Devine, David

Beethoven Lives Upstairs

Based on the best-selling and award-winning Classical Kids CD, Beethoven Lives Upstairs was hailed upon its original release as "a video masterpiece" by the Boston Herald and "the best family film to appear in a long time" by the Ottawa Citizen. The television special has been seen on HBO, PBS, CBC, the Family Channel and YTV and the home video has sold more than 250,000 copies in North America. Based in part on historical fact and featuring more than 25 beautifully-performed excerpts of Beethoven's best-loved works, Beethoven Lives Upstairs presents the great composer as a hero for today's children.

Bailey's Billion$

Rossini's Ghost

- Oppenheim Gold Seal Best Video Award

Nine-year old Reliana witnesses Rossini's efforts to salvage his seemingly cursed new opera. Set in 1816, the year The Barber of Seville had its disastrous premiere, Rossini's Ghost is the story of three woman who learn that friendship, like opera, requires nurturing, patience, and time.

Monet Shadow & Light

- Top 5 Video of the Year, KidsFirst!

Monet's glorious summer of painting ends abruptly with harsh attacks from his father and art critics. He intends to abandon everything, but is convinced otherwise by aspiring young artist Daniel. Having been abandoned by his own father, Daniel refuses to let Monet do the same to his son. As Monet shows Daniel a new way of seeing the world through art, Daniel helps Monet see the importance of family.

Edison: The Wizard of Light

New York City, 1931. Movie producer Jack Maloney has just completed a labor of love: his documentary on the life of the great inventor Thomas Alva Edison. Jack wants his wife, actress Kate Cruthers, to take a look. What results is an engaging, Emmy Award-winning family drama about the 1 percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration required to build an impassioned life. As Jack's "documentary" clicks along, we learn that he met Edison (played with great sincerity by Kenneth Welsh) while fleeing from St. Patrick's Orphanage in 1893. Chased by truancy officers, the then-12-year-old boy (actor Michael Suchanek) ran smack into Edison's New Jersey lab, winning Edison's affections and landing a long-term apprentice job. Believable conversations between mentor and student about education, life, and the invention of Edison's light bulb and phonograph are dotted with many recognizable, timely quotations.

As the film follows their 35-year relationship, viewers see how Edison dedicated his life to "the betterment of mankind" and sacrificed time with his family as a result. The unspoken father-son bond between the two men--stronger than Edison's relationship with his own wife and children--comes to a head as the adult Jack (Jesse Collins) challenges Edison's tenacity. Reconciliation and a deeper empathy for each other's choices caps off this nicely paced, beautifully filmed and scored presentation. A well-spent hour for families with children over 6 years old or for elementary school students studying American inventors. --Liane Thomas

Bizet's Dream

- Video Magic Award, Parenting Magazine, Best Children's Video of the Year -Winner, Alliance For Children & Television's Award of Excellence- Best Drama -Best New Kid's Video of 1995, TV Guide

A 12-year-old Parisian girl grudgingly takes piano lessons from composer Georges Bizet. Although he is anguishing over his life and his work, Michelle soon becomes captivated by his story of the gypsy Carmen as told through his new opera. Set in 1875, Bizet's Deam tells the compelling and bittersweet story of a special friendship.

Galileo: On the Shoulders of Giants

This installment of The Inventors' Specials, a series that invites youngsters to think about great inventors (including Edison and Einstein), focuses on the man who brought the wonder of science into the Dark Ages. Michael Moriarty gives vigor to his role as the scientist who is forced to take on a young apprentice. First bored with his new surroundings, the youngster develops a keen interest in Galileo's inventions, including his latest, the telescope. The hour-long video, which played on HBO and won two daytime Emmys, doesn't pull any punches by explaining what happened to heretics who, like Galileo, preached the Earth wasn't the center of the universe. However, the filmmakers do not trust their young audience. Galileo's rival is an obese fool whose antics belong in Home Alone. It nearly ruins a good thing. Ages 7 and up. --Doug Thomas

Rembrandt Fathers & Sons

- All Star Rating from KidsFirst! Coalition for Quality Children's Media

-Best Youth Video, Today's Librarian

At the height of the Rembrandt's success as a portrait artist in 1630s Amsterdam, he takes on a young Jewish studio apprentice, Samuel. The boy's struggle to break free of his family's rigid expections lead the painter to wrestle with his own complacency, ending in his defiance of artistic convention with his daring masterpiece "The Night Watch," and a lifelong pursuit of his own vision.

Einstein: Light to the Power of 2

Anyone who's seen 1994's romantic I.Q. is familiar with the presentation of genius Albert Einstein as not only a living legend, but sweet and funny. This production, part of HBO's Young Inventor series, does nothing to dispel that preconception; it offers up a socially responsible, kind, charismatic, and thoughtful Einstein. The family-oriented film finds Einstein (Paul Soles) as a scholar and physicist at Princeton University. He befriends Lannie (Lataye Studwood), a 12-year-old African American, whose mother works at the university and whose father is an aspiring singer. Einstein offers to tutor Lannie, who's being shoved into a remedial class. Themes explored are intellectual freedom, racism, stereotypes, friendships, family, loyalty, and love. The Young Inventor series offers up excellent production values, strong acting, and powerful stories woven around true and historically significant tales. --N.F. Mendoza

Degas and the Dancer

-ALA Notable Children's Video
-Editors' Choice, Booklist
-Top 5 Video of the Year, KidsFirst!
-Winner of the Humanitas Prize

A struggling Degas finds inspiration for his art in Marie, a young ballerina. Degas helps Marie tap into the talent she doesn't believe she has while she convinces Degas to persevere despite criticism from the art establishment. An artist and model, they become friends and find in each other what they need to follow their dreams.