Denmark) DR TV (Television station : Copenhagen
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English
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This program documents the achievements of the Russian avant-garde movement and the impact of the Russian Revolution, which at first nurtured modern art as an emblem of communist culture and then banned it in favor of socialist realism. Set within the context of the life of the pivotal art critic Nikolai Punin, the key events of the Lenin/Stalin years and the contributions of major artists such as Malevich, Tatlin, and Filonov are described. Plentiful...
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Number 740 Park Avenue is home to several New York billionaires. Just ten minutes north, in the South Bronx, is another Park Avenue, where more than half the population rely on government food stamps to survive. According to the American dream, any Bronx Park Avenue resident can end up living at 740 with enough willpower and hard work. But is that dream still attainable? In this program, director Alex Gibney (Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room)...
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English
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Every year 130 million babies are born, but their outcomes in life depend on where, how, and to whom they are born. In Cambodia, new arrivals are likely to belong to a family that scavenges the streets to survive, while in Sierra Leone, chances of making it past the first year of life are half those of the worldwide average. American babies fare much better, although there are now more than 1.6 million homeless children in the U.S. and the country's...
4) Orhan Pamuk
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English
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Refuting any connection with overt political goals, Turkish novelist and Nobel Laureate Orhan Pamuk aims to create stories "as a child, not knowing where I am going next." Yet few writers in the Islamic world are more closely associated with political strife or have sparked as much street-level anger. This program features an interview with the world-renowned author in his Istanbul office, bringing to light his insights into art, oppression, and the...
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English
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From Live Aid to Drop the Debt, celebrities have become warriors in the fight against poverty. But have their efforts really made a difference? In this program, Bob Geldof, Bono, and Bill Gates speak candidly about the lobbying, strategizing, and backroom deals involved in their decades of activism, and about the valuable political currency of being a star. The video goes behind the scenes of some humanitarian crusades associated with rock musicians,...
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English
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For nearly a hundred years, asbestos fibers were woven into the very fabric of commercial and residential life in North America and Europe-despite an industry awareness that asbestos dust is extremely dangerous. This program featuring Geoffrey Tweedale, author of Magic Mineral to Killer Dust, and environmental consultant Barry Castleman illuminates the dark history of flame-retardant asbestos: asbestosis fatalities, efforts by the asbestos industry...
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English
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Filmed in Istanbul and Oslo, this artistic documentary by Turkish/Norwegian filmmaker Nefise Ozkal Lorentzen openly explores what it is like to be both gay and Muslim. Through the interrelated stories of a gay rights activist, a gay imam, drag artists, and others, Gender Me gently denounces homophobia in general, encourages discourse and engagement within Islam as a positive societal approach to coming to terms with sexual otherness, and seeks to...
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Best known as the author of The End of History and the Last Man, Francis Fukuyama is a former neoconservative who argued for the overthrow of Saddam Hussein-then changed his mind before the 2003 invasion of Iraq. What caused his reversal? If the war had gone differently, would he have revised his opinion again? What strategies does he envision for promoting global democracy in the future? Fukuyama addresses those and other questions in this detailed,...
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English
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Freon was a refrigeration breakthrough in 1928. It took 45 years for scientists to recognize its dangers, and another 15 for the international community to enact a worldwide ban on all CFC gases. This program illustrates that long process of problem-solving and political action, focusing on the work of Nobel-winning chemists F. Sherwood Rowland and Mario Molina and how their discoveries led to the 1989 Montreal Protocol-which may well have prevented...
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In southern India, Yellamma is the goddess of the untouchables, and the joginis are typically Dalit girls dedicated to their service-and to the servicing of the local men. The jogini role as representative of the goddess has been corrupted: "Society has deliberately turned the jogini into sex workers, and exploits them as such," says jogini-turned-activist Hajamma. After describing the sacred side of jogini life, this program explores the dark side:...
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Investigative journalist Miki Mistrati stands outside Nestlé headquarters in Switzerland. Behind him visual evidence of trafficking and child slavery in the chocolate industry is shown on a huge mobile screen. Since these revelations were shown to consumers all over the world, the chocolate industry is now making statements on its websites and in the press. The spokesperson for the entire industry, Joanna Scott, asserts that the world's biggest companies...
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English
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Economist Jeffrey Sachs has pointed out that for most of history, "everybody in the world was poor." As societies grew richer, they formed different attitudes toward poverty. The Greeks thought it played an essential role in society, whereas the Chinese developed sophisticated programs to prevent famine and extreme need. And though the Industrial Revolution promised an end to hunger, it may have ended up widening the gap between rich and poor. This...
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English
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The Maasai make a living by sharing their traditional culture with tourists, but they are very much aware of the modern world and its problems. Economic downturns mean less visitors to the Ngorongoro Conservation Area where the Maasai live. Both herding and agriculture have become nearly impossible due to drought, leading to hunger, frustration, and yet more conflict with the government over land use. In this program three Maasai living in the NCA...
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English
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The world is a mosaic of visions, and each vision is encapsulated by a language. Yet every two weeks, one of the world's approximately 6,500 languages dies out. What is the significance of this loss to those who speak the language as well as for the rest of humankind? Why do some languages become global while others disappear? And how are language and identity connected? In this program, linguists David Crystal, Peter Austin, and Jorgen Rischel search...
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For former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, the war in Kosovo was both political and very personal. This program focuses on how America's first female Secretary of State built national and international consensus against Slobodan Milosevic to derail his agenda of ethnic cleansing in the wake of the failed Rambouillet peace negotiations. Albright also discusses the shaping of her values through both her early years of life in the Europe of Hitler...
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For most of a century, industrial and automotive smoke were equated with progress and prosperity. But the cost in human health has been devastatingly high, particularly in developing countries. In this program, Devra Davis, author of When Smoke Ran Like Water; Peter Brimblecombe, executive editor of Atmospheric Environment; and others use examples such as smog-related deaths in Donora, Pennsylvania, in 1939 and London in 1952 to address the causes...
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This program travels to tea estates in Sri Lanka, Kenya, India, and Bangladesh-some traditional, some fair trade-to expose unsafe work environments and labor exploitation. Finding little meaningful difference between fair trade and non-fair trade operations, questions arise: Are fair trade organizations such as the E.U.'s Max Havelaar Foundation being duped by tea growers? Or are growers doing the best they can in a brutal industry and a market that...
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English
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Have chocolate manufacturers turned a blind eye to child trafficking and de facto slavery on African cocoa farms? This program investigates, following a trail of misery that begins at a confectionary trade show in Germany, continues on through the villages of southern Mali and the cocoa plantations in neighboring Cote d'Ivoire, and finishes up in Switzerland on the doorstep of one of the world's largest confectionary companies, a signer of the 2001...
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Seventy-five percent of Mali's population work as farmers, but with no clear ownership rights, rich nations like Saudi Arabia and the U.S. have been scooping up prime land and using it for large-scale agribusiness production. Some Malians see this as an imperialistic land grab, but others feel that leasing deals could result in new economic opportunities for all. This program explores the pros and cons of a
20) Daniel Kehlmann
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English
Description
A novel is a "map of contradictions," says German-Austrian writer Daniel Kehlmann-an arena of clashing viewpoints, each with its own persuasive logic. This program presents an interview with Kehlmann in which he discusses his literary goals and his search for fertile soil in the dichotomous history of Western Europe. Specific topics include personal freedom, cultural and religious tolerance, and Kehlmann's fascination with German philosophers and...