“Recounts the harrowing, heartbreaking stories of North Korean refugees who escape – or try to – across the border into China” –Miami Herald “The kind of suspense Hollywood cannot manufacture” – Wall Street Journal About the Film In the past decade, up to 100,000 defectors have crossed the waters of the Tumen and Yalu Rivers […] The post Crossing H…

“Heart-rending” –Denver Post “ A moving…documentary” –Globe and Mail When a 12-year-old Palestinian boy was killed in the West Bank city of Jenin by Israeli soldiers who mistook his toy gun for the real thing, it could have been just one more blip on the news: one more war, one more child, one more human […] The post Heart of Jenin: Introduction ap…

“Tells an admirable story…. It is too early to gauge the long-term effects of Mozambique’s program, but in the glimpse provided by this film, it seems full of possibilities.” –The New York Times “Feel-good programming that makes you think, too” –Canwest News Service ABOUT THE ISSUE Sub-Saharan Africa is the world’s deadliest place to give […] The p…

“A true story that should have Hollywood calling” – USA Today “An amazing documentary” –baristaexchange.com Eleni Gabre-Madhin is a woman with a dream. The charismatic Ethiopian economist wants to end hunger in her famine-plagued country. But rather than relying on foreign aid or new agricultural technology, she has a truly radical plan. She has de…

“An unexpectedly poignant documentary…. Suspenseful and thought-provoking” –Jerusalem Post “A heartbreaking doc…. What we see is a profoundly bitter confrontation between the individual and the community.” –Globe and Mail How far can one young woman push a conservative culture? Duah Fares is an Arab-Israeli teenager and member of the Druze minority…

About the Issue In the past seven Olympic Games, Cuba, an island nation with a population of 11 million people, has dominated the sport of boxing: 63 medals, 32 of them gold. Boxing has held a special place of honor in Cuban society since the revolution, not least because Castro has deployed the nation’s athletes […] The post Victory Is Your Duty: …

“Tragic and powerful” –Burma Digest On May 2, 2008, a Category 4 cyclone made landfall on Burma’s southern coast. Winds of 130 miles per hour raged all night, and storm surge drowned much of the Irrawaddy Delta in over 12 feet of water. Whole villages vanished, at least 130,000 people died, and two million were […] The post Eyes of the Storm: Intro…

“A cracking good adventure yarn…. It’s wonderfully made – crisp, fast, thrilling from start to finish – but it’s also thoughtful and thought provoking, in the spirit of the best documentaries…. Once Upon a Coup is as exciting as any Hollywood movie.” –Canwest News Service “A big and intriguing documentary” –TV America “Sounds like a […] The post On…

Up to 100,000 defectors have fled hunger and political repression in North Korea since a devastating famine in the 1990s. But the border between North and South Korea is impenetrable — the demilitarized zone, or DMZ, separating the two countries is dotted with landmines, bunkers, and nearly a million troops. Defectors’ only way out is […] The post …

“Interesting and thought-provoking…. It also might make you a little uneasy, which is an even better reason to watch…. Focused, fast-moving and compelling” –New York Daily News As the world’s attention turns to the 2008 Beijing Olympics, WIDE ANGLE reports on how the next generation of Chinese leaders is being molded. China Prep follows five […] Th…

In January 2009, Waterford Crystal went bankrupt. The company’s main factory, in Waterford, Ireland, was closed, and 480 people were fired. Many of them had worked there for more than forty years. But the Waterford workers refused to give up their jobs without a fight. They staged a sit-in that lasted for almost two months, […] The post Raise the L…

WIDE ANGLE’s unprecedented, award-winning 12-year documentary project, Time for School, returns in 2009 with visits to seven classrooms in seven countries to offer a glimpse into the lives of seven extraordinary children who are struggling to get what nearly all American kids take for granted: a basic education. Clip followed by Aaron Brown’s inter…

“It’s the human stories of overcoming adversity that jump out at one in Time for School…. Wide Angle’s documentaries are about the real world — the world beyond reality TV and Hollywood excess.” –Canwest News “As heart wrenching as it is informative…. You’ll have a pit in your stomach by the end of the show.” […] The post Time for School Series: In…

Abida Hussain is a notoriously sharp-tongued politician with gray hair and a smoker’s raspy voice who is running for parliament in Punjab, Pakistan — against her own cousin. The two rivals come from a powerful landowning family that has controlled the region for generations, and both have held the office before. This time, her cousin […] The post P…