Use BBC.com or the new BBC App to listen to BBC podcasts, Radio 4 and the World Service outside the UK.

Find out how to listen to other BBC stations

Episode details

World Service,16 Nov 2020,44 mins

A scandal at the Oscars: Marlon Brando and me

Outlook

Available for over a year

When Hollywood legend, Marlon Brando won a Best Actor Oscar for his role in The Godfather in 1973, he chose not to accept it. Instead he asked a young Native American woman called Sacheen Littlefeather to go on stage, in front of a televised audience of 85 million people and reject it on his behalf. It was the first time someone had made a political point at the Oscars and would have a profound effect on Sacheen's life and future. Now in her 70s and living with stage four breast cancer, Sacheen tells Jo Fidgen about her controversial speech. Sacheen Littlefeather is the subject of a documentary called Sacheen: Breaking the Silence. When Jung Hoon's parents moved back to North Korea in the 1960s, it was to a life they had not been sold. They were of Korean descent, but the family had been living in Japan from the time that Korea was under Japanese rule. They were not having the greatest time - and in the 1960s, North Korea had this propaganda campaign to encourage ethnic Koreans to come back. The campaign described the country as a kind of utopia - but when they got there and saw the reality, it was too late to change their minds. Jung Hoon spoke to Outlook's Je Seung Lee about his family's experience and life in North Korea. (Photo: Sacheen Littlefeather refuses Marlon Brando's Academy Award) Credit: Getty Images

Programme Website
More episodes