Children of Conflict

Among the unacceptable faces of modern warfare is the involvement - and sometimes deliberate brutalization - of children. WTNs "CHILDREN OF CONFLICT" features four stories showing how children are affected by war and new initiatives to help rehabilitate them. "BOY SOLDIERS" examines the war-scarred victims of Mozambique’s 15-year civil war, "NEW GAMES FOR THE STONE THROWERS" explores how children in the Gaza Strip who once formed the front-line of the Intifada - the Palestinian uprising - are now finally receiving an education. "PLAYING WITH FIRE" focuses on the thousands of children who have lost limbs, been blinded or lost their families as a result of landmines, and "SARAJEVO SURVIVORS" features the work of the International Children’s Institute in Montreal which rehabilitates children from Bosnia and other areas of conflict.

Length : 25’

Language : English

Production Co. : WTN

Producer : Jennifer Wilson

The Preferred Sex...

The Desired Number

Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa - yet it has one of the highest infant and maternal mortality rates in the world. In Iboland, Eastern Nigeria - the setting for the first section of this moving two-part documentary - director Ngozi Onwurah films the special ‘Ibu Eze’ ceremony held to honour women who have borne more than nine children. But there are dissenting voices too, which question whether it is really a blessing for women to bear large families without any consideration for their quality of life. The second section, set in New Delhi, tells the heart-breaking story of Lali Devi, the mother of five children who poisoned herself and two of her daughters with rat poison, because she had not managed to bear a son.

Country : UK

Length : 54’

Language : English, Spanish

Producer : Daniel Riesenfeld

Director : Ngozi Onwurah & Manjjira Datta

All round the world today grassroots groups are taking action to safeguard their environment. Commissioned by TVE from local producers, "WE THE PEOPLES" tells the stories of six inspiring community groups - in Nigeria, India, Colombia, Latvia, Panama and South Africa - which show that there is no barrier between environment and human rights. In Nigeria, the minority 500,000-strong Ogoni people are protesting at the oil companies’ devastation of their fertile agricultural land. In India, traditional fishermen oppose unsustainable fishing by industrial trawlers. In Central America, the indigenous Embera people are fighting to preserve their biologically-rich jungle home-land in the Darien Gap, while in South Africa the people of Pongoland resist attempts to evict them from their land to make way for a reserve.

Country : UK/India/South Africa/Latvia/
Colombia

Length : 30’

Language : English

Production Co. : Carlton Productions, TVE

Producer : Marc de Beaufort

Meena’s father doesn’t let her go to school with her younger brother Raju. But Meena’s parrot Mithu comes to the rescue. After eavesdropping through the school room window, he flies home to repeat the lesson - and teaches Meena to count. And while she’s practising her counting on the family chickens, she realises one is missing and raises the alarm. Her prompt action means the village headman is able to catch the local thief red-handed with the stolen bird. And when the villagers ask her how she knew, she explains it’s because Mithu taught her to count - and they all encourage her parents to drop their opposition and let her go to school.

Over the past 20 years, four million of the world’s people have been killed by droughts, floods, earthquakes and hurricanes and close to half the population of the planet has suffered some form of disruption to their lives.

"LIVING WITH DISASTER" casts aside the familiar news headlines of misery and destruction to present the untold story - how relatively inexpensive investment can reap huge rewards; reducing the cost, both in reconstruction and in human suffering. In drought-prone Zimbabwe, farmers have developed their own methods for coping in the harshly arid conditions; while in the Philippines, the programme looks at ways to prevent a typhoon becoming a full-scale disaster. Featuring dramatic archive footage, these and other stories from Latin America and Bangladesh demonstrate how local communities can bounce back from the turmoil of natural disasters.

Country : UK

Length : 26’ (or 4 x 10’ news features)

Language : English, French, Bengali, Shona, Tagalog

Production Co. : TVE in association with Intermediate Technology

Producer/Director : Damien Rea

The five vignettes that make up Damien Rea’s film together demonstrate the power of community action in helping people take control of their own lives. In Costa Rica, the Bribri people have fought a successful battle to win back the ancestral lands wrested from them by Spanish settlers. On the Japanese island of Ishigaki, the villagers of Shiraho staged a campaign to stop the government building an airport which would destroy their priceless coral reef. In India, the villagers of Dhanawas have built their own gas generators to provide cheap energy. And in Hungary, a local group on the outskirts of Budapest have set up a community scheme to monitor, and clean up the heavy metal contamination of the soil that is the legacy of 40 years of unregulated industrial development.

Country : UK

Length : 42’

Language : English

Production Co. : TVE

Producer/Director : Damien Rea