THE WALL: A WORLD DIVIDED

For the 20th anniversary of these world-changing events Spy Pond teams up with KUHT Houston PBS to produce two hours about the opening of the Berlin Wall and the re-unification of Germany. With President George H.W. Bush, Mikhail Gorbachev, James A. Baker, and former officials of both German governments, this film explores the end of the Cold War from the inside perspective of world leaders and diplomats. We also tell the stories of ordinary people whose lives were caught up in these turbulent times: families torn apart by the Berlin Wall; student leaders who risked their freedom to agitate for change; and Stasi (East German secret police) officers forced to choose sides. For broadcast in June 28, 2010.

JAPAN’S SECRET SUPER SUB

One of the best-kept secrets of World War II was Japan’s plan to bomb the Panama Canal with an innovative secret weapon unlike anything its enemies possessed: a massive, aircraft-carrying submarine capable of traveling around the world to deliver its deadly attack bombers against land-based targets. It was a weapon so potent that it could have changed the course of World War II. Each I-400 sub carried three state-of-the-art bombers in a huge hangar on the deck. When the sub surfaced, the bombers would be catapulted toward their targets. When they returned from their missions they’d land in the water near the sub and be hoisted aboard with a crane. As we explore the sunken wreck of one of only three I-400s ever built, we tell this story of the world’s first underwater aircraft carrier…and how close the Japanese came to making it count.

For broadcast on PBS’ Secrets of the Dead, May 5, 2010