The Passionate Eye

''The Passionate Eye'' is a Canadian documentary television series that showcases documentary programming focusing on topics of news, current affairs, politics, and social issues. Airing on CBC Television and CBC News Network, the program airs a mixture of Canadian and international documentaries; some are original to the program, while others are feature documentaries that previously had a theatrical run, or television documentaries that previously or concurrently aired on other public television broadcasts in the United States or the United Kingdom.

Originally hosted by Douglas Leiterman, the program premiered in 1992 on CBC Newsworld as a showcase to rebroadcast classic documentary films, with noteworthy broadcasts in the inaugural season including '' Warrendale'', '' Summer in Mississippi'' and '' The Mills of the Gods: Viet Nam''. Leiterman would often also conduct new interviews with the filmmakers about their work on the films presented.

In its second season, it began to introduce newer documentaries into its programming, with its mix of older and newer films evolving much more strongly toward newer films as the show continued.

Michaëlle Jean became host of the program in 2000, holding the role until she was appointed the new Governor General of Canada in 2005.William Marsden, "Michaelle Jean: Meet the next governor-general: From exile to the top of Canadian government". ''Calgary Herald'', August 20, 2005. Jean was not immediately replaced by a permanent host; the series continued under a hostless format until 2015, when Wendy Mesley finally took the reins as a permanent host.

The series initially aired on Sunday and Monday nights. Debuting documentaries, the Sunday programme was titled ''The Passionate Eye Sunday Showcase'' (or, ''The'' ''Passionate Eye - Sunday''); whereas the Monday-night feature was titled ''The'' ''Passionate Eye - Monday''. The series eventually dropped the "Sunday" and "Monday" from its heading when it began to air episodes more regularly into its third decade.

The show has consistently aired on CBC News Network throughout its run; its broadcast on the main CBC Television network has varied, with the terrestrial network airing the show some seasons, or running other documentary series such as '' Doc Zone'' and ''Firsthand'' instead of ''The Passionate Eye'' at other times. Going into 2021, CBC made various changes to its documentary commissioning operations, dropping the other series and reuniting its documentary broadcasts on both the terrestrial and news channels under the ''Passionate Eye'' brand.

Similar documentary services of CBC's include: ''The Nature of Things'', which commissions one-hour science and nature documentaries; documentary Channel, which commissions feature-length documentaries; and CBC Short Docs, which greenlights shorter-form documentaries and digital shorts.

Episodes

Season 26

Season 27

Season 28

Season 29

Foreign-produced documentaries

International documentaries showcased on ''The Passionate Eye'' include:

* '' Crumb'' — a profile of the satirical cartoonist Robert Crumb
* '' The Celluloid Closet'' — an investigation of Hollywood's treatment of homosexuals
* '' The Dying Rooms'' — an expose of the Chinese orphanages
* ''Russian Striptease'' — a stylistic look at sex and corruption in post-Perestroika Russia
* ''The Battle Over Citizen Kane'' — the impact of ''Citizen Kane'' between Orson Welles and William Randolph Hearst.
* ''Calling the Ghosts: A Story about Rape, War and Women'' — the personal journey of two Bosnian women, a lawyer and a judge, who were imprisoned during the civil war.
* '' In the Shadow of the Stars'' — behind-the-scenes look at the San Francisco Opera Company.
* ''For Better or For Worse'' (1993) — intimate portraits of five culturally-diverse couples who have been together for 50 years or longer.
* '' Fourteen Days in May'' — the last two weeks on death row with a man many believe to be innocent.
* ''Project Nim'' — the story of Nim Chimpsky, a chimpanzee who was the focus of a controversial experiment that aimed to show what would happen if baby chimps were taken from their mothers at birth and raised like humans.
* '' 10%: What Makes a Hero?'' — an investigation into why some people are willing to put themselves at risk in order to perform what others consider heroic deeds
* '' The Choice 2020: Trump vs. Biden'' — investigative biographies of then-President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden.

References

External links

Official website
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Passionate Eye
CBC Television original programming
Canadian Screen Award–winning television shows
CBC News Network original programming
1992 Canadian television series debuts
1990s Canadian documentary television series
2000s Canadian documentary television series
2010s Canadian documentary television series
2020s Canadian documentary television series