The week of current affairs and documentaries on CBC’s THE NATURE OF THINGS, DOC ZONE, the fifth estate, MARKETPLACE, THE PASSIONATE EYE, and documentary Channel
Thursday, Mar. 20 at 8 p.m. (8:30 NT) on CBC-TV
Episode two, The Wild West, of WILD CANADA‘s epic four part series reveals the secret world of Canada’s wettest and most biologically diverse landscape, the temperate rainforest, and then journeys to the snow-capped peaks of the Rocky Mountains. The stories are intimate and epic, from wolves that fish for salmon, to the thrilling sounds of mating big horn sheep, to ice-covered grizzly bears living near the Arctic Circle. The ancient coastal forests hide rarely told stories of human and wildlife relationships that have existed for thousands of years.
Thursday, Mar. 20 at 9 p.m. (9:30 NT) on CBC-TV
A perfect getaway these days can likely involve much more than long sunsets and piña coladas on a palm-fringed beach. Sex tourism is a major global growth industry and while men are the traditional customers, today increasing numbers of women of all ages are seeking a “richer” holiday experience. Love Under Cuban Skies follows a handful of women who travel to Cuba looking for romance and adventure. Through them and their lovers - educated, mostly unemployed young Cuban men - the film opens a larger examination into what drives women to seek love under other skies, why Cuba is fertile ground for women’s sex tourism and what the consequences are for everyone involved.
Plane Wrong
Friday, Mar. 21 at 8 p.m. (8:30 NT) on CBC-TV
From lost luggage to lengthy delays to oversold flights, who’s looking out for you when you fly in Canada? Tom Harrington reveals the rights you have as a passenger when things go plane wrong - and when airlines won’t give you the straight goods.
Dead Enough
Friday, Mar. 21 at 9 p.m. (9:30 NT) on CBC-TV
It’s a fundamental question you might think medical science would have answered long ago - when is a person considered dead? But in Canada, the standard for when and how people are declared dead can vary from province to province, and even from hospital to hospital. After a 30-foot fall that severely injured his head, Shane Becker of Vancouver, BC was deemed to meet the criteria there: his family says they were told his brain would soon stop functioning, and he would not recover. His mother agreed to donate his organs—until a tiny change cast doubt on his status, and dramatically reversed the direction of Shane’s life.
In Dead Enough host Bob McKeown looks at how, in the rush to meet the all-important need for life-saving organ transplants, some doctors are worried that we may be pushing the ethical boundaries. “I think the public should know that some physicians, including myself, believe there is still genuine debate about whether organ donors are already dead,” says Dr. Ari Joffe, with intensive care at the Stollery Children’s Hospital in Edmonton. With expert testimony and stories of both organ donors and recipients, the fifth estate examines the behind the-scenes debate in medical circles - and the public’s need to know - about how we define death in Canada.
Sunday, Mar. 23 at 10 p.m. ET/PT, and repeats Saturday, Mar. 29 at 10 p.m. ET on CBC News Network
Twin Sisters follows the remarkable journey of identical twins, adopted by families at opposite ends of the world who accidentally discover their daughters are sisters. What was meant to be a secret becomes a story of sibling love and fate when the girls reunite at age 8. The twin girls were found as infants in a cardboard box in a Chinese village in 2003. They ended up in an orphanage where, apparently, authorities decided to keep silent about the fact that they were twins. Mia and Alexandra might never have seen each other again but fate intervened when the two families met during the adoption procedure in China. Both sets of parents were immediately struck by how alike the girls looked.
From China, Mia moved with her new family to bustling Sacramento, California while Alexandra started her new life in a tiny village in picturesque Norway. For years, they lived an ocean away from each other, leading very different lives. But when a DNA test confirmed the girls were identical twins, the families decided to meet again. Twin Sisters won the prestigious Audience Award at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam, one of the world’s largest documentary film festivals. The Passionate Eye broadcast is the film’s North American premiere.
Muscle Shoals
Tuesday, Mar. 18 at 9 p.m. ET/12 a.m. PT
Under the spiritual influence of the “Singing River” as Native Americans called it, the music of Muscle Shoals is some of the most important and resonant of all time. “I’ll Take You There”, “Brown Sugar”, “When a Man Loves a Woman”, “I Never Loved A Man the Way That I Loved You”, “Mustang Sally”, “Tell Mama”, “Kodachrome”, and “Freebird” are just a few of the tens of thousands of tracks created there. At its heart is Rick Hall who founded FAME Studios. Overcoming crushing poverty and staggering tragedies, he brought black and white musicians together to create music that would last for generations while also giving birth to the unique ‘Muscle Shoals sound’ and the rhythm section “The Swampers”.
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About CBC/Radio-Canada
CBC/Radio-Canada is Canada’s national public broadcaster and one of its largest cultural institutions. The Corporation is a leader in reaching Canadians on new platforms and delivers a comprehensive range of radio, television, internet, and satellite-based services. Deeply rooted in the regions, CBC/Radio-Canada is the only domestic broadcaster to offer diverse regional and cultural perspectives in English, French and eight Aboriginal languages.
For more information including series synopses, press releases, hi-res images, video clips and bios, please visit the CBC Media Centre at cbc.ca/mediacentre. Follow CBC’s publicity team on Twitter @CBC_Publicity.
For further information, or to request interviews, contact:
Corey Black, News and Current Affairs publicist, CBC
416.205.8710 (office)/647.221.4133 (mobile)
