TORONTO – On September 11th, OMNI Television will premiere the Gemini Award-winning Canada: A People’s History in Portuguese.
In February of this year, OMNI Television became the first broadcaster in the world to launch the series to those whose language of comfort is other than English or French. Indeed, all 32 episodes of this educational, historical documentary have been fully transcreated, with voice-over and subtitling, to provide a better understanding of Canada and its people for those who speak: Portuguese, Chinese, Greek, Hindi, Italian, Polish, and Russian.
The Portuguese language version of this epic documentary will premiere on OMNI.1, Sunday, September 11th, 2005 at 9 p.m. ET.
Nuno Cristo, a reporter with OMNI News: Portuguese Edition, was charged with transcreating Canada: A People’s History from English. Viewers of OMNI.1’s Entre Linhas will recognize the voice of Fernando Sousa as narrator.
OMNI’s multilingual re-versioning of Canada: A People’s History is timely because in the past century, Canada has welcomed more than 13.4 million immigrants – with the greatest number arriving during the 1990s. As of the 2001 Census, 18.4% of Canada’s population was born outside of the country and the estimated Portuguese language population in OMNI’s coverage area is about 183,000 – or nearly 70% of the Portuguese speaking population in Canada.
By 2011, people of ethnic origin other than English, French or Aboriginal will represent 68% of the population of Toronto, Canada’s most ethnically diverse city.
Clearly, Canada’s place as one of the most ethnically diverse nations in the world has been confirmed.
“As the authentic diversity broadcaster, we felt it was important to make Canadian history accessible to the ethnocultural communities that we serve,” said Madeline Ziniak, vice-president and station manager, OMNI Television “By airing this series in seven, non-official languages, OMNI is contributing to an informed future that is built on understanding our past.”
All language versions of the series will conclude with a historical segment, in English, that will provide insights to the development and contribution of ethnocultural communities in Canada. OMNI is working with the Multicultural History Society of Ontario on the segments, which will reflect a total of 18 communities and feature interviews with historians, professors and members of the respective groups. In addition to Portuguese, Chinese, Greek, Hindi, Italian, Polish, and Russian, ethnic groups whose stories will be told in these segments include Black, Filipino, Iranian and Macedonian.
OMNI Television’s web site (www.omnitv.ca) hosts an interactive micro-site dedicated to promoting and enhancing the viewer experience. The site will provide episodic information as well as a number of interactive games by which viewers can test their knowledge of Canadian history.
