Why Democracy?

DOCUMENTARY
IN SEARCH OF GANDHI

Tuesday 16 October
11.00pm

Screening on SBS Television in the Why Democracy? timeslot, Tuesday October 16 at 11.00pm is In Search Of Gandhi.

In the early decades of the twentieth century Mahatma Gandhi’s legacy of non-violent revolution, or Satyagraha, inspired a mass movement of millions of Indians to rise up against the British colonial state, and successfully agitate for the establishment of a democratic and free India.

In 2007, the country is preparing to celebrate the sixtieth anniversary of its existence as an independent nation. But what kind of a democracy does India have today? What does it actually mean to live in the world’s largest democracy?

In road-movie style the film crew travels down the famous trail of Gandhi’s salt march, the remarkable mass campaign that galvanized ordinary Indians to join the non-violent struggle for democracy and freedom almost a century ago.

Stopping at the same villages and cities, where Gandhi and his followers had raised their call for independence, the film documents the stories of ordinary citizens in India today.

why democracy?
Dinner with the President

Tuesday 16 October
10.00pm

Screening on SBS Television Tuesday, 16 October at 10pm in the Why Democracy series timeslot is Dinner with the President.

What are the implications for democracy in Pakistan when secular political parties have succumbed to the Islamic agenda? What does it mean when the army appears to be the only force able to contain the opponents of democracy, the armed Islamists? President Musharraf agrees to explore this apparent contradiction over dinner at his official residence, the Army House. As the discussion moves in and out of the different worlds in Pakistan a complex tapestry emerges revealing a society unique yet universal.

The filmmaker talks to diverse individuals, from labourers to intellectuals, from street vendors to religious right wing political party members, and from journalists to industrialists. What is their idea of democracy in Pakistan? What is their idea of President Musharraf’s vision of a modern Pakistan? Dinner with the President questions the role a military leader can play in guiding a state towards modern democracy.

why democracy?

8.30pm

Screening on SBS Television Tuesday, 16 October at 8.30pm in the Why Democracy timeslot is Taxi to the Dark Side.

Over one hundred prisoners have died in suspicious circumstances in U.S. custody during the "war on terror". Taxi to the Dark Side takes an in-depth look at one case: an Afghan taxi driver called Dilawar who was considered an honest and kind man by the people of his rustic village. So when he was detained by the U.S military one afternoon, after picking up three passengers, the villagers wondered why this man was randomly chosen to be held in prison, and, especially, without trial? Five days after his arrest, Dilawar died in his Bagram prison cell. His death came within a week of another death of a Bagram detainee. The conclusion, with autopsy evidence, was that the former taxi driver and the detainee died due to sustained injuries inflicted at the prison by U.S. soldiers.