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Tobias Barreto
The Passionate Eye is a Canadian documentary television series that showcases documentary programming focusing on topics of news, current affairs, politics, and social issues. Airing on CBC Television and CBC News Network, the program airs a mixture of Canadian and international documentaries; some are original to the program, while others are feature documentaries that previously had a theatrical run, or television documentaries that previously or concurrently aired on other public television broadcasts in the United States or the United Kingdom.
Originally hosted by Douglas Leiterman, the program premiered in 1992 on CBC Newsworld as a showcase to rebroadcast classic documentary films, with noteworthy broadcasts in the inaugural season including Warrendale, Summer in Mississippi and The Mills of the Gods: Viet Nam.[1] Leiterman would often also conduct new interviews with the filmmakers about their work on the films presented.[2]
In its second season, it began to introduce newer documentaries into its programming,[3] with its mix of older and newer films evolving much more strongly toward newer films as the show continued.
Michaëlle Jean became host of the program in 2000,[4] holding the role until she was appointed the new Governor General of Canada in 2005.[5] Jean was not immediately replaced by a permanent host; the series continued under a hostless format until 2015, when Wendy Mesley finally took the reins as a permanent host.
The series initially aired on Sunday and Monday nights. Debuting documentaries, the Sunday programme was titled The Passionate Eye Sunday Showcase (or, The Passionate Eye - Sunday); whereas the Monday-night feature was titled The Passionate Eye - Monday. The series eventually dropped the "Sunday" and "Monday" from its heading when it began to air episodes more regularly into its third decade.
The show has consistently aired on CBC News Network throughout its run; its broadcast on the main CBC Television network has varied, with the terrestrial network airing the show some seasons, or running other documentary series such as Doc Zone and Firsthand instead of The Passionate Eye at other times. Going into 2021, CBC made various changes to its documentary commissioning operations, dropping the other series and reuniting its documentary broadcasts on both the terrestrial and news channels under the Passionate Eye brand.[6]
Similar documentary services of CBC's include: The Nature of Things, which commissions one-hour science and nature documentaries; documentary Channel, which commissions feature-length documentaries; and CBC Short Docs, which greenlights shorter-form documentaries and digital shorts.[6]
Episodes
Season 26
| No. | Title | Directed by | Original release date | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Surviving 9/11" | Arthur Cary | September 11, 2021 | |
| 2 | "Nike's Big Bet: Alberto Salazar and the Fine Line of Sport" | Paul Kemp | September 17, 2021 | |
|
An investigation into the doping allegations around Alberto Salazar. Winner of the Canadian Screen Award for Best Sports Program or Series at the 10th Canadian Screen Awards in 2022.[7] | ||||
| 3 | "Mashkawi-Manidoo Bizmaadiziwin: Spirit to Soar" | Michelle Derosier, Tanya Talaga | September 24, 2021 | |
| 4 | "Are You Scared Yet, Human?" | Matthew Hill | October 1, 2021 | |
| 5 | "Harry and William: What Went Wrong?" | Unknown | October 8, 2021 | |
| 6 | "My Childhood, My Country: 20 Years in Afghanistan" | Phil Grabsky, Shoaib Sharifi | October 15, 2021 | |
| 7 | "The Return: Life After ISIS" | Alba Sotorra | October 22, 2021 | |
| 8 | "Dreamland: The Burning of Black Wall Street, Part 1" | Salima Koroma | October 29, 2021 | |
| 9 | "Dreamland: The Burning of Black Wall Street, Part 2" | Salima Koroma | November 5, 2021 | |
| 10 | "The Dissident" | Bryan Fogel | November 2021 | |
Season 27
| No. | Title | Directed by | Original release date |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Into the Weeds" | Jennifer Baichwal | September 16, 2022 |
| 2 | "Deconstructing Karen" | Patty Ivins Specht | September 22, 2022 |
| 3 | "The Pretendians" | Drew Hayden Taylor | September 29, 2022 |
| 4 | "The Conservation Game" | Michael Webber | October 7, 2022 |
| 5 | "The Real Mo Farah" | Leo Burley | October 13, 2022 |
| 6 | "The Talented Mr. Rosenberg" | Barry Avrich | October 20, 2022 |
| 7 | "Across & Down" | Rachel Bower | October 27, 2022 |
| 8 | "Seeds of Deceit" | Miriam Guttmann | November 3, 2022 |
| 9 | "Edward VIII: Britain's Traitor King" | Marion Milne | November 10, 2022 |
| 10 | "Wall Street Blues" | Scott Harper | November 17, 2022 |
| 11 | "Mariupol: The People's Story" | Robin Barnwell | November 24, 2022 |
| 12 | "My Old School" | Jono McLeod | December 1, 2022 |
| 13 | "A Once and Future Peace" | Eric Daniel Metzgar | December 8, 2022 |
| 14 | "Mission: Joy - Finding Happiness in Troubled Times" | Louie Psihoyos, Peggy Callahan | December 8, 2022 |
Season 28
| No. | Title | Directed by | Original release date |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Twice Colonized" | Lin Alluna | September 13, 2023 |
| 2 | "Cyborg Society" | Alex Verner | September 20, 2023 |
| 3 | "Inside the Shein Machine" | Iman Amrani | September 27, 2023 |
| 4 | "Inside the Statue Wars" | Elizabeth St. Philip | October 4, 2023 |
| 5 | "The Trouble with Kanye" | Stefan Mattison | October 11, 2023 |
| 6 | "Doppelgangers: Face to Face" | Deborah Wainwright | October 18, 2023 |
| 7 | "Searching for Satoshi: The Mysterious Disappearance of the Bitcoin Creator" | Paul Kemp | November 1, 2023 |
| 8 | "Trafficked Voices" | Viveka Melki | November 8, 2023 |
| 8 | "Warrior Soirit" | Will George | November 15, 2023 |
| 10 | "Another Body" | Sophie Compton, Reuben Hamlyn | November 21, 2023 |
| 11 | "Eternal Spring" | Jason Loftus | November 28, 2023 |
| 12 | "The Secret World of Incels" | Ben Zand | December 4, 2023 |
Season 29
| No. | Title | Directed by | Original release date | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Sorry/Not Sorry" | Caroline Suh, Cara Mones | July 12, 2024 | |
|
An examination of Louis C.K.'s efforts to come back from sexual misconduct allegations in 2017. | ||||
| 2 | "Yintah" | Brenda Michell, Jennifer Wickham, Michael Toledano | September 18, 2024 | |
|
Freda Huson, a Wetʼsuwetʼen leader, lobbies to protect her people's territory from gas and oil pipelines. | ||||
| 3 | "Who's Afraid of Nathan Law?" | Joe Piscatella | September 20, 2024 | |
|
Profile of Hong Kong democracy activist Nathan Law. | ||||
| 4 | "Bodies for Rent" | Habiba Nosheen | September 25, 2024 | |
|
People try to make a living as human lab rats, renting out their bodies for pharmaceutical drug testing. | ||||
| 5 | "Eternal You" | Hans Block, Moritz Riesewieck | October 2, 2024 | |
|
Profiles technology startups aspiring to use artificial intelligence to create avatars of the deceased. | ||||
| 6 | "The Loneliest Race" | Alex Craig | October 9, 2024 | |
|
Sailors compete in the 2022 Golden Globe Race. | ||||
| 7 | "An Unfinished Journey" | Aeyliya Husain, Amie Williams | October 16, 2024 | |
|
Activists Homaira Ayubi, Zefnoon Safai, Nargis Nehan and Nilofar Moradi continue to advocate for the protection of women's rights in Afghanistan. | ||||
| 8 | "Harder Better Faster Stronger" | Brent Hodge | October 23, 2024 | |
|
Profile of Travis Shumake, the first motorsport racer to come out as gay. | ||||
| 9 | "No Way to Die" | Marc de Guerre | October 30, 2024 | |
|
Two activists fight to be allowed to end their lives through assisted suicide. | ||||
| 10 | "Adrianne and the Castle" | Shannon Walsh | November 6, 2024 | |
|
Alan St. George maintains his home in rural Illinois as a shrine to his late wife Adrianne. | ||||
| 11 | "My Brother, Soleiman" | Rendah Haj | November 13, 2024 | |
|
Yusuf Faqiri pursues justice for the death of his schizophrenic brother in police custody. | ||||
Foreign-produced documentaries
International documentaries showcased on The Passionate Eye include:
- Crumb — a profile of the satirical cartoonist Robert Crumb
- The Celluloid Closet — an investigation of Hollywood's treatment of homosexuals
- The Dying Rooms — an expose of the Chinese orphanages
- Russian Striptease — a stylistic look at sex and corruption in post-Perestroika Russia
- The Battle Over Citizen Kane — the impact of Citizen Kane between Orson Welles and William Randolph Hearst.
- Calling the Ghosts: A Story about Rape, War and Women — the personal journey of two Bosnian women, a lawyer and a judge, who were imprisoned during the civil war.
- In the Shadow of the Stars — behind-the-scenes look at the San Francisco Opera Company.
- For Better or For Worse (1993) — intimate portraits of five culturally-diverse couples who have been together for 50 years or longer.
- Fourteen Days in May — the last two weeks on death row with a man many believe to be innocent.
- Project Nim — the story of Nim Chimpsky, a chimpanzee who was the focus of a controversial experiment that aimed to show what would happen if baby chimps were taken from their mothers at birth and raised like humans.
- 10%: What Makes a Hero? — an investigation into why some people are willing to put themselves at risk in order to perform what others consider heroic deeds
- The Choice 2020: Trump vs. Biden — investigative biographies of then-President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden.
References
- ^ Ted Shaw, "Nash reliving Newsmagazine". Windsor Star, August 15, 1992.
- ^ "While Canada looks to culture and the environment, politics is a recurring theme in the United States". The Globe and Mail, September 5, 1992.
- ^ Jim Bawden, "Specialty Villains, saints and psychos stalk channels bidding for new viewers". Toronto Star, September 11, 1993.
- ^ "New face of Quebec: Michaelle Jean is about to land on CBC's Newsworld". Barrie Examiner, October 27, 2000.
- ^ William Marsden, "Michaelle Jean: Meet the next governor-general: From exile to the top of Canadian government". Calgary Herald, August 20, 2005.
- ^ a b "CBC implements new strategy, brand for doc commissioning". Real Screen. April 30, 2021. Archived from the original on 2021-04-30. Retrieved 2021-05-01.
- ^ Brent Furdyk, "Canadian Screen Awards: Winners Announced In Sports Programming, Digital & Immersive Categories". ET Canada, April 5, 2022.