Page 19 - 23_Bafta ACADEMY_Om Puri_ok

Some things are worth fighting for.
COLD MOUNTAIN
AN ANTHONY MINGHELLA FILM
Artwork©2003 Miramax Film Corp. All Rights Reserved.
the idea of pre-emptive war. This is a profound concept that could be used to justify all kinds of mili- tary actions against different nations. How Iraq plays out could dramatically influence America’s thinking that may or may not get it involved elsewhere.”
But, while television concen- trates on the Middle East, are other conflicts and stories around the world being forgotten? Norma Percy, a director of docu- mentary-makers Brook Lapping, admits that some subjects are less attractive to commissioning edi-
tors. “It’s very hard to do things that are repellent to the viewers, such as people killing people in Africa. It’s a question of convinc- ing broadcasters that people will be interested,” she says.
But Percy – who with her fel- low Brook Lapping director, Brian Lapping was awarded the Alan Clarke award for outstanding creative contribution to television by BAFTA earlier this year – adds: “We’ve been making these pro- grammes for more than 20 years and, although they’re hard to get off the ground, we continue to be able to do it.”
Although the Middle East and terrorism have filled much of their output, Channel 4’s Dispatches recently aired The Killing Fields of Congo and BBC2’s Correspondent filed on The Real Dr Evil about North Korean leader Kim Jong-il. Brook Lapping’s series, The Fall of Milosevic, also ran on BBC2 earlier this year.
“We’ve always made history programmes, but more and more history is moving up to the pres- ent and becoming current affairs,” explains Percy. “You can see the real people who make the decisions – that’s why we do recent history with people who are still alive to tell the tale, show- ing you the decision-makers and letting you judge whether they are telling the truth.”
Filming foreign stories, espe- cially in dangerous out-of-the- way places, is “vilely expensive”, says Goldston. The eight pro- grammes Tonight made from the frontline in Iraq cost more than £1m. “We, along with all other current affairs programmes and news organisations, are still bear- ing the brunt of [covering] the Iraq war,” he says.
Goldston admits that stories like the recent conflict in Sierra Leone or the Congo are less likely to win airtime given Tonight’s remit as a human interest, popu- lar current affairs programme.
“They’re not really on the radar of our audience and it’s quite hard for us to justify doing a pro- gramme because there’s not a ‘must do’ element to it. These aren’t countries that are likely to create terror that can impact on the West. You have to make harsh judgements because of the cost of covering them. If we did the Congo or Sierra Leone we’d be lucky to get two million viewers.”
With limited budgets it is hardly surprising that current affairs con- centrates on the biggest stories.
“There are lots of conflicts in the world on which much less attention is focused” says October Films’ Roberts, “but although they have tremendous consequences for the people caught up in them, they have, sadly, very little relevance to our daily lives and to the eventual course of contemporary history.”
Roberts, however, is satisfied, though not complacent about, the state of current affairs pro- gramme-making: “There’s a tremendous interest in British televi- sion for the wider world. There’s not enough international cover- age overall and the amount of money that commissioners have to spend is not enough, but the job they are doing is pretty good.”
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