Local TV Station to Broadcast AIT-Provided Video Series "Free the Slaves"

PR0748E | Date: 2007-09-07

The American Institute in Taiwan is pleased to announce that Beautiful Life TV (BLTV, cable channel 7) will air a three-episode documentary series entitled Free the Slaves, dealing the worldwide scourge of trafficking in persons and modern-day enslavement.  This three-part documentary, provided courtesy of AIT and the State Department's Office of Public Affairs, was independently produced by a U.S.-based Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) called Free the Slaves (www.freetheslaves.net).  The message of the series is to show that slavery still exists, even in the United States, and to demonstrate what dedicated people are doing individually and collectively to eradicate modern-day forms of slavery and help its victims to start a new life in freedom.

The series will be broadcast on three successive Saturdays on the 15th, 22nd and 29th of September. Each episode of the series, which is shown in English with Chinese subtitles, includes a brief introduction and commentary in Mandarin by AIT Press Officer Lawrence Walker.

Dreams Die Hard (Sat., Sept 15th, 9 a.m. and 7 p.m., 60min program):  This documentary follows several victims trapped in slavery in the U.S.  Maria was enslaved as a domestic servant and victim of sexual exploitation in southern California. "Miguel" was enslaved in Florida, where his captors used violence to force him and many others to harvest tomatoes. Christy and Rose were enslaved in Maryland, where they worked as domestic servants after being taken from their native Cameroon.  The message is clear: modern-day slavery exists everywhere, including the United States, and it is by courageous actions of individuals and NGOs that these people were freed.

The Silent Revolution (Sat., Sept 22nd, 7 p.m., 45min program): This is the true story of people held in slavery in the stone quarries of northern India, who risk everything to take back their lives.  The film follows a group of stone-breakers who challenge the slaveholders, are burned out of their homes, are imprisoned, then finally win the right to run their own quarry and start a new village. As they struggle to survive in their new-found freedom, they send their children to school, replant the nearby forest and begin to hope for a life beyond stone-breaking. The film features an Indian NGO, Sankalp, which helps with rehabilitation of former bonded laborers.

Freedom and Beyond (Sat., Sept 29th, 9 a.m. and 7 p.m., 45min program): The film takes viewers along on a raid to free children from bonded labor in northern India; introduces the heroes who rescue the children; shows formerly enslaved children as they learn to play again; and finally travels with activists from Indian NGO Bal Vikas Ashram to the remote villages from which children are routinely trafficked.  Viewers see once powerless, hopeless villagers join forces to arrest local traffickers and create a safe place for their children.

AIT's Public Affairs Section and the State Department's Office of Public Affairs hold broadcast and other rights to a number of films on U.S. society and history, the English language, health and social issues, and the arts.  AIT is pleased to make these programs available to interested television stations in Taiwan.  For more information, please contact AIT Public Affairs Section by telephone at 2162-2037 or 2162-2035, or via email at media@mail.ait.org.tw.