Budiey
Comic Book Superheroes Unmasked
Premieres Sunday 8pm, 20 March 2011
Synopsis:
From Superman to Spiderman, Batman to The Hulk, learn how young writers and artists created them and examine how it has impacted us over time. This documentary is about the history of the comic book industry from its origins in the 1930’s to the present day, and how comic books have mirrored and affected the society around them. Following the most representative cartoon crusaders and villains, as well as the industry that formed them, we see how they mirrored society from the Depression, WWII, the Cold War, and the turbulent ’60s to today–and how they proved adaptable to other media.
It featured traditional historians, people from inside the industry such as Stan Lee, and people who grew up reading comic books. People featured in the documentary were Frank Miller, Denny O’Neil, Jim Steranko, Micheal Chabon, Will Eisner, Kevin Smith, Neil Gaiman, Avi Arad, Joe Quesada, Paul Levitz, Mike Richardson.
History Asia: Kimjongilia
Premieres Sunday 10pm, 20 March 2011
Synopsis:
Kimjongilia is an unblinking indictment of life in North Korea under the dictatorship of Kim Jong Il. This searing examination of the communist dictatorship established by Kim Il-sung and continued today by his son Kim Jong-il dispels the illusion of a Worker’s Paradise peddled by the North Korean government and exposes the injustice, tragedy and famine prevalent over the past forty years.
Director NC Heikin compiles a series of testimonies – and daring escape stories – from concentration camp refugees, defectors and former Korean Army officers. The result is a collage of firsthand witnesses to the unrepentant pain caused by the tyrannical leadership. The courageous individuals documented here have risked everything in the hope of exposing the truth about this cloistered, xenophobic territory.
Their testimonies are supplemented by interpretive dance and a riveting score, indicative of the film’s keen interest in Korean art – both the propagandistic kind sanctioned by the government and the sort of artistic expression that can result in execution. Footage of cheery government propaganda is juxtaposed with survivor testimony and cold-hard facts. This practice of exposing the truth through ironic exhibition extends to its title: Kimjongilia being the name of the flower created to celebrate Kim Jong-il’s 46th birthday. This feature-length documentary is a damning condemnation of a regime founded upon total oppression of its people.
This program is available in Bahasa Malaysia and Chinese subtitles.
