In Afghanistan today, in the midst of war and endemic poverty, an ancient tradition-banned when the Taliban were in power-has re-emerged across the country. It’s called Bacha Bazi, translated literally as “boy play.” Hundreds of boys, some as young as eleven, street orphans or boys bought from poor families by former warlords and powerful businessmen, are dressed in woman’s clothes, taught to sing and dance for the entertainment of male audiences, and then sold to the highest bidder or traded among the men for sex. With remarkable access inside a Bacha Bazi ring operating in Northern Afghanistan, Najibullah Quraishi, an Afghan journalist, investigates this practice, still illegal under Afghan law, talking with the boys, their families, and their masters, exposing the sexual abuse and even murders of the boys, and documenting how Afghan authorities responsible for stopping these crimes are sometimes themselves complicit in the practice.
Producers: PBS Distribution
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Frontline: The Dancing Boys of Afghanistan -Home Use
In Afghanistan today, in the midst of war and endemic poverty, an ancient tradition-banned when the Taliban were in power-has re-emerged across the country. It’s called Bacha Bazi, translated literally as “boy play.” Hundreds of boys, some as young as eleven, street orphans or boys bought from poor families by former warlords and powerful businessmen, are dressed in woman’s clothes, taught to sing and dance for the entertainment of male audiences, and then sold to the highest bidder or traded among the men for sex. With remarkable access inside a Bacha Bazi ring operating in Northern Afghanistan, Najibullah Quraishi, an Afghan journalist, investigates this practice, still illegal under Afghan law, talking with the boys, their families, and their masters, exposing the sexual abuse and even murders of the boys, and documenting how Afghan authorities responsible for stopping these crimes are sometimes themselves complicit in the practice.
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Frontline: Obama’s Deal – inside the Battle for Healthcare – Public Performance
Health care reform was the first big policy deal taken on by the Obama administration. Many say the young president has bet the mid-term elections, possibly his presidency, on the outcome. In a new investigation FRONTLINE goes behind closed doors at the White House, in Congress and the boardrooms of the giant health-care lobby to examine the political battles and costly compromises that defined Barack Obama’s endeavor. From early positive efforts, through the bitter battles with the Tea Party, the elation of apparent success at Christmas, to the crushing failure in the Massachusetts Senatorial election, FRONTLINE follows the story and reveals the first in-depth look at how the Obama administration operates. In Obama’s Deal, FRONTLINE veteran producer Michael Kirk (Bush’s War, Dreams of Obama, Inside the Meltdown, The Warning) provides a sobering expose’ of the realities of American politics, the power of special interest groups, and the role of money in policy making.
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Frontline: The Suicide Tourist – Public Performance
Do we have the right to end our lives if life itself becomes unbearable, or when we enter the late-stages of painful, terminal illness? The questions, debated for centuries, have only grown more pressing in recent years as medical technology has allowed us to live longer lives, and several U.S. states have legalized physician-assisted suicide. With unique access to Dignitas, the Swiss non-profit that has helped over one thousand people die since 1998, Academy award- winning filmmaker John Zaritsky offers a revealing look at two different couples facing the most difficult decision of their lives-and lets us see for ourselves as one Chicago native makes the trip to Switzerland for what will become the last day of his life.
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Frontline: The Suicide Tourist – Home Use
Do we have the right to end our lives if life itself becomes unbearable, or when we enter the late-stages of painful, terminal illness? The questions, debated for centuries, have only grown more pressing in recent years as medical technology has allowed us to live longer lives, and several U.S. states have legalized physician-assisted suicide. With unique access to Dignitas, the Swiss non-profit that has helped over one thousand people die since 1998, Academy award- winning filmmaker John Zaritsky offers a revealing look at two different couples facing the most difficult decision of their lives-and lets us see for ourselves as one Chicago native makes the trip to Switzerland for what will become the last day of his life.
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Frontline: Digital Nation – Public Performance
Over a single generation, the Web and digital media have remade nearly every aspect of modern culture, transforming the way we work, learn, and connect in ways that we’re only beginning to understand. FRONTLINE producer Rachel Dretzin (Growing up Online) teams up with one of the leading thinkers of the digital age, Douglas Rushkoff (The Persuaders, Merchants of Cool), to continue to explore life on the virtual frontier. The film is the product of a unique collaboration with visitors to the Digital Nation Web site, who for the past year have been able to react to the work in progress and post their own stories online. Dretzin and her team report from the front lines of digital culture-from love affairs blossoming in virtual worlds, to the thoroughly wired classrooms of the future, to military bases where the Air Force is fighting a new form of digital warfare. Along the way, they begin to map the critical ways that technology is transforming us, and what we may be learning about ourselves in the process.
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FRONTLINE: Black Money – Public Performance
FRONTLINE examines the shadowy world of international bribery, revealing how multi-national companies create slush funds, set up front companies, and make secret payments, all to get billions in business. These practices are facing a new international crackdown. At the center of this is a controversial, ongoing investigation into the British-based multi-national BAE Systems and allegations about billion dollar bribes.
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FRONTLINE: Ten Trilliion and Counting – Home Use
All of the measures by the feds to stem the tide in the financial meltdown have added hundreds of billions of dollars to our national debt. FRONTLINE reports on how this debt will constrain and challenge the new administration, and on the growing chorus, that without fiscal reform the US government may face a debt crisis of its own in years to come that make the current financial problems look almost painless by comparison.
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FRONTLINE: Ten Trillion and Counting – Public Performance
All of the measures by the feds to stem the tide in the financial meltdown have added hundreds of billions of dollars to our national debt. FRONTLINE reports on how this debt will constrain and challenge the new administration, and on the growing chorus, that without fiscal reform the US government may face a debt crisis of its own in years to come that make the current financial problems look almost painless by comparison.
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FRONTLINE: Poisoned Waters – Home Use
FRONTLINE examines the rising hazards to human health and eco-system, and why it’s so hard to keep our waters clean. The coastal estuaries of Puget Sound and the Chesapeake Bay-are in perilous condition. Polluted runoff still flows in from industry, agriculture, and massive suburban development, and scientists fear contamination to the food chain, drinking water, as well as a growing list of endangered species.