ShareThisBy ROB OWEN
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
It might not seem like it would take much effort to create foreign editions of PBS's "Sesame Street." It seems like an easy translation: Dub the Muppet segments into the native language and create a few scenes with local child and adult actors.
The new "Independent Lens" documentary "The World According to Sesame Street" (9 p.m. EDT Tuesday, PBS, times may vary, check local listings) proves it's not that easy at all.
Filmmakers Linda Goldstein Knowlton and Linda Hawkins Costigan follow producers from Sesame Workshop, which makes the American "Sesame Street" and works with producers worldwide on local productions, in this documentary.
At 90 minutes, the audience may be limited to people with a keen interest in television and/or children's programming, but "The World According to Sesame Street" makes some astute points about the need to respect local cultures and how politics and misinformed politicians can play a role even in something as innocuous as a children's TV show.
The filmmakers explore the creation of several foreign editions of "Sesame Street" that are co-productions between Sesame Workshop and a local broadcaster.
With Big Bird an established American icon, producers have avoided repeating the character abroad, instead allowing local producers to dream up their own characters that reflect regional culture. In Germany, the largest character in the local cast is a big bear (who does not live in a blue house).
Nadine Zylstra travels from New York to Dhaka, Bangladesh, to help locals launch a "Sesame" production. To understand the context for these foreign editions, the film reminds us of the era in which the American "Sesame Street" launched in 1968. Educational programs for children were rare, and programs that depicted children in an urban environment were rarer still.
" 'Sesame Street' is striving to give every child the right to read, the right to literacy, the right to education," Zylstra says.
Because 70 percent of the audience in Bangladesh lives in rural areas, often watching TV inside homes made of mud, questions arise about what kind of street should be depicted on the program: A rural block? A neighborhood with a banyan tree at the center?"Our producers are like old-fashioned missionaries," says Joan Ganz Cooney, one of the creators of the original "Sesame Street." "It's not religion they're spreading; it's learning and tolerance and love and mutual respect."
In some cultures, that's more of a challenge than in others. Getting Serbs and Albanians to hash out mutually agreeable series for their cultures in Kosovo proves to be a challenge. In Bangladesh, the politics of producers on the local edition come into play.
"The World According to Sesame Street" also rehashes the ridiculous home-grown controversy from a few years ago when it was reported that the South African "Sesame Street" would feature an HIV-positive Muppet. Cooney rightly chides the "mindlessness of congressmen" who called it a perversion.
"They don't read or think," Cooney said. "They just start yelling."
Nevermind that the Muppet was completely in tune with a culture where HIV infections are far more prevalent than in America.
"The World According to Sesame Street" shows it's not just American politicians who like to hear themselves speak; it's a universal malady and one that "Sesame Street's" simple lessons of tolerance might help curb in future generations.
(Contact Rob Owen at rowen(at)post-gazette.com)
