Premiering on Public Television in October, Award Winning Doc Explores 10 Years in Post 9/11 Afghanistan Through the Eyes of One Boy

(San Francisco, CA) — Following the international hit The Boy who Plays on the Buddhas of Bamiyan, Phil Grabsky’s The Boy Mir - Ten Years in Afghanistan tracks cheeky, enthusiastic Mir from a childish eight to a fully grown seventeen-year-old.  Over this decade, Grabsky follows Mir as he journeys into early adulthood in one of the toughest places on earth, creating a documentary that mirrors and reveals the vitally important story of modern Afghanistan. The Boy Mir - Ten Years in Afghanistan premieres on Global Voices Sunday, October 7, at 10pm on the WORLD Channel (check local listings). 

The film begins in 2002, when Mir is living in a cave alongside the recently destroyed huge stone Buddhas of Bamiyan. As the film progresses, Mir changes — like any boy growing up, he becomes more aware of the world and thus a little less happy-go-lucky. The Boy Mir is a film that reveals, in a uniquely moving and intimate fashion, what has been happening in Afghanistan since the November 2001 fall of the Taliban. What difference has America’s and other allies’ input had on this country? Is there still a chance that Mir will end up as a soldier or opium farmer and, if so, can this cycle ever really be changed?  The narrative is driven by Mir’s journey into his early teens, when he will be expected to put his childish ways behind him and begin the difficult process of becoming a man. This is hard enough for any child, but Mir has to face this challenge in modern Afghanistan. In sum, The Boy Mir - Ten Years in Afghanistan is a unique portrayal of life, full of humor and poignancy, in today’s Afghanistan. 

About the Filmmaker
Phil Grabsky (director) is an award-winning documentary filmmaker.  With a film career spanning 25 years, Grabsky and his companies Seventh Art Productions and PhilGrabskyFilms.com make films for cinema, television, and DVD. Grabsky’s films include Muhammad Ali – Through the Eyes of the World, The Boy who Plays on the Buddhas of Bamiyan, In Search of Mozart, Escape from Luanda, In Search of Beethoven, and now, The Boy Mir – Ten Years in Afghanistan. These films have played in festivals worldwide, winning numerous awards for Best Film, Best Documentary, Best Cinematography, Best Screenwriting, Best Editing, and Best Music. Grabsky has also written four history books, including the bestseller The Great Commanders, and is regularly involved as a judge for Emmy®, BAFTA, Grierson, and One World awards. For more information on Grabsky’s other projects please visit www.seventh-art.com. 

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 thirteen 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
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 52% of US TV households, and 12 of the top 20 markets, including New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Dallas, Boston and Atlanta. 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