This episode of WIDE ANGLE chronicles the life of the Vatican in the days between the announcement of Pope John Paul II's death and the election of the new pope by a conclave, the group of more than 100 cardinals who gather in Rome's Sistine Chapel for this historic vote.
Some call it "Russia's 9-11." The siege of School No. 1 in the Russian town of Beslan on September 1, 2004 was the bloodiest act of terrorism in Russia since Chechnya declared independence in 1991. As the trial of the only terrorist who survived the siege begins, this wrenching film examines the three-day ordeal that saw Chechen gunmen hold more than 1,000 hostages, most of them children.
"Future for Lebanon" takes viewers to the oldest democracy in the Middle East as voters go to the polls in a new era. From the beaches of Beirut to the radical rallies of Hezbollah, WIDE ANGLE explores political change in one of the pivotal nations of the Arab region -- change from within, not imposed from the outside.
"Border Jumpers" takes us inside the human drama at the Botswana-Zimbabwe border, profiling illegal immigrants threatened with arrest and deportation, and a journalist who reports on growing fears among Botswana's citizens that their 1.7 million people could be overrun by Zimbabwe's troubled 12 million.
“Gutted” charts the final voyages of a family-owned Scottish fishing boat that has been decommissioned to accommodate European Union cod quotas, despite being only seven years old. Fishermen and their supporters, who call themselves the “Cod Crusaders,” accuse British politicians of turning their backs on them. “We're being sacrificed on the altar of Euro Union,” says one fisherman. “We could be the first island in the history of the world that doesn't have a fishing industry,” says another.
In February 2003, eight widows of Tamra decided to challenge convention by starting up a business venture -- the Azka Pickle Cooperative -- seeking financial independence for themselves and their children. WIDE ANGLE follows these women as they establish a tiny factory for pickling vegetables and develop a market for their product in local stores.
Through unfettered access to political strongmen, gangsters turned presidential hopefuls, and ordinary Haitian citizens, WIDE ANGLE reveals Haiti's struggle to fashion a true representative government out of a volatile failed state.
In India, outsourcing has sparked an economic boom, and those working in the industry are making new lives that balance traditional Indian family values with Western-style social and economic mores. But in India, as in the United States, the long-term impact of outsourcing is still unclear.
WIDE ANGLE travels to Vietnam to investigate the threat of a global pandemic, portraying Vietnam's response to outbreaks in its cities, provinces and villages, where doctors, epidemiologists and veterinarians are battling the virus.