EPISODE 102
Airdate: October 31, 2002

• Overview
• Press Reviews
• TV and Web Credits

>>Transcript

OVERVIEW

Cambodia, POL POT'S SHADOW
Searching for a mysterious executioner
FRONTLINE/World reporter Amanda Pike follows a trail of mass graves to find "Brother Number Two," the former Khmer Rouge commander, living at liberty in the country he helped destroy. From 1975 to 1979, nearly 2 million people died -- and the survivors still live side by side with the perpetrators. read more

Romania, MY OLD HAUNTS
A native son returns to the land of Dracula
Writer and NPR commentator Andrei Codrescu returns to his homeland, Romania, 13 years after the revolution that brought down dictator Nicolae Ceausescu. FRONTLINE/World explores a nation struggling with its new freedoms -- and hoping to attract tourists with the legend of Dracula. read more

India, HOLE IN THE WALL
Opening the door to cyberspace
An Indian scientist embeds a high-speed computer in a wall bordering a slum, turns it on, and watches what happens as children begin to teach themselves to use the machine. read more

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PRESS REVIEWS

It's Halloween, and Dracula is scaring up tourist dollars in Romania. But the truly haunting segment in tonight's edition of the PBS magazine show FRONTLINE/World takes place on the other side of the globe, deep in the Cambodian jungle, where the Khmer Rouge still strike fear. This FRONTLINE spinoff [is] a welcome departure from the newsmagazines obsessed with the adulterous murder plot of the week.

-- Los Angeles Times

FRONTLINE/World is a deeply serious program that also manages to have a Halloween-themed segment tonight. Poet Andrei Codrescu returns to his native Romania ... . [T]he poet is both embarrassed by the idea of a cheesy Dracula theme park and awed by the capitalist ideology that he meets ... . The program also contains another, more disturbing story of horror. Reporter Amanda Pike travels deep into Cambodia to find and interview Nuon Chea, a high-ranking Khmer Rouge official who was known as Pol Pot's Shadow and was responsible for implementing many of the atrocities carried out in Pol Pot's name ... .

FRONTLINE/World has a mandate to use young reporters to investigate stories that receive scant coverage in the mainstream media. Here, it's a real advantage to have the young Pike on the story. Learning about what happened in Cambodia, her rage and incomprehension is obvious, as it should be.

Globe and Mail, Toronto

You know it's Halloween when even the probing and intelligent news magazine FRONTLINE/World runs a story on Dracula. Essayist Andrei Codrescu returns to his native Romania, where entrepreneurs are trying to turn the legendary vampire into the next Mickey Mouse. Two other segments examine the legacy of Cambodia's genocidal Khmer Rouge and profile Dr. Sugata Mitra, a generous Indian software tycoon.

-- Sacramento Bee

Halloween becomes the peg for most shows tonight, including the season premiere of the FRONTLINE spin-off, FRONTLINE/World. It works when poet Andrei Codrescu visits his native Romania ... . There's a more subtle connection on the show's second segment, "Pol Pot's Shadow." Correspondent Amanda Pike notes: "Cambodians say that the souls of those who die without a proper burial continue to wander the earth. This is a place still haunted by their presence ... ." A third segment ... is more upbeat: finding out what happens when computers are installed in rural India for use by poor children.

-- Hartford Courant

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TV AND WEB CREDITS

POL POT'S SHADOW

Producer/Reporter: AMANDA PIKE; Director of Photography: ADAM KEKER; Editors: ANDREW GERSH, ADAM KEKER; Additional Materials: DOCUMENTATION CENTER OF CAMBODIA, TUOL SLENG MUSEUM, NATIONAL ARCHIVES, PROM SARIN; Music by: THE CAMBODIAN MASTER'S PROGRAM, PREAH VIHEAR VIDEO, PRACH LY; Special Thanks: PEW FELLOWSHIPS IN INTERNATIONAL JOURNALISM, UC BERKELEY GRADUATE SCHOOL OF JOURNALISM

MY OLD HAUNTS

Reporter: ANDREI CODRESCU; Producer/Director: MARIAN MARZYNSKI; Producer: JASON COHN; Associate Producer: JOHN ELY; Cameraman/Editor: JASON LONGO

HOLE IN THE WALL

Director/Reporter: RORY O'CONNOR; Line Producer: GIULIO D'ERCOLE; Editor: KOZO OKUMURA; Director of Photography: BETHIN DAS; Co-Director: GIL ROSSELLINI; Produced in association with: GLOBALVISION, INC., ROSSELLINI & ASSOCIATI

For FRONTLINE/World 102

Production Manager: RACHEL RANEY; Associate Producers: JESSIE DEETER, SHERAZ SADIQ; Unit Manager: SUZANNE ROMAINE; Web Producer: ANGELA MORGENSTERN; Web Editor: SARA MILES; Web Design: FLUENT STUDIOS; Promotion: ERIN MARTIN KANE, CHRIS KELLY, BRIAN ELEY; Community Engagement: BRENT QUAN HALL; Satellite Photos: SPACE IMAGING, U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY; Theme Music: SUPREME BEINGS OF LEISURE; Sound Mix: JIM SULLIVAN; Post Production Supervisor: WENDY SMITH; Post production Assistant: CHETIN CHABUK; Online Editor: MICHAEL H. AMUNDSON; Senior Video Editor: STEVE AUDETTE; Series Design: JOHN MACGIBBON; FRONTLINE Coordinating Producer: ROBIN PARMELEE; FRONTLINE Production Manager: TIM MANGINI; FRONTLINE Series Manager: JIM BRACCIALE; KQED VP, TV Station Manager: DEANNE HAMILTON; Executive in Charge for KQED: SUE ELLEN MCCANN; Executive in Charge for FRONTLINE: SHARON TILLER; Series Editor: STEPHEN TALBOT; Executive Producer: DAVID FANNING

Web Site (Romania, Cambodia, India)

Producer: ANGELA MORGENSTERN; Design and Production: Susan Harris FLUENT STUDIOS; Writing and Research: JESSIE DEETER, DAVE GILSON, AMANDA PIKE, SHERAZ SADIQ; Additional Research: KELLY WHALEN; Copy Editor: JOAN SAUNDERS; Web Editor: SARA MILES; Series Editor: STEVE TALBOT; Special Thanks: SAM BAILEY, MARRIE CAMPBELL, JOHN ELEY , AMANDA HIRSCH, SUE ELLEN MCCANN, GORDON MCNEE, DAVID MOYCE, STEVEN PAK, RACHEL RANEY, SUZANNE ROMAINE, WEN STEPHENSON, JAMES THOMPSON, SHARON TILLER, BRIAN UNDERWOOD, KQED INTERACTIVE

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