Prix Europa Current Affairs Television Programme of the Year, 2004

The MFP/Galafilm production, “The Origins of AIDS”, has just won another major prize, which was awarded in Berlin on Saturday October 23rd. Apparently the Prix Europa is reckoned by most people in the film world to rank second only to an Emmy.

To quote part of the jury’s commendation: “[T]his film…..makes us think about how little we know about our “current affairs” and how deeply we trust in what science and scientists tell us.”

The following is the full text, which has just been posted on the Prix Europa web-site.

Edward Hooper, October 25th, 2004

  

TV CURRENT AFFAIRS

1. PRIX EUROPA Television Programme of the Year 2004 / Fernsehprogramm des Jahres 2004

Donated by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe / Gestiftet von der Parlamentarischen Versammlung des Europarates

The origins of AIDS / Les origines du Sida

France 2, France; by/von: Stéphane Horel, Peter Chappell (authors), Catherine Peix, Peter Chappell (directors), Peter Chappell, Peter Krieger, Jorge Martinho (camera), Christine Le Goff, Arnie Gelbart, Christine Pireaux (producers), co-produced by Galafilm, Pathé Archives, Les Films de la Passerelle, RTBF, Prod.+, France 2

TV CURRENT AFFAIRS

Prix Europa Television Programme of the Year 2004

For all the professionals sitting on the panel this film was a revelation of sorts reaffirming their belief in the power and in the meaning of television at the beginning of a new millennium. A sensational 90 minutes long film – without even the traces of chasing sensation. Instead: we get facts. Well researched facts. Opinions. Well founded opinions. And questions – very well thought out questions, pushing the story to its limits. And not only the story: the viewers as well. Because this film takes us along and makes us think about how little we know about our “current affairs” and how deeply we trust in what science and scientists tell us. For all jury members this was the first television program about AIDS that did not mention homosexuality, drugs or prostitution. Instead: a film about “The Origins of AIDS”, entered by France 2, produced by Multimedia France.

http://www.prix-europa.de/publish/n_article.html?id=564&lang=GB&recStart=0