Wide Angle » Web Exclusives

Raise the Last Glass: Video

feltzr — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 20:44:07 +0000

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Field Trip to the DMZ: Video

lauren feeney — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 23:20:28 +0000

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Pakistan at the Polls: Video: Vote for Benazir’s Blood

lauren feeney — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 18:39:31 +0000

Abida Hussain is a notoriously sharp-tongued politician with gray hair and a smoker’s raspy voice who is running for parliament in Punjab, Pakistan — against her own cousin. The two rivals come from a powerful landowning family that has controlled the region for generations, and both have held the office before. This time, her cousin is favored to win, but Hussain has hope — she’s signed on to the party of another famous dynastic politician, Benazir Bhutto. It’s just a few weeks after Bhutto was assassinated, and candidates associated with her party are expected to benefit from the sympathy vote.

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Pakistan at the Polls: Video: You Cannot Hide from Allah

lauren feeney — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 18:39:27 +0000

Meet the Michael Bloomberg of Pakistan.

Ishan Khan was just a regular guy, an immigrant working as a taxi driver in Washington, D.C. Then he hit the jackpot, winning more than $30 million in a lottery. Most people daydream about what they’d do if they won the lottery. For Khan, this decision would have real consequences. Khan decided to return to his hometown of Batagram, Pakistan, and run for mayor. Days later, an earthquake struck, killing 70,000 people, 4,500 of them in Batagram. Now, as mayor of this economically devastated town, Khan has to govern a constituency that seems to believe that his money can solve all of their problems.

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Underground Zimbabwe: Life Lines

lauren feeney — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 22:26:07 +0000

Once considered the “breadbasket of Africa,” Zimbabwe is now struggling to feed its population. It is estimated that nearly half of Zimbabwe’s 11 million people are teetering on the brink of starvation. Supplies of basic commodities such as flour, milk, cooking oil and water are running desperately low — and are increasingly impossible to afford. In Bulawayo, Zimbabwe’s second largest city, this has resulted in empty grocery store shelves — and a thriving, illegal black market. In Zimbabwe’s Life Lines, we witness the shortages of food and water firsthand and meet a young man who survives by working on the black market.

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Underground Zimbabwe: Demonstrating Under Dictatorship

lauren feeney — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 21:20:29 +0000

Zimbabwe under President Robert Mugabe has been widely considered a repressive political regime. With the government violently cracking down on voices of dissent, human rights activists are a rarity. But since its founding in 2003, one organization has succeeded in gathering more than 40,000 members who believe in the prospects of peaceful political change: Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA). In defiance of repressive laws curtailing public gatherings, this women’s empowerment movement stages non-violent street protests to agitate for bread-and-butter issues. In Demonstrating Under Dictatorship, we march with the women of WOZA in a public demonstration and hear their harrowing testimonies of being beaten by police in jail.

Last October, subsequent to Robyn Kriel’s filming, WOZA leaders Jenni Williams and Magodonga Mahlangu were arrested at a protest and charged with disturbing the peace. They may remain in custody until their trial date on February 26, 2009.

From Jihad to Rehab: Watch the Focal Point Episode

lauren feeney — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 06:48:24 +0000

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