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The Hole in the Wall
Rory O’ Connor & Gil Rossellini, USA, documentary, 58 min., 2002
(Hindi with subtitles)
Canadian Premiere
Software developer and Arthur C. Clarke enthusiast, Dr. Sugata Mitra takes us on a lively journey where social space meets cyberspace. As an experiment, Sugata embeds a high-speed computer in a wall separating his firm’s New Delhi headquarters from an adjacent slum. He discovers that children quickly teach themselves how to surf the net, read the news, and download games and music. The experiment is replicated in other locations with the same astonishingly fast results – children teach themselves the rudiments of computer literacy with absolutely no instruction. The Hole in the Wall examines one possible solution to the growing technological gap between rich and poor – the so-called digital divide that threatens to consign millions to an ‘information underclass’. The implications of Mitra’s experiments are profound. – R.S
Rory O’Connor has received considerable professional recognition, including a George Polk Award, a Writer’s Guild Award, two Emmys, an Iris, a Cine Gold Eagle, and many others. O’Connor’s most recent films examine the effects of poverty and of globalization around the world, economic reforms and human rights in China and the origins of ethnic cleansing in Yugoslavia. Gil Rossellini has directed and produced, Enemy Mine, an award-winning TV series examining contemporary European conflicts; Out of Hand, an award-winning feature film by Carl Haber; From Use to Abuse, a documentary about Albanian prostitution in Italy. He is currently the president of his own production company, Rossellini & Associates, Inc.
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