On the box
Red, Hot and Dance — A global dance party was held in 1991 to raise funds to combat the spread of AIDS. Concerts took place simultaneously in London, Paris, Tokyo and New York, with special guests C & C Music Factory, Dream Warriors, Marky Mark and many others. SBS, Friday, June 23, 12.30pm.
Actively Radical TV — Community television's progressive current affairs program tackles the hard issues from the activist's point of view. CTS Sydney (UHF 31), every Friday, 10.30pm.
In a Time of Violence — This brilliant South African drama is set in Hillbrow — a vibrant, violent and run-down multiracial inner-city area of Johannesburg — and Soweto just prior to the 1994 elections. Two fiery young ANC activists witness an Inkatha train massacre and are forced to hide in Hillbrow when the killer recognises them. They take refuge in a block of flats where the residents — black, white, "coloured" and Afrikaner — come to terms with the changes in the country. In an interesting subplot, the residents must overcome their own prejudices and unite to fight rent rises imposed by the building's new owner, a black capitalist. The series' premiere in South Africa was delayed after the Inkatha Freedom Party issued death threats to the cast and crew and heavily armed impis marched on the SABC's Auckland Park studios. SBS, Sunday, June 25, 8.30pm.
David Suzuki's the Nature of Things: The Shoreline Doesn't Stop Here Any More — For the tourist industry, the beach is a money machine; for those wealthy enough to afford their own beach-front property, the beach is a dream come true. This program looks at coastal erosion and whether attempts to remedy the situation have created yet another set of environmental problems. SBS, Monday, June 26, 7.30pm.
Movie: Pioneers of Freedom (1981) — Set in 1920s Indonesia, this film follows a woman's path from oppression in her marriage to her emergence as a feminist leader. From Indonesia. SBS, Tuesday, June 27, 12.30pm.
Gerry Adams: The Man We Hate to Love — The BBC's notoriously hostile attitude towards the Irish freedom struggle was illustrated when, in 1983, reporter John Ware declared, "Gerry Adams is the man whose following is set to crush, once and for all, any chance of reconciliation in northern Ireland". With Adams and Sinn Fein having now forced the British government to talk peace, Ware is forced to wipe the egg off his face and announce: "Gerry Adams has become a sincere peacemaker". SBS, Tuesday, June 27, 8.30pm.
Hunger Strike: A Hidden History — A documentary that tells the dramatic story of republican Bobby Sands' hunger strike in Maze prison in northern Ireland in 1981. ABC TV, Tuesday, June 27, 11pm.
Ordinary People — The Anne Frank World Exhibition has come to Johannesburg. Filmed attending the exhibition are a holocaust survivor, a Jewish high school student and a student from Soweto. SBS, Thursday, June 29, 8pm.
Freedom on My Mind — A landmark feature-length documentary on the civil rights movement in the US, focusing on the fight to register black voters in Mississippi in 1964. SBS, Thursday, June 29, 8.30pm.