BBC 2 2000

In 1947 some of the world’s most respected war photographers set off on their first peacetime mission. Their brief was to visit 12 countries, and in each one to choose a farming family who represented life in that nation. Chosen People is a fascinating BBC Two documentary film inspired by their photographs. It offers an intriguing and timely opportunity to reflect on how history has affected family life around the world over the past fifty years.

The original pictures were published in a magazine under the title which reflected the spirit of post-war pacifism through common humanity and understanding, People Are People The World Over. The magazine featured adobe huts in Mexico, Italian peasants still living under a feudal lord, food rationing in the Cotswolds, a fortune teller in China.

And now? Will the Okamotos still be working the land in high-tech Japan? Will Arleen have realised her ambition to be a farmer’s wife in Iowa? And what of the Alumas of Southern Sudan whose country has been plagued by civil war?

How have lives and loves, concerns and pleasures, hopes and dreams changed over the years? Does the 1947 editor’s view that “people are pretty much people wherever you find them” still hold true?

Eight years in the making, ambitious in scope and poetic content, Chosen People re-visits ten families, inviting viewers to draw their own conclusions on what they tell us about the human state.

The Families

The Hes | China
The Alumas | Sudan
The Redouins | France
The Pratts | USA
The El Gamels | Egypt
The Hiatts | England
The Stieglitzes | Germany
The Gonzalezes | Mexico
The Guercinis | Italy
The Okamotos | Japan

Credits

Narrator | Julie Christie
Music | Jim Sutherland
Photography | Patrick Duval
Sound | Brian Howell
Production Assistant | Lorna Galt
Editor | Peter Blackie
Producer / Directors | Seona Robertson, Les Wilson

Further Information

Caledonia TV owns the rights to this programme, which is available for sale to broadcasters. For further information, contact Sajid Quayum.