SBS's blog

Friday March 6 at 7:30pm on SBS

The Thirties in Colour continues with episode two airing Friday March 6 at 7.30pm. Colour film was expensive, so it largely remained the preserve of the wealthy. They used it to record special moments in their lives – including encounters with distinguished personalities, and journeys to exotic lands.

Money was no object for American steel magnates Harry and Bolling Wright. Bolling Wright in particular was a colour film enthusiast and he took great joy in recording his adventures during a family holiday aboard the Stella Polaris. The cruise ship sailed around the world and at around $2500 a ticket it was the equivalent to an average American’s salary over two years. They travelled to The South Pacific, The Dutch East Indies, and Southern Africa, before heading to Europe. Those that could afford such cruises found that it was a way to escape the daily toils of the Great Depression.

Bolling managed to capture the golden age of ocean travel only months before it would be turned into a battleground. Indeed the places and people captured in the Wright brothers’ films would soon become embroiled in the bloodiest war in history. Piers Brendon, Author of The Dark Valley describes what the Wright Brothers must have felt when they reached London, “It’s a cosy world of red buses and blue policemen and…of course, the holiday party glimpse the anxieties that are gnawing away at British hearts…they see that the odds on peace are diminishing,” but it is obvious from the footage that many of the elite took for granted their beautiful surroundings. They seemed oblivious to the fact that the world they were circumnavigating was on the verge of a significant crisis.

Thursday March 5 at 8.30pm on SBS

In this century the world’s population will grow dramatically older. The second episode of Baby Boom to Bust takes us into the lives of people across the world already impacted by global ageing. In China, the program highlights the plight of the elderly in the countryside, who’ve been left to fend for themselves as families shrink. In Australia the so-called ‘sandwich generation’ finds itself trapped between caring for both grown up children and frail parents… with no prospect of ever retiring. The Japanese, who live longest of all, are looking to robots rather than immigrants to care for their senior citizens. Italy, the country which for generations sent its own workers abroad, now depends on illegal immigrants to care for its elderly.

Tuesday, 3 March 8:30pm

In the final episode of ‘India Reborn: Mother India’, food is shown to both unite and segregate people. Farmers grow 60% of the country’s wheat and 40% of its rice on 1.5% of India’s land. Water and farmland are becoming scarce – how will future generations survive if the water dries up?

India is described as the diabetic capital of the world. According to the World Health Organisation, India has 41 million diabetics, even more than China. The disease was long considered a problem for the wealthy. It is now estimated that in 20 years, there will be 70 million diabetics in India. According to a local doctor, “Putting on weight is seen as a good sign, but we are escalating from one area of malnutrition to another, in a period of five to ten years.”

Cooking can also fuel caste prejudices. A woman tried to get a job cooking meals, but kids from a higher caste system refused to eat the food she prepared. As part of another generation learns how food can be used to divide, the food that nourishes mother India might also eventually bring this society closer together.

Saturday February 28 at 7.30pm on SBS

In a warehouse on an island in San Francisco Bay, a team of engineers and PhD’s are inventing the future one prototype at a time.

From finding solutions to today’s problems, to conceiving cool machines that are just fun to have around, the Prototype This crew imagines and then invents the future by using emerging technologies to build the craziest, one-of-a-kind prototypes of tomorrow.

Each week the team, made of Joe Grand (Electronics and Circuit Design), Terry Sandin (Animatronics and Fabrications) Zoz Brooks (Robotics and Computing Systems) and Mike North (Materials and Mechanical Engineering) show off their zany brilliance, hi-tech wizardry and give us a look at some of the latest tools and gadgets that may change the way we live in the world.

Episode 2 – Traffic Busting Truck

Saturday February 28 at 7.30pm

The boys take on the challenge of building a car that will beat the LA traffic. The team combines Omni directional wheels, pneumatics, steel legs and an innovative control system to create a vehicle that will literally lift itself over the traffic ahead. And as an added bonus, the lift also gives the car the capability to find a parking spot like nothing else on wheels!

Friday February 27 at 7:30pm on SBS

Beginning Friday February 27 at 7.30pm, SBS will screen The Thirties in Colour. This four-part series looks at never before seen footage from an era of great change and innovation, the 1930s. In episode one the exploits of one of the first to appreciate the exciting potential of colour film, the wealthy British adventuress Rosie Newman are explored. Before a trip to North Africa in 1928, she decided to take up what she called the “amusing hobby” of amateur cinematography.

Born on the 25th July 1896, Rosie Newman was the daughter of the Bavarian banker Sir Sigismund Neumann, who had made a fortune from the diamond mines of South Africa. The Newman family’s prodigious wealth ensured they were admitted to the highest circles of Britain’s political and aristocratic elite. Rosie’s contacts in the diplomatic service would prove particularly valuable, as she was determined to travel the world and capture as many fascinating moments as she could. Author of The Rise and Fall of the British Empire, Lawrence James says of Rosie, “She was aware that what she was seeing was interesting, was curious, and wanted to record it. It was terrifying but it was a grand spectacle”.

Though she was spirited and intrepid, she was often oblivious to the more unpleasant realities of a decade overshadowed by economic depression and privation on a global scale. At times her vision can seem almost insincere and distant from the true reality of the situation.

But her rich and vibrant films do show us in vivid colour the social elite at play in some of the most diverse and intriguing countries on earth, well before the age of mass tourism. Many individuals present in Rosie’s films were not aware that too soon their lives would be transformed by events leading up to the ultimate cataclysm of a World War.

Thursday February 26, 8.30pm

The first episode of Baby Boom to Bust profiles four countries all grappling with declining birth rates and potential economic decline. Catholic Italy, a country devoted to family, today has one of the lowest fertility rates in the world. The dying town of Laviano is a portent of what can happen to any community or country when people stop having children. In Japan, where women are increasingly choosing work over marriage, their elders now fear for the future. Meanwhile in Australia, women in their thirties are finding it harder than ever to find a man who’ll commit to a relationship and family, and the trend has spawned a multi-million dollar dating industry. In China the government’s ‘one-child’ policy has taken the country from one extreme to another within a generation. Consequently, an indulged generation of single children, the ‘little emperors’ will one day have the sole responsibility of caring for many elders.

For a full wrap up of the week’s UEFA Champions League match reviews, news and results, catch Les Murray and Craig Foster on Thursday 26 February for the ‘UEFA Champions League Hour’ at the new time of 10:00pm.

On Sunday 1 March, the afternoon of football begins at 3:00pm with Football Asia magazine program followed by the UEFA Champions League magazine program at 3:30pm. Les Murray’s Football Feature kicks-off at 4:00pm with the highlights from the UEFA Champions League match between Inter Milan and Manchester United with commentary from David Basheer. Then at 5:00pm, SBS’s flagship football program The World Game concludes an afternoon of sport with the talented line-up of David Basheer, Les Murray, Craig Foster, Mariana Rudan and Scott McIntyre.

Then to cap off a big week in football join Scott McIntyre and Mariana Rudan for Extra Time, Tuesdays at 6:00pm.

LIVE Thursday 26 February at 6:30am

On Thursday morning, 26 February, Juventus venture across the channel as they challenge Chelsea’s 15-game unbeaten home streak LIVE from 6:30am (AEDT). David Basheer will host the match with regular guest, Socceroo Francis Awaritefe and SBS Radio’s Tony Palumbo joining the LIVE coverage.

Wednesday February 25 at 8.30pm on SBS

In the second episode of the new series of Tribe, Bruce travels to the remote Yamal Peninsula in Northern Siberia to live with the Nenet reindeer herders.

It is there that Bruce will spend a month with the Nenet brigade as they carry out their winter migration, travelling hundreds of miles as temperatures drop.

The Nenets live entirely off their reindeers, moving their skin tents every other night as the herds move to new pastures.

For more than a month, Bruce will wear reindeer skin clothes, eat reindeer meat and drink reindeer blood in order to survive.

In one of his toughest expeditions yet, Bruce will travel over 400km in the permanent twilight of the Arctic Autumn. Temperatures reach 40 degrees Centigrade below and blizzards scour the landscape.

LIVE Wednesday 25 February at 6:30am on SBS

The UEFA Champions League kicks off in 2009 with the first leg of the knockout stage and SBS will broadcast two great matches LIVE.

On Wednesday 25 February, host Les Murray is joined by SBS chief football analyst, Craig Foster and special guest Socceroo, Paul Okon in the studio as Roma attempts to end their run of poor form on English soil against Arsenal LIVE from 6:30am (AEDT).