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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Colleen Wright
March 22, 2002 Marketing Communications Account Executive
Telephone: (410) 581-4293
E-mail: colleenwright@mpt.org
MPT. This is bigger than television
The Genocide Factor premieres on Maryland Public Television
honoring Holocaust remembrance day
Public invited to screening and discussion
OWINGS MILLS, MD: At the opening of a new century, mass murder
has already become an indelible part of our daily lives. Now, a maverick
filmmaker documents man's worst crimes against his own kind in the hope
that history will not continue to repeat itself.
The Genocide Factor: The Human Tragedy, a four-hour mini-series,
airs on Maryland Public Television (MPT) on four consecutive Thursdays
at 10:00 p.m., premiering Thursday, April 4, 2002. Three years in the
making, the series anthologizes man's worst savagery to man from biblical
times to the present. Produced by Media Entertainment, Inc. and directed
by Robert J. Emery, the series is introduced by Academy Award-winner Jon
Voight. In conducting the broadest possible examination of man's inhumanity
to man, the series also examines the "factors" that can lead
to genocide, and therefore explores documented atrocities not officially
classified as genocide as well as those that are.
The Genocide Factor isn't a hastily rigged response to current events.
Emery began work on it more than three years ago, well before the human
rights crisis in Kosovo filled front pages. A total of 85 interviews were
conducted with scholars, experts, government officials, and, most importantly,
with surviving eyewitnesses. Over 1,000 photographs were gathered, as
well as more than 130 hours of video and film documentation. Some of these
are disturbing, and parental guidance is advised for young viewers.
On April 11, MPT will join with The Brody Public Policy Forum of the University
of Maryland College Park for a screening of excerpts from the fourth episode
of The Genocide Factor and a panel discussion on the issue. The
Genocide Factor is one half of the evening's presentation. The evening
will begin at 8 pm with a discussion on the current Enron scandal in the
Kay Theatre of the Clarice Smith Fine Arts Center on the University of
Maryland College Park campus. Following that presentation, there will
be a short 20-minute coffee and dessert reception, after which The
Genocide Factor discussion will begin. For more information on this
event, please call Tammy Paolino at the Maryland School of Public Affairs
at (301) 405-3103.
The Brody Public Policy Forum brings renowned leaders and public policy
experts to the University of Maryland to increase discussion and awareness
of topics of national and international importance. The forum will offer
up to four lectures or debates annually, with about one quarter of the
lectures addressing issues related to Judaism.
Media Entertainment, Inc., based in Tampa, Florida, has created features
and documentaries on a wide array of topics, including national forests
(The Magic Wilderness), Rembrandt (Rembrandt: His Life, His
Times, His Work), vagabond circus performers (Winter Quarters),
and, most recently, an athlete's fatal illness (Swimming Upstream),
his eighth feature film. Three more documentaries are in production -
Golden Saddles, Silver Spurs, on Western movies; KidHealth,
13 half-hours for PBS, made in conjunction with Shriners Hospitals for
Children; and a two-hour program on the Lincoln Brigade (the American
volunteers who fought fascism in the Spanish Civil War). The Directors,
his ongoing series on Hollywood's greatest filmmakers, plays on the Encore
Cable Channel and in 55 countries.
Maryland Public Television is a not-for-profit, state-licensed public
television station which serves the citizens and communities of Maryland
and beyond through a variety of broadcast and nonbroadcast activities.
For more information on MPT on- and off-air programs, visit mpt.org.
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