ZeD

I was pretty devoted to this show during its run, it made me admire CBC for being bold enough to air it. ZeD was a cool, smart collection of short films, music, art, poetry, animation and even puppetry aimed at a young but mature audience, and despite taking material by viewers, it never dipped below a certain quality. The short films were great for those of us with short attention spans, they were often funny or disturbing, strange or dramatic, and artsy.

I also liked the Halloween episodes. Creepy or funny, with spooky music and interesting guests. The show was hosted by Sharon Lewis who was cool and easygoing, and then by Ziya Tong who was beautiful. In its later days it had lots of hosts, but I kept missing the show after that. In short, good variety, not for everyone. I honestly believe this was the best TV to come from Canada (although some of its art came from other countries).

Found this show by accident one Friday night in Dec. 2002 on CBC Channel 9 from Windsor, and have been hooked on it ever since. It's a great underground /alternative music/short movie showcase that introduces the viewer to films/music/the work of artists from all around the world. You'll see all kinds of fascinating,crazy,disturbing stuff---from an artist who lets spiders crawl over her to an alternative club for East Indian-Canadian LBGTs (that's lesbian/bisexual/gay/trans-gender) to all different kinds of experimental forms of media,including animation---some a throwback to old-school techniques,some using the latest advances in the field. The program is shown late at night at the odd time of 11:25 (or at least it was when I was watching it early last year--it goes off the air in mid-January and returns in the wintertime). It also shows lots of full-frontal nudity courtesy of the films (not ALL of them have that,though) and runs the entire gamut of subject matter throughout the racial/sexual/political spectrum---some straight-up and in-your-face,others calm,laid back and peaceful; some the average viewer(like myself)won't know what the heck to make of. All in all,this program's a real treasure trove for anybody who enjoys seeing things way out of the mainstream (like me). I would say check it out,but it might be off the air for this season. Just tape an episode every chance you get---it's always worth it.

Any plans for this show to be on DVD that anyone knows of? I'd definitely like to know!