Contact: Mark Bramhall
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www.thegenocidefactor.com

February 4, 2002
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Three Years in the Making, Media Entertainment's The Genocide Factor Set To Premiere on Public Television Honoring Holocaust Remembrance Day

At the opening of a new century, mass murder has already become an indelible part of our daily lives. Now, a maverick filmmaker documents man's worst crimes against his own kind, in the hope that history will not continue to repeat itself.

The Genocide Factor: The Human Tragedy, a four-hour mini-series presented nationally by Tampa PBS station WEDU, airs on four consecutive Thursdays at 9p.m., premiering Thursday, April 4, 2002. Public television stations nationwide will air it in honor of Holocaust Remembrance Day, April 9th, as well as Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day, April 24th. (Please check local listings for exact date and time.) The Genocide Factor: the Human Tragedy anthologizes man's worst savagery to man from biblical times to the present. Produced by Media Entertainment, Inc. and directed by Robert J. Emery, the series is introduced by Academy Award-winner Jon Voight. In conducting the broadest possible examination of mans inhumanity to man, the series also examines the "factors" that can lead to genocide, and therefore explores documented atrocities not officially classified as genocide as well as those that are.

The Genocide Factor isn't a hastily rigged response to current events. Emery began work on it more than three years ago, well before the human rights crisis in Kosovo filled front pages. A total of 85 interviews were conducted with scholars, experts, government officials, and, most importantly, with surviving eyewitnesses. Over 1000 photographs were gathered, as well as more than 130 hours of video and film documentation. Some of these are disturbing, and parental guidance is advised for young viewers.

A segment will be added, focusing on the September 11th terrorist attacks in New York and Washington D.C., but The Genocide Factor's remarkable timeliness isn't the result of opportunism or macabre marketing. "The Genocide Factor got made primarily because I've never understood why people kill each other," says Emery. "Why do they do that?"

Emery's production company, Media Entertainment, Inc., based in Tampa, Florida, has created features and documentaries on a wide array of topics, including national forests (The Magic Wilderness), Rembrandt (Rembrandt: His Life, His Times, His Work), vagabond circus performers (Winter Quarters), and, most recently, an athlete's fatal illness (Swimming Upstream -- his eighth feature film). Three more documentaries are in production -- Golden Saddles, Silver Spurs, on Western movies; KidHealth, 13 half-hours for PBS, made in conjunction with Shriners Hospitals for Children; and a two-hour program on the Lincoln Brigade (the American volunteers who fought fascism in the Spanish Civil War). The Directors, his ongoing series on Hollywoods greatest filmmakers, plays on the Encore Cable Channel and in 55 countries. Some of those who appear before his lens are: Robert Altman, Spike Lee, Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg. Upcoming interviewees include Cameron Crowe, Jonathan Demme and George Lucas. Emery himself is the recipient of over 75 industry awards for his work, including two Cine Golden Eagle Awards.

Anticipation for the series is running high. American Public Television, distributing the series domestically, reports an initial eighty-station lineup nationwide. Cable-Ready, Media Entertainment's cable distributor, confirms strong international interest, and is now negotiating foreign broadcast rights with 25 countries. Films for the Humanities and Sciences, who license the educational rights to The Genocide Factor, reports one of the largest pre-sales of any title in their history.

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