TV Series

Disasters of the Century is a 18-part on-going series of intense one-hour docu-dramas incorporating interviews, real footage and re-enactments to grasp the attention of a massive audience with a powerful hunger for factually-based historical dramas.

Each episode in the series focuses on two disasters, grouping them thematicaly based on similarities in either location, circumstance, type of disaster, or social impact.

Complete episodes include . . .

Episode #1 - Living on the Edge
In their thirst to exploit the natural wealth of their country, Canadians have endured deprivation and danger. The residents of the Crowsnest Pass in Alberta have chosen to live amongst a valley of death, living on the edge of imminent disaster at every turn.

Featuring: The 1903 Frank Slide, and the 1914 Hillcrest Mine disaster.

Episode #2 - Black Week
The old adage that tragedy happens in threes was never more true than during the week of October 9-15, 1913. The middle week of October 1913 was a time of disaster, bringing tragedy by sea, land, and air.

Featuring: The Senghenydd mine collapse, Liverpool train collision, and the Zeppelin airship disaster.

Episode #3 - Nature's Fury
Human beings have always been at the mercy of Mother Nature and her varied weather patterns. Regardless of the level of preparation for unexpected dangers, there are always those surprise forces of nature that bring tragic consequences. The inhabitants of middle North America know all too well the risks of the winds of Tornado Alley.

Featuring: The 1912 Regina Tornado, and the American Super Outbreak of 1974.

Episode #4 - Washed Away
The element of water is essential to survival and often seen as the most life giving element on Earth. In some regions it is a scarcity, but in others its volume can overcome us, taking lives instead of sustaining them.

Featuring: The 1954 Hurricane Hazel, and the 1960 Great Chilean Tsunami.

Episode #5 - Out of Control
Since man first gained control of fire, he has been fighting to keep it. One night in Boston over a thousand people poured into a nightclub licensed for 460. When a fire was discovered, panic broke out in the overcrowded rooms. On the tour ship “Noronic,” 118 perish in a blazing inferno in spite of the crews best intentions.

Featuring: The 1949 Noronic Fire, and the 1942 Cocoanut Grove Fire.

Episode #6 - Human Error
The best planning, the best intention and the best foresight have likely saved many of us from being struck by disaster. Unfortunately it is the stories without such elements that serve to remind us that it takes only one distraction of a human mind to set in motion the necessary ingredients for a disaster.

Featuring: The 1917 Halifax explosion, and the 1955 Le Mans Race car crash.

Episode #7 - From the Inside Out
Living on planet Earth presents human imposed obstacles such as transportation, industrialization, and socialization, as well as the natural obstacles of weather, geography and the elements. We often take security in the notion that the ground we stand upon is ours to control. While tragedy plagues the surface of the earth, we often forget that this land can disguise terrors that lie beneath, waiting to burst through.

Featuring: The 1953 Tangiwai Christmas Eve Express, and the 1902 Mont Pelee Martinque eruption.

Episode #8 - Critical Mass
In the early part of the 19th century, the world experienced an economic boom of unprecedented growth referred to as “The Industrial Revolution.” Fuelled by the perfection of the steam engine, everything from manufacturing to transportation on both land and sea became totally redefined. Yet this revolution also brought with it a darker side that emphasized progress at any cost, exacting from some, the ultimate price.

Featuring: The 1907 Quebec Bridge collapse, and the 1919 Boston Molasses Flood disaster.

Episode #9 - Lost at Sea
The ocean remains one of our last untamed frontiers. It presents dangerous waves, unpredictable weather patterns, strange wild life, and a vast unexplored undersea terrain. In our quest to conquer the earth, we have invented many vessels to take on challenges of the sea. It is only when these vessels fail us that we realize the ocean still holds true control.

Featuring: The 1967 U.S.S. Forestal, and the 1939 HMS Thetis.

Episode #10 - It Came from the Sky
A fear of flying prevents many people from travelling by air to their destinations. Perhaps their hesitancy is connected to a fear of heights, or the frequency of plane crashes reported in our daily news; regardless, common perception has the public believing that the safest way to avoid death by plane crash is to avoid taking flight at all. Ironically, when a plane goes down sometimes the people on the ground suffer just as tragically as those aboard the lost aircraft.

Featuring: The 1945 Empire State Building crash, and the 1954 Moose Jaw Air crash.

Episode #11 - Final Destination
The invention of the railway provided the world with its first method of quick and effective transportation of people and their products. The train however has proven to be just as unreliable as any other man-made mechanism, delivering death and destruction along with its cargo.

Featuring: The 1947 Minaki Train crash, and the 1944 Naples Black Market Express.

Episode #12 - In an Instant
The delicacy of the world we inhabit is often overlooked. We naively believe that disaster comes shouting toward the people it effects, warning of the inevitable outcome long before death hits. In reality, sometimes it only whispers, and erases our fragile environments with a slip of the earth before it is heard.

Featuring: The 1910 Rogers Pass avalanche, and the 1963 Vaiont Dam disaster.

Episode #13 - When the Earth Moves
While tragedy plagues the surface of the earth, we often forget that this land can disguise terrors that lie beneath, waiting to burst through.

Featuring: The 1923 Kwanto Earthquake, and the 1972 Managua, Nicaragua earthquake.

Episode #14 - Up in Flames
When fire strikes it is often seen as an uncaring force that attached without mercy. Yet fire is neither malicious, nor evil. It is only given these attributes when seen from a human perspective, when lives and property go up in flames.

Featuring: The 1916 Matheson Forest Fire, and the 1960 Windsor Gas Explosion.

Episode #15 - Lost in Transit
There are those who believe that life is ruled by destiny and that all living things must surrender to the whims of fate. When fate is cruel and destiny comes too soon, the thread of life can be tragically short.

Featuring: The 1978 Eastman Bus Tragedy, and the 1956 CF100 Convent Crash.

Episode #16 - Eye of the Storm
The story of North America begins with its waterways. From the fishing waters off the east coast to the vast inland seas known as the Great Lakes, magnificent ships of sail and steam have charted the course of our nation’s history. But not without a tragic cost.

Featuring: The 1913 Great Lakes Storm, and the 1914 Newfoundland Sealing Disaster.

Episode #17 - Death by Water
Throughout history, human beings have tried to tame water, to span its mighty currents and harness its great power. But sometimes that power works against us, when bridges of steel crumble, and quiet creeks become raging rivers bent on death and destruction.

Featuring: The 1921 Britannia Beach Disaster, and the 1958 Second Narrows Bridge Collapse.

Episode #18 - Communities Under Seige
For the coal miner who excavates the earth and the fisherman who harvests the sea, life and livelihood are dependent on the kindness of nature. When disaster strikes, it is not just human life that is at risk, but the way of life of entire communities.

Featuring: The 1958 Springhill Mine Disaster, and the 1929 Grand Banks Tsunami.

*PRODUCER Nova Herman *EXECUTIVE PRODUCER Ron Goetz *DIRECTOR Chris Triffo

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