In Development

The Balance Seekers with Dr. Esther Sternberg

The Balance Seekers stands in contrast to other programs by presenting cutting edge evidence linking emotions and stress to the intricate systems of the mind and body. Dr. Sternberg’s standing will afford us an unprecedented level of access and expertise in the scientific community.

Each episode begins with the personal story of both an individual who is having a health issue related to stress and the researchers who are making discoveries about how mind-body practices heal. Like a medical detective, Dr. Sternberg uncovers how stress damages the body and she’ll travel the globe to discover the origins and techniques of ancient healing practices that could provide relief or a cure.

The Balance Seekers will track the researchers whose discoveries are finally explaining of the important role emotions play in healing. Our journey will prove that timeless techniques based in relaxation and personal empowerments are effective tools for fighting off disease and maintaining good health.

Dynamic and intimate, each one-hour episode, shot in HD, will entertain, enlighten, and inspire the seeker in all of us to explore activities that support health, reduce stress and find balance.

Click here to view the promotional trailer.

Click here to download the proposal.

Breaking Bread: Africa

Each week Breaking Bread: Africa takes five adventurous travelers on an intriguing and challenging journey through Africa to seek out culinary delights first hand. Join renowned African Chef Pierre Thiam as he prepares, trains and cajoles this motley crew with the ultimate goal of creating a feast for invited dignitaries, celebrities, or just plain folks. Can they learn enough in just five days to pull it off?

Our trek begins as Chef Pierre takes the cast to one of several countries in Africa. He teaches them not only about the culture, but also how to cook a local meal under local conditions. Chef Pierre uncovers the secrets of dishes like, the famous “Joloff rice” (red rice and fish) from Senegal and “Acara” (black-eyed pea fritters) from Mali.

Click here to view the demo.

Gonzo with Barbara Flanagan

Barbara Flanagan is an American designer and writer who trained as an architect at Yale University. Flanagan has written about design for a score of publications including The New York Times, Metropolis, and I.D. Her more recent career in product design stems from the architectural interiors she designed while working with manufacturers and the experience of inventing new applications for their building materials. In all of her work, Flanagan has lobbied in favor of humor, surprise, and ingenuity.

Barbara Flanagan truly is a jack-of-all-trades. Her writing and design talents go hand in hand, and she has published multiple articles and proposals for futuristic design.

Her designs inspired the Gonzon Design Company, an establishment focused on taking the mundane and unimagninative and turning them into the extrodinary. Using unorthodox methods, she creates new, innovative applications of household items, creating her own unique style.

Click here to view the trailer.

Click here to listen to Renard Cohen's "Patriot Acts"

Indivisible

Mass deportations, round-ups, secret trials, sneak and peek searches, no fly lists, unfettered surveillance and a government empowered to declare anyone an enemy and take away the most basic freedoms. It’s America in 2003 under the USA PATRIOT Act.

The feature-length documentary Indivisible tells the story of some of the teachers, librarians, business owners, police chiefs, politicians and activists changing history today –risking their own freedom to protect liberties once guaranteed by the Bill of Rights.

At this critical time in US history when over 157 cities (and counting) and 3 states have passed resolutions against the PATRIOT Act, Indivisible will take us into the lives of those targeted and into the heart of a movement of unprecedented resistance. We’ll meet immigrants and activists, leaders, and ordinary folks. Through candid interviews and personal photographs we’ll meet survivors of World War II round-ups of Japanese Americans and the McCarthy inspired COINTELPRO attacks on freedom of association and dissent. This historical perspective will make it painfully clear that we’ve been here before, and beg the question, "Did we learn anything?"

Click here to view the pilot.

Passing Gas with Gary Gladstone

Join photographer Gary Gladstone in his 28 episode journey as he and his assistant Alex travel to places with funny names like Suckerville, ME; Knockemstiff, OH and Scratch Ankle, AL to find a person and backdrop that captures the essence of a town’s name. In each episode, Gary visits towns such as Ding Dong, TX or Hell, MI, where he has just one day to find his subject and shoot a portrait. This quest gives Gary and his viewers an unscripted, entertaining glimpse at Small Town, USA.

New York photographer, Gary Gladstone is constantly bemused by the down home quirkiness of rural America. A curmudgeonly character with a wry sense of humor, Gary is shooting a sequel to his first book, “Passing Gas, and Other Towns Along The American Highway. Gary Gladstone has worked as a professional photographer for publications such as the New York Daily News, Life, Look, and The Saturday Evening Post. He is a popular lecturer and panelist who uses humor to entertain and inform his audiences.

Click here to view demo.

Hiroko's Home Cooking with Hiroko Shimbo

Best-selling author and James Beard Award winner Hiroko Shimbo presents an attractive, entertaining, and informative approach to Japanese cuisine -exploring all its delights with her easy, informal style.

Hiroko’s Home Cooking takes place in a Western-style kitchen introducing key cooking staples and techniques of Japanese cuisine, and highlighting them in various easy-to-prepare dishes. Fresh, seasonal produce, as well as meat and fish, are prepared to create well-balanced meals.

Hiroko serves the dishes in attractive ways - reflective of true Japanese culture. She conveys the art of color, order, and natural appearance that are so important to the appreciation of Japanese cuisine. Finally, Hiroko discusses how to eat the dish with short lessons on Japanese etiquette and shares stories of her own home and history. Hiroko's Home Cooking should do for this generation, what Julia did many decades ago -- take the fear out of a foreign cuisine and give viewers the inspiration to successfully try the recipes.

Planet Barbecue with Steven Raichlen

Fifteen years ago, Steven Raichlen embarked on an extraordinary journey. He set out to travel the world's barbecue trail—to experience the world of live-fire cooking from Indonesian sate to Indian tandoori to Italian bistecca alla fiorentina. He explored how a country's barbecue reflects its culture and how that culture determines what people grill. His 500,000-mile odyssey has taken him to more than 50 countries on six continents. And now that adventure comes alive in all its sizzling excitement in a PBS broadcast extravaganza: Planet Barbecue ™.

Planet Barbecue will take TV viewers on a mouth-watering tour of the world’s barbecue trail, from the kebab parlors of Istanbul to the churrascarias of Brazil to an authentic South African safari brai. Along the way, we’ll meet Japan’s most acclaimed yakitori master, a madcap barbecue iconoclast in Spain (grilled eggs and smoked ice cream, anyone?), and the octogenarian owner of the most famous grill parlor in Morocco. We’ll visit a reconstructed Neanderthal village in southwestern France (to learn how our prehistoric ancestors grilled); a tandoor factory in New Delhi (to watch the construction of the world’s oldest type of barbecue pit), and a kiln built into a Japanese cave used to make bincho tan—the world’s most expensive charcoal.