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The Stax Museum of American Soul Music opens Friday in Memphis, Tenn., honoring the recording studio that once churned out hundreds of R&B and pop hits. The Stax studio -- built in a movie theater that once stood on the same site as the new museum -- drew music talent from all over the South, including Otis Redding and Isaac Hayes. Stax became known for the trademark rich, gritty soul that defined its sound. NPR's Kathleen Schalch reports.

The Walt Disney Co. is blocking its Miramax division from distributing Fahrenheit 9/11, a new documentary from filmmaker Michael Moore highly critical of the Bush administration. Reports suggest Disney was worried about upsetting the president's brother, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. Moore discusses the controversy with NPR's Michele Norris.

In 1928, violinist Louis Kaufman became the first person to buy a painting by Milton Avery. A year later, The Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., became the first museum to acquire a work by Avery. NPR's Susan Stamberg reports on a new exhibit at the Phillips that celebrates the long friendship between the two artists. See paintings and photos from the show.

A growing number of TV series are now available on the DVD market. Television shows on DVD make up a reported 10 percent of all DVD sales and rake in $1.5 billion, a rise of roughly 60 percent over the previous year. TK Arnold of Video Store magazine says more than 3,300 titles are currently available. Hear NPR's Michele Norris and Arnold.

The Harder They Come, the Jamaican movie starring Jimmy Cliff, was a cult hit when it was released 30 years ago. But along with Bob Marley, the film and its soundtrack helped introduce reggae music to America and the rest of the world. On Morning Edition, Ashley Kahn reports on the film's continuing influence.

The Library of Congress unites the legendary folklorist's recordings of world cultures with the documentaries he and his father made of the American South. NPR's Felix Contreras reports.

The notorious Rio de Janeiro slum known as "The City of God," is a place most self-respecting Brazilians would prefer to avoid. But it is now the subject of a film that focuses on drug-dealing. It has been nominated for four Academy Awards, including best director. For the film, co-director Katia Lund recruited a number of young men from the slum and trained them as actors. NPR's Martin Kaste reports.

Writers in New York and Los Angeles voted to lift a strike order, clearing the way for them to report to work on Wednesday. They will formally approve their new three-year deal over the next couple of weeks. With one fight resolved, the studios will next face the unions representing actors.

The executive director and CEO of the Screen Actors Guild, Robert Pisano, has been sued by some members of the union because Pisano is also on the board of directors of the DVD rental company Netflix. Some wonder how he can accurately represent actors who are trying to negotiate DVD residuals when Netflix is so cozy with the studios. Iris Mann reports (6:15)

best known as the screenwriter for 1985's My Beautiful Laundrette and 1987's Sammy and Rosie Get Laid. He's written a script for a new film -- The Mother -- and has a new novel out called The Body. Both mark a departure from his socio-political stories about being a person of color in England. Now the subject of aging takes center stage. Frank Browning reports.