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Photo of a man who is wearing many buttons on his shirt.

Photo of poll observers.
Future for Lebanon
Tuesday, July 19, 2005 at 9 P.M.

The assassination of Prime Minister Rafik Hariri on Valentine's Day 2005 prompted hundreds of thousands of Lebanese to take to the streets in a powerful show of national unity. Their 'Cedar Revolution' drove out Syrian troops after 29 years of occupation, just ahead of the parliamentary elections in May and June. Can Lebanon, a country of 18 different ethnic groups that fought a 15-year civil war, achieve independence from foreign interference and overcome renewed division within?

"Future for Lebanon" takes viewers to the oldest democracy in the Middle East as voters go to the polls in a new era. This film features a democracy advocate who organized the sit-in in Martyr's Square, a Hezbollah candidate running on anti-Israeli and anti-American sentiment, and a youth organizer for the Future movement inherited by Rafik Hariri's son Saad. "Future for Lebanon" also observes the new politics of Lebanon grappling with old sectarian tensions as this election plays out. From the beaches of Beirut to the radical rallies of Hezbollah, WIDE ANGLE explores political change in one of the pivotal nations of the Arab region -- change from within, not imposed from the outside.

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Executive Producer Tania Rakhmanova and Producer/Director Paul Mitchell and their company, Wilton Films, have produced some of the landmark documentaries of the 1990s. They have won multiple Emmy Awards, duPont Journalism Awards, and UK Indie Awards, plus a Peabody and a BAFTA award. In 2002 they jointly directed and produced Wide Angle's "Greetings from Grozny," winner of the Edward R. Murrow Award, about the Chechen-Russian conflict. Mitchell has made many films inside the former Soviet Union, including INSIDE CHECHNYA, INSIDE RUSSIA'S SAS, TSAR BORIS: THE YELTSIN YEARS, THE SECOND RUSSIAN REVOLUTION, AND THE DEATH OF YUGOSLAVIA.



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