The German premiere of Something Necessary took place in Berlin last week – a film that was the result of one of DW Akademie’s One Fine Day Film Workshop. Something Necessary shows an intimate moment in the life of Anne, a woman struggling to rebuild her life after the civil unrest that swept Kenya after the 2007 elections claiming the life of her husband, the health of her son and leaving her home on an isolated farm in the Kenyan countryside in ruins.

Following Nairobi Half Life, this was the second film resulted from the One Fine Day Film Workshop – a joint project by DW Akademie, One Fine Day Films and Ginger Ink. The project is supported by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, the Film und Medienstiftung NRW, the Goethe-Institut Kenya and ARRI Film & TV Services.

One Fine Day Films is an alternative film production company founded by Marie Steinmann and Tom Tykwer.

Applications being accepted for new workshop

The next workshop gets underway in Kenya this September. Starting now, African directors, camera operators, editors, scriptwriters, sound engineers and production designers can apply for this intense two-week workshop. Deadline for applications is May 1.

DW’s show World Stories is celebrating one year on-air today. So far, the program has featured more than 340 reports about places, people and issues across the globe. World Stories was developed as a unique way to highlight the local issues in a globalized world. Collaborating with its premium international partners, World Stories features their best and most captivating stories. Journalists from around the world share their view of their home country and continent, their people, and their issues.

The program features stories from 69 contributors in 48 different countries – just check out our interactive map to see where. One of the contributing stations is CTV from Cantebury, New Zealand. CTV’s headquarters was completely destroyed in the February 2011 Christchurch earthquake, but CTV has now risen from the rubble and is a regular contributor to World Stories. Or what about the Romanian station TVR. Over the past 12 months, they’ve been bringing us some fascinating reports about Romanian culture and lifestyle.

The magazine focuses on people and the interesting stories they have to tell. World Stories offers news, reports and portraits on all facets of life that give new insights on how things are done differently around the globe. It is widening horizons, for instance by showing how the city of Hong Kong plays an essential role in China’s rapid economic growth, through the eyes of a local business entrepreneur.

Latin America
Major developments in Mexico, where the culture TV channel ARTVC will be integrating several DW programs into its lineup, including Euromaxx, Enlaces, Visión Futuro, Reporteros en el mundo. ARTVC reaches around 5 million subscribers. In addition, public broadcasters in the states of Mexico (Sistema Mexiquensa de Radio y Televisión), Morelia (Sistema Michoacano de Radio y Telvisión) and Hidalgo (Radio y Televisión de Hidalgo) will be broadcasting DW’s Spanish program – DW (Latnoamérica), making it available to around 45 million potential viewers.

DW also has a new partner in Bolivia with the cable provider Sistema de Radio y Televisión Agüaragüe. This new partnership will make DW (Latinoamérica) available in Tarija, in the southern part of the country.

Online
The DW Media Center has expanded with four new languages – including Chinese, Hindi, Kiswahili and Turkish. The DW Media Center offers users direct access to pictures, audio and video material from DW.

Asia
Afghan TV is now a partner for DW in Pakistan and Afghanistan. The station is based in Islamabad and broadcasts to Afghanistan as well as for the around 1.5 million Afghani immigrants living in Pakistan. Along with programming in Dari and Pashtu, Afghan TV will also be broadcasting a selection of DW programming in English.

DW is now available nationwide in New Zealand, due to a change in operations from a trusted partner. Triangle TV is becoming Face TV and is now part of Sky TV via the Optus D1 satellite. Face TV will be available in around 175,000 households in New Zealand and will be integrating several hours of DW programming into its lineup.   Elshinta Televisi, a private television station in Jakarta, has begun broadcasting Drive It! As well as the Indonesian TV program Inovator. Along with terrestrial satellite, Elshinta TV is also available via cable and IPTV.

 

A new partnership with Standard Group Ltd. will make DW radio and television programming available to even more viewers and listeners in Kenya. The new agreement will make DW’s Swahili radio programming available on Radio Maisha and English television programming on KTN. Radio Maisha has been rebroadcasting DW’s Swahili programming since January 15, with one programming hour being aired five days a week from Monday to Friday. In addition, 10 minutes of news is being broadcast on Saturday and Sunday. In addition, DW’s English television programming will also be broadcast on KTN – a privately run television station which broadcasts throughout Kenya in English. A promotional campaign will accompany the partnership featuring bill-boards, radio and newspaper ads to introduce DW programming to the Kenyan audience.

To start the new year, DW’s program Pulse will offer music fans a new way to hear the latest music from the German club scene. The new DW page at Myspace will offer music fans the chance to listen to the latest songs from up-and-coming German groups as well as offering tour dates and interviews with bands: www.myspace.com/dwenglish.

Berlinskibeat was the first of the unsigned band profiles Pulse featured this week. Among others, the following bands will be presented in the coming weeks: Devil Named Jones, Julian King, Sticks in the Casino and Sputnik Booster & the Future Posers.  All episodes of the show are available as audio on demand on DW’s Pulse homepage, as well as on Myspace Unsigned’s Stream. Myspace boasts the largest free online music and video library in the world, which currently contains more than 42 million songs and videos.

The weekly English-language radio show Pulse takes a look at youth culture in Europe and around the world. Each edition consists of 30 minutes of fun, stimulating information and music. The show is rebroadcast by DW’s partner radio stations around the world and is also available online.