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"Recommended. This documentary presents the realities of
the current leadership in Afghanistan, and prompts the question has anything
really changed in the way of governance in this long warlord dominated
country?" -EMRO Review As the United States continues its efforts to bring peace to Afghanistan, this documentary reveals the role played by a number of tribal warlords. The program opens with Afghan men forming a motorized convoy for a trip outside of Kabul; their boots and uniforms they received from the U.S.; their weapons from Iran. On the trip we see scenes of devastation caused by drought and over two decades of war; people living in poverty is a contrast to the well-equipped men who serve under local leaders. Women we learn have more freedom since the end of the Taliban regime; however, their struggle for equal rights continues. Humanitarian aid does not go through organizations, such as the Red Cross; instead American Special Forces channel it to local leaders, who then ration it to the locals, who have traveled long distances to receive these basic necessities. Seeing these warlords in their territorial roles of administering to the locals, while their armed men standby, it becomes clear Afghanistan is still under the rule of the gun. Produced by ABC Australia. 08DR/CL JSCA 22 min. |
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"Highly Recommended. This excellent documentary examines the corruption of this oil-rich country and prompts the question, has anything really changed in the way of governance? Here we learn that despite its estimated $80 billion in oil reserves, Azerbaijan is presently a poorer state than it was under Soviet rule." -EMRO Review Azerbaijan, which occupies the southern part of the isthmus between the Black and Caspian seas, is a country rich in history, and in oil. So rich in oil, it should to be a textbook example of the benefits of globalization; however, as reporter Marcel Theroux explains, the vast amount of money coming in is not trickling down to the country's people, a short-sighted autocracy allows the privileged few to become wealthy. This historic program offers a rare look at the former president, Heydar Aliyev, who aligned with the international oil consortium Azerbaijan International Operating Company (AIOC) and also supported building the BTC pipeline from Baku to Ceyhan in Turkey, via the neighboring nation of Georgia, bypassing Russia and Iran. Before dying, he stepped down as president and named his son, Ilham, a former VP with the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan, as his party's only presidential candidate, a position he won and has held since 2003. Today, Azerbaijan, despite mismanagement and corruption, remains a supporter of the war on terrorism and an ally of the United States; also since more oil from Kazakhstan will be diverted through Azerbaijan by the U.S. government, due largely to diplomatic wrangling with Iran and Afghanistan, which could foster instability in the Caspian Basin, the situation here continues to be complex to say the least. Produced by Journeyman Pictures. 08DR/CL JSCA 30 min. |
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"Recommended The videography in this program captures the
beauty of Bhutan, a country that has been slow to change to new
technologies. Life here is based upon the concepts of being happy and
preserving the environment. The people have not wanted to change to modern
ways. The young Royals who oversee the country are introducing modern
technology; however, the people here have been happy with their own
lifestyles." -EMRO Review Associated Article: The Changing Face of Bhutan -Smithsonian Magazine "King Jigme Singye Wangchuck - 100 People Who Shape Our World" -Time Magazine The land-locked kingdom of Bhutan, bordered by Nepal, China and India, is one of the world's smallest countries, about the size of Switzerland. This documentary offers a study of the former ruler of this Buddhist nation, King Jigme Singye Wangchuck, who had been called "a King of the people"; he encouraged participation in national assemblies, decentralized much of the government, and became famous for saying, "We are not interested in gross national product (GNP), but in gross national happiness (GNH)." His eldest son, Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, has now become the country's fifth king. Bhutan is not anti-technology; it wants to modernize, but on its own terms. To this day there are no traffic lights in the Himalayan kingdom, and by law its people wear traditional 14th century clothing; only a select number of tourists are allowed into the country, and only a few luxury hotels are here, but, as this program reveals, overall, as anyone who visits Bhutan understands, the former King's ideas may be unorthodox; however, in light of all the problems associated with unbridled economic progress, people may be happier following a path not based entirely on economics, but on GNH. Produced by ABC Australia. 08DR JSCA 20 min. |
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"Recommended. With both sides accusing the other of
atrocities, there seems little hope for compromise or a peaceful resolution
to the ongoing violence in Chechnya. This program provides a good overview
of the current situation there. The camera crew for this documentary was
smuggled across the border to avoid an escort of Russian soldiers, and they
have made a conscientious effort to present both sides of the story."
-EMRO Review Chechnya won de facto independence from Russia in 1996 after a war that claimed over 80 000 lives. But the warlords refused to serve a central government and the republic soon descended into lawless chaos. Then, following a series of apartment bombings in Moscow, Russia invaded Chechnya in what it called a campaign against terrorism. Russia denies targeting civilians. But it won't allow foreign journalists into Chechnya unless they are escorted by the military. Russia has now claimed victory over the rebels. Still the violence continues. This is a gripping and exclusive account of a war that remains an embarrassment to both President Putin and the outside world. Produced by Journeyman Pictures. 08DR/CL JSCA 20 min. Associated Program: Chechnya: Russia's Human Rights' Nightmare |
| Jakarta's astonishing announcement that they would at last consider independence for East Timor is proving to be little more than a change in tactics by the real powers in East Timor, the Indonesian military. Here we establish the link between these militias - benignly known as "village police" - and the Indonesian military, ABRI, who have supplied weapons and do nothing to stop their campaign of terror. Produced by ABC Australia. 08DR SCA 33 min. |
| Twenty-five years after five journalists were killed while witnessing a covert Indonesian invasion of East Timor, Shirley Shackleton, the widow of one of the reporters, unravels the truth behind the mystery of their deaths. Produced to present the truth, and to insure that their lives were not lost in vain, this program is a riveting and emotional expose that reveals the dangers so often faced by journalists reporting in areas of conflict. Produced by ABC Australia. 08DR/CL JSCA 45 min. |
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"Highly Recommended! Tigers, like many wild creatures, are in trouble of extinction. Tiger population has dropped from around 100,000 at the turn of the 20th century to only a few thousand today; for example, India's latest tiger census indicates there only around 1,400 left in its country. Activist actors Harrison Ford, Bo Derek, and Robert Duvall can be seen on PSAs seeking to raise awareness of the problem, while, internationally, the World Bank recently presented its plan to engage governments and organizations, as well as scientists and conservationists, to help save tigers. Much was learned from projects such as the India Eco-development Project documented in this program. And with billions to be spent, the message is an important one: with so much at stake, we must get past rhetoric, address the problems, and continue taking positive steps." -National Media Review With mounting public pressure to change the way international development is shaped by agencies like the World Bank, the Global Environment Facility (GEF) was created to fund projects "at the cutting edge of conservation." This classic documentary examines one such project, the India Eco-development Project, in southern India, which was designed "to conserve bio-diversity through eco-development and aimed at Improved Protected Area Management, Village Eco-development and Eco-development support"; it also travels to the U.S. where the GEF works from inside the World Bank. We learn the Bengal Tiger is heading for extinction and a project like this would certainly help their cause; however, we discover villagers claim the GEF project forced them off their land with inadequate compensation. Tempers flare as the World Bank is accused of "treating forests as their fiefdoms." With 2.5 billion dollars to spend, the World Bank's green aid unit looks promising on paper, but does it live up to its own rhetoric? The lessons learned from this project can help us address problems that will arise as organizations create future eco-projects. Produced by Conscious Cinema Productions. 08DR/CL JSCA 35 min. |
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"Recommended. This program takes us to the Ainu Museum in
Shiraoi where an Ainu performer plays the mukkuri (tension jaw harp) and we
are introduced to Ainu costumes, fabric, dances, language, and the animistic
religious beliefs of the Ainu people. Scholarly debates concerning the
origin and history of the Ainu people are also introduced briefly. An
anthropologist at the Hokkaido Ainu Center in Sapporo, Christopher Loy,
stresses the importance of viewing the Ainu people as comprising a number of
groups that share some cultural and linguistic similarities, while at the
same time showing great variation in dialects and clothing, embroidered
motifs, beliefs, and other defining characteristics." -EMRO Review After a brief intro to the modern and crowded side of urban Japan, we totally change gears to visit the northernmost of Japan's four main islands, Hokkaido, which is Japan's second largest island, yet accounts for only five percent of the country's population. On the outskirts of the island's largest city, Sapporo, the capital, and most famous for hosting the 1972 Winter Olympics, we visit the Hokkaido Ainu Center, to be introduced to Japan's original inhabitants, the Ainu people, the country's only indigenous culture. Here we meet anthropologist Christopher Loy, who explains many details about this diverse group of people, whose beginnings can be traced back over 7,000 years. We are welcomed into the Shiraoi Ainu Museum by Yamanaru Ikud, an Ainu elder, where we learn about their traditional dance, music, dress, myths and beliefs; also we gain further insight visiting the Nibutani Ainu Cultural Center, which was established to help preserve Ainu culture for future generations. Produced by Kanto Productions, LLC. 07DR JSCA 22 min. |
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"Recommended. The question raised in this documentary is:
are Japan's enormous public works' programs good for Japan and its economy
or are they wasteful and even dangerous? The excellent footage of some of
the projects is interspersed with interviews of economists and other public
figures, along with scenes of unemployed workers who depend on public works
for their livelihood. This is a question not only for Japan, but also that
all countries face." -National Media Review Japan is the world's second biggest economy; however, this revealing documentary shows how Japan's addiction to construction could lead to its economic destruction. Japan owes the United States over $5 trillion dollars and its government continues to try to revive the economy by pouring billions of dollars into public works' projects like bridges and tunnels. The reason? There are 70,000 bureaucrats working in the Land and Transport Ministry who control 80% of the public works' budget. "The bridges are the most expensive in the history of humanity," says Ken Curtis of Goldman Sachs. In conclusion, it's obvious, if the government fails to treat this "concrete cancer," its debt will keep growing. Produced by ABC Australia. 08DR JSCA 20 min. |
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Best Film Gold Award -Houston
Intl. Film Festival "Highly Recommended. An excellent documentary that examines the art, nobility and religious ceremony associated with Sumo wrestling." -CAITC Review "Highly Recommended. You'll be impressed with this documentary in two ways: the athleticism of these behemoths is surprising - you probably guessed that part - but even more unexpectedly, the excitement generated by only seconds-long confrontations is amazingly intense." -Mike Antonucci Review "Sumo wrestlers are living icons - heroes of a national sport framed by religious symbolism." -T.R. Reid, National Geographic This award-winning, classic documentary offers viewers not only a rare look at the lifestyles of Japan's loving national treasures, Sumo wrestlers, but also the opportunity to witness the first accredited Sumo wrestling basho (tournament) held in the United States, which was organized by Yoshihiro Uchida and took place in San Jose, California, in 1993. Viewers will truly enjoy viewing this powerful art, which, originally performed at shrines in religious ceremonies and for Japanese nobility, has evolved to become Japan's national sport. As we go behind the scenes to visit with two of the sport's legendary rikishi, the Hawaiian-born Akebono (Taro), the first American ever to reach Yokozuna, the highest rank in Sumo, and the Hawaiian-born Konishiki (Yasokichi), the first American to reach Ozeki, the second highest rank in the sport, we understand why. We meet Olympic skating champion Kristi Yamaguchi, who understands how devoted these athletes are to preserving the tradition of this sport. Here we see a sport steeped in legend, history and ceremony, dating back thousands of years with ties to Samurai warriors and Shinto religious beliefs and rituals. And as the excitement of the tournament unfolds, we see matches between Akebono, Konishiki and Yokozuna Takanohana. Produced by KETH-TV, USA Productions and The Mill Valley Film Group. 08DR/CL IJSCA 30 min. |
| Like the Middle East, Kashmir remains one of the world's most difficult problems. In the 1947 partition of India into India and Pakistan, Kashmir was a majority Muslim state that stayed with India. Pakistan immediately attacked to win back what they believed was rightfully theirs; then India retaliated. Three wars later, a line on the map called the "Line of Control" now marks the unofficial boundary between the two nations. Kashmir remains bitterly contested by both sides; it is, potentially, a trigger for all-out war between these two nuclear-armed neighbors. This documentary reports on issues from each side of the conflict; also we see that people caught in the middle seek an autonomous Kashmir as a solution in the valley of tears. Produced by Journeyman Pictures, Inc. 08DR JSCA 30 min. |
| Life on the Mongolian steppe is as tough as the nation's notorious founding father, Genghis Khan, but extreme weather is now making life tougher than ever. In this documentary we learn for centuries the horsemen of Mongolia have roamed freely over the vast grasslands following the pasture for their animals. Many Mongolians live a life largely unchanged since their famous ancestors. But two summers of serious drought followed by the deadly chill of the worst winter in a generation has killed more than 2 million animals - the lifeblood of the nomadic herders. If such severe weather continues it is feared that the heart of Mongolian culture may wither away with the horses, sheep and goats that sustain it. Until recently animals were owned by the state and managed by collectives; today, privatization has changed this and hit poor herders hard. Produced by ABC Australia. 08DR JSCA 20 min. |
| Still drowning in the economic wake of the Asian economic crisis, Papua New Guinea is fast-tracking logging deals that threaten to choke the region in smog. The bureaucrats in Port Moresby have sold logging rights without consulting vast numbers of landowners, which could have disastrous results. And environmentalists claim if the rate of logging persists in 15 years there will be no forest left. Produced by ABC Australia. 07DR JSCA 30 min. |
| For 16 years millions of tons of extract waste were pumped directly in to the Ok Tedi River system in Papua New Guinea, causing serious environmental damage. For BHP, the gold and copper mine project became a public relations disaster. BHP insists that it learned only recently of the scale of environmental damage caused by the mine. Fearing further bad publicity and colossal legal claims, BHP announced plans to close the mine. But the PNG government wants them to stay. Whether its for the 10,000 people employed by the mine or to clear up the mess they made, the message is clear: it's an attempt to impose some form of long-term responsibilities on multi-nationals who work in developing countries. With stunning images, this documentary paints a bleak picture of the role of multi-national corporations in the developing world. Produced by Journeyman Pictures. 08DR JSCA 45 min. |
| Emerging from generations of colonial domination by Russia, is the Central Asian republic of Tajikistan leaning towards becoming another Afghanistan? The last decade here has been similarly characterized by poverty, corruption and growing ethnic tension. Following the collapse of the former Soviet Union, Muslim Garmis were driven out by a civil war with the Soviet-backed Kulabis. They now return home from Afghan refugee camps, hoping to resume normal life. With Russia's financial support, Kulabis cling to power, but the careful restoration of a mosque represents an Islamic renaissance. If Russia pulls out, Garmis may storm the capital, Dushanbe, and transform Tajikistan into an Islamic state. Produced by ABC Australia. 08DR JSCA 20 min. |
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Associated Article: Letter From Turkmenistan: The
Golden Man -The New Yorker Magazine Containing the world's third largest reserves of natural gas, Turkmenistan has the potential to become another Kuwait; however, its massive oil and gas reserves are as yet untapped. It can't sell its oil to the rest of the world because international sanctions prevent the building of a pipeline through Iran into Turkey; thus its main exports are camels and pedigree racehorses. Here we learn of the late President, Saparmurat Niyazov Turkmenbashi, a former communist who rejected multi-party democracy as too unstable. Today, conditions in this former Soviety Republic have changed little. Produced by ABC Australia. 08DR/Rev JSCA 15 min. |
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"Highly Recommended. The worldwide campaign against
terrorism has heated up in Uzbekistan. Critics, including worldwide human
rights monitoring groups, charge that its government has cracked down
unnecessarily hard on fundamental Islamic sects under the guise of insuring
public safety. The producers utilize captivating footage to ask viewers to
consider if such repression crushes radical movements or actually fosters
it. An ally of the U.S., the country has become the target of terrorists,
which may well lead to even further governmental actions. The overall
quality of the presentation as well as the theme of the program makes it a
timely title for many media collections." -School Library Journal Uzbekistan, Afghanistan's northern neighbor, was the first former Soviet republic to signal its willingness to aid a U.S. military operation against Afghanistan in the days immediately after the terrorist attacks. Its president, Islam Karimov, heads an authoritarian-style regime that is intolerant of opposition groups. Many of the country's 25 million people see him as a savior, squashing Islamic fundamentalism, while some see a darker side to his state controls. There are no avenues for protests and critics question whether the repression has crushed revolutionary Islam, or helped create it. Produced by ABC Australia. 08DR JSCA 20 min. |
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"Highly Recommended. This captivating documentary offers
viewers a rare opportunity to view three remote tribes and their distinct
ceremonies and rituals." -Educational Media Review Associated Article: Sleeping with Cannibals -Smithsonian Magazine This fascinating documentary takes us to West Papua (formerly Irian Jaya), which is the western or Indonesian half of New Guinea, and is one of the most primitive regions on earth. Here we closely examine the lives of three indigenous groups: the Dani, the Asmat and the Korowai, who, despite modern efforts to tame the land and "pacify" them, live as hunter-gatherers or subsistence mountainside farmers, grouped in small clans. Each tribe is very traditional and viewers are advised that nudity is common among the tribal members; for example, Dani women wear only grass skirts, while men wear only a "koteka" or penis gourd. In the Grand Baliem Valley, we meet the Dani people, whose subsistent living includes growing sweet potatoes and raising pigs. We see the separate roundhouses of the men and women, witness their important ceremonial pig-feast, learn why women cut a finger off when a family member dies, and are shown an example of their famed "smoked" mummies. A visit to the market in the town of Wamena shows how the Dani are influenced today by outside civilization. Next we travel into the swampy rainforest, in the southern coastal area of the country, and see the Asmat tribes, who, today, are renowned wood carvers, but once were headhunters and cannibals. Here we also witness their distinct traditional ceremonies, which are filled with ritual songs and drumming. Lastly, we travel deeper inland and meet the Korowai, often called the "tree people," because they live high up in tree houses due to the tremendous amount of rain that falls in this remotest of territories. These people too were once feared because of their cannibalistic ways. Here we learn of their unique tribal ways, including how they use every part of the treasured sago palm tree. Produced by International Film and Video, Inc. 08DR SCA 30 min. |