First episode date 1999 | Program creators Sharon Farr, Lee Otten | |
Awards Golden Horn Award for Best Magazine Show | ||
Free Spirit is a television series, created by Sharon Farr and Lee Otten, which first aired during 1999 and is currently running in its eighth season in South Africa on SABC.
Contents
It is a weekly magazine-format programme for people interested in spirituality and conscious living, including two documentary feature stories on issues, practices and phenomena across a spectrum of beliefs and featuring projects or initiatives that have a positive effect on people’s lives.
There are regular book reviews, health spa and book give-aways, and monthly readings from astrologer.
The series is produced by Cape Town-based company Shoot the Breeze Productions, and hosted by radio and TV presenter Natalie Becker.
In 2006, Becker started conducting Free Spirit’s regular interviews with a range of local and international spiritual teachers and healers. In the past, these interviews were conducted by the editor of Odyssey Magazine, Chris Erasmus.
Awards
The series and producers have received twenty-seven National Television and Video Association awards. For Free Spirit, Shoot the Breeze employed two editors, two production manager/directors, an accountant/HR consultant, a soundperson and a production assistant.
The company recently moved into the international market, producing a documentary short for Passionate Lives, a new international magazine series produced by Telecine Productions International.
The production of Free Spirit inserts is subcontracted to other independent production companies, with freelance crew for camera and sound recording.
In production
Broadcast documentaries
• PITCH FEVER, SABC 2’s Our Nation in Colour, 2004
• THE WILD WEST OF LOXTON, etv, 2000
• IN SEARCH OF THE GODDESS, SABC 2’s Issues of Faith, 2000