Category: Films

“Hands” is a film about folks that get up early, get dirty in their work and go to bed dog tired. They are the builders, the growers and the fixers that keep things working and moving. This film was made fifty years ago, but its subjects reflect a tradition deeply engrained in the American character.

This morning’s “Freedom Flight” from Cuba will be airborne for thirty minutes. Its scheduled  ETA in Miami is 10:10 Eastern Standard Time.

The film, narrated by Academy Award winning actor José Ferrer and directed by USIA producer Ash Hawken, documents the experiences of Cuban-American refugees seeking asylum in the United States after Fidel Castro’s 1959 establishment of a Communist regime on the island of Cuba. Filmed in 1970, 10:10 EST was originally a part of the “Ahora” Series, programmed on TV networks throughout Latin America. It was later adapted for worldwide distribution in multiple languages. Its English version is presented here.

This 1975 documentary, “A Trip,” written and directed by Ash Hawken, describes the impact that illicit drug trafficking has on a given country and its people. The crisis is described by the people who confront it every day; the government officials, the doctors; the addicts and, in a dramatic recreation, a trafficker whose dreams of easy money fail. Set in the Republic of Colombia, its production was a cooperative venture between that nation and the United States of America. Produced and distributed for world-wide use by the U.S. Information Agency in multiple languages, the film runs thirty minutes.

“Aspen,” a 30-minute film produced by USIA in 1974, takes its title from the historic Colorado mountain village that began in the Nineteenth Century as a silver mining town and, through the Twentieth developed into a year-long recreation center for lovers of the outdoors and culturally minded visitors. Well known for skiing and winter sports, in the summer Aspen becomes a cornucopia of music, dance, and artistic expression. It is the summer home of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, Ballet West, The American Brass Quintet, and the Aspen Music School.  Enjoyment of these and other performance groups await the viewer of this award winning documentary.

UPI ARCHIVES

NOV 23, 1982

Kirk Douglas in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Actor Kirk Douglas arrived in Pakistan Tuesday at the invitation of President Mohammad Zia-ul-haq to draw attention to the Afghan refugee problem.

‘It’s a problem that needs more attention,’ Douglas, 64, said upon arrival at Islamabad Airport from Los Angeles.

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