Summer of Peace Program Launched by Arte TV Channel

The Franco-German TV Channel Arte have launched a summer program starting on July 18th focusing on pacifist movements during the 20th century. They will be presented every weekend, through concerts, movies and documentaries, until August 23rd.  

In a world full of uncertainties, the public have become fascinated by pacifist movements, as they represent the best universal alternative to violence and extremism. Since the huge emergence of pacifist movements in the 1960s, arts have been the best means of expression. The TV channel Arte, a Franco-German production, presents a vast program, starting on July 18th with the iconic figure of Bob Marley, first with a documentary and then with a rebroadcast of his live concert held in Berlin in 1980.

 Until the end of the Summer of Peace program, Arte will present several live concerts of famous singers and festivals involved in peace: Paléo Festival 2015, Donovan Berlin Live 2015, Eric Burdon Berlin live, Paul Simon in his African concert in 1987 against Apartheid, Billy Joel, and John Lennon. Documentaries about famous singers like Jimi Hendrix and bands such as the Doors are also being shown. Martin Scorsese has magnified the charismatic Bob Dylan in a wonderful biography, which will be broadcasted the August 8th . The famous film director also created an interesting documentary about George Harrison, the youngest Beatle, presented by Arte on August 22nd .

 The TV channel is also going to show famous movies that mark the history of pacifism: Good Morning Vietnam, The Thin Red Line, Friendly Persuasion, Kundun, Enemy, Cry Freedom, the Hair, and the Deer Hunter. Several subjects are touched upon like the Second World War, the Vietnam War and the Apartheid in South Africa.

Documentaries are an added value for the program: they allow the public to gain a better understanding of pacifism during the second half of the 20th century, and draw useful and necessary parallels with the current situation in the world. “Give peace a chance”, broadcasted on July 19th , depicts the history and the impact of famous pacifist songs, and asks the question whether pop music can save the world. Later in the program, a documentary will present the city of San Francisco as the heart of the peace movement, and how it has developed over the years. Other documentaries are also going to be shown: Peace’n’Pop, and Woodstock, for example. At the beginning of every night of the program, a documentary series entitled “Pictures for Peace” visits moments in history, through the most emblematic pictures of the last decades.

The TV channel Arte was born in 1991 from a Franco-German partnership. It is now a well-implemented channel in the European cultural media landscape.