Gulag 113 premieres on OMNI.2, Nov 12

Kuumad uudised | 07 Nov 2005 | EWR

Rogers OMNI Television is proud to launch Gulag 113 to English language viewers, as part of its Signature Series. The 60 minute documentary makes its world television premiere to English speaking Canada community on OMNI.2, Saturday, November 12th at 7PM ET.

Gulag 113 premiered to the Estonian language community this past September.

The latest production from Realworld Pictures, Gulag 113 follows 89-year old Estonian-Canadian Eduard Kolga, a survivor of the Soviet GULAG system, as he journeys from his home in Canada to revisit key locations from the horrifying ordeal he and millions of other Eastern Europeans experienced more than 60 years ago.

Kolga’s story of toil and starvation at the hands of the Red Army is all too familiar within the many communities -- Estonians, Latvians, Lithuanians, Poles, Ukrainians and Finns – who similarly suffered in Soviet labour camps during World War II, but is largely unknown in the West.

“In approaching my grandfather to recall difficult memories and retrace grueling steps, I aimed not only to raise awareness of Stalin’s brutality but to humanize the ‘statistics’ his regime saw simply as a consequence of war,” says Marcus Kolga, Producer of Gulag 113. “I am grateful for the support of OMNI’s Independent Producers’ Initiative for enabling me to do so.”

“Revealing the untold stories of ethnocultural Canadians, whether those tales are positive or negative, and introducing them to new audiences is one of the key reasons why the OMNI Television Independent Producers Initiative exists,” echoes Malcolm Dunlop, Vice President, Programming and Marketing for Rogers Media: Television.

In addition to powerful images captured on location in Estonia and Russia, Gulag 113 offers rarely seen historical battle footage and an interview with Pulitzer Prize winning author, Anne Applebaum.

Gulag 113 was exclusively funded through OMNI's Independent Producers Initiative, a $32.5 million independent production fund. This seven-year funding commitment by OMNI was initiated and made available for independent producers to create third-language/ethnocultural programming. The documentaries will be broadcast in their original language and transcreated into English as well as a range of other languages.

OMNI.2 is currently available across Canada to Starchoice subscribers on channel 395, and to ExpressVu subscribers on channel 216. LOOK carries OMNI.2 on channel 70 in Ontario.

About the producer/director/writer:

In addition to being an independent producer, Marcus Kolga is also the founder of a weekly North American newspaper, founder of a successful graphic design and communications company, and an accomplished musician. Gulag 113 is Kolga’s first documentary film; previously he has worked on music videos and commercials. OMNI’s Independent Producers’ Initiative is also supporting his current documentary project, which also deals with wartime tragedy through the eyes of a survivor now living in Canada.

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