(San Francisco, CA)—Independent Television Service (ITVS) announced today the lineup for the second season of Global Voices, the international documentary series produced by ITVS International for the PBS WORLD digital channel. Global Voices’ second season begins Sunday, April 5, 2009, at 10 PM (check local listings). 

The only original series to launch on PBS WORLD, the 26-episode series runs April through September and presents compelling internationally themed documentaries made by U.S. and international filmmakers for a U.S. audience. Global Voices will feature the U.S. premieres of seven documentaries funded by ITVS International and encore broadcasts of other ITVS-funded programs. Encore presentations include the highly acclaimed mini-series THE NEW AMERICANS, the Emmy® Award–nominated AFGHANISTAN UNVEILED, DuPont Award winner SEOUL TRAIN, Sundance Film Festival Special Jury Award winner SEÑORITA EXTRAVIADA and the acclaimed THE DEVIL’S MINER.

“The return of Global Voices for a second season is a great example of ITVS International’s ongoing commitment to provide an expanding platform for documentary films made by independent producers from around the world,” said ITVS president and CEO Sally Fifer. “The series presents stories that go beyond stereotypes and headlines to provide U.S. television audiences with new insights into the cultures and people that comprise our global community.”

Leading off the second season of Global Voices is Dutch filmmaker Klaartje Quirijn’s THE DICTATOR HUNTER. Human Rights Watch lawyer Reed Brody pursues former dictators worldwide in order to bring them to justice. One of the most brutal dictators of the 20th century was Hissene Habré, who tortured the people of Chad for eight years before fleeing. Watch Brody and former political prisoner Souleymane Guangueng work the system of international diplomacy like a chess game to bring Habré to trial for authorizing the torture and murder of thousands. Along the way, Brody and Souleymane must make personal sacrifices in order to fight for their ideals.

Other films making their U.S. debut include WITNESSES TO A SECRET WAR, the stories of three generations of Hmong refugees as they struggle with their personal and political legacies. The Xiong family, who fought on America’s side of the “secret” war in Laos, tries to claim their own piece of the American dream while Ka Ying Yang, a Hmong American, tries to understand her own similar family history. Filmmaker Deborah Dickson shares their harrowing stories as this recounting of a relatively unknown piece of American history.

In RULES OF THE GAME, the Global Voices series travels to one of the most remote nations on Earth, Papua New Guinea, whose 6 million people speak more than 800 languages. Director Thom Cookes and producer John Lewis follow the country’s 2007 elections, in which three candidates vie to become the next governor in a system often plagued with political corruption and violence.

Within the breathtaking landscapes of Brazil, Chile and Cuba, we meet Guerrillero Okulto, Eli Efi and Magia, three performer-activists who believe that hip-hop culture can change the world. In ESTILO HIP HOP, directors Loira Limbal and Vee Bravo chronicle the emergence of hip-hop music in Latin America, its impact on youth culture and the regional politics that underscore its existence.

Directed by Australian filmmaker Robert Nugent, END OF THE RAINBOW looks at how a remote area of Guinea, West Africa, is transformed by the arrival of a multinational gold mining company. What unfolds is an elegiac portrait of the changes brought by the mine and of the universal human desire for a better life.

In Spain, filmmakers Antonio P. Molero and Jesus Sanjurjo evoke the past and its effect on the present in THE END OF THE WAITING TIME. In 1936, General Francisco Franco led a coup d’etat against the Spanish Republic that gave rise to a brutal civil war. During his long dictatorship, hundreds of people were arrested, executed or disappeared. Recently, family members of those who vanished have begun to look for their relatives’ remains and reflect on that dark period.

The season draws to a close with ARCHAEOLOGY OF MEMORY: Villa Grimaldi, directed and produced by Quique Cruz and Marilyn Mulford. This powerful, intense and imaginative musical journey follows exiled Chilean musician Quique Cruz from the Bay Area to Chile and back as he creates his masterwork: a multimedia installation to heal the wounds inflicted by the state-sponsored torture of the Pinochet regime. 

In addition to the PBS WORLD broadcast, select programs from last season and the current season of Global Voices will become available via such online distribution platforms as SnagFilms, Hulu, YouTube, Xbox and Zune.

For the complete lineup and schedule, visit www.pbs.org/globalvoices/.

For more information about ITVS International, visit http://www.itvs.org/international/.

ABOUT PBS WORLD

PBS WORLD features documentary, public affairs and news programming from public television’s award-winning signature series and acclaimed independent filmmakers. Produced and distributed by PBS, WGBH Boston and Thirteen/WNET New York, in association with American Public Television and the National Education Telecommunications Association, PBS WORLD launched on 55 stations across the country, representing 24 licensees and reaching more than 27 percent of U.S. households. In most markets, PBS WORLD programming is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Programming on PBS WORLD includes such popular and critically acclaimed series as American Experience, Frontline, History Detectives, Nature, The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, Nova, Scientific American Frontiers andThe Tavis Smiley Show.

ABOUT ITVS INTERNATIONAL

ITVS International is a division of Independent Television Service that promotes an international exchange of documentary films made by independent producers, bringing international voices to U.S. audiences and American stories to audiences abroad. Through a unique public-private partnership called the Global Perspectives Project, ITVS International administers the International Media Development Fund (IMDF) and True Stories: Life in the USA. The IMDF funds international producers and supports the American broadcast of their programs. True Stories: Life in the USA promotes a series of American independent films to audiences around the world. ITVS created the Global Perspectives Project in 2005 with support from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and the U.S. Department of State. More information about ITVS International is available online at itvs.org/international.

Tags: ITVS, PBS