Doc Examining the Local and International Efforts to Stop Kony and the Lords Resistance Army in Africa Opens the 5th Season of the Global Voices Series

(San Francisco, CA, April 11, 2012) — Today, the Independent Television Service (ITVS) announces the lineup for the fifth season of Global Voices, the international documentary television series airing on the WORLD channel with select episodes available online on PBS Video. Showcasing documentaries from Uganda, Indonesia, Russia, Chile, and Pakistan, this season of Global Voices presents the U.S. broadcast premieres of 13 documentaries funded by ITVS International and encore presentations of acclaimed programs previously broadcast on Independent Lens, POV, and Link TV. The series premieres on Sunday, May 6, at 10pm with Peace vs Justice, which reveals the role of the International Criminal Court in the trial against rebel leader Joseph Kony, whose Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) has spread death and destruction in Uganda for more than 20 years. 

"We are thrilled to announce this year's Global Voices season line up," said Sreedevi Sripathy, ITVS Director of Broadcast and Distribution. "Not only do we have a record number of U.S. broadcast premieres coming to public television audiences, but our season opener, Peace vs Justice, could not be more timely with the recent global awareness of Joseph Kony and the importance of understanding the history from those who have lived it.  From acclaimed filmmakers on the ground and in the communities, we look forward to engaging audiences with stories from around the world.” 

New this season for Global Voices is the inclusion of six documentaries from ITVS’s Women and Girls Lead catalog, a campaign that celebrates, educates, and activates women, girls, and their allies across the globe to address the challenges of the 21st century. Notable documentaries include Afghan American filmmaker Sedika Mojadidi’s Motherland Afghanistan (May 13), in which she follows her father to his native Afghanistan, where he brings desperately needed medical attention and expertise to the women most susceptible to maternal mortality; The Day My God Died (June 24), Andrew Levine’s unforgettable examination of the growing plague of sex trafficking of Nepali children in India; Pickles, Inc. (August 12), by Nitza Gonen and Dalit Kimor, following eight widows that challenge social conventions and establish the Azka Pickle Cooperative, seeking financial independence for themselves and their children; and Samia Chala’s Chahinaz: What Rights for Women? (September 30). Through her curiosity and self-discovery, Chahinaz, a 20-year-old Algerian student, begins to wonder what life is like for women in other Muslim countries and around the world and why things are slow to change in Algeria. For more information on Women and Girls Lead, visit www.womenandgirlslead.org. 

Additional season highlights include Katherine Huang’s Tales of the Waria (June 3), following four transgender individuals in Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim country, in search of love and acceptance with unexpected results; Town of Runners (June 17), Jerry Rothwell’s documentary follows three young runners from Ethiopia as they move from high school track to national competition and from childhood to adulthood; The Collaborator and His Family (August 5), Adi Barash and Ruthie Shatz’s cinema-verité look at a Palestinian family torn apart by its patriarch's collaboration with Israel; Nima Sarvestani’s award winning I Was Worth 50 Sheep (September 2), a look at an Afghani 10-year-old bride fight for her freedom six years later; and The Boy Mir (October 7), Phil Grabsky’s look at the generation of Afghans who have grown up since 9/11, specifically tracking the irrepressible and lovable Mir from a naïve 8-year old to a fully grown adult. 

Global Voices broadcasts will be supported by a number of online engagement opportunities — including a mix of online screenings, discussions, commentary, and opportunities for viewers to participate in live chats to discuss the issues presented in each episode. For up-to-date information on these events and opportunities, follow Global Voices on Facebook here. 

ABOUT Global Voices 
Produced by ITVS International, Global Voices is a 26-week series bringing internationally themed documentaries made by U.S.-based and international filmmakers to a national audience. This season, the series will feature the U.S. premieres of four documentaries funded by ITVS International, as well as encore broadcasts of other acclaimed ITVS programs. In addition to the WORLD broadcast, select episodes will be available online post broadcast — via iTunes, Amazon, Netflix, and on PBS’s Video player through http://video.pbs.org.  For the complete lineup and schedule, visit www.itvs.org/series/global-voices.  

ABOUT WORLD 
The WORLD public media service includes the WORLD Channel, a 24/7 public television channel dedicated to delivering the best of public television’s nonfiction, news, documentary programming, and a growing schedule of content from independent producers. The WORLD channel’s website, WORLDcompass.org, expands on broadcast themes and fuels content across social media, providing opportunities for broad and diverse audience interaction. WORLD is produced and distributed by WGBH Boston, WNET New York Public Media, and American Public Television (APT) in association with the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) and the National Educational Telecommunications Association (NETA). The WORLD channel is available in markets representing more than 44 percent of U.S. TV households. Funding for WORLD is provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB). 

CONTACT 

Krissy Bailey, ITVS, 415-356-8383, ext. 254 krissy_bailey@itvs.org 

For more information about the series, visit www.itvs.org/series/global-voices