All-new Season of The Passionate Eye Launches on CBC News Network on October 4th
Beginning in October, Gemini Award-winning journalist Wendy Mesley will be the host of CBC News Network’s documentary series The Passionate Eye, in addition to her current duties at The National. Mesley has won three Gemini Awards for her work on Marketplace and Undercurrents, and was honoured in 2006 with the John Drainie Award, for her contribution to Canadian broadcasting.
For more than 20 years, The Passionate Eye has provided Canadians with a critical window on the world, exploring international events and people through timely and provocative award-winning documentaries. The Passionate Eye’s fall season begins on Sunday, Oct. 4 at 10 p.m. ET and PT, with A Sinner in Mecca. The film follows gay filmmaker Parvez Sharma on his pilgrimage to Mecca, in Saudi Arabia, where being gay is against the law and punishable by death. Filmed in secret, Sharma brings the viewer on his very personal journey to the heart of Islam, as he struggles to answer the question “Can a gay man be a good Muslim?”
Other titles this season include:
Dreamcatcher , the inspiring story of Brenda Myers-Powell, a former prostitute in Chicago, who fights to help other women escape a life on the street (Sunday Oct. 11, 10 p.m. ET/PT).
Democrats , a film that focuses on two political rivals tasked with drafting a constitution for Zimbabwe in the wake of Robert Mugabe’s contentious 2008 presidential win (Sunday Oct. 18, 10 p.m. ET/PT).
Help Us Find Sunil Tripathi is the story of a student at Brown University who disappeared in March 2013. His family launched a social media campaign to find him, but when the Boston Marathon was bombed four weeks later and the FBI released two blurry photos of their suspects, Sunil Tripathi was mistakenly identified as one of them (Sunday Oct. 25, 10 p.m. ET/PT).
The Passionate Eye is Canada’s longest-running national showcase for independent documentaries. Check The Passionate Eye‘s website throughout the season for exclusive online interviews with several of the filmmakers, directors and subjects of this season’s documentaries.
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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.
A space for us all is CBC/Radio-Canada’s new strategy to modernize the public broadcaster and ensure that it continues to fulfill its mandate for Canadians and for future generations. Through to 2020, it will increase its investment in prime time television programming, and continue to create radio programs of the highest quality, while promoting the development of digital and mobile platforms and content.
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 more information, please contact:
Nicola Makoway
CBC News & Current Affairs, CBC Radio One publicist
nicola.makoway@cbc.ca
(416) 205-7673
