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- Of all the remarkable events of this century perhaps the most fascinating has been the spontaneous growth, flowering and then decay of a handful of great cities. These cities were places where art, culture and political liberties co-mingled with corruption, brutality and decadence. Everything and just about anyone could be bought and sold. The immigrant would struggle beside the artist. Gamblers, thieves and prostitutes co-habited with soul-savers, the rich and the powerful. The exhilarating combination of the seamy with the sublime made these places a magnet for all the lost souls and refugees of the world. Pushing the limits of tolerance and freedom, they defined the social, political and sexual culture of the 20 th century. Their names ring out: Paris of the '20s, Berlin of the '20s and '30s and Shanghai of the '30s. In the period between the wars, these were the LEGENDARY SIN CITIES of the world. Contemporary footage mixed with rare and richly evocative archival films, stock shots and stills give resonance to the stories of an extraordinary cast of characters: novelists and artists, musicians and journalists, rogues and sinners. Added to the mix are excerpts from feature films, married with the music of those remarkable times. What results is a richly drawn portrait of a time and place that helped define our century.
- The whole idea of modern athletics is to win, to be the best because at the end of that finishing line lies gold - real gold. Now that sports is part of the big business' of entertainment, a medal can be worth millions of dollars not only to the athlete but to the athlete's sponsor and even the athlete's national sports organization. With so much at stake, the principles of fair play and "may the best man or woman win" have all but disappeared replaced by "come in first, no matter how". And if it takes cheating to win, then so be it. About thirty years ago it was discovered that one of the best ways to cheat was to be found in the pharmaceutical laboratories. Until the advent of modern chemistry, the performance enhancement choices available to athletes were pretty much limited. Now any top athlete is aware that there is a storehouse of drugs and medical tricks that they can use for "upping" their performance. Anabolic steroids, amphetamines, human growth hormone (HGH), and the endurance-aiding erythropoietin (EPO), make up only a small part of the illegal measures available to the cheating athlete. Many of these drugs can be masked by other drugs, while for some of the newer drugs there are still no approved tests available. DYING TO WIN is a revealing and frightening expose of the explosive use of performance enhancing drugs. Its impact goes beyond the athletes' fields of competition. Its corrosive effects have touched amateur participants, fans and even children. The documentary shows how athletes, coaches, medical gurus and officials function in the context of this seemingly unstoppable onslaught of performance-enhancing drugs. For although on the surface there seems to be a new, concerted effort to eliminate doping with the formation of WADA (The World Anti-Doping Agency), the pressures that big money, powerful sports federations and a lack of political will among both rich and poor countries has ultimately undermined any real hope of stopping athletics' dirty open secret.
- The attack on September 11th has led to a ready acceptance by the public to trade rights for security. "Shorter chains and smaller cages," is how John Perry Barlow, founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and former Grateful Dead lyricist, describes it in the program. Without much fanfare, a surveillance net that can encompass the world and make everyone a suspect is being woven around us. SECURITY THREAT, which illustrates just how perilously close we are to drifting into an Orwellian nightmare debuted on CBC Television's WITNESS on January 30, 2003. Among the victims of this new surveillance society is Shakir Baloch, a Pakistani-born Canadian citizen, who was plucked off an American street and held in complete isolation for almost 4 months. The search for security is also behind the explosive growth in Canadian and American biometric companies. Biometrics is the technology that uses parts of our bodies to identify us, such as fingerprints or retinas and even the way we walk. Biometrics is touted as the security solution for the 21st century. The American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators, with members in every province and state in North America, has its own idea. It is promoting the introduction of a standardized motor vehicle license for all of North Americans. An ID card could very well be introduced in the guise of a more secure driver's license. In the end, SECURITY THREAT makes clear that post-September 11th, America started creating a surveillance society that transcends borders and endangers hard-won civil rights around the world. As Simon Davies of Privacy International puts it, "It's like slow boiling a lobster, eventually, people just accept the surveillance."
- Obesity in adults has increased 50 per cent in the past decade, with the statistics even higher for children. Ninety five per cent of dieters fail. The only winner is the diet industry, despite the fact that the numerous diet solutions it has sold to the public have failed to deliver on their promises of permanent weight loss. DIET WARS documents the dubious claims, exaggerations and half-truths put forth by the leading diet 'gurus'. As well, the hour-long program explores the facts behind other reducing choices, including diet pills and surgical procedures. The problem is real. As DIET WARS points out, half of North Americans are overweight and one quarter of us are obese. The reasons for obesity aren't a secret. They include too much food and not enough exercise. Being overweight in a society that publicly worships the slender leads to low self-esteem and prompts many to go on a diet. DIET WARS features interviews with various 'experts' competing for the diet dollar. Every diet has a battalion of converts. Dr. Robert C. Atkins sells the high fat/high animal protein diet; Dr. Dean Ornish swears the low fat/no animal protein diet can reverse heart damage; Suzanne Somers' Somersizing - eat more, yet weigh less, and Jim Karas' Business Plan for the Body. As DIET WARS reveals, some people pursue radical, surgical solutions, including liposuction (fat extraction), and bariatrics (sealing most of the stomach) - both expensive procedures, sometimes with serious side effects. Diet pills are also popular, but have proven drawbacks including tragic or deadly side effects.