American Experience: Panama Canal

FAIN: TR-50066-10

WGBH Educational Foundation (Boston, MA 02135-2016)
Mark Samels (Project Director: February 2009 to December 2017)

Production of a two-hour documentary on the history of the construction of the Panama Canal for PBS's American Experience.

This is a request to the National Endowment for the Humanities for funds to support the production of Panama Canal, a two-hour special presentation of American Experience, for national broadcast on PBS. Focusing primarily on the decade-long American construction effort, it places the American Canal against the backdrop of the calamitous French effort that preceded and haunted it. It traces the roots of the American commitment to a trans-Isthmian canal in Theodore Roosevelt's expansionist vision of American power, and shows how advances in public health, technology and engineering made it possible for the Americans to succeed where the French had failed. It examines how the leadership of the canal dealt with the challenges of recruiting and managing an immense and diverse work force,and explores the risks borne by workers building one of the planets most remarkable structures in one of the most hostile environments on earth.

Associated Products

Panama Canal (Film/TV/Video Broadcast or Recording)
Title: Panama Canal
Writer: Michelle Ferrari
Director: Stephen Ives
Producer: Amanda Pollak
Abstract: On August 15th, 1914, the Panama Canal opened, connecting the world's two largest oceans and signaling America's emergence as a global superpower. This AMERICAN EXPERIENCE film, using an extraordinary archive of photographs and footage, interviews with canal workers and firsthand accounts of life in the Canal Zone, unravels the remarkable story of one of the world's most significant technological achievements.
Year: 2010
Primary URL: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/panama/
Primary URL Description: Companion website
Access Model: Open Access
Format: DVD
Format: Web

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