The Judge and the General reveals the transformation of Judge Juan Guzmán in Chile as he is assigned by judicial lottery to investigate the first criminal cases filed against former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet. An international detective story, the film follows the judge as he uncovers the truth about the regime he had supported.

BTB recently caught up with filmmaker Elizabeth Farnsworth, who gave us the following updates since the film first broadcast in 2008:

Judge Juan Guzmán, now an arbitrator and criminal defense lawyer in Santiago, is active in the campaign to replace the current Pinochet-era constitution with a new, more democratic charter. He is currently writing a book about the subject with a group of constitutional law scholars. He has taught human rights law in Chile and at universities around the world and will lecture at Haverford College and the University of Pennsylvania in 2012. He has received many awards and honors, including, most recently, an honorary doctorate from Haverford.

In 2009, Judge Victor Montiglio indicted 135 members of Augusto Pinochet’s security forces for the murder of Cecilia Castro and others in related cases. Trials are pending.

On August 18th, 2011, the Valech Commission delivered a second report to the president of Chile, detailing its continuing investigation of torture under the rule of Augusto Pinochet.  This report confirmed 9,800 cases; earlier reports had confirmed another 28,000.  This means that at least 37,800 people were tortured by Augusto Pinochet’s security forces.

Co-Director/Producer Patricio Lanfranco recently reported that Chile has been convulsed by massive street demonstrations. Students have been striking for more than two months over environmental, educational, and constitutional issues, among others. Polls show 80 percent of the population supports their demands.

For more information and updates on the film, visit the filmmakers’ website (available in English and Spanish): westwindproductions.org

For an update in English on the current status of cases involving human rights crimes under the regime of General Augusto Pinochet, click here >>

The Judge and the General reveals the transformation of Judge Juan Guzmán in Chile as he is assigned by judicial lottery to investigate the first criminal cases filed against former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet. An international detective story, the film follows the judge as he uncovers the truth about the regime he had supported.

The Judge and the General airs Sunday, September 18 on WORLD at 9AM, 3PM, and 10PM (all times are in Eastern).

Indiewire: Two Spirits Receives the Audience Award from PBS-Independent Lens
Lynda Nibley’s documentary Two Spirits has received the PBS-Independent Lens Audience Award, recognizing its status as the highest-rated film of the 2010-11 season by the measures of online voting and other forms of audience support.

Pop Matters: Cuba, An African Odyssey
El-Tahri’s fascinating documentary, produced in 2007 with the French-German television network Arte and premiering in two parts on ITVS’ Global Voices this month, traces the complicated history of Cuban efforts to help African independence movements during the Cold War.

Institute For the Future blog: Karim Ahmad introduces FUTURESTATES
Karim discussed his goal of tackling complex and often controversial topics often not seen on public TV, as well as the potential to engage new audiences across a wider range of platforms.

About.com: The Transmedia Approach to Documentary Development and Marketing
The Garbage Dreams multiplatform brand is the film’s issue. More specifically, the brand is the issue of waste disposal, recycling and how all that effects human life on Earth. That’s what the film’s about. That’s what the game’s about. That’s what the discussion is about. The issue is the brand. Branding by issue is a different way of conceiving and developing a movie’s marketing strategy, but it certainly seems appropriate for documentaries.

NCME Blog – News Hub: Building Inclusive Communities
One such project is the Independent Lens documentary Welcome to Shelbyville and the accompanying Shelbyville Multimedia engagement campaign, produced by Active Voice. Following the May 2011 PBS broadcast, Welcoming Gathering potlucks and Community Cinema screenings, held nationwide, ITVS partnered with the U.S. State Department to host a special screening of Welcome to Shelbyville for policy makers, advocates, service providers, and government officials working on refugee resettlement issues.

Visit our pressroom to find additional coverage of ITVS programs.

In honor of Independence Day, Global Voices and the WORLD Channel present four international documentaries throughout the month of July that focus on the different, difficult actions people and organizations have taken in the fight for independence.

The month begins with Storm of Emotions (July 3rd at 10 PM), chronicling the Israeli disengagement from the Gaza Strip and the efforts to achieve democracy amidst great social and political turmoil. Read more about the Global Voices line up after the jump >>

July continues with the two-part documentary Cuba, An African Odyssey (July 10 and 17 at 10PM), showcasing the previously untold story of Cuba’s support for African revolutions. The Mosquito Problem & Other Stories (July 24 at 10PM) follows and focuses on one village as it is continuously transformed by ideologies, regimes, and dreams of economic prosperity. The month concludes with The Siege (July 31 at 10 PM), a documentary about a historic event in 1996 when the Peruvian Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement seized the Japanese ambassador’s residence in Lima and held dozens of foreign diplomats hostage for 126 days.

All four documentaries will be broadcast on Sunday nights at 10 PM on the WORLD Channel.  Find a comprehensive overview of the 2011 series and a calendar of online events on the WORLD Channel’s website.

A Working Mom by filmmaker Limor Pinhasov

Being a working mom rocks!  We’re the ones chosen to advise policy, lead teams and manage projects. We make our own rules, run our own businesses, and raise our kids.  We’re sharp, whip smart, well adjusted, and reliable.

The Innovator:“Making adjustments to traditional work situations can make a work life balance a little more realistic for working families. I have been asking for some telecommuting hours, but there was no official policy in place for this sort of thing. Human resource departments want to keep good employees, it may be up to you to open this door and walk through it with them. Present your own proposal about how this can be beneficial to both parties.You have to do the research, know what you want and ask for it. With much discussion initiated by me, and definitely some patience, I am now piloting this working situation so my employer can write policy about it.” ~ Liz PW.

The Enforcer:“It takes discipline and structure to work from home and it isn’t a joke to me, and people in my life have learned this the hard way. I kicked a friend out after a 20-minute visit because she arrived at 11:40 though I’d invited her to come over at 9:30 a.m. I’d told her, because the ongoing childcare swap for my Thursdays involves me taking the kids in the morning and the other mom taking them for the afternoon. When Mom #2 arrived right on time for the noon double-daughter pick-up, I told my friend I had to go to work. She looked at me like I had 5 heads. ‘But you work from home!’ But I work. From home.” ~ Amanda R.

The Multi-Tasker:“Work stays at work, and home stays at home, right? Wrong. Home goes to work, and work goes to home. And while at home, and on top of your work, comes your need to spend time with your child. Conundrum? Nah. I went out and bought my son a ‘Thomas The Tank Engine’ laptop computer, and invited him to work by my side. That way, when I do work from home, I still get to spend time with my son.” ~ Stacy B.

The Closer:“I’ve been a sales executive for ten years, and I’m good at my job. In the beginning though, I struggled with relationship building. I had a hard time connecting on a personal level and building trust was a challenge. But when I became a mother, I unconsciously owned the space and felt comfortable discussing it and sympathizing with clients I knew were in the same position. The floodgates opened! Identifying myself as a person with great responsibility outside of my job made it easy for others to trust me. I’ve closed more sales in my role as a working mom, than I did before.” ~ Karen C.

The Role Model:“One of my first back-to-work jobs after both kids were in school was at a museum in NYC. I was an assistant to one of the VPs. What we had in common; was kids in NYC private schools. What got me the job was telling her if I could handle the calendars of 2 Brearley girls, I could handle hers. More importantly, I went back to work, and then back to school to pursue better work, because I have daughters. I had a feeling about wanting to be one of their role models as a strong woman with her own life.” ~ Annie S.

The Communicator:“…having a child of my own has made me care even more for the children I work with professionally. I am better now at seeing the whole child. I also think I understand parents more now that I am a parent and this makes communication (in general) easier.” ~ Lauren R.

Want to learn more? Tune in to a the WORLD channel on Sunday, June 19^th to watch the Global Voices premiere of Working Mom, and be sure to share your own stories below.

Last November, the filmmaker gave an interview to BTB discussing Cowboys in India and ITVS’s International Call. Read the interview here.

New Year Baby follows the personal story of filmmaker Socheata Poeuv, who grew up in the United States never knowing that her family survived the Khmer Rouge genocide. Poeuv embarks on a journey to Cambodia in search of the truth about her family’s past.

Jocelyn Glatzer’s The Flute Player tells the journey of a survivor of Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge killing fields and his work to heal himself and his country through music.

Friday’s live chat will be moderated by Michella Rivera-Gravage of the Center for Asian American Media (CAAM).

Viewers interested in the film should definitely take a look at this clip from This American Life. Host Ira Glass excerpts the doc and reflects on how quickly these third-grade kids devise and employ the same tactics used by adult politicians. Politics is indeed a contact sport, enjoy!

Starting with Please Vote For Me from China, the month continues on to Japan with 4 and Young Yakuza, and comes to a close with New Year Baby, set in Cambodia. In addition to their exclusive WORLD broadcasts on Sunday nights at 10 PM, these four episodes will be available for viewing online post-broadcast on the PBS Video Player.  A comprehensive overview of the 2011 series and a calendar of online events may be found here.

Watch Please Vote For Me on Global Voices this Sunday at 10PM on the WORLD Channel.
Check out the trailer after the jump >>