ITV

Tag: Thomas L Friedman

  • Cableready is exclusive title holder of New York Times Television Library

    Cableready is exclusive title holder of New York Times Television Library

    MUMBAI: International production and distribution company Cableready has picked up the international rights to more than 100 hours of additional programming from New York Times Television. With the new acquisitions, Cableready has the exclusive international distributor of the entire Television library, with rights to nearly 300 hours of programming.

    “New York Times Television is synonymous with depth and quality… to be asked to represent their entire library is a privilege and honor,” says Cableready president and CEO Gary Lico.

    The hour-long programs acquired by Cableready first aired on various Discovery networks and Showtime in the US, include two installments of Thomas L Friedman Reporting, featuring the noted New York Times columnist and best-selling author. The Friedman programs include: Straddling The Fence, an exploration of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with reporting from the West Bank and Searching For The Roots of 9/11, an in-depth look at the source of Muslim rage towards the US and the West, informs an official release.     

    Meanwhile, Cableready has also acquired a number of current affairs specials reported by award-winning journalist Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy’s Terror’s Children, an exploration of the post-war realities of the lives of Afghani refugee children living in Pakistan, Reinventing The Taliban?, which examines Islamic fundamentalism and its effects on the Pakistani government since last year’s elections and Women Of The Holy Kingdom, which focuses on the internal debate about the role of women in an increasingly progressive Saudi Arabia.

    The programmes includes 35 half-hour episodes of celebrity chef and kitchen confidential author Tony Bourdain’s culinary travel series, A Cook’s Tour and 29 one-hour historical and current affairs programmes.

    Other documentaries in the package acquired by Cableready span subjects ranging from racial hatred to the rise and fall of Saddam Hussein, including: The Real CIA: Enemies, Secrets and Spies – an inside look at one of the world’s most secretive intelligence units, The Real Saddam, which documents how Hussein acquired, used and ultimately lost his powerful grip on Iraq and Brotherhood of Hate, which follows one family’s legacy of racial hate, handed down from one generation to the next.

  • CNN commissions award-winning journos for doc schedule

    MUMBAI: CNN International is all set to keep viewers keen on indepth perspective reporting hooked with a series of documentaries.
    The broadcaster has roped in award-winning journalists and filmmakers Christiane Amanpour, Thomas L. Friedman and Gerardine Wurzburg among others for the new initiative. The channel has stated that through the new initiative it is strengthening its committment to bring in-depth reporting from all parts of the world to its audience.
    One of the special is Blowback: Afghanistan on the Brink. Hosted by Amanpour the show airs on 1 November at 6:30 pm with a repeat on 2 November at 4:30 pm. Two years after America vowed to rid Afghanistan of the Taliban and rebuild a beleaguered nation, CNN’s chief international correspondent Amanpour travels to the country to find out if those promises have been realised. Amanpour finds that warlords have taken control of much of the country, while the there is a resurgence of the Taliban along the Pakistani border.
    However, signs of recovery are slowly emerging, some examples being that women are back at work and girls are allowed to attend school. Amanpour exposes a nation that is caught between the ancient feudal system and the hopes for a modern democracy; which is exemplified in interviews with Afghanistan’s appointed leader, Hamid Karzai, and one of the powerful warlords in the country, Ismael Kahn.
    Another special will commemorate the 40th anniversary of President John F Kennedy’s death. President Kennedy Has Been Shot will be hosted by Academy award winning producer Gerardine Wurzburg and will air on 15 November at 6:30 pm with a repeat on 16 November at 4:30 pm.
    The special uses rarely heard vintage audiotapes assembled for the first time. The documentary will take viewers through the famous four November days. The documentary also includes archival film footage and photographs as well as current-day interviews with journalists who covered the story and were eyewitnesses to the event.
    There is also stuff for those interested in the environment. Frontline of Extinction airs on 6 December at 5 pm with a repeat on 7 December at 7 pm. The crisis of mass extinction is only deepening on planet Earth and the island of Madagascar serves as a laboratory for the extinction process. It reveals how and why growing numbers of plant and animal species are quickly becoming extinct.
    CNN’s global environmental correspondent Gary Strieker travels across the island, to reveal how habitats are being destroyed by uncontrolled deforestation that condemns countless species to rapid extinction. He meets researchers and conservationists who are desperately working to protect Madagascar’s surviving natural wonders. The report also sees him talking to scientists who explain the facts about mass extinction and what has to be done to stop it before it’s too late to save the natural processes that sustain all life on earth.