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
How To Be A Wild Elephant
Thursday, Jan. 9 at 8 p.m. (8:30 NT) on CBC-TV
In 2010, our documentary about an orphaned baby elephant named Sities won the hearts of Canadians. Now, three years later, we catch up with her as she takes the difficult step towards becoming a wild elephant. How To Be A Wild Elephant observes the challenges Sities faces as she leaves the safety of the Nursery at David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust in Nairobi and moves on to the next phase of her journey back to freedom.
The Motherload
Thursday, Jan. 9 at 9 p.m. (9:30 NT) on CBC-TV
Why would a recent article in The Atlantic called Why Women Still Can’t Have It All create such an international sensation? Why does the announcement of a new CEO of a Fortune 500 company make headlines because she is also pregnant? Whether you’re an unemployed single mom or a Fortune 500 CEO with a new baby, women today are experiencing a motherload like never before. Women still lag behind men in income, full-time employment and senior management positions. They do double duty on the home front and the high cost of daycare is straining those already stretched to the limit. DOC ZONE investigates why we are not yet living in a 50-50 world.
Wrap Rage
Friday, Jan. 10 at 8 p.m. (8:30 NT) on CBC-TV
Had it with frustrating packaging? Tape, twist-ties, impossible-to-open plastic… MARKETPLACE asked for nominations for Canada’s most frustrating packaging and now they’re handing out the first-ever Wrap Rage awards! Over-packaged products can be a pain - they take ages to open and produce so much waste that even environmental icon David Suzuki had a nomination, saying he’s “pissed off.” Hosted by Erica Johnson, Wrap Rage takes a look at wasteful, dangerous and frustrating packaging, and reveals the award winners. Throughout the show, MARKETPLACE is encouraging Canadians to tweet their wrap rage using #WrapRage, and their tweets could be chosen to appear live on-air.
Silence of the Labs
Friday, Jan. 10 at 9 p.m. (9:30 NT) on CBC-TV
In the past few years, the federal government has cut funding to hundreds of renowned research institutes and programs. Ottawa has dismissed more than 2,000 federal scientists and researchers and has drastically cut or ended programs that monitored smoke emissions, food inspections, oil spills, water quality and climate change. Now some scientists have become unlikely radicals, denouncing what they call a politically-driven war on knowledge. In Silence of the Labs, Linden MacIntyre tells the story of scientists - and what is at stake for Canadians - from Nova Scotia to the B.C. Pacific Coast to the far Arctic Circle.
Saturday, Jan. 11 at 10 p.m. ET on CBC News Network
Fifty years after his first World Heavyweight Championship, The Trials of Muhammad Ali goes beyond the swagger and outside the ring to explore Ali’s lifelong journey of spiritual transformation and the battle that almost ended his career - his refusal to fight for the U.S. military in Vietnam.
Sunday, Jan. 12 at 8 p.m. ET, repeats Saturday, Jan. 18 at 10 p.m. ET/PT on CBC News Network
Why was the South African President Jacob Zuma booed at Nelson Mandela’s memorial service? Nelson Mandela promised a South Africa based on freedom and equality when he was elected in 1994, but twenty years on has his dream been lost? As the country mourns its heroic leader, the nation Mandela fought so hard to create is slowly disintegrating. Violence is commonplace, unemployment is out of control (estimated at 25%) and the ruling ANC Government, in particular President Zuma is accused of rampant corruption. Reporter Matthew Carney travels to South Africa to try and understand the forces that threaten to pull the “rainbow nation” apart.
Sunday, Jan. 12 at 10 p.m. ET/PT on CBC News Network
Just days before the one year anniversary (Jan. 16, 2013) of the terrorist attack on a gas plant in Algeria that involved two Canadian jihadists and left 40 hostages dead, Siege in the Sahara dramatically reconstructs the events. Over four days, the hostage-taking transfixed the world, ending when Algerian Special Forces stormed the site and killed or captured all of the Al Qaeda operatives, including the two Canadians. The film raises many important questions about why so many hostages died in the attack.
Licence to Kill (Canadian TV Premiere)
Thursday, Jan. 9 at 9 p.m. ET/10 p.m. PT on documentary Channel
After Courtney Meppen-Walter was released from prison in error earlier this year, this powerful documentary follows why he was sent there in the first place, following a traffic collision that killed two members of the same family. With exclusive interviews and access to that family and to Meppen-Walter himself, it explores why newly qualified drivers are so often at the centre of traffic accidents and why these are the single biggest killer of young people.
Tiny: A Story of Living Small (Encore)
Sunday, Jan. 12 at 9 p.m. ET on documentary Channel
What is home? And how do we find it? One couple’s attempt to build a “tiny house” with no building experience raises questions about sustainability, good design, and the changing American Dream.
-30-
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)
