Wide Angle visits the city of Limerick– once a slum in Ireland known as “stab city” and the impoverished setting of the best-selling memoir Angela’s Ashes. The Limerick of today has all the main ingredients of change, including foreign investment, a miniature property boom and a burgeoning services industry. Watch. (Originally aired: 7/18/2006).

Over the last 50 years, NYC has lost around 900,000 manufacturing jobs. Today, New York’s surviving factories face stiff competition from foreign imports, and fight for space amongst condos and commercial developments. What has losing this source of jobs meant for New York’s economy? See multimedia feature.

When Chicago filmmaker Joanna Rudnick tested positive for the “breast cancer gene” at age 27, she knew the information could save her life. She set out to make a film about the science behind the gene and the impact of this new medical knowledge has on women’s lives. Watch the 90-minute documentary online until Dec. 22, 2008. (Originally aired: Oct. 2008).

Cranes dominate our skylines, yet few people ever notice them, nor do they notice the men and women who operate them. City of Cranes takes the viewer hundreds of feet above the ground to hear the insights of crane drivers, and see a glimpse of the poetic, mesmerizing world of cranes. Watch the 14-minute short.

This month’s IN THE LIFE features the vulnerable in our society: children, queer teens at-risk, and the dying. In this episode: The fight to combat suicide among LGBT youth; Randi Weingarten and Alan Van Capelle talk about Labor, Education and Pride; and Freeheld, a Real to Reel about survivor’s benefits for LGBT partners. Watch.