UPDATED ON:
Thursday, November 05, 2009
17:56 Mecca time, 14:56 GMT
Programmes WITNESS
Coming soon on Witness

Lonely Boy Richard                                                            Sunday, November 1


 

In a remote aboriginal community in Northeast Australia, the people are facing serious social problems with alcohol abuse and violence threatening family and community life.

Richard Wanambi, who calls himself lonely boy, has been drinking since he was 14, just like his Dad did.

Now he has been convicted of a terrible crime and is about to go to prison for a long time. He knows what to expect, because he has been there before.

In Australia's Northern Territory, most prisoners are indigenous men.

A story about alcohol abuse and how it has torn one family apart.

Lonely Boy Richard can be seen from Sunday, November 1 at the following times GMT: Sunday: 1400; Monday: 0600 and 1900; Tuesday: 0300.

Journey Home                                                                    Sunday, November 1

Awad Joumaa, Al Jazeera's news editor, takes his exiled father on a journey back to his birthplace in Palestine.

As they span two continents and three countries in this deeply personal film, father and son explore the realities of what six decades of displacement feels like for Palestinians forced into exile.

It is a journey packed with not only logistical obstacles but also a heavy emotional baggage.

Journey Home can be seen from Sunday, November 1 at the following times GMT: Sunday: 0830, 1900; Monday: 0330, 1400 and 2330.

Family Torn Apart                                                            Tuesday, November 3


 

The Munoz parents came to the US on a temporary residence permit to get hospital treatment for their first child.

 

After his death they stayed, but now the authorities have caught up with the Munoz family and the parents have been sent back to Tijuana, just across the Mexican border.

 

18-year old Lesley and her younger siblings were born in the US, and so are US citizens who cannot be deported.

 

The film takes us right into the lives of this family who are struggling to stay together across two countries.

Family Torn Apart can be seen on Tuesday, November 3 at the following times GMT: Tuesday: 0830 and 1900; Wednesday: 0330, 1400 and 2330.

Preview: Kalinovski Square                                           Thursday, November 5

Three months before elections the president of the Republic of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko claimed: "You have no other choice, you will vote for me!"

This is exactly how it happened in March 2006. How did it happen that 83 per cent of population voted for Lukashenko?

The film tracks the opposition struggle during few post-election days. Using a lot of archive material imprinted in the course of Lukashenko's governing, the author draws a parallel between history and recent days in this parody of Belarus under Alexander Lukashenko's leadership.

Rageh Omaar talks to a journalist who covered the events at Kalinovski Square.

The Preview for Kalinowski Square can be seen on Thursday, November 5 at the following times GMT: Thursday: 0830 and 1900; Friday: 0330, 1400 and 2330.

Kalinovski Square                                                               Sunday, November 8


 

This parody of Belarus under Alexander Lukashenko's presidential leadership highlights the changing opinions of the population under his control and tracks the opposition struggle during few post-election days.

 

Assembling together all the debris of the opinions, comparing different historical events, jeering at dictator's arrogance and manners, admiring courage and dedication of the young generation, the film approaches the understanding of what is really going on in the center of Europe.

 

A revealing story about life in Belarus before and after the elections of president Lukashenko.

Kalinovski Square can be seen from Sunday, November 8 at the following times GMT: Sunday: 1400; Monday: 0600 and 1900; Tuesday: 0300.

Ramallah TV                                                                         Sunday, November 8

While the world watches Palestine, what do Palestinians watch?

Ramallah TV turns the tables and shows us the kind of television that Palestinians are making and watching for themselves, while we watch them on our TV News screens.

Al-Quds Educational Television is a small, public service, non-profit channel based in Ramallah, which gives Palestinians the chance to show their own stories, to their own communities.

It is under constant threat of financial ruin, Israeli repression and falling foul of the Palestinain factions it criticises.

This film meets some of the characters both on and behind the screens at the station, and explores the stories they want to tell the world about life in the West Bank.

Ramallah TV can be seen from Sunday, November 8 at the following times GMT: Sunday: 0830, 1900; Monday: 0330, 1400 and 2330.

Last Days of Yasser Arafat                                           Tuesday, November 10 


 

Filmmaker Sherine Salama filmed the last interview ever given by Yasser Arafat, the then Palestinian president.

 

A month later he was dead. The interview was the culmination of over a year's filming in the besieged president's compound.

 

And a year's waiting to know whether she would be granted access. 

 

Sherine tells Rageh Omaar about the final chapter in the story of her pursuit of one of the most controversial public figures of our time.

Last Days of Yasser Arafat can be seen on Tuesday, November 10 at the following times GMT: Tuesday: 0830 and 1900; Wednesday: 0330, 1400 and 2330.

Italian Orchestra                                                           Thursday, November 12

An uplifting film about the remarkable 'Orchestra di Piazza Vittorio', a creative force of musical immigrants in Rome, who use their cross-cultural musicianship to combat the negative stereotypes of immigrants and the increasing xenophobia in Italy.

The orchestra was created in 2002 by a band of writers, filmmakers and musicians. They originally got together to save an old movie theatre. The group decided to create an orchestra that would unite all the sounds and cultures that could be found around the ailing piazza and gardens devastated by endemic homelessness and crime.

The film weaves the tale of the 'Orchestra di Piazza Vittorio' with the lives of immigrants and the new vigilantes determined to keep growing cultural diversity well under control.

Italian Orchestra can be seen on Thursday, November 12 at the following times GMT: Thursday: 0830 and 1900; Friday: 0330, 1400 and 2330.

 Source: Al Jazeera
 
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