Sundance Channel to Premiere New Doc Series

NEW YORK, February 20:
This June, Sundance Channel will premiere On the Road in America, a 12-part documentary series that follows four
young Arabs as they travel across the U.S.

The series will begin
airing on Wednesday, June 4, at 9 p.m. Created by Academy Award-nominated
producer Jerome Gary (Pumping Iron),
and executive produced by Gary and Leon Shahabian, the series originally aired
on MBC in the Middle East. It is produced by non-profit corporation Layalina
Productions of Washington, D.C. in association with Visionaire Media of Los
Angeles, and was made possible by a grant from the Richard M. Fairbanks
Foundation of Indiana.

The program's cast
includes Ali Amr, a 22-year-old Egyptian who is studying accounting at the
American University in Cairo; Sanad Al Kubaissi, a Saudi in his sophomore year
at the American University in Dubai; and Mohamed Abou-Ghazal, a 27-year-old
Jordanian who has lived most of his life in Lebanon and completed his medical
studies at the American University of Beirut. Rounding out the ensemble is Lara
Abou Saifan, a young Palestinian woman who has been married for five years and
lives in Beirut. Abou Saifan is also a member of the production team, and
serves as a bridge between her fellow travelers and the crew. Traveling by RV
across the U.S. in the summer of 2006, the cast and members of the production
crew stopped for several days at points of interest including New York City,
Chicago, the Mississippi Delta, Los Angeles and Big Sur.

—By Irene Lew