According to the Autism Society Canada, there has been a steep rise in the number of school children with autistic spectrum disorder in recent years. Autism is a complex developmental disability that typically appears during the first three years of life, but researchers still lack a comprehensive understanding of a condition that is even more misunderstood by the general public. On November 18, TVO presents multifaceted programming to help us gain deeper insight into a condition that affects about 1 in every 450 Canadians. The evening begins with an in-depth documentary looking at the history of the condition and the latest research. This is followed by a feature-length drama based on a true story of a couple's challenges trying to find help for their autistic child. And immediately following the film, viewers are welcomed to join a discussion with autism experts at Your Voice, both on air and online at tvoparents.com.

The Autism Puzzle – North American Premiere

Sunday November 18, 2007, at 8 pm, repeated Tuesday November 20 at 10 pm
55 minutes
Directed by Saskia Baron

When filmmaker Saskia Baron's brother Timothy was diagnosed with autism in 1961, it was thought that only four to five children in every 10,000 were affected by the disorder. There was no education available for those who were properly diagnosed and they were often relegated to psychiatric hospitals and sedation. Unwilling to accept such a prospect for their son, Timothy's parents banded together with other families with autistic children to form the National Autistic Society in 1962. Today, some British teachers are claiming to see autism in one in every 86 children, and the numbers are just as disturbing in Ontario.

Baron's film asks, what's going on? Is there an epidemic of autism, and what's causing it? Is there any connection to infant vaccination for measles, mumps and rubella? Or is it that awareness has grown and the definition of autism has changed over the 60 years since the term was first coined? The documentary looks at the history of the condition, and current research into cause, treatment and prevalence. The film also explores the latest experimental research into the autistic brain in Finland, England and America, which brings new hope for greater understanding of this mysterious disability.

Media Contact: Paul Ginis     416.484.2600 x2445   pginis@tvontario.org
Anne Rubenstein     416.484.2600 x2881    arubenstein@tvontario.org
Audience Relations: 416.484.2665     asktvo@tvontario.org

After Thomas – North American Premiere

Sunday November 18, 2007 at 9 pm
95 minutes
Directed by Simon Shore and written by Lindsey Hill

Inspired by a true story, this moving drama depicts the struggles of a couple to care for and communicate with their autistic child. Keeley Hawes and Ben Miles play the parents of six-year-old Kyle (Andrew Byrne). In Kyle's world everything is a danger, but he can't communicate his fears because he can't use language. His days consist of endless traumas and tantrums that are a source of tremendous stress to Nicola, Kyle's mom, who has given up everything to care for her only child. Her fierce determination to break into Kyle's world at any cost also places an intolerable strain on her marriage. Her husband, Rob, is frustrated by the loss of the life he once had with his wife and Nicola's relentless challenging of Kyle. Into this setting comes Thomas: a golden retriever named after Thomas the Tank Engine. Nothing has prepared Nicola for the doors that Thomas unlocks.

Media Contact: Paul Ginis     416.484.2600 x2445   pginis@tvontario.org
Anne Rubenstein     416.484.2600 x2881    arubenstein@tvontario.org
Audience Relations: 416.484.2665     asktvo@tvontario.org

Your Voice – Autism Live Special

Sunday November 18 at 10:40 pm to 11 pm followed by an exclusively online chat on tvoparents.com

Following the TVO presentation of After Thomas, tvoparents.com's interactive parenting show Your Voice will come to television with a special edition on autism. Host Cheryl Jackson welcomes Dr. Wendy Roberts, a developmental pediatrician at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, and a leading expert on autism; Suzanne Lanthier, spokesperson for Autism Speaks, and the mother of an autistic child; and Audrey Meissner, a frontline worker with autistic children. Questions about autism can be sent directly to the experts online at the Your Voice page at tvoparents.com, or by phone at 1.888.891.1195.

Media Contact: Paul Ginis     416.484.2600 x2445   pginis@tvontario.org
Anne Rubenstein     416.484.2600 x2881    arubenstein@tvontario.org
Audience Relations: 416.484.2665     asktvo@tvontario.org

The Relief of Belsen – North American Premiere

Sunday November 11, 2007 at 9 pm
105 minutes
Directed by Justin Hardy and written by Peter Guinness

In early April 1945 an outbreak of typhus in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in northern Germany prompted an uneasy truce between German and Allied troops in the area to allow a British medical unit to come in and help contain the disease. But the British could not imagine the true scale of what they would face and liberation of the camp would not guarantee survival for thousands of prisoners. The British found 40,000 prisoners from across Europe herded into a concentration camp of unspeakable squalor; they had been deprived of food, clothing and medical supplies for nearly a month before the British arrived. At first medical efforts focused on typhus - but starvation turned out to be an equally devastating killer.

Media Contact: Paul Ginis     416.484.2600 x2445   pginis@tvontario.org
Anne Rubenstein     416.484.2600 x2881    arubenstein@tvontario.org
Audience Relations: 416.484.2665     asktvo@tvontario.org

The Agenda with Steve Paikin

Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
November 26, 27, 28 & 29, 2007 at 8 pm, repeated at 11 pm

Human Edge
Blind Spot: Hitler's Secretary – TVO Premiere

Wednesday November 7, 2007 at 10 pm
90 minutes
Written and directed by André Heller and Othmar Schmiderer

Eighty-one year old Traudl Junge had one of the most extraordinary perspectives of World War 2. From autumn 1942 to the final collapse of the Nazi regime, Junge was Adolf Hitler's private secretary, even taking down the dictator's final will and testament. Fifty-six years later Junge recounts her view of the events of the time in a remarkable interview that reveals how her experiences left her with a vehement hatred for the Nazi regime and an inability to forgive herself for the naïveté and ignorance that led her to admire Hitler.

Media Contact: Paul Ginis     416.484.2600 x2445   pginis@tvontario.org
Anne Rubenstein     416.484.2600 x2881    arubenstein@tvontario.org
Audience Relations: 416.484.2665     asktvo@tvontario.org

Human Edge
9 Star Hotel – North American Premiere

Wednesday November 28, 2007 at 10 pm
60 minutes
Directed by Ido Haar

In Israel's occupied territories, thousands of Palestinians work illegally as construction labourers. Filmmaker Ido Haar follows Ahmed and Muhammad, two of these young workers who have been hiding for the past four years in the wild hills between a pine forest and Modiin, a nearby Israeli town. At first light, they sneak out from their hideouts to their work at the construction sites in the town. The town keeps growing, destined to become the third largest city in Israel. It is they who have been building it. But a daily routine of police raids, fear of the separation wall slowly closing on them cannot take away their playfulness as they are being pushed from childhood to manhood.

9 Star Hotel won the Best Documentary Award at the 2006 Jerusalem International Film Festival and was a featured film at the Hot Docs, Tribeca, Munich and Melbourne film festivals.

Media Contact: Paul Ginis     416.484.2600 x2445   pginis@tvontario.org
Anne Rubenstein     416.484.2600 x2881    arubenstein@tvontario.org
Audience Relations: 416.484.2665     asktvo@tvontario.org

Can Dogs Smell Cancer? – North American Premiere

Sunday November 25, 2007 at 8 pm
60 minutes
Directed by Jemima Harrison

Two years in the making and boasting unique access to new scientific trials, this remarkable documentary asks: How open are we to scientific progress beyond new technologies? The film reveals the results of an astonishing new study that suggests dogs could be better at diagnosing cancer than current technology. And dogs, we learn, are able to detect chemicals diluted to one part per trillion - that's from 10,000 to 100,000 times better than humans.

Media Contact: Paul Ginis     416.484.2600 x2445   pginis@tvontario.org
Anne Rubenstein     416.484.2600 x2881    arubenstein@tvontario.org
Audience Relations: 416.484.2665     asktvo@tvontario.org

Losing It – North American Premiere

Tuesday, November 6, 2007 at 9 pm
90 minutes
Directed by Ben Bolt and written by Paul Mendelson

Martin Clunes (Goodbye Mr. Chips) stars in this drama that tackles what is a difficult subject for many men with honesty, warmth and humour. Phil McNaughton (Clunes) is a copywriter who worries that, at 43, he is considered past it at the hip ad agency where he works. In addition, Phil is a compulsory hypochondriac, so his wife doesn't take him all that seriously when he thinks he's found a lump. But Phil's worse fears are confirmed when he is diagnosed with testicular cancer. Worrying about his own mortality and at the same time undergoing an exhausting course of radiotherapy, he is determined that no one at work should think he has lost it. His family have to bear the brunt of his increasingly irascible behaviour.

Drawing on his own experience of testicular cancer, writer Paul Mendelson addresses big questions about life and death with a sensitive and direct approach.

Media Contact: Paul Ginis     416.484.2600 x2445   pginis@tvontario.org
Anne Rubenstein     416.484.2600 x2881    arubenstein@tvontario.org
Audience Relations: 416.484.2665     asktvo@tvontario.org

The Refuge – North American Premiere

Sunday, November 4, 2007 at 9 pm
90 minutes
Directed by Nigel Roffe-Baker

In these difficult times how do societies balance the need for security with human rights? This hard-hitting story dramatizes what happens when two basic needs collide. Three Kurdish refugees, having fled political persecution in northern Iraq, arrive in London seeking asylum. When one of them is imprisoned, the other two take refuge in a local Catholic church. Despite the fact that they are Muslims, the priest offers them sanctuary and the church becomes the focus of increasing media attention. But events escalate out of control when police are granted access inside the church and a member of the congregation is taken hostage.

Starring Nabil Elouahabi as Mahmoud, Fuman Dar as Rezghar, Tony Resta as Saman and Dai Bradley as Father Michael.

Media Contact: Paul Ginis     416.484.2600 x2445   pginis@tvontario.org
Anne Rubenstein     416.484.2600 x2881    arubenstein@tvontario.org
Audience Relations: 416.484.2665     asktvo@tvontario.org

On the Trail of Tarka – North American premiere

Wednesday, November 21, 2007 at 7 pm
60 minutes

Eighty years ago Henry Williamson immortalized a short stretch of the River Torridge in Devon, England in his famous novel Tarka the Otter. Filmmakers Charlie Hamilton-James and Philippa Forrester go to the river in search of otters. Over months of patient fieldwork they get to know and film a family of wild otters. The result is both a lyrical portrait of these shy creatures and a tribute to Williamson's skills as a writer and naturalist.

Media Contact: Paul Ginis     416.484.2600 x2445   pginis@tvontario.org
Anne Rubenstein     416.484.2600 x2881    arubenstein@tvontario.org
Audience Relations: 416.484.2665     asktvo@tvontario.org

Masterworks
Remembering Arthur – TVO Premiere

Thursday, November 29, 2007 at 10 pm
50 minutes
Directed by Martin Lavut

The life and work of innovative Canadian filmmaker Arthur Lipsett is remembered in this intimate portrait by his close friend Martin Lavut. Lavut explores the Montreal-born artist's creative genius and influence. Lipsett began his filmmaking career with the National Film Board of Canada earning his first Oscar nomination with the avant-garde short Very Nice, Very Nice, a film that legendary director Stanley Kubrick considered "one of the most imaginative and brilliant uses of the movie screen and soundtrack" that he had ever seen. Filmmakers such as George Lucas and Guy Maddin also cite Lipsett's work as a major influence on their careers.

But more than merely providing a portrait of the artist, the film seeks to understand Lipsett's tortured mind and the complexities of his life that led him to commit suicide in 1986. It confronts the problems Lipsett faced with respect, truth and understanding.

Media Contact: Paul Ginis     416.484.2600 x2445   pginis@tvontario.org
Anne Rubenstein     416.484.2600 x2881    arubenstein@tvontario.org
Audience Relations: 416.484.2665     asktvo@tvontario.org

Saturday Night at the Movies and The Interviews

Saturdays, beginning at 8 pm
Produced by TVO

TVO ushers in a new era of contemporary, socially relevant stories on the long-running film and filmmakers' series. Saturday Night at the Movies is an evening of great movies and includes The Interviews, your all-access pass to the actors, directors and producers who make the films you love. The Interviews examine the themes, myths and conflicts presented in cinema, placing them in context of today's society.

November 3, 2007: Bananas (1971) / Salvador (1986)
The Interviews: Director Oliver Stone, producer John Daly, and actors Jim Belushi, and Michael Murphy speak on the necessity of combining humour with gritty realism to tell dark and important stories.

November 10, 2007: Father of the Bride (1950) / The Philadelphia Story (1940)
The Interviews: Screenwriter Patricia Resnick, actors Paul Dooley and Dennis Christopher join Wedding Belles editor Alison MaGill and Globe and Mail columnist Johanna Schneller in a look at how cinema treats one of our cultures most cherished and traditional of ceremonies, the wedding.

November 17, 2007: Days of Wine and Roses (1962) / Clean and Sober (1988)
The Interviews: A look at two of cinemas most compelling and harrowing accounts of the world of rehab and the people striving to get beyond their addictions. Featuring interviews with Clean and Sober director Glenn Gordon Caron, actor Kathy Baker, and editor Richard Chew.

November 24, 2007: Straight Story (1999) / Straight Time (1983)
The Interviews: Giving voice to those who strive for something better and overcoming lives riddled with mistakes. Interviews include actors M. Emmett Walsh, Gary Busey and Jake Busey , and producer Gail Mutrux.

Media Contact: Paul Ginis     416.484.2600 x2445   pginis@tvontario.org
Anne Rubenstein     416.484.2600 x2881    arubenstein@tvontario.org
Audience Relations: 416.484.2665     asktvo@tvontario.org