Death of a Princess which first aired amid controversy in 1980 will be on Frontline Tuesday night on PBS. And because of rights issues, it will not be online like most recent Frontlines. Hopefully, they will put it out on DVD.
It is important to watch. A lot of the issues are sadly still very contemporary including the lack of rights for women in Saudi Arabia and the pressure PBS is under.
There will be a discussion at 11 am ET Wed. with Antony Thomas
The Frontline website has a bunch of material including an interview with Thomas, a look back at the controversy, and interviews from a short update.
One thing that is striking is how PBS nationally and most PBS stations resisted pressure then including from Congress and the Secretary of State while with Buster PBS caved to pressure from Congress and the Secretary of Education (though individual stations like KQED aired it. I saw the show last month and it is mostly about Buster trying to find a gift for his mother).
Article comments
1 - John Dinwiddie
I just saw it. It is April, 2005
many years after it was made.
It is vulgar to proclaim how great
a work of documentation, of art by accident this work is. But it
is indeed so great that I'll risk
hyperbola to say that as harrowing as
it is, it is also in its craft and severe integrity one of the greatest
dosumentary films in existence. It is,
in additon to its primary function as message, a great work of art whose justification as such rivals Tolstoy's
War and Peace.
Why?
Because through fictional and factual reeactments, it puts its audience in the worst of spiritual harm's way,in the way of truth.
I know that those whose heroism in having produced this tragic, magnificent work could care less about anyone's admiration of it, but I have
to tell them, whoever they are, that
they gave what is left of civilization
a priceless gift in what they did. They did their very best to open
doors to an appreciation of Islam, and
they slammed all doors on its pervesion by the horrific House of Saud.
Thank you so much, for this peerlessly
grand effort.
John Dinwiddie
2 - hum hum
where did u see it... Dallas,Tx local PBS (KERA) served us attack of the alien species :)