On track with recent efforts to digitize archives, the Lilly Library Film and Video Collection has made over 120 interviews conducted by television writer, producer and arts commentator Barbaralee Diamonstein-Spielvogel available on iTunesU and YouTube.
Most clips are around 30 minutes, formatted in the like of Inside the Actors Studio, and all were filmed between 1970 and 1990.
Though the dress, mustaches and wallpaper give away the age of the videos-the trends of the decades can be chronicled through Diamondsten-Spielvogel's hairstyles in her interviews-the conversations themselves explore timeless topics with noted cultural icons of the latter 20th century.
The videos, collected from eight of her televised programs, feature everything from the mundane to the critical. The casual atmosphere of the chats with professionals in the arts field gives way to interesting chatter. Viewers will understand why playwright Edward Albee only chose eclectic jobs "that he wouldn't last at for very long" and how designer Oscar de la Renta initially got away with working for Antonio Castillo at Lanvin without knowing how to drape.
Other popular highlights in the collection include interviews with painter Chuck Close, the late Robert Rauschenberg and architect Frank Gehry.
Visit http://library.duke.edu/digitalcollections/dsva/ for more info.
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