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24 September 2014
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Africa Lives On The 大象传媒
Red Dust on 大象传媒 TWO, with Chiwetel Ejiofor and Hilary Swank

Africa Lives On The 大象传媒

大象传媒 TWO



If...We Stop Giving Aid To Africa

"Africa has had about a trillion dollars in aid in the past 50 years, roughly $5,000 for every African living if distributed at today's prices. If aid were the solution to Africa's problems, it would be a rich continent by now." Richard Dowden - Director of the Royal African Society.

There is a massive debate which rages almost unheard about the future of Africa.

Serious thinkers like Richard Dowden are proposing that charity is killing Africa: that aid is creating a culture of dependency and lining the pockets of dictators.

It is a means by which Western countries exert their post-colonial power. Charity ruins economies and destroys independence.

For thinkers like Richard Dowden, the only solution is to stop giving hand outs.

If...We Stop Giving Aid to Africa tackles head-on the assumption that charity is good.

Live Aid - Against All Odds and Live Aid - Rockin' All Over the World

Against the background of Margaret Thatcher's Britain, one scruffy, fading rock star tried to pull off the impossible - a global televised concert to save the lives of the starving millions in Africa.

This two-part special traces the story of the biggest televised event ever staged on both sides of the Atlantic.

Elton John, Queen, Paul McCartney, David Bowie, U2 and a host of stars remember the day music brought the world to a standstill, while those who watched it - including Tony Blair, J K Rowling and Helen Fielding - recall how they didn't miss a minute of this extraordinary event.

The Real Number One Ladies' Detective Agency

The Number One Ladies' Detective Agency books have sold more than nine million copies worldwide.

The books detail the investigations of Precious Ramotswe and Ma Makutsi, Botswana's first ever female sleuths, and have won the hearts and minds of readers around the globe with their gentle, funny and touching portrait of life in Africa.

No real life model exists for The Number One Ladies' Detective Agency in Botswana, but across the border in Zambia is a thriving agency which employs seven female detectives, investigating everything from marital infidelity to missing secret service agents.

This film records the adventures of The Real Number One Ladies' Detective Agency in an upbeat take on life on the African continent.

The Universal Private Investigations Service (UPIS) was set up three years ago by a former Zambian Commissioner of Police who did his police training in Essex.

They say the majority of their detectives are women because they are trying to redress the traditional gender imbalance in Zambian society - but they also admit that women are simply better at the job.

Red Dust

Academy Award winner Hilary Swank and acclaimed actor Chiwetel Ejiofor lead a stellar cast in Red Dust - an intense thriller, set during South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation hearings, which follows the country's decisive struggle to heal the wounds of apartheid atrocities.

Set in Smitsriver, the film tells the story of a young, black politician (Ejiofor) who suffered in the struggle against apartheid. He now opposes the application by his former torturers - the TRC - for amnesty, because he is afraid of what the trail may reveal, under cross examination, about his own behaviour.

A human rights attorney, Sarah Baracant (Swank), now a New York City prosecutor, returns home to assist Alex, at the request of her former teacher, in a case that will change their lives forever.

Jamie Bartlett, Marius Weyers and Ian Roberts also star.

Red Dust is a 大象传媒 Films and Videovision Entertainment production, with support from South Africa's Industrial Development Corporation. It is written by Troy Kennedy-Martin and directed by Tom Hooper.

This World: Blood and Soil

It's been ten years since the end of apartheid. The dream of the Rainbow Nation has become a reality. But a South African is violently murdered every 30 minutes.

The country has the highest number of murders, rapes,

hijackings and violent robberies in the world.

In one Rainbow Nation community the death toll appears even higher: that of the white farmers.

While the government pushes on with its Land Reform programme, the black claimants say too little is being done too slowly. White farmers live in fear and point towards Zimbabwe.

Captain Manie van Zyl runs the Serious Violent Crime unit in South Africa's bloodiest province. Against the background of a beautiful landscape, the atmosphere of distrust and anger fuels half-truths and conspiracies on both sides of the land divide.

This World: Bad Medicine

The use of fake and counterfeit drugs in Africa has led to predictably tragic consequences.

Babies have died on the operating table as baffled doctors fail to realise that the drugs they are giving them during surgery are useless - because they are fake.

Dr Dora Akunyili, director of Nigeria's National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), is fighting an enormous battle to contain the industry, which sees drugs from China and India pouring into Nigeria, and now the UK.

The charismatic Dora and her team of scientists are - despite the many hurdles - starting to crack down on this deadly business.

Out Of Africa: Heroes and Icons

In a major new programme presented by actor Adrian Lester (Hustle), Out Of Africa celebrates the achievements of today's black role models by connecting them with those black icons that have gone before them.

If global black history were drawn like a tube map, how would Condoleeza Rice and Nelson Mandela be associated, and what would link Mike Tyson with Richard Pryor?

By exploring this idea, Out of Africa constructs an iconic black history map.

The programme features contributors including Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu, Maya Angelou, Morgan Freeman, Damon Albarn, Linford Christie, Lulu, Rio Ferdinand, Lenny Henry and James Brown.


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