Wanda’s Picks Special Broadcast

What this episode covers

Jed Rothstein, Director/Producer, Before the Spring, After the Fall. Three years before the Arab Spring, a group of young Egyptian rock musicians struggled for freedom amidst the stifling dictatorship of Hosni Mubarak. Two brothers among them, the sons of a dissident political prisoner, would help lead the uprising in Tahrir Square and the struggle for the future of their country.  Airs tonight on ITVS. Bio: Academy Award-nominated and Emmy-winning filmmaker Jed Rothstein specializes in hard-to-get stories from around the world that help people understand one another better.  Whether seeking out  heavy metal musicians who become Arab-Spring revolutionaries (PBS's Before the Spring After the Fall); pioneering doctors (HBO's Coma and Pandemic); Al Qaeda terrorists (The Oscar-nominated HBO documentary Killing in the Name);  defenders of free speech (The 2009 Sundance film Shouting Fire); journalists on the front lines (Independent Lens' Democracy on Deadline) or fundamentalist Christian college kids training to take over Washington (God's Next Army), Rothstein works with people to help them tell their own stories in their own words. His films have played in film festivals around the world, enjoyed special screenings at the United Nations, and been broadcast on HBO, PBS, the Discovery Channel, IFC, Channel 4, the BBC, and elsewhere. When not loitering in global hotspots, Rothstein has worked as a senior producer on a weekly television show and a consultant and writer for numerous documentaries.  He lives in New York with his wife, the writer Mira Jacob, and their son.

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