Thanks to a horribly unreasonable border tax applied to a recent Fed Ex package in my name, I’ve missed out on the opportunity to review HBO’s documentary series ‘Addiction‘. I really didn’t know much about the project at the time and only recently discovered that there are 14 short films that accompany the main feature length presentation, covering many different forms of addiction ranging from television to drugs. Now i’m REALLY interested in seeing this. THANKS BORDER TAX. Luckily, I do have digital cable and should be able to catch it when it airs. For those of you who don’t, Lost Remote (via TV Squad) is reporting that HBO has decided to make the series available for download online. The best part is it will be totally free! This will give those folks who are addicted to internet porn a chance to point their browsers elsewhere and maybe do some self-reflecting. It looks like the content is powerful enough that the execs at the cable dynamo have decided it’s worthwhile getting this series out there, no matter what the cost. It’s not suprising either, considering the calibre of filmmakers attatched to the project. Here’s a rundown of some of the names: Susan Froemke, Albert Maysles, Eugene Jarecki, David Heilbroner, D.A. Pennebaker, Chris Hegedus, plus many more. Certainly an important project that’s worth checking out. Watch for it at HBO.com. In the meantime, check out the official website at the link below. Addiction premieres Thursday, March 15 at 9pm on HBO.
Related Link: HBO: Addiction
Jeevika: South Asia Documentary Festival, which began in 2003, aims at capturing the livelihood challenges faced by the rural and urban poor and bringing it to the attention of current and future policy makers. Over the years, Jeevika has been successful in advocating for the cause of numerous entry-level entrepreneurs – rickshaw pullers, street vendors, prostitutes, child labour, farmers and forest-dwellers.
The premier event of the festival to be held at the India Habitat Centre, New Delhi will be the awards ceremony from 20-23rd July 2007, which will culminate four days of screening for the top films. The last date for the submitting the entries is May 31, 2007
In addition as part of the festival tour, the award-winning films will travel and be screened in premier schools and colleges in over 20 states in India and other organisations working on livelihood issues as well as in our South Asian neighbours.
Over the years, Jeevika has become an increasingly popular and news-worthy event as well as an important catalyst for positive social change. The Film-makers whose films have been showcased in the past include Rakesh Sharma (of the Final Solution fame), Sanjay Barnela (Turf Wars) and Shohini Ghosh (Tales of the Night Fairies).
For further details, please log on : http://www.ccs.in/jeevika
It is nice to see that this topic is getting much attention even though HBO is trying to profit off of some of the success of Intervention on A&E.