- Diamond Road is a three-part series and 96 minute feature documentary exploring the historical, cultural and socio-political facets of the world's most intriguing gem. Boring deep into the diamond world, the series seeks to understand the multiple meanings of an object that is as old as the earth itself. Diamond Road is an intimate and broad-ranging picture of a complex and historically rich world. Key to the series are the people who represent the different stages on the diamond pipeline. They are our guides, our window into a fascinating industry that spans continents and centuries and the deep shifts of history. We journey to Canada's North with a geologist seeking diamonds in a harsh land. We meet top dealers and jewelers of New York, centre of the trade in high-end goods and gateway to the US market. We travel to India, the massive engine of the cutting and polishing industry and now a burgeoning retail market. We journey to Sierra Leone where diamonds are slowly morphing into a tool for development. In South Africa, we meet black diamond entrepreneurs and others who are intent on rewriting their country's troubled history. We travel to Antwerp, heart of the rough trade where an old Jewish master cutter works his magic, and we learn how so many Jewish people were given a second chance at life through diamonds. We meet the passionate collectors willing to pay a small fortune for a stone born at the stroke of creation. And we meet the influential decision-makers who keep the diamond world turning.—Kensington Communications Inc.
- Diamond Road is a three-part documentary series exploring the historical, cultural and socio-political facets of the world's most intriguing gem. Boring deep into the diamond world, the series seeks to understand the multiple meanings of an object that is as old as the earth itself.—Kensington Communications Inc.
- Part One The Dream
In this first episode we learn about the history of the industry and the clever marketing which have made diamonds such an important part of our lives. We also meet a diverse cast of characters who all have a diamond dream: a miner in the impoverished country of Sierra Leone trying desperately to support his family on less than 3 dollars a day; an industry leader moved by the plight of the miners in Sierra Leone who is trying to create a market for fair trade diamonds; a former US General who has started his own virtual mine; a veteran geologist who's still hunting for his very own diamond discovery in Northern Canada; and a conflicted Yellowknives Dene Chief who fears that the money his people are making from the diamond mines in Canada may cost them their traditions.
Part Two The Stone That Divides
In the second instalment of Diamond Road we travel to New York, South Africa and Sierra Leone, all places along the diamond pipeline that have been marked by the dark and the light of diamond history. In South Africa, the birthplace of the modern day diamond story, we meet Maria Farmer and Willem Diergaardt who are fighting to reclaim their land and the diamonds that sit on top of it. This is the new South Africa, emerging from the shadows of apartheid, rewriting the wrongs of the past, in which diamonds divided the haves from the have-nots, Black from White. We enter the world of Christies auction house in New York City where we meet Jacob Zupnick and Andy Cohen, two Jewish dealers who have a connection to diamonds that is part of a rich history that saw many Jews escape war and oppression with a tiny cache of diamonds, their secret passport to a new life. In Sierra Leone we meet two smugglers who were part of the illicit trade in rough diamonds that fuelled a brutal eleven-year civil war. We journey with Martin Rapaport an industry leader to this devastated country while he begins his crusade to have fair wages for Sierra Leones exploited diamond miners.
Part Three The Arrival
In this last episode of Diamond Road we crisscross the globe, following both the small and the epic journeys of four characters. Manoj, a thirteen year old child polisher from India who leaves his village and his fathers cotton farm to apprentice in the diamond cutting factories of Surat, now a major diamond centre. We also meet Akshay and Arjav Mehta, whose Blue Star Group is one of the largest diamond manufacturing companies in the world. We follow the story of Andy Cohens diamond, an old, challenging stone that Andy won at the Christies auction in New York City. We witness the diamonds transformation and the good natured wheeling and dealing that sees the diamond pass on to its new owner. And finally, we journey upcountry in Sierra Leone with Martin Rapaport whose dream of fair trade diamonds faces more obstacles than he could have ever imagined.
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