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, 7pm.
Access News — Melbourne community TV, Channel 31, has excellent coverage of industrial, environmental and community actions throughout Victoria. Access News broadcasts every Monday, Thursday and Friday at 8pm. Phone (03) 9525 3551 to contact the producers or make a donation.
Documentary series: Hold up the Sun — The Struggle to End Apartheid — More than two years in the making, this five-part series is a record of the resistance against apartheid from its beginnings. The first episode, Roots of the Struggle 1912-1948, reveals, through interviews and archival material, the formation of the ANC, the growth of the white Union of South Africa and the eventual rise to dominance of Afrikaner nationalism. SBS, Sunday, November 24, 11.05pm.
James Ellroy — Novelist James Ellroy takes viewers on a guided tour of the seamy side of Los Angeles, the city where he was born and raised, where his mother was murdered and where he succumbed to alcohol and drugs until he turned 30, when he began to write the crime novels now regarded as some of the best of the genre. SBS, Sunday, November 24, midnight.
Narmada Diary — The controversial Sardar Sarovar Dam on the River Narmada in western India threatens the survival of a local village and its inhabitants. SBS, Monday, November 25, 5pm.
Frontline — As the holiday season looms, tellie will begin to fill with repeats. Frontline is a welcome return. This biting black comedy about the goings-on behind the scenes of a current affairs show seems eerily close to reality. ABC TV, Monday, November 25, 8pm.
Artist Unknown — Join Lennie Gardner, a Briton of Trinidadian extraction, on an odyssey to Africa to find the origins of a small bronze mask he discovers in a Portobello Road antiques market in London. SBS, Monday, November 25, 8.30pm.
Homelands — Tom Zubrycki's acclaimed documentary is a sharp and moving portrait of Salvadoran refugees Maria and Carlos Robles, and the effect on their marriage of resettlement in Australian suburbia. SBS, Monday, November 25, 11.05pm.
Living on the Edge — The city of Yeravan in Armenia is in crisis. The 1.3 million inhabitants have lived on two to three hours of electricity per day for the last six winters, even though they live 25 kilometres from a nuclear power station. In 1989, a terrible earthquake killed more than 30,000 people and closed down the reactor. The power station has been classified by the US Department of Energy as one of the world's most dangerous, nearly as dangerous as Chernobyl. But today Armenian authorities say they have no choice but to switch it back on. SBS, Tuesday, November 26, 8.30pm.
Ukraine: Lifting the Yoke — Ukraine faces an uncertain future as an independent state. ABC TV, Thursday, November 28, 11.05pm.