Actively Radical TV — Sydney community television's progressive current affairs producers tackle the hard issues from the activist's point of view. CTS Sydney (UHF 31), every Thursday, 10pm and Saturday, 7pm. Ph 9565 5522.
Access News — Melbourne community TV, Channel 31, has excellent coverage of industrial, environmental and community actions throughout Victoria. Access News broadcasts every Monday at 8pm. Ph 9525 3551 to contact the producers or make a donation.
Movie: Salt of the Earth (1953) — This remarkable film presents the true events of a bitter strike of Chicanos in the zinc mines of New Mexico. When an injunction is issued against the workers, the wives take up the battle with a fury, leaving their husbands to care for home and children. Shot on location in 1953 by black-listed film-makers, it was completed in the face of vigilante attacks, the deportation of its lead actor to Mexico and a boycott of the finished product by US cinema owners. SBS, Friday, May 1, 12.30pm.
Movie: The Sign of the Coyote (1963) — In the 1860s, California, after being conquered by the United States, was invaded by ruthless adventurers and thieves who used their positions of power to steal land from the local people. A masked man, Coyote, comes to the rescue. SBS, Friday, May 1, 11.40pm.
South — Includes Close Encounters, a dramatised allegory of the arrival of the Spanish Conquistadors in the Americas, and Tales from Planet Kolkata, an insightful look at Calcutta's human tragedy. SBS, Sunday, May 3, midnight.
The End of Eden — Since the end of the Gulf War, Saddam Hussein's forces have been ruthlessly destroying one of the oldest civilisations on earth and systematically dismantling the fragile ecology of their homeland. The Marsh Arabs live in the great Mesopotamian marshes where Iran, Iraq and the Persian Gulf meet, a region better known for thousands of years as the biblical Garden of Eden. This program examines the plight of the Marsh Arabs, some of whom have taken refuge in Iran, where they are kept in camps, suffering cold, hunger, dependence and homesickness. SBS, Tuesday, May 5, 8pm.
A Class Divided — To coincide with Jane Elliot's Australian lecture tour, SBS is re-screening this groundbreaking documentary in which she conducts her first experiment in defeating racism after the assassination of Martin Luther King in 1968, using primary school students. Elliott divides the students into two groups. Those in one group are given privileges for a day; those in the other are denied all privileges. SBS, Wednesday, May 6, 8pm.