From Reel Girls Media:

HOMEFRONT airs on Global Television, March 10, 2007, 7 p.m. ET/PT

In January 2006, 1500 Canadian troops are deployed to help restore democracy to war-torn Afghanistan. While their stories are well-documented in the media, Homefront, a one-hour documentary produced and directed by Edmonton filmmaker Ava Karvonen, picks up where the media coverage stops — tracking the emotional journey of five families who face omnipresent fear and loneliness from the moment they say good-bye to their soldiers.

Homefront airs on Global Television on Saturday, March 10, 2007, 7 p.m. ET/PT as part of the Global Currents news documentary series.

Shot in both Edmonton and Afghanistan, Karvonen chronicles the challenges of soldiers in the desert and those of their families at home waiting to hear news of them. Relentless media reports on injuries and losses, offensives and retreats, keep them on constant edge, even while they struggle to maintain a sense of normalcy and calm. Overwhelming loneliness is evident as they face daily family dramas and personal losses without the support of their partners.

As an unprecedented spate of soldiers die in the battlefield, these spouses and families grapple with a gnawing sense of panic just weeks before their loved ones are scheduled to return home.

“I hear on the radio on my drive to work that a Canadian soldier’s been killed – your whole world stops at that moment,” says Nicole Whitton, documentary subject and wife of Corporal Gordon Whitton. “It’s just been an emotional rollercoaster watching the news and hearing the radio. … When you actually do see the pictures of the soldier that has died and then you see the families and the children that have been left behind, it’s heart-wrenching.”

“Making this documentary really opened my eyes,” says Karvonen. “I had no idea how stressful this tour was going to be for the families. I have a lot of respect for the support they provide not only to their soldiers, but to this country as a whole. They are also heroes but they are not recognized for their contributions to a tour.”

Homefront tells the stories of:

• Newly-weds Cpl Troy McEachern and Amanda Griffin-McEachern with a baby on the way and a romantic vision of a wartime marriage
• Capt. Derek Chenette, the almost too well-informed soldier-husband who waits for his wife Capt Marilynn Chenette while he parents their two- year-old son
• Nicole Whitton who endures a tragedy on her own when her husband Cpl Gordon Whitton is outside the wire on a mission
• Zoë Cooper, the veteran wife of DCO Maj Tod Strickland who struggles under the pressures of her husband’s third and most deadly tour
• Carolina Hamilton, who must manage the most aggravating realities of a military spouse – single-handedly planning a family move to a new posting across the country which must occur before her husband, Capt. Jon Hamilton, returns.

Homefront was produced by Franco Dottor, Ava Karvonen and Jody Polowick for Reel Girls Media in association with Global Television and with the participation of the Canadian Television Fund License Fee Program and Equity Investment Program, the Alberta Film Development Program of the Alberta Government, Rogers Documentary Fund, Knowledge Network, Canadian Learning Television and the Canadian Film or Video Production Tax Credit Program.

From Showcase:

WEBDREAMS – A Showcase original series – 12 new episodes of the hit documentary series – Uncover the secret world of adult online entertainment

Premiering on Showcase, Friday, April 6 @ 10:00 P.M. (ET/PT)

WEBDREAMS is back, and more revealing than ever. The Gemini-nominated documentary series tackles new territory in
its second season, delving deeper into the high-stakes, high-profit world of the online adult entertainment industry, exposing the reality behind the glamour and the grit beneath the glitz. The half-hour Showcase Original series produced by Galafilm premieres Friday, April 6 at 10:00 PM ET/PT.

“The cast of this season is a little more rock n’ roll, a little more hardcore, and living on the edge,” says WEBDREAMS Series Director Joshua Dorsey. “The success of Season One helped us get even more access to the industry, and even deeper into the lives of our characters.”

“The first season of WEBDREAMS has consistently appealed to Showcase audiences,” says Tara Ellis, Vice-President of Content for Showcase. “Now Showcase.ca is offering viewers the opportunity to catch up with their favourite characters as we stream the first season in advance of the highly-anticipated launch of Season Two.”

Tightly edited from over 800 hours of footage, the WEBDREAMS cameras follow seven new characters – young men and women drawn to the adult entertainment sector in a quest to find fame and fortune; dreamers who are navigating the quick changes of an industry in flux.

There’s the sultry web pioneer Angelique; Diesel, the hunky, model-turned-entrepreneur now exploring the transsexual niche; Uncle D, otherwise known as “The Canadian Assman”; Lance and Alexandra, the hardest working couple in the industry; Violet, goddess of Goth style; and Vid Vicious, an outrageous content provider working one of the most competitive ends of the industry.

Season Two of WEBDREAMS is filmed in HD and broadcast in HD where available. Filmed in a vast number of locales including Amsterdam, Paris, Miami, New York City, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Panama City, and clear across Canada, WEBDREAMS uncovers the booming online scene at a turning point. At this stage in the game, it’s the highly specialized niche sites that rule the web. It’s an environment where anything goes, and fortunes can be built or lost in an instant.

The series director of WEBDREAMS is Joshua Dorsey (The Point, Here Am I, One Day). The series is directed by Dorsey and Paul Kell (5 Sides of a Coin). Creative producer is Gregory Fine. Producer and creator for the series is Michael Kronish. Executive producer is Arnie Gelbart.

From Global:

Global Television, along with Global National’s Kevin Newman, are pleased to present another season of the critically acclaimed “Global Currents” documentary series.

Launching March 10 th at 7 p.m. ET/PT on Global Television, each weekly, one-hour, independently-produced documentary showcases the talents of Canada’s best socio-political, environmental, humanist and scientific documentary filmmakers.

“Global Currents” reflects a new journalism: character-driven stories about socially relevant issues important to all Canadians. Documentaries in this strand were selected for their original content and unique context while providing a distinctly Canadian point of view.

“Global Currents” Season Two Premieres and Encore Presentation Schedule:

• March 10 – Homefront
• March 17 – Thin Ice
• March 24 – Polygamy’s Lost Boys (encore)
• March 31 – Shattered Dreams
• April 7 – Corporations in the Classroom
• April 21 – Homefront (encore)
• April 28 – Damage Done: The Drug War Odyssey (encore)
• May 5 – Big Business, Big Union, Small Town

*Broadcast schedules are subject to change.

Continue reading Global Currents returns March 10 →

From Lee-Anne Goodman of the Canadian Press:

• Nielsen hosting medical show
  “Nielsen’s trademark silliness is on full display in “Doctorology,” a new 13-episode series on the Discovery Channel airing Friday night at 8:30 p.m. ET. Discovery is showing the first five half-hour episodes back-to-back.”

From Media in Canada:

• Leslie Nielsen’s new medical series examines slapstick*ology
  “It’s factual programming with fictional characters. Leslie Nielsen (Naked Gun, Airplane!) and ‘nephew’ Robert (David Lawrence, Fubar) ‘turn up the good’ in Discovery’s new 13-part series about medicine and technology. Playing an aspiring med student in search of a specialty, Lawrence queries doctors working at the McGill University Health Center about their jobs.”