MPT Presents

Bicentennial Bonsai: Emissaries of Peace

In 1975, only 30 years after the United States and Japan have been at war, Japan gave 53 priceless bonsai trees to the United States in celebration of the U.S. Bicentennial. Some bonsai were several hundred years old. One had remarkably survived the bombing of Hiroshima. “Bicentennial Bonsai: Emissaries of Peace” chronicles this historic gift, with rare interviews and archival footage.

Bicentennial Bonsai: Emissaries of Peace

27m 16s

  • Growing into Greatness: Maryland's Champion Trees: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Growing into Greatness: Maryland's Champion Trees

    57m 24s

    Growing majestically within Maryland’s 2.7 million acres of woodlands are twelve national champion trees, which are the largest of their species in the U.S. What does it take to be recognized as a champion? A little help from Mother Nature and a combination of eye-popping measurements – height, circumference, and crown spread.

  • Jubilee: St. James at 200: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Jubilee: St. James at 200

    57m 29s

    In 1824 in Baltimore, William Levington founded a church where both free and enslaved could worship as equals. For 200 years, St. James Episcopal Church has stood as a testament to that vision, as the oldest African American Episcopal church south of the Mason Dixon Line. JUBLIEE: St. James at 200 looks at the history and clergymen including The Most Reverend Michael B. Curry.

  • Smile for the Dead: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Smile for the Dead

    54m 4s

    In 1860's Boston, William H. Mumler became famous and wealthy for taking “spirit photographs” - portraits in which a subject’s dead relatives would magically appear. Mumler was later arrested and placed on trial for defrauding the public. Filmmaker Hamilton Ward embarks on an investigation into the mystery of Mumler's work. Were the photos faked or could they be real?

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