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The National Gallery will host a virtual screening of “Civilisation and America,” a new documentary film by Michael Maglaras, founder of 217 Films, which celebrates the 50th anniversary of the American public television premiere in 1970 of Kenneth Clark’s ground-breaking, thirteen-part BBC documentary series Civilisation.

The NGA also celebrates its important role in bringing Lord Clark’s series to the United States for the first time in 1969…for in that year NGA Director J. Carter Brown presented all thirteen episodes to record-breaking audience, thus making Civilisation a household word in America.

“Civilisation and America,” directed by Michael Maglaras and produced by Terri Templeton, revisits the impact that this TV series had on more than 10 million Americans who viewed the thirteen episodes on PBS at the very height of the protests against the war in Vietnam…a war that divided America and challenged the notion of the value of Western culture in our lives.

Made with the cooperation of the BBC, “Civilisation and America” features archival footage from all thirteen episodes of Civilisation, as well as interviews with Sir David Attenborough. This film shows that the strength of Clark’s vision of the value and permanence of Western culture remains undiminished 50 years later.

This will be the fifth documentary film by 217 Films to be screened at the NGA. Peggy Parsons, Director of Film at the NGA, has described the films of Michael Maglaras as “virtuoso filmmaking.”