Commanding Heights: The Battle for the World Economy

Mondays at 10 pm beginning July 2, 2007
6 / 60 minutes
Produced by WGBH

Filmed on five continents and based on the best-selling book by Pulitzer Prize-winner Daniel Yergin and Joseph Stanislaw, Commanding Heights tells the epic tale of competing economic theories and the revolution of ideas that have shaped our new, interconnected world. It's the inside story of our new global economy and what it means for individuals around the world and features extraordinary interviews with world leaders and thinkers from twenty different countries, including: Bill Clinton, Dick Cheney, former USSR President Mikhail Gorbachev, Mexican President Vicente Fox, Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew, former Secretary of the Treasury Robert Rubin, and President George W. Bush's Economic Advisor Lawrence Lindsey.

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

View From Here
Summer Documentary Festival

Monday to Friday at 8 pm August 6 to 31, 2007

TVO is proud to support the independent Canadian documentary community. For more than 12 years TVO's multi-Gemini Award-winning The View from Here has been the premier anthology series presenting point-of-view documentaries from a Canadian perspective. Monday to Friday at 8 pm beginning August 6 and running through the month, TVO presents a festival of Canadian-made documentaries.

Many of the films airing during the festival were originally commissioned by TVO for The View From Here, such as the wildly popular The Corporation (see below), which kicks off the festival on August 6. Other highlights include Black Coffee and Peanuts.

Festival Schedule
Aug 6 to 8 - The Corporation, parts 1 to 3
Aug 9 - Free Trade is Killing My Mother
Aug 10 - Winning

Aug 13 - High Risk Offender
Aug 14 - Angry Girls
Aug 15 to 17 - Women Behind the Badge, parts 1 to 3

Aug 20 to 22 - Black Coffee, parts 1 to 3
Aug 23 - Peanuts
Aug 24 - In Time's Shadow

Aug 27 to 29 - The Undefended Border, parts 1 to 3
Aug 30 - Continuous Journey
Aug 31 - No Place Called Home

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 Corporation

August 6, 7 & 8, 2007 at 8 pm
3 / 60 minutes
Co-directed by Mark Achbar and Jennifer Abbott; co-produced by Bart Simpson and Mark Achbar; commissioned by TVO

Filmmakers Mark Achbar and Jennifer Abbott reveal a shocking portrait of the modern corporation in the return of one of Canada's most popular documentaries ever. They begin with a psychological evaluation of large companies and the diagnosis is scary. The three-part presentation continues with how money-making institutions hold power and control over our lives, more than we know and more than they deserve, and how people at all levels of society are affected. The stacked list of interviewees includes Noam Chomsky and Naomi Klein, along with CEOs of companies such as Goodyear and Shell.

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

Black Coffee

August 20, 21 & 22, 2007 at 8 pm
3 / 60 minutes
Directed by Irene Angelico; produced Ina Fichman; commissioned by TVO

Through the history of coffee, from its birthplace in Ethiopia to the Starbuck's cup, Black Coffee tells of the disparities between the profits raked in by the mega coffee distributors and the prices paid to the people who grow the beans. Entertainingly told and visually stunning, this three-part series may jolt us into seeing coffee in a whole new light.

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

Peanuts

August 23, 2007 at 8pm
1 / 50 minutes
Directed by Martin Harbury

Peanuts tells the story of how film technician Jock Brandis, a Canadian living in the United States, helped turn around an agricultural community in Africa that was heading for disaster. As a volunteer for Oxfam, Jock traveled to a village in southern Mali where he discovered the residents were depleting their fields of nitrogen by growing cotton instead of traditional crops like peanuts. Peanuts have several advantages. They fix nitrogen in the soil; they are more profitable; and they're rich in protein. However, peanuts are also difficult to husk by hand and would add considerable labour to the overburdened women of the community who would take on this job. Jock promised he would return with a machine but discovered that he would have to invent one on his own. This is the story of Jock's journey and how his simple device changes the lives of thousands. As word spreads about the invention, there are plans for thousands of the machines to be manufactured and used not only in Mali, but across the globe.

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 Best of The Agenda with Steve Paikin

Monday to Friday at 8 pm June 4 to August 2, 2007
60 minutes
Produced by TVO

The Agenda with Steve Paikin capped a remarkable first season establishing itself as the premiere current affairs program in the country, on air and online, and the source for in-depth debate and analysis on issues that matter most to the citizens of Ontario. Throughout the year anchor Steve Paikin talked to a diversity of guests such as Ontario Fairness Commissioner Jean Augustine speaking on immigrant issues, Greenpeace co-founder-turned-nuclear-power advocate Patrick Moore, political analyst Vali Nasr on the conflict between Sunni and Shia Islam, and an incredible gathering of four former premiers of Ontario on life in and out of politics. Debates have ranged from Canada's role in Afghanistan to climate change solutions.

June 4 - 8, 2007: Our Changing Climate
June 10 - 14, 2007: Communities
June 17 - 21, 2007: National Policy & Politics
June 24 - 28, 2007: The New Health
July 1 - 5, 2007: Five Days of Faith
July 8 - 12, 2007: Eye on Ontario
July 15 - 19, 2007: Your Agenda
July 22 - 26, 2007: International Trends
July 29 - Aug. 2, 2007: Our Changing Culture

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

Feast India

Fridays at 7 pm and 7:30 pm beginning July 13, 2007
8 / 30 minutes
Produced by Dream Pool Productions

Host Barry Vera indulges in a spicy slice of Indian life through this lush, colourful, and fascinating glimpse into Indian culture, food, and customs. Barry savours the amazing variety of tantalizing regional cuisine and immerses himself in the diverse cultural influences that make each area of India so distinct. From the surprising delights of simple street food, to a Sikh temple kitchen in Delhi, where up to 70,000 meals are served each day, to life in a tribal desert village in Rajasthan, Barry's journey is a treat for the taste buds. He also visits vibrant markets and spice bazaars, attends a traditional village wedding, witnesses a heady cardamom auction, and takes the chaotic buzz of Mumbai's beach carnivals.

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

Evacuation

Mondays at 7 pm and 7:30 pm beginning August 20, 2007
10 / 30 minutes
Produced by Twenty Twenty Television

Just over 60 years ago, 3 million English city kids were sent to the country to avoid Hitler's bombs. They were dirty, badly behaved and the villagers who took them in were appalled by their ignorance, foul language and poor manners. This series takes 12 city kids from some of the roughest housing estates in England and sends them back in time to the 1940s, deep into the countryside for a living-history project in which they experience the evacuation first hand. The kids spend 3 weeks on a 1940s-style farm living the life of an evacuee, helping out with farm chores and attending the local "evacuation" school. Stripped of their modern clothes and possessions, they experience the period for real. The program explores the town and country divide, antisocial behaviour, quality of life in urban centers, and education.

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

National Geographic
Shooting the Big Cats

Saturday, August 25, 2007 at 7 pm
60 minutes
Produced by Explore International

Behind the amazing footage of nature in its rawest form are the stories of the wildlife cinematographers and their families who have dedicated their lives to capturing amazing images of their environment and sharing them with the world.

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

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.

July 7, 2007: A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) / The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone (1961)
The Interviews: Tennessee
Actors, filmmakers, screenwriters and scholars discuss bringing Tennesse Williams' work to the big screen.

July 14, 2007: The Bad Seed (1956) / The Omen (1976)
The Interviews: 666 Revisited
Filmmakers discuss the haunting theme of nurture vs. nature and Hollywood's portrait of the "evil child" as illustrated through the 1976 version of The Omen and the 1956 shocker, The Bad Seed.

July 21, 2007: Forbidden Planet (1954) / The Tempest (1982)
The Interviews: Show Me the Magic
Filmmakers, actors and critics discuss two modern interpretations of Shakespeare's play, The Tempest.

July 28, 2007: Birdman of Alcatraz (1962) / Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985)
The Interviews: Four Walls
In his final interview, the late screenwriter Leonard Schrader discusses writing his Oscar-nominated screenplay, Kiss of the Spiderwoman, and the problems in creating drama when your characters and action is confined to four prison walls.

August 4, 2007: Heaven's Gate (1980)
The Interviews: All that Heaven Allows
Author and former studio head, Steven Bach, along with film critics, historians and many who were part of the making of Heaven's Gate, chronicle the events that led to the downfall of United Artists, a major studio once dedicated to producing quality films with socially conscious and relevant films.

August 11, 2007: Roxane (1987) / Cyrano de Bergerac (1950)
The Interviews: Roxane and Cyrano
A 19^th-century classic becomes a movie starring José Ferrer in the 1950s and Steve Martin in the 1980s

August 18, 2007: Gilda (1946) / Laura (1944)
The Interviews: Femmes Fatales
A revision of the classic film-noir portrait of women as the femme fatale.

August 26, 2007: The Bad and the Beautiful (1952) / The Sweet Smell of Success (1957)
The Interviews: What Price Success
How cinema has explored the need for success and the lengths to which people will go to achieve it.

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