Link TV - Programming - Program Descriptions

Program Descriptions for the week of May 2, 2005

About Baghdad

In July 2003 Sinan Antoon, an exiled Iraqi writer and poet, returned to Baghdad to see what has become of his city after wars, sanctions, decades of oppression and violence and now occupation. Antoon takes us on a journey exploring what Iraqis think and feel about the post-war situation and the complex relationship between the US and Iraq. About Baghdad is a journey into the hearts and minds of the hundreds of Iraqis the filmakers encountered in Baghdad.

For more information about this film, please visit About Baghdad's official website.

The Active Opposition: Broken Heart/Land - The Demise of the Family Farm

Host Peter Coyote joins musician/activist Willie Nelson and panel of farmers, activists and agricultural experts to explore the plight of a dying breed: The Family Farmer. Family farms in the US have foreclosed and vanished at the alarming rate of 500 per week as a corporate agricultural industry, which often wields monopolistic control over commodity prices, has been firmly established throughout the U.S.

Millions of dollars in US government subsidies go to only ten percent of American farmers, while the remaining 90 percent are left to fend for themselves. Increasingly, they�re giving up. Unable to compete with falling commodity prices while their costs to raise a harvest far exceeds any possible return, they migrate by the millions to urban areas. More distressingly, suicide rates among American farmers now stand at five times the national average.

Program host Peter Coyote begins �Broken Heart/Land� with excerpts from an exclusive interview he conducted with country music icon and Farm Aid founder Willie Nelson:

�When five family farmers go under, one business in that community goes under.
So it�s like the domino effect. You lose all the farmers, and then go the schools and the hospitals, all the businesses in that town. Everybody folds up. You got a ghost town, every body moves out and goes on to the next big town and become a problem over there.�

The problem is not just American, as surprisingly similar economic and political pressures are affecting small farmers throughout the world. Europe and the US are now in conflict over GMO food and labeling, while cotton farmers in Mali and elsewhere in the developing world cannot compete with cotton prices from subsidized large-scale American farmers. The Active Opposition explores some of the human and social costs of this transformation.

�Broken Heart/Land� asks if the demise of the American family farm serves as a metaphor for the end of a healthy, rural society in America? The program also examines the quality of the food on our tables, as well as the environmental consequences of large-scale factory farming, including nitrate poisoning from unmanageable quantities of manure runoff and animal waste. Guests on this Active Opposition not only identify some of the contributing factors to this problem, but offer a number of potential solutions.

Guests include:

ANURHADA MITTAL � Co-director of Food First
GARY GRANT - North Carolina farmer and Director of Black Farmers Association.
MARK RITCHIE - President, The Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy
MONA LEE BROCK � Suicide hotline counselor
FRED KIRSCHENMANN � Iowa Farmer. President of Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture.
Rhonda Perry � Missouri Farmer and Activist.

To view a streamed version suitable for broadband connections, click here; and for dialup connections click here.

The Active Opposition: The Nuclear Lullaby - What We Are Not Being Told

Host Peter Coyote and studio guests discuss the nuclear threat in the post-Cold War age. Who is the greatest nuclear threat in the world? Is it North Korea, Iran, Pakistan, Israel or perhaps the United States itself? After decades of cold-war, superpower parity and carefully constructed nuclear arms agreements, the Bush administration has now again begun thinking the unthinkable: the development and use of nuclear weapons as a viable means of warfare and counter-terrorism assaults. Meanwhile critics at home and around the world fear this may increase the possibility of nuclear war by sending a green-light signal to nuclear weapon-states that the use of �tactical� nuclear weapons is acceptable. THE NUCLEAR LULLABY presents information which the US government has not divulged on Nuclear Proliferation, the use of Depleted Uranium, and the storage hazards and �disposal� of nuclear waste. The program will explore the legacy of nuclear radiation, from the �downwinders� of nuclear testing, to the American servicemen and women contaminated by depleted uranium in Iraq. Also discussed are both the domestic and international facets of the nuclear threat, including nuclear terrorism, the realities of a �Hindu� and �Islamic� nuclear bomb, the resurgence in building of plutonium pits, the contamination of the environment and the consequences of passing the unsolved burden of nuclear waste on to future generations. Guests include:

Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-Petaluma)
Jonathan Schell - Fellow, The Nation Institute
Jonathan Granoff, ESQ - President, Global Security Institute
Arjun Makhijani - President of the Institute for Energy
Dan Fahey - Desert Storm Veteran

To view a streamed version suitable for broadband connections, click here; and for dialup connections click here.

For a transcript, click here(171KB PDF).

GET INVOLVED - HERE'S SOME LINKS TO GET YOU STARTED:

Nuclear Files, a website devoted to the history of the Nuclear Age.

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, educating citizens about global security issues, especially the continuing dangers posed by nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction.

The Global Security Institute works with citizens and policy makers to achieve incremental steps that enhance security and lead to the global elimination of nuclear weapons.

Stockholm International Peace Research Institute conducting research on questions of conflict and cooperation of importance for international peace and security.

Center for Defense Information, a non-partisan, non-profit organization committed to independent research on the social, economic, environmental, political and military components of global security.

The Ploughshares Fund is a public grantmaking foundation that supports initiatives for stopping the spread of weapons of war, from nuclear arms to landmines.

GlobalSecurity.org is focused on innovative approaches to the emerging security challenges of the new millennium. The organization seeks to reduce reliance on nuclear weapons and the risk of their use -- both by existing nuclear weapons states and those states seeking to acquire such capabilities. GlobalSecurity.org aims to shift American conventional military forces towards new capabilities aligned with the post-Cold War security environment, and to reduce the worldwide incidence of deadly conflict.

Avoiding Armageddon, a timely series from Ted Turner Documentaries explores the explosive intersection between terrorism and weapons of mass destruction. Viewers are taken to some of the most dangerous places in the world to see dramatic human stories that convey the threats from nuclear, biological and chemical weapons, as well as the hope that the world can still choose to avoid Armageddon.

Nuclear Threat Initiative, co-chaired by Ted Turner and Sam Nunn, is working to reduce the global threats from nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons.

The Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, an organization whose vision is of a world at peace, free of the threat of war and free of weapons of mass destruction.

The Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy, a nonprofit educational association using national and international law to promote peace and disarmament.

Affluenza

Through revealing personal stories, expert commentary, hilarious old film clips, dramatized vignettes, and "anti-commercial" breaks, AFFLUENZA examines the high cost of achieving the most extravagant lifestyle the world has ever seen. Last year, Americans, who make up only five percent of the world's population, used nearly a third of its resources and produced almost half of its hazardous waste. Add overwork, personal stress, the erosion of family and community, skyrocketing debt, and the growing gap between rich and poor, and it's easy to understand why some people say that the American Dream is no bargain.

Many are opting out of the consumer chase, redefining the Dream, and making "voluntary simplicity" one of the top 10 trends of the '90s. AFFLUENZA travels across the country to show you men and women who are working and shopping less, spending more time with friends and family, volunteering in their communities, and enjoying their lives more.

For more information, and to purchase the film, click here.

Check out the site Affluenza.org a divsion of New American Dream to educate yourself about becoming a conscious consumer.

To learn more about consumption habits in the western world read the report - Behind Consumption and Consumerism.

Akram Khan Dance Company

The Akram Khan Company seeks to create dance that is bold, uninhibited, intelligent, inventive and challenging by collaborating with international artists, often working in other artforms, who are at the height of their profession. Performances may take the form of company works, classical Kathak solos, or artist collaborations, all of which draw on influences from the North Indian classical dance, Indian classical music, and Western contemporary dance and music. The intention is to create a shifting language that is unique, personal, elegant and distinctly recognizable.

Akram Khan Dance Company official website.

The Art of Amalia

The soul of Portugal is captured in its Fado music.� Literally translated as �fate� it is a sound that somehow combines heartbreak, stoicism, and elation all at once. The undisputed queen of this unique music was the late great Amalia Rodrigues, whose� legacy has set the bar for all Fadistas to come. �The Art of Amalia� is a reverent portrait of the Diva, with interview and concert footage that will delight any fan of Fado, and enrapture the new listener. From her impoverished start on the streets of Alfama, to her concerts before thousands of adoring fans, a staggering body of work emerges, from a woman who dedicated herself completely to her art.

To�own the music of Amalia Rodrigues, visit the Link TV Store.�

Official Amalia Rodrigues site (in Portuguese).�

For more on the the film, the artist and her music, click here.

Ayurveda: The Art of Being

An in-depth documentary that looks at one of the world�s oldest systems of holistic healthcare. Traveling the world, we are introduced to practitioners at work in India, Greece, and the United States. The documentary reveals how the revitalized holistic discipline, based on the most ancient of techniques, can be applied in this age of nuclear power, the internet and instant everything. To purchase the film, click here.

Also, please visit the National Institute of Ayurvedic Medicine (NIAM) site. Dr Scott Gerson, one of the Ayurveda practitioners featured in the film, is the founder of NIAM.

The Global Banquet, By Invitation Only

A two part discussion of corporate farming and its global effects.

Part 1 examines how corporate globalization of food threatens the livelihoods of small farmers in the U.S. and developing countries and how free trade is the route to mounting hunger worldwide, despite an overabundance of food.

Part 2 looks at mass produced, low-cost food imports to developing countries and cash crop exports that deplete natural resources and render developing countries unable to feed themselves.

To purchase this film, click here. (note-this film is alternately titled The Global Banquet: The Politics of Food).

Visit Factory Farm to learn about sustainable food production and begin your search for quality, organic, free-range meat, poultry, dairy and eggs from farmers, restaurants, and markets in your area by accessing the Eat Well Guide.

Go to Global Exchange to educate yourself about Fair Trade and shop on-line.

Visit the Institute for Food and Development Policy's website - Food First - a progressive organization that aims to discover solutions to end hunger and poverty around the world. The site contains a comprehensive resource library and book store for those seeking more information on food, health and the environment.

With the introduction of large-scale corporate farms, a steady degradation of farmland has begun; marking the end of the family farm and the continued loss of quality of the food we eat. The Sustainability Institute's article "Super-Tractors, Super-Cows, Super-Farms" explores the impact of large-scale farming practices.

Beyond the Forest

Transylvania means �across the forest� so this music documentary is aptly aptly named as it follows two members of Hungary�s most famous folk band, Muzik�s, as they gather songs from Transylvanian villages near and far.

Under communism, the Hungarian government attempted to homogenize the musical heritage of the country into manageable uniformity. People were told that they had no real music of their own. In opposition, young Hungarian musicians started filtering into Transylvania, in Romania, where a large Hungarian population still lived the village life that had been stamped out elsewhere. They collected songs, brought them back to Hungary and started a vibrant folk renaissance, called the �Tanchaz� (dance house) movement.

The film features brilliant performances from virtuoso folk musicians, playing for weddings, harvests and various rites of passage, showing the relationship of the music to every stage of life.

To own the music of Transylvanian villages, visit the Link TV Music Store.

Black Kites

Dream-like and spectral, Black Kites is based on the 1992 journals and drawings of Sarajevan visual artist Alma Hajric, who, with friends from an arts collective, was forced into a basement shelter in order to survive the lengthy siege of Sarajevo. Co-starring and produced by Steve Buscemi, the film explores the artist's interior landscape--her hopes, fears and dreams--and interweaves them beautifully with the brutal truths of her daily existence.

For more information, and to purchase this film, click here.

Blues Accordin' to Lightnin' Hopkins

The great Texas bluesman Sam (Lightnin') Hopkins is captured brilliantly in this deeply moving film. Filmmaker Les Blank reveals Lightnin's inspiration, and features a generous helping of classic blues. Includes performances at an outdoor barbeque and a black rodeo; and a visit to his boyhood town of Centerville, Texas.�The film was made in 1969, 12 years before Hopkins� death due to esophagal cancer in 1982.�

For more about�the making of this film, and to purchase it, click here.�

Purchase Lightnin' Hopkins song downloads, CDs and other live performances on DVD from the Link TV Store.
�
For a biography of Lightnin� Hopkins, click here.

Lunch with Bokara: Compassion in Action

Welcome to Lunch With Bokara - a new television series that explores the frontiers of religion and metaphysics, of science and spirituality.

Join host Bokara Legendre, as she brings together an engaging group of well-known scientists, thinkers, and spiritual teachers from around the world. Be a part of a unique, spontaneous conversation as fascinating guests who have often never met are brought together for the first time to share their insights, knowledge and wisdom. Watch a short series promo, here.

In This Program

Dr. Robert Thurman, Professor of Indo-Buddhist studies at Columbia University, inspiring teacher, lecturer and author of twelve books, discusses the fruition of spiritual practice - our work in the world, with Dr. Lawrence Brilliant, the epidemiologist who founded the SEVA Foundation, which has returned sight to over two million indigenous people in South America and Asia with free cataract operations. Dr. Brilliant headed the medical team which stamped out small pox in India in the 1970's. Today he is back in India working on the spreading polio epidemic. This program will discuss the practice of compassion in our personal and worldly lives. How is a spiritual practice, whatever it may be, taken into the larger society in a useful way?

Please visit CEM Productions to purchase the individual special or series, Lunch with Bokara.

Other Lunch with Bokara episodes:

Meditation, Emotions and Body Language with Jack Kornfield and Dr. Paul Ekman

Food for the Soul with Ram Dass and Huston Smith

Healing, Family and Community with Sobonfu Some and Dr. Rachel Naomi

The Monk and the Rabbi with Brother David Steindl-Rast and Rabbi Lawrence Kushner

Transformation and Mindfulness with Dr. Jon Kabat Zinn and Michael Murphy

Zen and the Art of African Initiation with Joan Halifax and Malidoma Some

Meetings with a Himalayan Yogi

Lunch with Bokara: Food for the Soul

Welcome to Lunch With Bokara - a new television series that explores the frontiers of religion and metaphysics, of science and spirituality.

In This Program

Internationally-renowned scholar of world religions, Huston Smith joins spiritual guru Ram Dass, author of "Be Here Now", to share thoughts on consciousness, mortality, psychedelics and hope.

"The stroke didn't just change my body; it changed my perception of myself. Every time you have a change in your life, that's an experience that lets God come through."
- Ram Dass

"Consciousness is not a state, it is not a process, it is a substance."
- Huston Smith

Please visit CEM Productions to purchase the individual special or series, Lunch with Bokara.

Other Lunch with Bokara episodes:

Meditation, Emotions and Body Language with Jack Kornfield and Dr. Paul Ekman

Healing, Family and Community with Sobonfu Some and Dr. Rachel Naomi

The Monk and the Rabbi with Brother David Steindl-Rast and Rabbi Lawrence Kushner

Transformation and Mindfulness with Dr. Jon Kabat Zinn and Michael Murphy

Compassion in Action with Dr. Robert Thurman and Dr. Lawrence Brilliant

Zen and the Art of African Initiation with Joan Halifax and Malidoma Some

Meetings with a Himalayan Yogi

Lunch with Bokara: Healing, Family and Community

Welcome to Lunch With Bokara - a new television series that explores the frontiers of religion and metaphysics, of science and spirituality.

In This Program

African healer Sobonfu Some meets author and medical doctor Rachel Naomi Remen to discuss topics such as the ways in which emotions cause illness, and how broken families can heal with the help of community.

"Ritual is to the soul what food is to our physical body."
- Sobonfu Some

"Healing is much more profound than curing. It does not happen at the level of the body. It happens on the level of the human being."

"I suspect that illness may at some very deep level be a world service, that it is a way that we awaken compassion in the world and other people. It is a way in which we grow."
- Rachel Naomi Remen

Please visit CEM Productions to purchase the individual special or series, Lunch with Bokara.

Other Lunch with Bokara episodes:

Meditation, Emotions and Body Language with Jack Kornfield and Dr. Paul Ekman

Food for the Soul with Ram Dass and Huston Smith

The Monk and the Rabbi with Brother David Steindl-Rast and Rabbi Lawrence Kushner

Transformation and Mindfulness with Dr. Jon Kabat Zinn and Michael Murphy

Compassion in Action with Dr. Robert Thurman and Dr. Lawrence Brilliant

Zen and the Art of African Initiation with Joan Halifax and Malidoma Some

Meetings with a Himalayan Yogi

Lunch with Bokara: Zen and the Art of African Initiation

Welcome to Lunch With Bokara - a new television series that explores the frontiers of religion and metaphysics, of science and spirituality.

In This Program

Joan Halifax, Buddhist teacher, author and abbot of Upaya Zen Monastery in Santa Fe, talks about initiation with African shaman, healer and diviner, Malidoma Some. Malidoma suggests that people in the West suffer from "sickness of the soul." He joins Roshi Joan in a fascinating conversation about the ways we can heal this sickness, as well as the unexpressed grief in our culture. In this program, we discover the secrets of an African initiation and the power of Buddhist vows with two people who walk between the worlds of East and West, of Magic and Meditation.

"The purpose of life is not something that you find, it�s more like something that finds you. You and your purpose meet half way. And you know the culture I come from assumes that you cannot be born in this world without a purpose. And so every baby that is born, we start to look at what
is it that she or he is coming here for?" - Malidoma Some

"In Buddhism its not so much about finding the kind of magic that fascinates us all, its actually about finding the utter magic or miracle in this glass of water. That�s really when our life really opens up. The magic is in the ordinary things, in the miracle of this moment." - Joan Halifax

Please visit CEM Productions to purchase the individual special or series, Lunch with Bokara.

Other Lunch with Bokara episodes:

Meditation, Emotions and Body Language with Jack Kornfield and Dr. Paul Ekman

Food for the Soul with Ram Dass and Huston Smith

Healing, Family and Community with Sobonfu Some and Dr. Rachel Naomi

The Monk and the Rabbi with Brother David Steindl-Rast and Rabbi Lawrence Kushner

Transformation and Mindfulness with Dr. Jon Kabat Zinn and Michael Murphy

Compassion in Action with Dr. Robert Thurman and Dr. Lawrence Brilliant

Meetings with a Himalayan Yogi

Lunch with Bokara - Meditation, Emotions and Body Language

Welcome to Lunch With Bokara - a new television series that explores the frontiers of religion and metaphysics, of science and spirituality.

Join host Bokara Legendre, as she brings together an engaging group of well-known scientists, thinkers, and spiritual teachers from around the world. Be a part of a unique, spontaneous conversation as fascinating guests who have often never met are brought together for the first time to share their insights, knowledge and wisdom. Watch a short series promo, here.

In This Program

In Meditation, Emotions and Body Language - meditation teacher Jack Kornfield and psychologist Paul Ekman meet to explore what scientists and psychologists now understand about our minds and emotional states and how this compares with what spiritual masters have studied and learned over the centuries.

"What I know now of Buddhism makes a lot of sense as techniques to expand consciousness into areas that consciousness often doesn't go. To learn to be an observer of yourself is crucial, and nature didn't make that easy for us."
- Dr. Paul Ekman

"When you begin to meditate, your feelings begin to reveal themselves, and you see the 'inner landscape' that activates actions in a way that you have never seen before."
- Jack Kornfield

Please visit CEM Productions to purchase the individual special or series, Lunch with Bokara.

Other Lunch with Bokara episodes:

Food for the Soul with Ram Dass and Huston Smith

Healing, Family and Community with Sobonfu Some and Dr. Rachel Naomi

The Monk and the Rabbi with Brother David Steindl-Rast and Rabbi Lawrence Kushner

Transformation and Mindfulness with Dr. Jon Kabat Zinn and Michael Murphy

Compassion in Action with Dr. Robert Thurman and Dr. Lawrence Brilliant

Zen and the Art of African Initiation with Joan Halifax and Malidoma Some

Meetings with a Himalayan Yogi

Spotlight: The Boy from the Block

Reporter David Akinsanya investigates the riots surounding the 2004 death of a seventeen year old Aboriginal Thomas James Hickey. TJ, as he was known to friends and family, died on Valentine's Day 2004. He was impaled on a metal fence after falling off his bicycle near the notorious Sydney suburb of Redfern, also called The Block. The following day The Block erupted into violence amid rumours TJ had been chased to his death by police officers - an allegation strongly denied by the police. Forty officers were injured in what became a running battle with scores of Aboriginal youths.

The documentary asks why Aboriginals have disastrously failed to integrate into their own country and why so many white Australians have a stereotypical image of their indigenous neighbours as layabouts and drunks.

Learn more about this program at the BBC website.
Read more about status of Aboriginals in Australia.
Find out what happened to the filmmaker, David Akinsanya, after this film was released.

Spotlight is a weekly series of investigative reports from around the world, introduced by author and Journalist Mark Hertsgaard. Mr. Hertsgaard�s latest book is �The Eagle's Shadow: Why America Fascinates and Infuriates the World."

The Bridge of Bosnian Blues

The story of Mostar Sevdah, a multi-ethnic band which formed out of the ashes of Mostar, the Bosnian city devastated by the war in the 90's. Blending archival footage of the conflict with the personal stories of the musicians, as well as moving, soulful performances, the film tells a powerful story of resilience and artistic survival in the face of warfare, ethnic hatred and deprivation.

Official Mostar Sevdah website.

The Boy Who Plays on the Buddhas of Bamiyan

In March 2001, the ruling Taliban destroyed Afghanistan's foremost tourist attraction, the 1600 year-old Buddhas of Bamiyan. This film follows the story of one of the refugees who now lives among the ruins�.an eight-year-old boy named Mir.

The film is about Mir�s life through three seasons: Summer, Winter, Spring. In post-Taliban Afghanistan, though much has changed and is changing, there is no guarantee that Mir will survive life in a cave due to the sickness, dirt, dust, lack of water and food. Yet his engaging story is not one of�doom but that of a normal child who takes life as it comes and finds entertainment wherever he can. His playground is the rubble and tunnels of the destroyed Buddhas of Bamiyan, the shelled and burnt-out town bazaar, the orchard of the local militia. Through his eyes we see the destruction of the town, the ever-present militarization and the welcomed but watched presence of the Americans. Mir has no clue what it is all about but he knows how to have fun.

Visit Seventh Arts Productions official site to learn more and to purchase the film.

Caetano Veloso

Grammy-winning singer/songwriter Caetano Veloso is among the most beloved and influential artists ever to emerge from Brazil and the world. A musical revolutionary with the voice of an angel, Veloso co-founded Tropicalismo, a fusion of musical elements as diverse as rock �n� roll, Latin rhythms and modernist poetry, spurring a renaissance in Brazilian popular music. Never hesitating to acknowledge his influences � from Jo�o Gilberto to The Beatles to filmmaker Federico Fellini � Veloso�s music has continued to evolve, keeping an eye toward the future while paying homage to Brazil�s great musical past. This program is a�vibrant look at the seminal Brazilian musician who started out as a rebel Tropicalista and has endured as a major pop star capable of masterfully interpreting any music he tackles.

Caetano Veloso official website.

To own the music of Caetano Veloso, visit the�Link TV Music Store.

To purchase DVD's of Caetano Veloso in concert, click here.

Spotlight: Children of Shadows

In Haiti, many parents are forced by destitution and desperation to give away their children. The children - who may be as young as four years old - then go to live and work for other families as unpaid domestic servants, or slaves. They are known as "restavek" children.

�Children of Shadows� follows the children as they go through their daily chores - the endless cycle of cooking, washing, sweeping, mopping, going to the market, or going to run errands. In heartbreaking interviews the children speak openly and shyly about the lives they are forced to lead. Their "aunts" (adoptive caretakers) speak openly and proudly of the vast mountain of work that "their" restavek does for them. The camera goes deep into the countryside to interview the peasant families as to what kind of situation would force them to give away one or more of their children.

Narrated entirely by the people themselves in their native Creole and with original Haitian music laced throughout the film, this affecting documentary is the first film to be made on a subject which until recently has never been talked about.

Spotlight is a weekly series of investigative reports from around the world, introduced by author and Journalist Mark Hertsgaard. Mr. Hertsgaard�s latest book is �The Eagle's Shadow: Why America Fascinates and Infuriates the World."

Produced by Karen Kramer and funded in part by UNICEF.

To inquire about owning the film, click here.

Help support the National Coalition for Haitian Rights' Restavek Campaign, which seeks to eliminate child domestic laborers in Haiti! Visit the National Coalition for Haitian Rights where you can learn more about immigration, human and civil rights issues affecting Haitians.

Cinema Soleil

Two young men open a makeshift movie theater in Cite Soleil, the largest shanytown in Haiti to earn a living for themselves and their families. Every day the two boys have to overcome numerous obstacles to ensure the projections take place. In spite of their poverty, the spectators come in great numbers. Although the theater cannot offer them any real escape from the oppression of 40 years of dictatorship, it does provide a window on the outside world.

To purchase the film, please contact the following distributor:

Margarita Seguy
F for Film
[email protected]

Concrete Revolution

Part objective documentary, part personal essay, on the surface this film charts the transformation of Beijing. In order to present a modern glossy face to the world, one where shiny new buildings and icons of western consumerism are rapidly built and pushed to the foreground, the Chinese Government prefers to hide in the background the hardship of the people constructing the new image, and that of the disappearing world of its culture-carrying elders.

Electing to focus beneath the facade, this intelligent and important work bravely exposes the unseen changes in values and the social cost being payed, especially those of the peasant construction workers of the new China. Told through the contrast of individual's stories with elements of retrospective context, the film functions as a feminine poem on a macho subject using a clever mix of colour and black & white film, stills, snippets of media newsflash and even quotes and songs from Maoist China.

Novelist, filmmaker Xiaolu�s works touch universal themes (time & place, love & loss) appealing to many worlds. Her previous films won The ICA Becks Future Prize 2003 and Best Screenwriting Award at 1999 Chinese National Film Awards.

Visit the filmmaker Xiaolu Guo's website to learn more about the film.

Check out the BBC's In-Depth section - Changing China.

Ethics and the World Crisis: A Dialogue with the Dalai Lama

A Link TV exclusive documentary that presents highlights of an extraordinary day-long ethics conference, featuring the Dalai Lama in conversation with some of the nation�s leading activists. A co-production of Tibet House U.S. in New York, and Link TV, the program brings together for the first time ever, one of the world�s most important spiritual leaders with renowned journalists, economists, environmentalists and politicians to discuss the ethical dilemmas of the new millennium.

With allegations of government subterfuge, corporate malfeasance scandals and a devastating global warming crisis dominating the headlines, this unprecedented television program gives millions of Americans a rare glimpse into the enlightening ethical teachings, peaceful nature and often surprising humor of the Dalai Lama.

The program shows highlights from four panels: Ethics and the Environment (with David Crow, Randall Hayes, Paul Hawken), Ethics and the Media (with Amy Goodman, Katrina vanden Heuvel, Susan Sarandon); Ethics and Economics (with Ben Cohen, Amy Domini, Russell Simmons); and Ethics and the Politics of Peace (with Dr. Helen Caldicott, Dennis Kucinich, and Rev. Al Sharpton). The discussions are intercut with interviews from the panelists, who provide personal insights into their impressions of the dialogue and what ethics means to them.

The program was filmed in September, 2003 at New York�s Town Hall.

To view a 3-minute streamed introduction suitable for broadband connections, click here; and for dialup connections click here.

To purchase this film, click here.

International Dateline

SBS Dateline, which began in 1984, is Australia's longest-running international current affairs program. It has a well-earned reputation for authoritative and incisive reporting. Dateline has taken�the traditional way of producing TV current affairs and turned it on its head. Reporters who used to travel with a cameraperson and sound recordist now travel alone and have the responsibility of both filming and reporting their stories. The reporters became video-journalists gaining access to people and places that the conventional camera crews cannot.��

Dateline provides a wide range of reports from around the world, focusing on international issues. From economics to conflict, from the environment to technology, from politics to global trends - Dateline offers a window to the world and Australia's place in it.

International Dateline: Garuda's Deadly Upgrade

Garuda's Deadly Upgrade - The investigation into the bizarre poisoning of Munir Said Thalib, Indonesia�s leading human rights activist, is rapidly developing into a serious challenge for President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who last year came to power vowing to clean up his country's tarnished human rights reputation. The case involves Indonesian intelligence, the military, politicians and curiously, Garuda, Indonesia's national airline. In this episode, Dateline video journalist David O'Shea attempts to unravel the mystery surrounding Munir's death.

SBS Dateline, which began in 1984, is Australia's longest-running international current affairs program. It has a well-earned reputation for authoritative and incisive reporting. Dateline has taken the traditional way of producing TV current affairs and turned it on its head. Reporters who used to travel with a cameraperson and sound recordist now travel alone and have the responsibility of both filming and reporting their stories. The reporters became video-journalists gaining access to people and places that the conventional camera crews cannot.

International Dateline: Japanese Prime Minister Koizumi

This International Dateline episode includes three segments: Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi Interview, The Priest and the Prisoner and Shoot the Messenger.

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi Interview
International commentators are warning that the world's second and third largest economies, Japan and China, are on an inevitable collision course as they jostle for dominance. International Dateline reporter, George Negus, flew to Tokyo to talk exclusively with the charismatic but currently embattled Japanese Prime Minister at his official residence. The Prime Minister is under intense international pressure. He refuses to apologize for Japan�s past war-time atrocities against the people of Asia and the current text book scandal over attempts to ignore that history. In this interview, George Negus speaks with the Prime Minister about the recent deployment of additional Australian troops to Iraq, Japan�s bid for a seat on the Security Council and the tensions with China.

The Priest and the Prisoner
Dateline reporter Nick Lazaredes investigates the oil-for-food scandal via the case of Father Jean-Marie. Catholic priest, Jean-Marie Benjamin, has a close relationship with the former deputy PM of Iraq, Tariq Aziz and is fending off allegations that he was involved in the scandal that's still embroiling the United Nations. Although the UN Secretary-General's been cleared of any personal wrongdoing, the scandal has implicated both Kofi Annan's son, Kojo, and the former head of the UN program, Benon Sevan.

Shoot the Messenger
Last November when a US marine shot dead an unarmed, wounded Iraqi in a Fallujah mosque, the story created international headlines. In fact, it was the biggest scandal to hit the US military in Iraq since Abu Ghraib. What we still don't know is what actually went on outside the frame of that now infamous image? What were the personal choices involved, the ethical decisions that had to be made? And what did that incident reveal about US reporting from Iraq. In his first international interview, the journalist responsible for capturing that awful shooting spoke with Dateline's Sophie McNeill.

SBS Dateline, which began in 1984, is Australia's longest-running international current affairs program. It has a well-earned reputation for authoritative and incisive reporting. Dateline has taken the traditional way of producing TV current affairs and turned it on its head. Reporters who used to travel with a cameraperson and sound recordist now travel alone and have the responsibility of both filming and reporting their stories. The reporters became video-journalists gaining access to people and places that the conventional camera crews cannot.

International Dateline: Nepal - Dismantling Democracy

This International Dateline episode includes two segments: Nepal - Dismantling Democracy and Jan Egeland Interview.

Nepal-Dismantling Democracy
A report on failed attempts at establishing democracy in Nepal. Earlier this year, against a backdrop of appalling poverty and a Maoist insurgency that's already cost more than 10,000 lives, the King of Nepal forcibly took the reins of government from the country's politicians - all in the name of "fighting terrorism". Dateline reporter Bronwyn Adcock journeyed to Nepal and met with some of the key players in this dangerous new fight for democracy.

Jan Egeland Interview
Jan Egeland appeared as the spokesman for the United Nations after the tsunami devastated Southeast Asia late last year. Egeland is the UN Under-Secretary for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator in charge of the post-tsunami clean-up, which includes the unenviable task of making sure the billions donated to the victims of the tsunami are spent properly. Dateline report George Negus speaks with Jan Egeland in the United Nations studios in New York.

SBS Dateline, which began in 1984, is Australia's longest-running international current affairs program. It has a well-earned reputation for authoritative and incisive reporting. Dateline has taken the traditional way of producing TV current affairs and turned it on its head. Reporters who used to travel with a cameraperson and sound recordist now travel alone and have the responsibility of both filming and reporting their stories. The reporters became video-journalists gaining access to people and places that the conventional camera crews cannot.

Democracy Now!

Democracy Now! is a national independent news program, hosted by award-winning journalists Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez and produced out of the Downtown Community Television Center, a community media center in New York City�s Chinatown.

The show is committed to covering issues the conventional media avoid and bringing the voices of the marginalized to the airwaves.� Goodman and Gonzalez�s engaging reports feature interviews with activists, muckrakers, visionaries, artists, academics, and "ordinary folks" who share a commitment to truth, justice, diversity, and peace.

For more information, visit the Democracy Now! site.

Democracy Now! Special

Amy Goodman hosts a retrospective of the best Democracy Now! reports of the past year.

Spotlight: Dowry Law

It is wedding season in India. All over the country the booming middle class is spending a fortune on dowries - bikes, fridges, microwaves, cars and large amounts of cash - all in the attempt to find a suitable husband. It can cost up to $100,000 for a family in India to find a groom for their daughter.

This all happens despite the fact that it is illegal to give or receive more than $150 in dowry payments. And it is resulting in the return of dowry crime. The aim: to get the money then get rid of the wife as soon as possible. Demands for money often continue well into the marriage. If the family does not pay, there can be a heavy price. Cases of newly-wed women burning to death in stove "accidents" occur daily. Some women are forced to commit suicide by their husbands; others are simply murdered by their husband's family.

But women are fighting back. The producers join Delhi's female crime unit in the fight against dowry crime. The unit, which was recently given the power to make arrests, responds to calls across the city from women who feel harassed. The Indian Government has also responded to the increasing problem by passing a law so that anyone even remotely connected to the death of a wife can be thrown in jail. As a result, entire families can be imprisoned. India has even built a special jail block in Delhi for mothers-in-law accused of killing their sons' wives.

Featured prominently in the film is one case where a young doctor died a week after she moved in with her in-laws. Her parents and a leading feminist take the fight to the police. The programconfronts her husband and in-laws in an attempt to find out how she died.

For more information, and to inquire about owning the film, click here.

Spotlight is a weekly series of investigative reports from around the world, introduced by author and Journalist Mark Hertsgaard. Mr. Hertsgaard�s latest book is �The Eagle's Shadow: Why America Fascinates and Infuriates the World."

To find out more about the Indian dowry system, visit India Together where you can pledge to have a Dowry-Free Wedding.

Drowned Out

The people of Jalsindhi in central India must make a decision fast. In the next few weeks, their village will disappear underwater as the giant Narmada Dam fills. They have three choices: move to the slums in the city, accept a place at a resettlement site or stay at home and drown. Bestselling author Arundhati Roy joins the fight against the dam and asks the difficult questions. Will the water go to poor farmers or to rich industrialists? What happened to the 16 million people displaced by fifty years of dam building? Why should I care? DROWNED OUT follows the Jalsindhi villagers through hunger strikes, rallies, police brutality and a six-year Supreme Court case. It stays with them as the dam fills and the river starts to rise...

For more information and to own the film, click here.

To find out more about the Narmada Dam resistance, visit Friends of River Narmada.

For a pro-Narmada Dam perspective, including proposed solutions to many problems facing the Narmada project, click here.

Visit International River Networks to find out more about global efforts to stop large scale dam building.

Spotlight: The Dutch Showcase

A powerful documentary about legalized prostitution in Holland. What should be done about prostitution? We�re told it has always existed, that it is unavoidable. Society can consequently tolerate prostitution on the condition that it doesn�t become too obtrusive. Some say the solution is to legalize it, as Holland has done.

This film takes us to the very core of a system where the sale of the human body has become a business like any other. While the entrepreneurs� profits soar, customers consume in total impunity and the State gets rich, the �sex laborers� speak, but never show themselves. It is not enough to decree that prostitution is just a job like another to make it respectable. What justifies legalization? Should the Dutch example become a model for the European Union? This film removes all the masks, one by one. It shows us that beyond the majority view promoted by Holland, prostitution, even legalized, remains a form of slavery.

To inquire about owning this film, click here.

Spotlight is a weekly series of investigative reports from around the world, introduced by author and Journalist Mark Hertsgaard. Mr. Hertsgaard�s latest book is �The Eagle's Shadow: Why America Fascinates and Infuriates the World."

In Focus: Organ Managers - A Race Between Death and Life

Organ Managers - Physician Frank-Peter Nitschke and his colleague Axel Manecke work for the German Organ Transplantation Foundation, coordinating organ donations. When the telephone rings in their office in Rostock it is the start of a race against time - persuading relatives, organizing the removal of the organs and speedy transport to the recepients hospital. Clinics are desparate for organs and the Dutch coordinating center, Eurotransplant, is in charge of deciding where each organ will be used. Even organs which are slightly abnormal, old or fatty can be successfully transplanted. �There just aren�t enough to go around,� the physicians explain. Dr. Nitschke and Dr. Manecke are the recipients of an outpouring of gratitude following successful transplants. A dozen letters a week reach the physicians, with thanks being passed on to the families of the deceased donors.

Visit the United States' government website - Donate Life - to learn more about becoming an organ donor today.

For a more comprehensive look at organ donations, check out The United Network for Organ Sharing.

In Focus: The Rocking Abbot

The Rocking�Abbot - His music practice room in the Abbey of Sant� Anselmo in Rome is sound-insulated, just to be on the safe side. �There�s nothing nicer after a 16-hour working day than to get out the electric guitar for a quarter-of-an-hour,� says Abbot Primate Notker Wolf. He�s the head of the Order of Saint Benedict, with its 8,000 monks and 16,000 nuns worldwide. And he�s a rock-music fan.

Whenever he has time, he goes on stage with his band �Feedback�. In his black habit, with his pectoral cross, and his electric guitar. An unusual hobby for such a high dignitary of the Roman Church. �You need a degree of freedom,� says Notker Wolf, who finds the internal church debates about this or that papal dispensation sometimes rather irrelevant to ordinary life. He thinks the cares and problems of the people he meets around the world are more important than theological disputes. The 64-year-old abbot covers 200,000 air-miles a year visiting the order�s houses worldwide. �I just hope,� he says, �that all the delays and waiting times are refunded in Purgatory.�

Born in the foothills of the Alps in southern Germany, Notker Wolf knows the problems of the world�s poor countries in detail. He speaks 13 languages. Before his election as Abbot Primate, he was Arch-Abbot of the Missionary Benedictines in St. Ottilien, and even then responsible for 20 monasteries with a total of 1,100 monks in Asia, South America and Africa. For the last four years he has been Abbot Primate, and thus head of the Benedictine Order. He resides at one of the best addresses in Rome, Sant' Anselmo on the Aventine Hill. So, hierarchically speaking, he�s right at the top. But he doesn�t like titles, or careerist attitudes. This is his link with the 1960s student rebels, he says: the anti-establishment protest. He thinks the gospel is also anti-institutional at heart, and that�s also what he likes about rock music. This film is a portrait of the witty and unpretentious Abbot Primate of the Benedictines.

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In Focus: Women in Tails

Women in Tails - Women are still very much under-represented in the world of conducting but now there is a whole new generation of female conductors waiting in the wings. This documentary features the internationally acclaimed American conductor Marin Alsop, Catherine R�ckwardt, general music director of the Staatstheater in Mainz and the aspiring, freelance conductor Cornelia von Kerssonbrock. The film takes us behind the scenes with the women during rehearsals at London�s Royal Albert Hall, Frankfurt�s Alten Oper and the Mainz Staatstheater. It includes interviews with the three women in which they discuss their careers.

Earth Report: Tiger, Taiga

Over 10,000 kilometers east of Moscow, beyond Siberia, lies the Taiga of Russia's Far East. Sandwiched between the warm Sea of Japan and the frozen north, the Taiga is an ecological melting pot where Arctic wildlife meets Asian. Valuable old growth trees such as Manchurian Oak and Korean Pine are the key to this ecosystem, which is home to hundreds of rare species, including the last Siberian, or Amur, tigers. The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 ushered in a period of political and economic disarray that has taken a severe toll on the natural resources of Russia's Far East. The enforcement of wildlife protection was largely abandoned, and the cash-strapped Russian government raised money by selling off large tracts of Siberian forest to logging companies. In addition, the lack of employment opportunities has led to an increase in illegal logging and poaching activities. As the accessible timber is becoming depleted, pressure is increasing to open up the last areas of untouched Taiga.

For more information on this program, and to inquire about purchasing the film, please visit the Earth Report site.

Out of Eden

In 1999, land in the Kalahari Desert was handed over to South Africa�s last hundred Bushmen. The film shows how the Bushmen cope with the demands of the modern era. Their strategy for survival is to act in plays and show outsiders what they hope to see. Director Saskia Vredeveld seeks the secret of the Kalahari: Why are westerners so fascinated by Bushmen? And are there any real Bushmen, or is their whole life just one big show? For information on how to purchase the film, click here.

European Journal

Highlights of the week's European news, from Deutsche Welle.

Festival in the Desert: The Tent Sessions

The Festival in the Desert held outside Timbuktu has become the destination of choice for World Music cogniscenti. Initially conceived as a way for the nomadic Tuareg people to unite with their brethren who had been disbursed by a now resolved political upheaval, it has transformed into a splendid event; one that has attracted some of the best musicians that West Africa has to offer.

In a joint production with Link TV, Sean Barlow and Banning Eyre of Afropop WorldWide sought out and filmed the spontaneous sessions that occurred in the tents peppering the sand dunes around the festival site. They caught extraordinary moments, music made by people whose names may be as yet unfamiliar to western ears, but whose voices and virtuosity are unforgettable.

Highlights include Haira Arby a woman with a voice and heart as big as the desert where she was born, electric guitarist Lobi Traore who traveled many miles from his urban home to participate and absorb new sounds and experiences, Tartit the Tuareg ensemble that performs traditional dances and songs, and Baba Djire whose haunting tenor voice is pure pleasure. Even aficionados of world music will find the performances captured here to be rare and inspiring. There are also stellar performances by world music superstar Ali Farke Toure, and rock and roll legend Robert Plant.

From magnificent camel riders to enchanted lantern-lit sand dunes �The Festival in the Desert� captures the sights and sounds of the event so well that it is the next best thing to making the arduous journey one�s self.

To own the music featured in this film, please visit the Link TV Music Store.

To own a related film about the Festival on DVD, click here.

Flip Flotsam

This beautifully photographed, charming documentary traces the fantastic journey of Africa�s most popular shoes: the flip-flop. Easily bought, quickly discarded, for Westerners the flip-flop stands as a symbol of the summer holiday. But in its African homeland, it has a unique life cycle and their story reveals much about Africa's economy and culture. Gathered from across the shores of the Kiwaiyu Island, flip-flops are carved into dolphins, turtles and mobiles, fuelling a new cottage industry which provides precious income for many families. Their children craft model boats from the rubber soles, making their own toys from the ocean's debris.

For more information about this film, click here.

To inquire about purchasing this film, click on the following sites:

Journeyman International
Filmaker�s Library

Calling the Ghosts

An extraordinary first-person account of two women caught in a war where rape was as much of an everyday weapon as bullets or bombs. Jadranka Cigelj and Nusreta Sivac, childhood friends and lawyers, enjoyed the lives of "ordinary modern women" in Bosnia - Herzegovina until one day former neighbors became tormentors. Taken to the notorious Serb concentration camp of Omarska, the two women, like other Muslim and Croat women interned there, were systematically tortured and humiliated by their Serb captors. Once released, the pair turned personal struggles for survival into a larger fight for justice, aiding other women who had been brutalized and successfully lobbying to have rape included in the international lexicon of war crimes by the UN Tribunal at the Hague. Chronicling the two women's experience and their remarkable transformation, Calling the Ghosts is an indispensable resource for deepening understanding of human rights abuses and combating violence against women. For more information on the Life Series, click here.

Giving Back the Light

An inspiring report on a large group of medical volunteers from Boulder Community Hospital in Colorado who travel to Mante, an impoverished Mexican town to treat impoverished indigenous patients. In the course of their seven-day stay, little miracles happen.

God in Government

An exploration of the complex relationship between religion and politics in the contemporary world. With the United States as the focal point, and Iran, Israel and India as object lessons, the film asks fundamental questions: What are the consequences when religion and politics become intertwined? What are the fault lines along which tensions and conflicts occur? What is the appropriate relationship between �church� and state in a modern society?

The film begins and ends in the United States, the only nation founded specifically on the principle of a clear separation between religion and state. Here, the debate over the implications of the First Amendment has continued for more than two hundred years. Today, with a self-proclaimed, �committed Christian� President advocating faith-based initiatives in the welfare system, a vocal Christian right seeking to influence domestic and foreign policy, and an increasingly diverse religious landscape, the debate about the appropriate role of religion in America�s public square has become more urgent than ever. For more information, and to own this film, click here.

Ground Truth

A moving film that looks at the long-term and often invisible effects the war in Iraq is having on thousands of nameless, undecorated Americans. Through intimate and candid interviews with returning soldiers, veterans, military families, and independent footage, this film asks us to bear witness to these soldiers and their families, and to consider the human cost of war.�

For more information, contribute to this project, or to own this film, click here.

Gyneco's Position

This documentary traces life in a French maternity ward where premature babies are born. The film focuses on a couple whose fetus has potential problems in the womb but the doctors have touble diagnosing the problem. We witness the difficulties in communication between physicians and concerned parents as they struggle to figure out the best course of action for the fetus.

Histoires d'Ivoire

A wonderful, complex story of a Belgian professional soccer team, Beveren,�whose training camp is on the Ivory Coast.��The documentary traces the ups and down of the soccer team�throughout the year.��

Visit the KSK Beveren website.

Home Sweet Home

A report on the attitude of Europe towards much-needed foreign professional workers in the wake of increasingly conservative political movements.� Countries such as France, The Netherlands, Italy and Denmark need doctors, IT experts and other well-educated people but are facing a backlash by some of their citizens against any foreigners.

Hot Talk: Gore Vidal

Author and filmmaker Saul Landau hosts a discussion with Gore Vidal, author, essayist, playwright and actor on "Imperial America: Reflections on The United States of Amnesia." For more information about Saul Landau and �Hot Talk,� click here.

Hot Talk: Miguel Tinker-Salas

Author and filmmaker Saul Landau hosts a discussion with�Miguel Tinker Salas, Associate Professor of History, Chicano and Latin American Studies at Pomona College about US relations with Venezuela and Condoleeza Rice's upcoming trip to Latin America.� For more information about Saul Landau and �Hot Talk,� click here.

Hugo and Rosa

The touching story of an elderly brother and sister who have lived together in their small Swedish town their entire lives. The film shows their special bond, the kind of world they inhabit, and provides an inspirational look at family values and the simple joys of life.

Hugo is approaching 100 and his sister Rose is 96. In their little red house in the Swedish countryside they live in the same way as people there lived 100 years ago. �The trick is in staying happy,� the always elegant Rosa confides to the filmmakers. In addition to cooking and caring for the household, she also sometimes plays the accordion. And when a sparkling Hugo with his amusing tales is chopping wood and digging in the garden, it appears as if nothing can disturb the idyllic life of the siblings. The march of time, however, is relentless, and after Hugo�s health complications, both find themselves in a retirement home. Even here they do not lose their remarkable optimism about life, their good mood, or their ability to take a humorous and detached view of the ailments associated with their age. A discreet camera follows Rosa and Hugo up to the final climax of their long life�s pilgrimage.

This very humane and cheerful documentary is a celebration of dignified old age and shows that the autumn of one�s days does not have to be only a hopeless wait until death.

For ordering information, please contact SVT Sales at [email protected]

Voices from Inside

Inside a federal women's prison a German born theater artist encourages a racially mixed circle of women to find their own voices through poetry and creative expression, and meets their children on the outside. The prisoners share their life stories and experiences of prison life. Voices from Inside shatters stereotypes about crime, criminals and race. An inspiring experiment in breaking the walls with love.

For more information and to purchase the film, visit New Day Films.

Iranian Journey

Massoumeh Soltan Baloghie is the first woman long-distance bus driver in Iran and perhaps in the Islamic world. Iraqi filmmaker Maysoon Pachachi joins this extraordinary woman on her 22-hour, 5,000-kilometer trip from Tehran to Bandar Abbas, talking with her passengers, her family and people en route to learn more about her remarkable story.

These casual conversations strikingly reveal the overwhelming sense of expectation Iranians express about the possibility of change in their country, and the relationship between traditional and modern life, city and countryside, sacred and secular. Scenic footage from the road trip and stops along the way uncover an Iranian life that few foreigners see: a noted women�s medical college in Qom, the production of rose water in Kashan, the Zoroastrian background of Yazd, and the bustling port of Bandar Abbas.

A gentle and richly textured documentary, IRANIAN JOURNEY thoughtfully explores the lives and roles of women at a time of transition. In a country where women�s choices, including what they wear, are restricted by legal and religious doctrine, Massoumeh is a symbol of determination for changes to take place in Islamic society.

To inquire about owning this film, click here.

Iranian Cinema

A look at the work of four important directors as they rise to the challenges of creating artful and thought provoking movies within the constraints of Iran's rigid theocracy.

For further inquires about Iranian Cinema, please contact [email protected].

To learn more about the history of Iranian cinema, click here.

Jeremy Rifkin: European Dream

An exploration of the theories of social thinker Jeremy Rifkin, whose recent book, The European Dream: How Europe's Vision of the Future Is Quietly Eclipsing the American Dream, postulates that the The American Dream is in decline. Americans are increasingly overworked, underpaid, and squeezed for time. But there is an alternative: the European Dream - a more leisurely, healthy, prosperous, and sustainable way of life. Europe's lifestyle is not only more desirable, argues Rifkin, but may be crucial to sustaining prosperity in the new era.

For more information about Jeremy Rifkin, visit The Foundation of Economic Trends.

DW Journal

International news and business report from Deutsche Welle, live from Berlin.

July Rhapsody

A winner of three awards at the 2002 Hong Kong Film Awards, JULY RHAPSODY is a moving drama from acclaimed director Ann Hui. It stars Jacky Cheung as Lam, a middle aged high school teacher whose life is disrupted when a student falls in love with him. Torn between fulfilling a guilty desire and remaining faithful to his loving wife, Lam's emotional distress deepens when his wife asks if she can leave for a month, prompting him to suspect an affair.

For a review of the film, click here.

To purchase this film, click here.

The Road From Kampuchea

The dramatic story of Tun Channareth, the co-founder of the Nobel Peace Prize winning International Campaign to Ban Landmines. Filmed in Cambodia, Canada and Norway, the Australian documentary follows Tun Channareth from the world's deadliest minefields, where he lost his legs, to the halls of reluctant legislators to the Nobel Prize ceremony itself.

For ordering information, please visit First Run Icarus Films.

Visit these sites for more information about how you can help:
International Campaign to Ban Landmines
United States Campaign to Ban Landmines
Roots of Peace - an organization that helps transform landmines into farmland
Adopt-A-Minefield

Honor Killing: A Turkish Tragedy

In this moving documentary we follow, Sengul, a Turkish woman, in her journey from Denmark back to Turkey where she confronts her father who murdered her boyfriend eighteen years ago in an "honor killing".

In some societies, women are often looked upon as representatives of the honor of the family. When women are suspected of extra-marital sexual relations, even if in the case of rape, they, or their partners, can be subjected to the cruelest forms of indignity and violence, often by their own fathers or brothers. Assuming an accused woman's guilt, male family members believe that they have no other means of undoing a perceived infringement of "honor" other than to kill the woman or her partner. What distinguishes honor killings from what U.S. customs would see as crimes of passion is that some societies consider them inherently just. "Women are largely looked upon as bodies owned and protected by the husband, by the father, by the brother or even other relatives," said Salwa Bakr, a novelist who is Egypt's most prominent feminist writer.

Honor killing exists mostly in Muslim countries, such as those in the Middle East and Central Asia, even though Islam does not sanction the practice. The United Nations says such killings have also occurred in Britain, Norway, Italy, Brazil, Peru and Venezuela. At least one case has been reported in the US. A recent UNICEF survey found that in 1997, honor killings claimed the lives of as many as 400 women in Yemen, 52 in Egypt and about 300 in just one province of Pakistan. Jordan reports an average of 25 such killings each year.

The Legend of Pastor Bill

The extraordinary story of a preacher who runs the largest Sunday school in America in the ghettos of New York. Led by Pastor Bill Wilson, and attended by up to 20,000 kids a week, the school's services are far from what we might expect of a Sunday school.

In March 2003, Pastor Bill was shot in the head by armed muggers. He considered his near death experience just part of the price he has had to pay in trying to bring the children in one of New York�s most notorious ghettos closer to God. In this documeantary, we are taken behind the scenes. In dramatic footage, we follow Pastor Bill and one of his newest recruits, 21-year-old Paul from England, as they face up to the challenges of life as Sunday school teachers in the tough ghettos New York.

To inquire about owning this film, click here.

Spotlight: Litigating Disaster

On December 3, 1984, huge amounts of toxic gas leaked from the Union Carbide pesticide factory in Bhopal, poisoning hundreds of thousands of people, and killing thousands, the biggest and deadliest chemical disaster of all time. Today, hundreds of thousands of people still suffer. Drinking water for at least sixteen nearby communities remains severely polluted, while, to date, no court of law anywhere in the world has ever held Union Carbide or any of its officers responsible for what happened that night. How is it possible that nearly two decades after an event of such magnitude there is no legal closure? Why has the case been left to rot in the backwaters of the legal system without delivering justice to the victims?

This powerful film explores how Union Carbide successfully manipulated both the US and the Indian legal systems against each other, to avoid having to defend its record in the Bhopal plant in court. Featuring, a young Indian-American lawyer, the film follows the case he brought on behalf of the victims in front of the Federal District Court in New York. Case number 99CIV 11239 has survived two motions to dismiss, and is now proceeding to trial.

To view a streamed short introduction to this documentary, click here.

To view streamed highlights of this film, click here.

For more information, and to inquire about owning the film, click here.

Spotlight is a weekly series of investigative reports from around the world, introduced by author and Journalist Mark Hertsgaard.� Mr. Hertsgaard�s latest book is �The Eagle's Shadow: Why America Fascinates and Infuriates the World."

Lost for Words

What do Charles I, Marilyn Monroe and Charles Darwin have in common?� They all had stammers (known as stuttering in the U.S.).� This documentary observes four people in their daily battle with this speech impediment.� Most of us don't think twice about using the phone, asking for something in a shop, or getting on a bus. However, for an estimated 60 million people worldwide, these routine tasks can be terrifying.�

The film follows Steve, Lee, Max and Gouri as each deals with their stammer differently. Steve, an aspiring DJ, also experiences jerky body movements when he stammers. Can an intensive course help him gain confidence and improve his speech? Lee, 33, has already tried a course, but still finds it difficult to talk on the phone. How will he cope with the arrival of his new baby? The film also discovers how stammering can affect school children.� Max, 13, is teased three to four times a day. His mother has enrolled him in a local drama class, but how can Max learn to curb his temper if he's continually ridiculed?� The last case study is Gouri. She's hidden her speech problems for years, and has only just told her parents. As a covert stammerer, Gouri thinks through all her sentences before she speaks, making her appears far quieter and less confident than she really is. How will her best friend react to the news? Each individual deals with their condition with the support and love of families and friends.�

For more information on stammering, visit the British Stammering Organization site, or, in the U.S., the Stuttering Foundation of America.

Mad Rhythms of Madagascar

This is a musical travelogue with your guide, Hanitra Rasoanaivo lead singer of Tarika Madagascar�s most famous band.� She has been crisscrossing her homeland for years, finding music in towns and hard to find backwaters, and the camera crew came with her this time to document some of the amazing music on this huge island off the Eastern coast of Africa.�

From Church hymns that have been immersed in polyphonic folk traditions, to street musicians with handmade guitars, zithers and harps, the extraordinary musicality of these people comes through, along with some of the most ear-pleasing sounds to be found anywhere.

For more information about Tarika, click here.

Life Cycles: AIDS in Malawi

The story of the AIDS epidemic in Malawi, South-Eastern Africa, where 200 people die of AIDS every day. To fight this catastrophe, a new way of life is emerging, creating a deep awareness of the AIDS epidemic, famine, and the other problems facing not only Malawi, but all of sub-Saharan Africa. Directors Doug Karr and Sierra Bellows travel across Malawi bringing us a glimpse of a complex situation that encompasses sadness and hope, defeat and renewal.

To inquire about purchasing this film, please contact Human Scale Productions.

Official World AIDS Day site.

From the Heart of the Masters

Jack DeJohnette is considered one of the US�s greatest living jazz drummers. Foday Musa Suso has pushed the limits of the Kora (African Harp) in his excursions with Herbie Hancock, Bill Laswell, the Kronos quartet and Phillip Glass. When these two virtuosos come together to play music, it�s a special event.

�From the Heart of the Masters� captures them in performance at the 2003 Montreal Jazz Festival. The program is peppered with commentary by both musicians, but the main focus is on the music, and there�s plenty of it, from groove-based, trance inducing pieces to passages of inspired improvisation. DeJohnette�s elegant touch is a perfect foil for Suso�s harp, while his rhythmic dynamism pushes the kora master to new and uncharted territories.

To own the music of Jack DeJohnette, visit the Link TV Music Store.

Mayor of the West Side

A complex, engaging coming-of-age story that explores what happens when love gets in the way of letting go. The film features Mark Puddington, a teenager with multiple disabilities who is a local celebrity in his New York City neighborhood. Against the backdrop of preparations for his Bar Mitzvah, and with the constant, unstinting support of his devoted mother, both his family and the wider community face the reality of his uncertain future.

They must consider what Mark's life will be like when they are no longer able to protect and take care of him. Filmmaker Judd Ehrlich worked for nearly ten years as a caretaker for Mark, and his close relationship with the family results in an unusually intimate portrait of family dynamics.

For more information on this film, click here.

To inquire about owning this film, click here.

Mosaic: World News From The Middle East

Mosaic features selections from daily TV news programs produced by national broadcasters throughout the Middle East. The news reports are presented unedited and translated, when necessary, into English.

Mosaic includes television news broadcasts from selected national and regional entities. Some of the broadcasters are state controlled and others are private networks, often affiliated with political factions. These news reports are regularly watched by�300 million people in 22 countries all over the Middle East.

For more on the countries and broadcasters represented in our Mosaic series, please click here.

To view a recent episode in streaming format and for episode summaries, click here.

Mosaic also produces periodic 1-hour special reports.� The latest is Election 2004 - The Middle East Factor, in which top�journalists analyze news reports from Arabic language news stations�from Al Jazeera Television to the Hezbollah-backed Al Manar TV�to show you how 300 million viewers in the Middle East are watching and reacting to the U.S. presidential elections.� To view this program in streaming format, click here.

Bill Moyers: Take Back America

Bill Moyers' speech at the 2003 Take Back America conference in which he discusses the threats to American democracy and the history of the progressive media movement in America. The conference was held June 4 � 6 in Washington, DC. Bill Moyers bio.

Naji Al Ali: An Artist With a Vision

Throughout history artists have faced the threat of violence when their work offended the state or the political elite. The late Palestinian cartoonist Naji Al-Ali produced thousands of cartoons satirizing the powers that be in the Middle East, and paid the ultimate price for his 'offensive' expression. On July 22, 1987 he was shot in the face, at point blank range, as he left the London offices of the Al Qabbas newspaper. He died after laying in a coma for 5 weeks. Despite some arrests by Scotland Yard and an investigation by MI5, the assassin's identity has never been revealed. Who murdered Naji, the Mossad or the PLO?

For more information about Naji Al-Ali, click here.

To purchase this film, click here.

Night of Long Shadows: Mari Boine

Singer Mari Boine lives way beyond the arctic circle in northern Norway. She belongs to the Sami, an ancient indigenous people who used to be reindeer herding nomads. Because of pressure to assimilate, she was brought up to reject the songs of her people. It was only when she reclaimed her heritage she finally found her real voice as a singer. In her music she blends the traditional Joik singing of the shamans with elements of Jazz and Rock to create emotional and haunting statements. Since Peter Gabriel released her first Album Gula Gula in 1992 Mari Boine has gained an international reputation as one of the leading personalities in World Music. This film follows Mari Boine in her musical journeys, simultaneously tracing her traditional roots and her recent immersion in African musical cultures.

For more information, and to purchase this film, click here.

To own the CDs of Mari Boine, visit the Link TV Store.

For 99 cent song downloads, click here.

For more information on Mari Boine, including a biography and discography, click here.

Obstinato

The camera follows banjo wizard B�la Fleck and double bass virtuoso Edgar Meyer on�their American tour, as they perform, compose and generally get on each other's nerves. B�la Fleck is the leader of the jazz fusion group B�la Fleck and the Flecktones, while Meyer is a renowned composer who uses the rhythms, harmonies and themes born of American jazz and folk. Masters of their instruments, perfectionists and best friends, the pair are always striving to make better music, be it jazz, pop, rock or world beat. While racing against the clock to record a live album, their musical and personal relationships intensify dramatically. What emerges is a glimpse into a highly creative and fruitful collaboration.

To purchase the film, click here.

The Other Side of the Burka

On the southern Iranian island of Qeshm in the Persian Gulf, women wear a headscarf, but also a "burka," a pinching mask of black bands pressing against the eyebrows and nose, and ending in a point just above the mouth. The interviewed women do not remove this outward sign of oppression, but against the strict religious rules, they talk openly into the camera about their emotional problems, mental conditions and physical complaints. "We never wanted to appear before a camera, but now we do. We may wear a burka, but we are human beings. We breathe and live."

During a special ceremony called Zar (which means possession), different afflictions of the women can be treated. When there is no camera around, their only possible cry of distress is often death. So the film begins with the funeral of Samireh, who hanged herself from the fan with her shawl. "A woman is like a pair of shoes," her grieving husband says. "When one is gone, you can find another one. But what am I supposed to do with the children?" Both men and women make lasting statements in the film, just as filmmaker Mehrdad Oskoui does by filming shots of the daily, barren life on the island, which is plagued by draughts and other catastrophes.

Panihari

In the Indian state of Rajasthan, water is precious. Panihari is a Rajasthani term that refers to women who fetch water. The Panihari plays a crucial role in desert communities, but is often abused and downtrodden. As a part of the lower caste, they are seen as untouchable. In addition to maintaining family life, women account for the majority of productive labor in the desert household; however, the community places them in a subordinate social group to men. As a result, women�overworked, infirm, and often pregnant�have been deprived of the most basic of human amenities.

This documentary film follows the story of Paru�a shoemaker's wife from the village of Diyatra�as she finds herself faced with these stark realities. At home her husband beats her, and fulfilling the duties of a Panihari, she is unable to take even a moment's rest. Drought kills the family's cattle and Paru is forced to fetch water from a far away well. She sees an opportunity to help her family but her husband forbids her. This film documents Paru's search for self-reliance and security for her family in the face of unimaginable hardship.

Paru's story conveys the richness and complexity of desert life as well as the problems facing women of desert communities. Vibrant imagery, music, and folklore combine to paint a vivid picture of life as a Panihari�The Water Woman.

To learn more about this film, please contact The Five Families Productions.

Read Water and Women - The Flow, an article about the National Women's Water Conference in Rajasthan, India.

Farmers and community leaders from the Marwar region of the Rajasthan desert came together to form Jal Bhagirathi Foundation in order to prevent droughts and develop their communities. Read more about the region and the work that must be done.

Water Partners International is an organization dedication to bringing clean drinking water to developing countries. They have several global projects and intitiatives underway that incorporate health education, construction and protection of water sources, financial management and community participation.

Phuzekhemisi

A documentary about the roots and music of the great South African Zulu singer, Phuzekhemisi, who is an activist for social change.

Phuzekhemisi -

The enormously talented Phuzekhemisi's lyrics are infused with commentary and political outspokenness over issues that plague his fellow KwaZulu Natal dwellers. He is one of the very few musicians from KwaZulu Natal to draw attention to the battles facing those living in the largely under feudal system of tribal chieftainship and hostel leadership.

Phuzekhemisi is a singer, guitarist and dancer. He released his first album Imbizo, with his brother Khetani and it sold over 100 000 copies. Although their music was isiZulu, their appeal was widespread. The title track, also Imbizo, became a feature at street bashes and music festivals but tribal chiefs and hostel leaders took offense to being criticized in the song. Their second release, Emaphalamende, featured the popular track Udlayedwa, which also offended tribal and hostel leaders. In 1993, soon after the release of the album, Khetani was killed in a car accident.

Phuzekhemisi took a long pause before he released the hugely successful albums Impimpi, Ngo 49, Izwa Alithuthuki, Phansi Imikhonto and his latest Izinhlangano.� He has become an international star winning�over audiences in France, Denmark, Belgium, Sweden and Finland.

Purchase Phuzekhemisi's music here.
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Public Exposure: DNA, Democracy and the Wireless Revolution

An exploration of the health effects of radiofrequency radiation from wireless devices such as cell phones and from the antennas which service them. 65,000 cell phones are being sold each day in the U.S. alone. Worldwide, there are estimated to be 1 billion users. The antennas which broadcast the microwave signals to service these phones are mounted contiguously throughout urban and rural areas.

Though the exact scientific understanding of the mechanism of harm still remains unknown, growing numbers of independent scientific studies appear to show that bio-effects of low level RFR exposure like that emitted by cell phones and cell phone towers include: attention span deficit, memory loss, infertility, childhood & adult leukemia, eye cancer, weakened blood-brain barrier, lowered reaction time, immune system effects, sleeplessness, irritability, anxiety, depression, melatonin/seratonin imbalance, calcium efflux disruption, abnormal cell growth promotion and DNA damage. Additionally, microwaves interact unpredictably with the chemicals and heavy metals in the body.

PUBLIC EXPOSURE was produced by award-winning human rights and environmental issue filmmakers James Heddle and Mary Beth Brangan, of the Ecological Options Network (EON) and co-produced by Libby Kelley, national organizer and Director of Council on Wireless Technology Impacts, CWTI. The film can be ordered from EON: (415) 868-1900 or from CWTI: (415) 892-1863.

To order the film online, click here.

To read more on this topic, visit the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection, an independent international commission that studies the possible adverse effects on human health from exposure to non-ionizing radiation.

Rainmakers: New York, USA

A new series that tells the inspiring stories of youth leaders from around the world who overcome difficult personal situations to take control of their lives and help others.�

This episode features Victor "Gotti" Cherry, a former gang leader and drug dealer on the streets of Harlem who has transformed himself into a poetry-writing role model who works with troubled youth.�

For more information on this series and to inquire about purchasing this film, click here.

The Ralph Stanley Story

The Stanley sound is true old-time, mountain style bluegrass music. This film tells Ralph's story through interviews with Ralph, fellow musicians and those who know him best. "Rank Stranger," "White Dove," "Pretty Polly," "Man of Constant Sorrow," and over twenty other songs help tell the story. Ralph performs with Dwight Yoakam, Patty Loveless, Junior Brown, Larry Sparks, George Shuffler, Ricky Skaggs, and members of the Clinch Mountain Boys. For more on Ralph Stanley, visit his official fan site. To purchase this film, click here.

The music of International Bluegrass and Bluegrass fusion artists can be purchased at the LINK TV MUSIC STORE.

Spotlight: Ready, Steady, Trade

Celebrity chef Antony Worrall Thompson is challenged to create a world-class meal from ingredients that� have been bought from some of the world's poorest farmers - from voodoo villages in Haiti to tomato fields in Ghana. The film investigates whether we harm the world's poor more through unfair trade than we help them through aid.

For more information and to inquire about purchasing the film, click here.

Spotlight is a weekly series of investigative reports from around the world, introduced by author and Journalist Mark Hertsgaard.� Mr. Hertsgaard�s latest book is �The Eagle's Shadow: Why America Fascinates and Infuriates the World."

RELATED SITES:

International Forum on Globalization
Speech on hunger by Brazilian President Lula da Silva
Food First

Human Resources

Human Resources begins as a documentary-like examination of the monotony and bureaucracy of an anonymous French factory and soon erupts into a committed social drama whose conflicts extend from the workplace into the family.

The protagonist, Franck has just graduated from college and become a management trainee at the same factory where his father works manual labor.� He soon finds his own ideals are being twisted to serve the profit concerns of management, and used to justify lay-offs, including his father who is two years away from his retirement.� Franck sides with the unions against management, jeopardizing his own comfortable position in Human Resources that his father�s hard labor helped him earn.

Director Laurent Cantet uses Franck and his family to portray the psychological and human implications of management�s inhumane use of their employees as just another cog in the functioning of their factory. Human Resources reveals the real personal implications that bureaucratic decisions based solely on profit can have on individuals and the ability and responsibility we all have to fight for our own basic rights in the workplace.

For reviews, click here.�

For an interview with Laurent Cantet, click here.

To inquire about owning this film, click here.

Rising Above: Women of Vietnam

In the long years of war against France and the U.S., Vietnamese women fought alongside men as equals. Women such as Madam Binh, who negotiated with Henry Kissinger at the Paris Peace Accords, and later became Vice President of Vietnam, and Mrs. Nguyen Thi Dinh, general and deputy commander of the Vietcong forces, reached the highest positions of power. But 20 years after the signing of the peace agreement, the revival of Confucianism and the spread of market forces are conspiring to relegate women once again to the role of second class citizens. This film looks at what happened to Mrs. Binh and Mrs. Dinh and three other women since the war. For more information, and to purchase this film, click here.

Spotlight: Secrets of the Camps

Secrets of the Camps exposes the secret camps in Zimbabwe where Robert Mugabe's government trains thousands of youths to torture and kill. In a groundbreaking investigation, the BBC's Africa correspondent, Hilary Andersson, has uncovered the secrets of Robert Mugabe's feared youth militia. The testimonies in the programme are evidence of massive human rights violations that put Robert Mugabe's administration in violation of international law.

Regional organizations (with detailed information on the film):
Sokwanele - Zimbabwe Civic Action Support Group

International organizations:
Amnesty International
Human Rights Watch

The Settlers

A fascinating documentary about the daily lives of� women and children living in a tiny settlement of Orthodox Jews within the West Bank city of Hebron, protected by omnipresent Israeli soldiers. Despite their mistrust of the media, filmmaker Ruth Walk built trusting relationships with the families. The resulting accessibility provided unique insight into their lives and psychology.�

For more information, and to purchase this film, click here.

The Sisters of Ladakh

An inquiry into the feminine vision of Buddhism. Filmed on location in Ladakh, on the Himalayan border between India and Tibet, this documentary features stunning photography and compelling testimonies of Tibetan nuns. The film presents their daily activities in an intimate and candid way, encompassing both their religious practices and interaction with local communities. The nuns discuss the condition and role of women in Buddhism, the current efforts to overcome gender prejudices and the challenges that lie ahead to build a compassionate world. Also featured are the recent teachings of the Dalai Lama in the region. The Sisters of Ladakh is a unique look at a vanishing world, bringing to Western audiences a rare contemporary perspective from Buddhist nuns.�

To help support Tibetan Nuns, click here.

For more information and to inquire about purchasing the film, click here.�

SNAP: Materialism & Activism

This episode is presented live from the headquarters of Lets Get Free in Oakland, California, a gathering spot for teenage activists who successfully stopped the construction of a massive new juvenile jail. The young activists and their �virtual guests� discuss MATERIALISM & ACTIVISM: In the 60�s and 70�s, millions of young Americans took to the streets protesting the Vietnam war and the racism of an outdated society. By the 80�s, the youth activists were replaced by the Yuppies. In South Africa in the 70�s and 80�s, an entire generation of youth was defined by their fight for freedom and victory over Apartheid. The 90�s was about crossing divides and opening doors. Ten years later, it seems as though it is all about owning the latest designer gear and finding your struggle. In the midst of this consumerist frenzy, images of anti-globalization and anti-war protest sweep across our television screens. Have young people found a new voice? Is it a rise in activism or apathy?

SNAP is a series of interactive television specials for people aged 16 to 22. Youth-oriented programs, including short animations and international music videos, are interspersed with live conversations among viewers, hosts, callers and a �virtual audience� of webcammers. The program solicits young viewers to participate in discussions on issues that matter in their lives -- inviting them to connect using whatever device they want -- email, cell phone, telephone, and web-cam. Two �chat jockeys� sit at the nexus of a connection machine in the live TV studio. Each day special guests are invited to add their personal experiences to the mix.

SNAP is designed to expose its Generation Y viewers to new ways of thinking and to help bridge the gap between themselves and their peers worldwide by using the medium of the media. It shows young adults and teens how people their age are making a difference in their lives and communities, giving them a venue to share their thoughts and connect on the air and on the web, in an open and uncensored manner.

SNAP is also the home of Chat The Planet -- a two-way television show linking people across the globe.

SNAP: Family Ties

This episode highlights the issues surrounding FAMILY: The family is a common unit that everyone shares. The acceptance of divorces, stay at home dads, gay, and multiracial families has drastically changed the idea of �The American Family� since the days of Leave it to Beaver. In a Jordanian family, the male head makes the decisions and the long-standing tradition of arranged marriages remains. Young people explore the idea of family values. What makes a strong family? Does gender play a role? How do our families shape us and the societies that we live in?

SNAP is also the home of Chat The Planet -- a two-way television show linking people across the globe.

SNAP: Youth Culture

This episode, presented live from the Sony Metreon in San Francisco, focuses on YOUTH CULTURE: Does youth culture exist today? Do young people today have to go further and further in order to find something of difference to identify with? It seems that every time you flip on the television or read a magazine, marketing executives are telling kids what is cool and how to think. Are young people rebelling against this commercialization? Or have the scales tipped in the other direction: Has uncertainty with employment, world affairs and future issues taken young people to an age of neo traditionalism?

SNAP is also the home of Chat The Planet -- a two-way television show linking people across the globe.

Algeria in a Smile: Souad Massi

This documentary centers around Souad Massi, a Paris-based Algerian singer-songwriter. With a beautiful voice and a large palette of influences to draw from, Souad Massi is one of the most interesting new singers to come from Algeria. Influenced equally by shaabi music, French chanson, flamenco, 1960s American folk and a variety of African traditional music, this Algerian guitarist and singer makes music that is at once exotic and familiar. Her blend of Arabic melisma with Western style songwriting is a surefire ticket to crossover success. But behind that success is a serious, grounded performer who knows who she is and what she wants. Speaking and singing about her troubled homeland, family and love, she conveys great emotion but never self-pity. From recording sessions to radio shows to major concerts, �Algeria in a Smile� captures an endearing performer who writes from the heart.

Visit Souad Massi's official site.

To purchase this program, visit Shock Records.

Strong at the Broken Places

This sobering film focuses on the human cost of the war in Iraq as expressed in the words and faces of the soldiers and their families. Max Cleland, a decorated, triple amputee from Vietnam who has made the cause of veterans his mission, brings each story to life. The result is both poignant and powerful. As with Cleland's own journey from Vietnam to Iraq, the stories of the soldiers and their families show that suffering in war can transform its victims into advocates for justice and healing - and even for the hijacked truth about 9/11.

The aim of this�film is to not only awaken the consciousness of individual Americans, but�to galvanize a national debate about, what Cleland calls, the "ground truth" of war itself.� Max Cleland is the former director of the Veterans Administration and United States Senator from Georgia. He served as Captain in the First Cavalry in Vietnam.�

For more information about this film and issue, click here.

Them and Me (Eux et moi)

The story of a tribe in the highlands of New Guinea and its ethnologist, St�phane Breton. This memorable film lays bare the complex and often awkward relationship between the camera-wielding anthropologist and his subjects. Over the years the Papua New Guineans� attitude toward Breton has slowly moved from general mistrust (the adults didn�t know what to make of him speaking like a child) to begrudging acceptance, but his role is still not defined. �According to what interests them they cast me as a tradesman, friend, stranger, relative, observer or cash dispenser,� says Breton, �My position is unclear. I�m a pain; someone who they never sent for, and who stubbornly sticks around for obscure reasons. I follow them everywhere. I�ll wear them down in the end.�

To inquire about purchasing this film, click here.

Timbuktoubab

A documentary about the collaboration between Markus James, a white American blues guitarist, and three Malian musicians who have often played with the great Ali Farka Toure.

James first started going to Mali in 1994. Over time he was befriended by the three Malians, Hamma, Hassi and Solo, and they began to work together. The film observes this quartet rehearsing, performing and hanging out, and speaking about what they have been learning from each other. Along the way we are introduced to several of the cultural and musical traditions of Mali.�

To own the film or the music of Markus James, click here.

Doing Time, Doing Vipassana

This extraordinary documentary takes viewers into India's largest prison - known as one of the toughest in the world - and shows the dramatic change brought about by the introduction of Vipassana Meditation. This is the story of a strong woman named Kiran Bedi, the former Inspector General of Prisons in New Delhi, and how she strove to transform the notorious Tihar Prison, once a hellhole of crime, into an oasis of peace. It is a story of an ancient meditation technique, Vipassana, which helps people to take control of their lives and channel them towards their own good and the good of others. But most of all, it is the story of the prison inmates who underwent profound change and realized that incarceration can be the beginning of a new life. Produced & Directed by Ayelet Menahemi and Eilona Ariel, Karuna Films, Ltd. For more information on the ITVS Documentary Series, click here
Presented by ITVS

If you are interested in purchasing this film, please visit Pariyatti.

Troubled Waters: The Dilemma of Dams

Personal, passionate and controversial, Troubled Waters looks at the dilemma of dams and the cultural, economic, environmental and spiritual arguments for and against their continued existence. It raises the complicated question of how much economic value we should extract from our rivers in exchange for damaging an eco-system and the wild beauty of free-flowing streams. Informative, compelling and controversial, Beth and George Gage's documentary blends still photos, archival and new footage with stories from a cross section of people intimately involved with dam and river issues.

The Underground Orchestra

A glorious documentary profile of musicians who play on the sidewalks of Paris and in the Metro. Filmmaker Heddy Honigmann, illuminates the lives and music of a ragtag group of international bohemians: an Argentine pianist, Romanian father and son violinists, a Venezuelan harpist, and singers from Mali and Vietnam.

All are united by their experiences with political repression, and by a luminous spirit and boundless courage that led them to flee any number of horrendous situations throughout the world. Finding refuge in Paris, music becomes their economic lifeline, but as this film makes movingly clear, it is also a shining metaphor for their will to survive and an affirmation of transcendence through art.�

For more information, and to purchase this program, click here.

Viewpoint With James Zogby

A live call-in discussion program about Middle East and world issues hosted by Dr. James Zogby from Washington D.C. and broadcast throughout the Middle East by Abu Dhabi Television. U.S. viewers may call 1-800-528-2090 with their questions or comments during the program. Dr. Zogby, founder and president of the Arab American Institute, has also written a weekly column on U.S. politics for the major newspapers of the Arab world. The column, "Washington Watch" currently is published in 14 Arab countries.

Visa, Vodka and Videotape

This current affairs program shows us the personal home video of two illegal Ukrainian immigrants in Norway to trace a portrait of their daily lives. You have never seen asylum seekers as jolly as these.

World Weddings: DJ Ray's Big Day

A series that examines contemporary marriages addressing themes such as equal rights for gays, religious divides, ancient customs in conflict with modern culture and law, hidden drug abuse and economic migrants. This special series tackles all these issues through the eyes of the newly (and would-be) wed around the globe.

DJ Ray's Big Day - New York DJ Ray and Russian beautician Natalia found love on the internet, via one of the many websites offering introductions to thousands of foreign wannabe brides. After corresponding and spending just one week together in Europe, the film follows them as they plan their wedding day and married life in the US. But they are just one of countless couples tying the knot after meeting on largely unregulated websites as Congress is set to debate a Bill to try and control the market in so-called mail-order or "cyber brides".

Visit the BBC website to learn more about this episode and other World Weddings.

World Weddings: Gypsy Child Brides

Gypsy Child Brides - Fourteen-year-old Regina has just married according to the custom of traditional Roma, the nomadic culture commonly referred to as Gypsies. She was sold by her father for $3,000. The film reveals some of the ancient customs of Romania's Roma clans, which are coming under increasing fire from the European Union. Having endured over 1,000 years of persecution since their origin in India, the Roma are not easily giving up their traditions. To them, the latest round of criticism is little different than the prejudice they have suffered for a millenia.

Visit the BBC website to learn more about this episode and other World Weddings.

World Weddings: Love Converts

A series that examines contemporary marriages addressing themes such as equal rights for gays, religious divides, ancient customs in conflict with modern culture and law, hidden drug abuse and economic migrants.� This special series tackles all these issues through the eyes of the newly (and would-be) wed around the globe.

Love Converts - Desperately in love, Ujjala and Asad have been meeting in secret for nine years. But they are determined to marry, despite the fact she is Hindu and he Muslim.� Both their families are entirely opposed to their relationship; Ujjala has been virtually imprisoned in her home, made to marry another Hindu man and ostracized by friends.� As the couple prepare to finally wed, the film explores the impact of this taboo coupling and shows how the families are slowly pulled apart as romantic love battles with hundreds of years of suspicion and prejudice that still underpin 21st Century India.

Visit the BBC website to learn more about this episode and other World Weddings.

World Weddings: Mohammad and the Matchmaker

A series that examines contemporary marriages addressing themes such as equal rights for gays, religious divides, ancient customs in conflict with modern culture and law, hidden drug abuse and economic migrants.� This special series tackles all these issues through the eyes of the newly (and would-be) wed around the globe.

Mohammad and the Matchmaker - Iranian Mohammad is 47, single and looking for love in Iran. He is also a former heroin addict and HIV positive. In a country with the highest proportion of drug-users anywhere in the world but one where the�discussion of drugs and AIDS is also taboo, Mohammad's search for happiness looks doomed, until his doctor sets out to find him an HIV positive bride.

Visit the BBC website to learn more about this episode and other World Weddings.

Who Speaks For Islam?

To view a streamed version of this program, click here.

A Link TV original production that explores Islam in an age when Muslim extremists are laying claim to the religion. Veteran NPR and PBS journalist, Ray Suarez, hosts a provocative roundtable discussion with American Muslim scholars and, via satellite, Mike Scheuer (AKA "Anonymous"), author of Imperial Hubris and a former CIA expert who has followed fundamentalist Islamic movements for a decade.

The program gives Americans the opportunity to hear rarely-heard Muslim voices, including Shaykh Muhammad Tantawi, Grand Imam of Al-Azhar University in Cairo, the first prominent Shaykh to speak out against Bin Laden after the 9/11 attacks. Video pieces from the Middle East are interwoven throughout the program to give viewers a political and cultural context.

To view a streamed version of this program, click here.

ADDITIONAL GUESTS:

Shaykh Hamza Yusuf, Founder of the Zaytuna Institute, a center of Islamic education in California. Shaykh Hamza has and international following through his television program, Rihla (Journey) on the Middle East Broadcast Corporation (MBC) based in Dubai, UAE.

Hatem Bazian, Ph.D, is a lecturer in Islamic Studies at the University of California at Berkeley. Dr. Bazian hosts Islam Today on KPFA radio and has translated multiple texts and fatwas into English.

Aminah McCloud, Ph.D, Chairperson of the Islamic World Studies Program at DePaul University in Chicago. She is one of ten African American professors in Islamic Studies in the United States.

Souheila Al-Jadda, a journalist and writer about Islam and the Middle East. Her articles have appeared in the Christian Science Monitor, Dallas Morning News and the San Jose Mercury News.

Funding provided by The Rockefeller Brothers Fund

For more information about Islam, click here.

Images and footage from the PBS documentary, Muhammad: Legacy of a Prophet provided by Unity Productions Foundation.

Who Speaks for Islam Music: �Tree of Patience� By Omar Faruk Tekbilek.

Master Courtesy of Alif Records.

The Will to Live

An inspiring film about extraordinary people who have suffered brutal oppression and tragic loss but who, instead of harboring hate and seeking vengeance, have worked towards reconciliation with their oppressors.

The film's central structure takes the viewers into the extraordinary lives of the main characters: Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu, a prominent human rights activist; medical doctor Juan Almendares of Honduras and an award-winning Cambodian-American author Chanrithy Him of the United States. Their courage and endurance are transcendent, and the very essence of this film, which has been in the making for many years, is encapsulated in its title.