Kelly Saxberg directed Citizens du Monde/Citizens of the World, a series consisting of six hour-long documentary films about research for development. The series is guided by the research of Ron Harpelle and Bruce Muirhead, who were writing the history of the International Development Research Centre. IDRC also provided the seed funding for the project. The two historians introduce viewers to some of the people who are meeting the challenges of international development.
The series was produced by Les Productions Rivard for TFO. The series was shot 15 countries across the Global South. Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America were visited to make the documentaries. The films focus on six themes that are linked together in a chain that explores issues related to research for development. The main themes are water, women, health, politics, ICTs and the BRIC countries, but there are also many sub-themes in the series that reveal much about the complexity and general challenges of international development. The first documentary also provides a short historical introduction to Canadian international development and the work of the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) is often discussed.
Viewing Options
You may view the films in French or English in the order below or as individual documentaries. Each film is approximately 50 minutes in length and consists of three or four separate chapters that focus on different regions of the world. Each chapter is about 15 minutes in length, so viewers can also watch self-contained segments that focus on one geographic region or country. For example, the film about water and development consists of chapters that focus on India, Bolivia and Senegal and the film about women focuses on Senegal, Morocco, Guatemala and Palestine.
Visit our educational website to find out more about the series.