The border between Colombia and Venezuela is home to some of the world’s richest oil and gas reserves. But it is also a region wracked by violence, contraband and armed groups vying to control the territory. Viewers in the U.S. can now get an up-close look at the challenges facing leaders on both sides of the border by tuning to Discovery en Español each Sunday at 10pm.
La Frontera Más Caliente, which premiered Feb. 15, is a new docu-series airing on Discovery en Español, the main Spanish-language offering from Discovery Communications. Additionally, later this year the network will debut a dubbed-in-Spanish version of Racing Extinction, a documentary film from Academy Award-winning director Louie Psihoyos that saw its premiere at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival.
Meanwhile, sister network Discovery Familia will add unscripted series Mi Gran Boda Gitana to its line-up this year.
La Frontera Más Caliente: Colombia-Venezuela, a documentary-style co-production of Discovery Networks Latin America/U.S. Hispanic and Colombia’s Caracol Televisión under the supervision of Michela Giorelli, Discovery vice president of production and development, seeks to uncover the “modus operandi” and illegal routes traffickers use to move gasoline, food and currency into Colombia. The program also exposes how local residents rub shoulders with traffickers, paramilitary and guerrilla groups as well as common criminals in the quest to profit from the lucrative contraband trade.
The film travels through strategic locations along the Colombia-Venezuela border to hold exclusive interviews with political analysts, customs agents, naval officials, relatives of those who have disappeared and representatives of the peace-endorsing foundations active in the sensitive border region.
The series was produced by Pacha Films under the direction of Luis del Valle, also responsible for the production of Discovery en Español’s 2014 Emmy- winning documentary Trata de mujeres: de Tenancingo a Nueva York (Sex Trafficking: From Tenancingo to New York).
The network’s new documentary Racing Extinction puts together a team of artists and activists on an undercover operation to expose the hidden world of endangered species and the race to protect them against mass extinction.
Director Psihoyos’s 2010 documentary The Cove, which won the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature, covered similar territory, drawing attention to mass dolphin kills. Racing Extinction aims to serve as a catalyst for a larger ongoing campaign against carbon emissions, with Paul G. Allen’s Vulcan Productions on board to develop and execute that initiative.
With Mi Gran Boda Gitana, the dubbed-in-Spanish version of My Big Gypsy Wedding, Discovery Familia is putting its focus on brides and bachlorettes among a nontraditional group of Americans mainly known for their presence across Europe.
The series, airing on Tuesdays at 10 p.m. (ET) examines the world of young U.S. gypsies, and their customs and traditions.
