WORLD Channel Focuses on Fight for Economic Equality

January lineup examines economic disparities in the U.S.

BOSTON, Jan. 3, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- As the economic divide continues to widen, WORLD Channel looks at the tough financial struggles in America and around the world with 17 compelling documentaries airing throughout the month of January. Supported in part with a grant from the Ford Foundation, WORLD will focus on the battle for economic parity, including four broadcast premieres on America ReFramed. In rural and urban settings, these films explore critical issues including class and race segregation, job loss, failing industries and the disappearance of the middle class. America ReFramed, WORLD Channel's independent film series co-produced with American Documentary, Inc., is devoted to under-told stories about a transforming American culture in all its broad diversity.

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Tuesday, January 14: In "My Brooklyn," Director Kelly Anderson documents her personal journey to understand the forces, including race and class, reshaping her Brooklyn neighborhood. The film illustrates racial divides embedded in U.S. urban development and seeks out fairness in a broken city-planning process. Also premiering that evening is "Fate of a Salesman," a film that offers an intimate portrait of two salesmen from the Men's Fashion Center in Washington, D.C. whose company, jobs and way of life are about to disappear.

Tuesday, January 21: "Downeast" focuses on the dynamics of people and politics when 'doing good' is just not enough. Told from the viewpoint of businessman Antonio Bussone, the film documents his struggles to bring a lobster processing plant to Maine at a time when jobs have been lost to factories exporting abroad.

Tuesday, January 28: "The Pruitt-Igoe Myth" details the steady decline of an American city in the decades since World War II, with stories from the infamous Pruitt-Igoe housing development and the unfortunate St. Louis citizens who called it home. Residents endured a rapidly de-industrializing St. Louis, parceled out to downtown interests and increasingly segregated by class and race.

The Ford Foundation supports the broadcast of these films and the WORLD Channel thanks to a recently awarded two-year grant that will fuel the channel's expansion and further its mission to feature new, diverse voices and examine social justice issues nationally and internationally.

"Economic Inequality" programs on WORLD in January 2014:
AfroPoP: The Ultimate Cultural Exchange: Doin' It in the Park: Pick-Up Basketball
America Reframed: American Dreams Deferred
America Reframed: My Brooklyn/Fate of a Salesman
America Reframed: Downeast
America Reframed: The Pruitt-Igoe Myth
Economic Freedom In Action: Changing Lives
Frontline: The Retirement Gamble
Global Voices: Square Meters
Global Voices: Give Us The Money
Global Voices: Stealing Africa
Global Voices: Poor Us: The Animated History of Poverty
Global Voices: Where Heaven Meets Hell
Global Voices: Land Rush
Global Voices: Education Education
Global Voices: Welcome to the World
Independent Lens: Detropia
To Catch A Dollar: Muhammad Yunus Banks On America Ripple of Hope

For a full listing of WORLD programming and tune-in info, visit: http://worldchannel.org/  

About WORLD Channel
The WORLD Channel is a 24/7, multicast channel dedicated to delivering the best of public television's nonfiction, news and documentary programming as well as a growing schedule of original content from independent producers and communities of difference. The complementary website, www.WORLDchannel.org, expands on broadcast topics and fuels content across social media, providing opportunities for broad and diverse audience interaction. WORLD Channel is produced by WGBH/Boston, in partnership with American Public Television and WNET/New York, and in association with the Public Broadcasting Service and the National Educational Telecommunications Association.  WORLD Channel is currently carried by stations in markets that represent 60.5% of US television households.  Funding for WORLD Channel is provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the Ford Foundation.

About American Documentary, Inc.:
American Documentary, Inc. (AmDoc) is a multimedia company dedicated to creating, identifying and presenting contemporary stories that express opinions and perspectives rarely featured in mainstream media outlets. AmDoc is a catalyst for public culture, developing collaborative strategic engagement activities around socially relevant content on television, online and in community settings. ³POV² is AmDoc¹s signature series produced for PBS.

Contact:
Mandy Miller, 
National Marketing, WGBH
617.300.5334
[email protected]

SOURCE WORLD Channel