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Ordinary People/South Africa TV

From Jim Davis <jdav@mcs.com>
31 August 1995

Ordinary People was the first independently produced documentary series to appear on South African TV, and it is now the most successful South African documentary series ever. Episodes from the series have been shown on TV in Britain, Canada, France, Holland, Australia, Japan and Germany. Many of the films are also in distribution in the US and Canada.

Ordinary People looks at an event in South Africa each week, through the eyes of three or four different people. Some events are large in scope, others less momentous, but each tells us something about where South Africa is, and where it may be going.

The most recent program in the series was called "A DAY WITH THE PRESIDENT" and it is about a day in the life of Nelson Mandela. The new, third season of Ordinary People begins on the air in SA on Thursday, 31 August for twelve weeks.

Mail & Guardian Television, the producers of Ordinary People, have created the first WWW site for a TV show in Africa. At this site you can find out more about Ordinary People, including each film that has been made so far, about Mail and Guardian Tv. Information will be added to this site over the coming months about each new film that we make. Photos and video clips will be added soon, and a discussion forum should be up within a week for viewers to comment upon and discuss the films that are shown on TV here in SA.

You can find the Mail & Guardian Television - ORDINARY PEOPLE - WWW site at:

http://www.mg.co.za/mg/mgtv/

Potential video users located in N America should contact First Run/

Icarus Films
153 Waverly Place, 6th Fl,
New York, NY 10014
Tel 212.727.1711
Fax 212.989.7649
E MAIL: frif@echonyc.com

Videos are available for rent or purchase.