, Ena, journeys through the desert on a bicycle, arriving exhausted at the home of a fortune teller, who convinces her to have a tarot card reading. The reading reveals much of Ena's past and much that is in her future, but she declines to see the final card, the card of possibilities, and continues on her way. In town, she meets a handsome young man, Nick, who invites her to stay at his place for the night. Soon the two of them are a couple and she is engaged in his plan to create a community, influenced by the teachings of anticapitalism and agrarian reform. Slowly, Ena, who works as a WPA photographer, begins to feel stifled by Nick as he becomes more domineering, attempting to control her work schedule and her thinking. The situation comes to a head when a traveling circus stops on their land and Nick resents them openly. Ena leaves him, returning to the fortune teller to enquire about the final card from her reading. Inventive painted sets serve as a backdrop for the work. The work was written and directed by Lee Eiferman. Music is by Bill Obrecht.
- Asset Type
Broadcast program
- Media Type
Video
- Subjects
- Nineteen thirties
- Drama
- Photography
- Interpersonal relations
- Tarot
- Travel
- Topics
- Film and Television
- Creators
- Eiferman, Lee ()
- Contributors
- Lemos, Paul ()
- Kaufman, Deborah ()
- Nieli, Dale ()
- Phillips, Barry ()
- Breilbarth, David ()
- Arbona, Steve ()
- Bell, Mark ()
- Hasse, Cathy ()
- Obrecht, Bill ()
- Tambini, Catherine ()
- Lee, Mary Beth ()
- Thurston, Steve ()
- Bove, Elizabeth ()
- Islander, J. C. ()
- Muir, Laurie ()
- Citation
- Chicago: “New Television; Ena's Adventures, Part II,” GBH Archives, accessed April 24, 2024, http://openvault.wgbh.org/catalog/V_7D32FE271A8640D6A6967DCBC4F8F2ED.
- MLA: “New Television; Ena's Adventures, Part II.” GBH Archives. Web. April 24, 2024. <http://openvault.wgbh.org/catalog/V_7D32FE271A8640D6A6967DCBC4F8F2ED>.
- APA: New Television; Ena's Adventures, Part II. Boston, MA: GBH Archives. Retrieved from http://openvault.wgbh.org/catalog/V_7D32FE271A8640D6A6967DCBC4F8F2ED