The first of six documentaries from both established and lesser-known film-makers located around the world. Werner Herzog 's film recounts the extraordinary story of Dieter Dengler, a US pilot who survived capture and torture by Laotian guerillas during the Vietnam War.
Alan Berliner 's poignant portrait of his father, Oscar - a man who neither wanted to be the focus of a film nor believed his life was important enough a subject.
On Wednesday 19 July 1961, 50 boys and 51 girls were born in Leningrad. Among them was film-maker Viktor Kossakovsky. Thirty years later he began to trace the people whose birthday he shared. Some had died, others had emigrated, but 50 had remained, among them a man imprisoned for stealing from his mother and another who has made a fortune from importing food.
When Denmark legalised pornography in 1969, Danish film-maker Ole Ege led the way pushing the boundaries of acceptability to the limit. Tonight's documentary profiles Ege's life and work, and examines how a previously prudish society reacted to the sudden advent of total freedom. This programme contains some nudity and strong language.
Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky's film probes doubts about the guilt of a trio of teenagers tried and convicted of the murder of three eight-year-old boys in Arkansas, Texas, in 1994.
Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin's favourite film, which he viewed over 100 times, was the musical comedy 'Volga Volga'—it tells the story of a group of farm workers determined to prove themselves. His devotion is at least partly explained by the film's use of his favourite slogan: "Life is better, life is happier." Dana Ranga 's film recalls the often strange and forgotten attempts by Soviet film-makers to match Hollywood's popular appeal by entertaining the socialist masses with pieces that choreographed workers' unstinting physical labours.
On 30 October 1974, perhaps the most famous heavyweight championship boxing match of all time took place in Kinshasa, Zaire - the "Rumble in the Jungle" between champion George Foreman and challenger Muhammad Ali. In historical footage and new interviews, this documentary explores the relationship between African-Americans and the African continent during the Black Power era in terms of both popular culture and international politics, including the brutality of then-dictator Mobutu Sese Seko.
Director Nick Broomfield investigates the circumstances in which grunge rock star Kurt Cobain died in 1994, looking at the conspiracy theories surrounding his death and delving into the drug culture of the West Coast rock scene. The film concludes with a confrontation between Broomfield and Cobain's widow, Hole singer Courtney Love.
Donn Pennebaker's acclaimed documentary of Bob Dylan's month-long 1965 tour of Britain, during which the star was accompanied by Joan Baez. An intimate portrait of the artist, the film includes concert footage and features other celebrities of the era, such as folk star Donovan and singer/songwriter Alan Price. Songs include "The Times They Are A-changin'" and "Subterranean Homesick Blues".
Leslie Woodhead's film about the Iranian hostage crisis of November 1979. Militant Islamic students - angered by US support for the Shah of Iran - invaded the American Embassy in Tehran, taking 52 diplomats hostage. For 444 days, the world watched helplessly as the United States attempted to free the diplomats in the face of Ayatollah Khomeini's fervent anti-Americanism. Only after a botched rescue attempt, and President Carter's election defeat by Ronald Reagan, were the hostages finally freed. The documentary hears from both hostages and their captors.
Michael Cordell's film about an Australian-rules football team's struggle to triumph over adversity. The Footscray Bulldogs, whose ground is based in a rundown Melbourne suburb, have the odds stacked against them in several ways. Their difficulties - they last won a tournament in 1954, have injury problems and a chronic scoring record, and are facing near-bankruptcy - are compounded by the threat of a takeover which could see them merged with another team.
Director William Gazecki's Oscar-nominated investigation into the 1993 siege at the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas. The media reported that 76 members of David Koresh's sect committed mass suicide at Waco. Gazecki's film - which includes images that some might find disturbing - alleges they were murdered when FBI agents gassed and burned down the compound. It also challenges the widespread portrayal of the Davidians as promiscuous social outcasts.
This poignant film follows the fortunes of Gigi and his pregnant girlfriend Monica in post-communist Romania. The couple are first seen as teenagers living rough in a Bucharest railway station. Monica wants to keep her baby but the Romanian authorities insist she is too young. The film follows the pair over two years as they struggle to survive and adapt to life as new parents.
An account of American comedy actress Carol Burnett's turbulent return to the Broadway stage. It covers the uncertainties felt by the cast and production team as they prepare for their New York opening, including whether the audience will respond to the jokes and if the scenery will stay upright.
The small town of Bransk used to boast a large Jewish population before the Holocaust. As Bransk prepares to celebrate its 500th anniversary, the authorities debate whether to acknowledge the town's Jewish past.
Cuba's cemeteries are too small to hold all of the country's dead. This film chronicles the emotional scenes at the exhumation of bodies after they have been buried for three years, and the subsequent storing of their bones in a crypt - a process that is watched by the dead's relatives.
Director Ron Havilio intertwines a highly personal view of Jerusalem - where he has lived for nearly 50 years - with an overview of the Holy City's fascinating and litigious history. He also looks at life in the city as it approaches the new millennium.
In 1987, 600 colour slides depicting scenes in a wartime Jewish ghetto in Poland were found in a Vienna bookshop. Polish director Dariusz Jabłoński's film uses these photographs - which were taken by the Nazi's chief accountant at the Lodz ghetto, a large and notorious work camp - to provide a chilling testimonial to one of the Second World War's darkest chapters.
For over five decades, German government and industry have resisted demands to pay compensation to the millions who worked as slave labourers under the Third Reich. This film follows retired businessman Rudy Kennedy - who survived slave labour as a teenager - as he tries to force German firms to acknowledge their links with Nazi atrocities.
Seven-part documentary from director Jennifer Fox shedding light on the state of race relations in the US by following two years in the lives of a mixed-race married couple and their two children in New York. In the first part, which acts as an introduction to the family, Cicily leaves home to go to college. [Note: This Storyville series is a condensed, 310-minute version of the PBS original, which was formed of ten 60-minute episodes.]
Daughter Cicily travels to Nigeria to spend a term with a group of students.
The family celebrate Christmas, but Cicily contracts malaria.
Chaney introduces her first boyfriend to Bill and Karen. Is she too young for romantic matters?
The family faces a crisis when Karen is admitted into hospital for a hysterectomy.
Bill struggles to overcome his drink problem, while daughter Cicily - now a graduate - begins her search for a job.
In the conclusion to the series, Bill and Karen reflect on their courtship period during the 1960s.
Canadian grappler Bret "the Hitman" Hart became a huge attraction on US cable TV, his "tough but nice" persona securing him a $9m deal. But, when he refused to compromise his image for the sake of commercial interests, he faced the end of his career. Paul Jay's acclaimed film follows Hart for a year and explores the reality behind the theatre of wrestling.
Under the eyes of the United Nations, troops of the Bosnian Serb army massacred over 7,000 men from the town of Srebrenica in the summer of 1995. Leslie Woodhead 's film is the result of a year-long investigation into the killing and the aftermath of Europe's worst massacre since the Second World War.
Despite their aristocratic background - and the fact that they were aunt and cousin to Jackie Onassis - Edith Bouvier Beale and daughter Edie lived in anonymity in a decaying mansion on New York's Long Island. But, in 1976, when Albert and David Maysies's film appeared in US cinemas, it gave the pair the fame they longed for - and the public a glimpse into the interdependency and private language of their eccentric lives.
For Ah Feng, Jialing, Xiazi and Ziao, their years working as maids while sharing a room in a Beijing slum may be the freest of their lives. In their rural home of Phoenix Bridge, the young Chinese women were under their parents' control; on their return, they will belong to new husbands. Struggling against harassment, they remain intent on achieving their dream: a metropolitan life.
A look at America's love-hate relationship with cigarettes over the course of the century.
Biographical documentary directed by Werner Herzog, about his turbulent relationship with long-time collaborator Klaus Kinski. Herzog recalls the actor's brilliant yet troubled personality, and revisits Peru, where the pair first worked together on "Aguirre, Wrath of God".
Jean Paul Akayesu , once the respected mayor of his village in Rwanda, is brought in front of the UN International Criminal Tribunal. He faces a charge of genocide, perpetrated against his neighbours, and is convicted. This film tells the painful story that leads to his conviction, the first in an international court for genocide and crimes against humanity. Contains video footage that viewers may find upsetting.
Oscar-winning documentary recounting the events of the Munich Olympics hostage crisis. On 5 September 1972, 12 Israeli athletes are taken hostage by Palestinian terrorists in Munich's Olympic village. As attempts at negotiation flounder, the authorities prepare to launch a rescue bid. But their efforts will lead to tragedy. Narrated by Michael Douglas.
The first of a two-part programme in which writer Norman Mailer profiles life in America since the Second World War. Mailer fought for his country in the Second World War - an experience that inspired his novel "The Naked and the Dead" - but, disappointed by post-war America, he grew to despise the 1950s.
In this second and final episode, writer and social critic Norman Mailer describes the revolution in attitudes during the 1960s, the impact of the Vietnam war, and the Reagan and Clinton years.
Film-maker Don Boyd's parents were an unlikely couple. His mother, the youngest of 12 children, was born into a poverty-stricken Ukrainian family in China. His father Donald grew up in the death throes of the British Empire, with all the trappings of colonial wealth. Their meeting in Shanghai heralded a strange and tumultuous relationship. Don Boyd charts the truth about his parents as he travels around the world following the course of their lives.
Award-winning film-maker Viktor Kossakovsky examines the nature of human love in three stories which together look at his mentors, a shot-gun wedding outside Moscow, and the relationship of two St Petersburg kindergarten children.
Documentary focusing on Vera Bila, the most successful Romany singer in Europe. Born in Slovakia, she travels around Europe in search of places to perform, all the while awaiting her son's release from prison. The film also sheds light on the plight of Europe's neglected Romany communities.
Film-maker Alan Berliner is tired of being mistaken for one of the many people who share his name. In this film, he goes in search of others who share his problem. After visiting same-name societies all over America, he attempts to come to terms with his alter egos when he holds a dinner party where invites are confined to people called Alan Berliner. There they explore the links that have resulted in them having the same name.
Nick Fraser travels to Brussels in an effort to understand the European Union.
The story of the cook's son who became a feared, tyrannical leader in Zaire
A documentary crew from the BBC arrives in L.A. intent on interviewing Heidi Fleiss, a year after her arrest for running a brothel but before her trial. Several months elapse before the interview, so the crew searches for anyone who'll talk about the young woman.
Prince Mohato becomes King of Lesotho and must face the many burdens of office and the commitment of marriage.
An 87-year-old Inuit hunter looks back on his life in Greenland.
Co-written by his daughter Aiyana, a Storyville profile of the American folk hero Ramblin' Jack Elliott.
During the 1950s and 60s, Britain consumed 430,000 tons of cod each year - but as the stocks started to diminish, the livelihoods of fishing communities in both countries were at stake. Iceland took steps to protect their fishing industry - the mainstay of their economy - resulting in the three so-called "Cod Wars". This was a David and Goliath struggle, where the small fleet of Icelandic gunboats were pitted against the British trawlers and the Royal Navy in the North Atlantic. This Icelandic film, made in 2001, tells the story from both sides and reflects on the impact of the Cod Wars in Grimsby and Hull.
First of a two-part film on the bitter history of conflict between Israelis and Arabs.
Concluding the two-part film about the enmity between Israeli and Arab.
Documentary-maker Alan Berliner's award-winning film about his enigmatic grandfather.
The life of the Jewish jazz musician Eddie Rosner, who fled Nazi Germany and settled in Russia, only to be arrested and imprisoned there after the war.
The murder of Gianni Versace in July 1997 on the steps of his Miami mansion sent shockwaves around the fashion world. Versace's name had become associated with the best in designer fashion, and he was the couturier of choice for celebrities including Diana, Princess of Wales, Madonna and Elton John. This film tells the strange story of his life and death.
Documentary giving an insight into the dubious strategies employed in Australian politics.
A documentary charting the turbulent life of Catalan artist Pablo Picasso.
Agnes Varda travels through France, meeting people who live by picking up other people's rubbish.
Photojournalist Nick Danziger returns to Kosovo to trace the refugees he met while covering the war in 1999.
Film documenting the harsh reality of life in Soweto, South Africa
Film about the painful legacy left by child abuse.
How the influence of Christian missionaries in Papua New Guinea is steadily eroding the traditional customs and beliefs of the tribes people there.
Maximilian Schell's documentary about the life of Marlene Dietrich, for which he garnered information from the film star during a 17-hour conversation.
Film following the closure of a hairdressing salon in Italy after 43 years in business.
Documentary observing life at three busy hairdressing salons in the town of Blackpool.
Film following a 17-year-old girl from Marseille as she prepares for a marriage arranged before she was born.
The story of right-wing American Politician George Wallace, who campaigned for racial segregation and on whom an assassination attempt was made in 1972.
After the attempt on his life, which left him paralysed from the waist down, George Wallace showed remorse for his emotive policies and sought reconciliation with the black community.
An award-winning documentary telling the story of three Australian prospectors, whose search for gold in the 1930s led them to the previously unexplored highlands of Papua New Guinea.
A documentary programme filmed in the spectacular highlands of Papua New Guinea, where the expansionist policy of a coffee plantation owner has led to a bitter intertribal war.
Following the fortunes of two entrepreneurs, Tom Herman and Kaleil Isaza Tuzman, in their quest to develop a new media solution for connecting citizens with the US government via the internet. Will the project suffer the same fate as so many similar ventures?
Documentary about Robert Eads, a female-to-male transsexual who faces certain death from ovarian cancer after being refused treatment by 20 different doctors.
Eight camcorders were given out to students in Los Angeles. They filmed their lives for a week and then passed the camera on to someone else. The project lasted for a year and the resulting film describes what teenage life is like in a multi-ethnic environment on the west coast of America in the year 2000.
Barry Stevens believes he has hundreds of half brothers and sisters because his parents were one of the early beneficiaries of artificial insemination. Half a century on, Stevens tries to trace his biological father.
Documentary following a group of Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza Strip on a three-day organised tour through Israel in 1999. For many, this is a first visit to Israel, while others take the chance to see homes they lost when they went into exile.
A documentary, directed by DA Pennebaker, Nick Doob and Chris Hegedus, and facilitated by film-makers the Coen brothers, of a reunion of some of the greatest names in bluegrass music at the Ryman theatre in Nashville. The stars featured include Emmylou Harris, Alison Krauss. John Hartford and Ralph Stanley.
Scandinavia has the reputation of being a land of beautiful natural blondes and midnight sex romps. This film, by Torben Skødt Jensen and Ghita Beckendorff, charts the history of attitudes to sex and reveals the reality to be somewhat more complicated.
Documentary makers DA Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus's film record of a raucous debate on "women's liberation" that took place in New York's City Hall in 1971, between novelist Norman Mailer, critic Diana Trilling and three members of the Women's Movement - Germaine Greer, Jill Johnston and Jacqueline Ceballos.
The War Room presents a compelling behind the scenes account of the 1992 US Presidential campaign of the then relatively unknown Democratic hopeful Bill Clinton. The film's stars are spin doctors George Stephanopoulous and James Carville, communications director and campaign strategist respectively, completely different in background and personality, but singular in mission. The War Room, released in 1993, follows their rollercoaster ride to Election Day in a documentary classic about the selling of a President.
The strand celebrates William Shakespeare's birthday with a film by Michael Rubbo which examines the authenticity of his work. To what extent was the Bard's contemporary Christopher Marlowe the inspiration behind his work, or was he - as some have suggested - the hidden hand behind it?
The international documentary strand showcases a film by American director Marina Zenovich which attempts to find out the real identity of French polymath Bernard Tapie , whose extraordinary life has included stints as a singer, actor, politician, businessman, author, football team owner and convict.
The slave trade was officially abolished throughout the British Empire in 1807. This documentary reveals one of Britain’s darkest secrets: a form of slavery that continued well into the 20th century – the story of Indian indentured labour. Coolies: How Britain Reinvented Slavery tells the astonishing and controversial story of the systematic recruitment and migration of over a million Indians to all corners of the Empire. It is a chapter in colonial history that implicates figures at the very highest level of the British establishment and has defined the demographic shape of the modern world. Combining archive footage and historical evidence the programme includes interviews with Gandhi’s great-grandaughter, Uma Dhupelia-Mesthrie, about Gandhi’s campaign to end indentured labour and David Dabydeen – author and academic – whose great-grandfather was an indentured labourer in British Guyana. Coolies: How Britain Reinvented Slavery traces family stories through epic voyages across South America, the South Pacific and Africa, as descendants investigate their past and trace the last surviving witnesses.
The international documentary strand features Azza El-Hassan's film portrayal of her neighbourhood of Ramallah, a town under fire in the current Middle East conflict. With the threat of violence severely limiting locals' activities, filming becomes the main event, especially for a group of children.
Naomi Horowitz and her six children are one of seven Jewish families to settle in Tel Rumeida, a community in the heart of Palestinian self-rule territory. Ruth Walk's film looks at why they feel they belong there, their devout religious observance and their efforts to ignore their Arab neighbours.
Brigid Berlin had a comfortable uptown upbringing that her mother hoped would end in her becoming a respectable socialite. Instead, she found cult recognition as an acolyte of Andy Warhol, appearing nude in many photographs and Warhol films. Vincent Fremont and Shelly Dunn Fremont's film shows how, at 60, the outrageous star's life now revolves around her twin obsessions of slimming and housekeeping.
Best known for her appearance in Fellini's La Dolce Vita and her singing with the Velvet Underground, Nico was nevertheless a troubled soul whose iconic beauty was offset by a self-destructive urge and an inability to reconcile herself with life. Susanne Ofteringer's film charts Nico's life, from her birth in postwar Germany to her heroin-ravaged death.
Ajax is by far the most successful Dutch football club, noted for an attractive approach and winners of 27 national championships and 25 international competitions. But the 1999-2000 season was not a happy one. This film is a behind-the-scenes look at how a high-profile football club, celebrating its centenary year, survives in a modern sport where money rules and business comes first.
Brazilian football suffered a dark day on 16 July 1950: the national team lost the World Cup final at home in front of 175,000 fans. But it heralded the dawn of a golden age made possible by two players, Pele and Garrincha. This documentary tells the story of these two football legends.
In March 1986 seven young men were gunned down by the South African police, who were insistent that the shooting was legitimate. Lindy Wilson's film follows the inquiry by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission into the facts behind the events.
The international documentary strand presents Thomas Heurlin's film following the fractious relationship between a father and the daughter he did not meet until she was ten years old - from their initial encounter to the revelation that she was now pregnant.
Myeloma is a form of bone-marrow cancer that claims 3,000 new patients in the UK every year. Luke Holland's observational film for the documentary strand follows his charismatic brother Peter's five-year experience of living with the illness, and the effect of his terminal condition and its treatment on Peter's relationship with Jeanette, his wife and partner of 20 years' standing.
The story of North Korea's shock success in the World Cup, during which they beat the highly fancied Italians 1-0. The film features interviews with the team's seven surviving members, who remain national heroes to this day.
In the 1990s investors poured money into Thailand, making it one of the most prosperous "Asian tigers", but success was short-lived and was followed by a dramatic slump. In Pascal Vasselin's film, entrepreneurs, speculators and workers talk about an economic riches-to-rags story.
Director Pierre-Henri Salfati explores the medieval myth of the Golem in the light of contemporary robot-building programmes at Palo Alto in California. He explores a question that has occupied the minds of theologians and scientists for centuries - whether humans could ever be replaced by a race of automatons?
Director Frederick Wiseman's unblinking portrait of the circumstances in which the crime of domestic violence occurs, and what is being done to combat it. Filmed in Tampa, Florida, the film follows the police as they respond to calls, and goes inside the principal shelter for victims, the Springs.
The story of a 2,000-strong collection of priceless paintings stolen from European galleries by the Nazis - and of the British agents, nicknamed "the Bonzos" who saved them from oblivion.
A look at the price paid by Jamaica for seeking help from the International Monetary Fund during the 1970s.
Marc Singer 's film follows a community of people eking out a living in the subway tunnels beneath the streets of New York.
The human cost of the terror campaign waged against the people of Indonesia in the 1960s.
Manuel Martin Cuenca's documentary tells of how the Cuban national sport, baseball, turned into a battleground with the revolution in 1959, and how the sport became emblematic of Cuba's frosty relations with America.
Sex, love, relationships and Aids are examined as Dumisani Phakathi explores his community in Soweto, South Africa.
A compilation of the French director's TV series, L'inde Fantôme, which followed his trip to India.
Profile of film-makers DA Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus.
Angus Macqueen's film captures the desperate situation as Argentineans try to make the best of life with their economy in freefall.
In November 2001, as western forces began the bombardment of Afghanistan, members of the NGO emergency crew dealt with the casualties. This film captures the hardship of their work.
Exploring the arrest, in 1931, and subsequent trial of nine black boys accused of gang rape.
Chronicling the events that shaped the legendary US boxer, including 1974's "rumble in the jungle".
Brad Lichtenstein's film tells the story of the bloodiest uprising in US penal history, which occurred in September 1971 when over 1,000 inmates gained control of the Attica Correctional Facility in upstate New York.
Actor Philip Seymour Hoffman attempts to discover why the American electorate is so apathetic.
After a year shadowing George W Bush, Alexandra Pelosi presents a profile.
An account of the one of the pivotal conflicts of the First World War, using archive film and interviews with survivors to portray the reality of warfare. Originally shown as part of the landmark BBC series from 1964, The Great War.
In 1978, film director Yulie Cohen-Gerstel was the victim of a terrorist attack in London in which several of her colleagues died. This film chronicles her attempts to free the last surviving terrorist involved in the attack from prison.
Profiling South African gay activists Simon Nkoli and Bev Ditsie.
Exploring the character and ambitions of the former Yugoslavian President, who for ten years orchestrated Europe's most ruthless dictatorship since the Second World War. Including interviews with insiders who served in the regime.
Documentary from director Knut Erik Jensen, following the eccentric members of a male voice choir in a beleaguered Norwegian fishing village and their trip to Murmansk.
Twenty-eight-year-old Sami Saif films his search for the father who abandoned his family when Saif and his brother were very young. Having overcome fear and doubts, he heads to the Yemen where his father is now head of a new family.
In June 1998 James Byrd, an African-American, was chained to the back of a truck and dragged three miles to his death. Three men from Jasper, Texas, were charged with this brutal crime, and this film follows reaction to the trials in 1999 from the viewpoint of both black and white residents of the town.
The Dalai Lama prays with the faithful in German director Werner Herzog's film. Capturing the atmosphere of a pilgrimage and a rite, he follows the Buddhist Kalachakra - on the Nepalese/Indian frontier, on pilgrimage to the holy Mount Kailash in Tibet and then in Austria.
Aids hits a family living an idyllic life in Salt Lake City. Storyville paints a dramatic picture of their extraordinary response to extraordinary circumstances.
An attempted coup and return to power feature in a profile of colourful Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez. A documentary on the coup itself is at 1.10am.
The life and loves of the photographer feature in Anne Makepeace's documentary.
The history of America's multi-billion-dollar missile defence system is traced - from Eisenhower's commitment to missile defence, to Reagan's "Star Wars" programme and Bush's concern over "rogue states".
Investigating the effect of clusterbombs on the people and landscape of Laos and Afghanistan. Should these military weapons be subject to restrictive laws?
Directed by Victor Kossakovsky; A look at the surreal side of everyday life in St Petersburg
An explicit insight into the myth and reality of the "maisons closes" - the unique licensed brothels of Paris that were a central part of French life until their closure in 1946.
Determined to stage a fully-fledged production of a Mozart opera in his home, Richard White won't let parking restrictions or neighbours stand in his way. For one week, the quiet Norfolk village of Claxton is transformed.
A Czech Romany family's experience of gaining asylum in Britain is examined in Mira Erdevicki's documentary.
How can business failure affect an entire family? Storyville investigates.
"The gates of hell" was how a Bolivian mountain rich in silver became known. Four hundred years on, life remains just as bad for the men and women who scrape a living from its toxic seams.
In 1938, reeling from the Great Depression, America's morale was raised by a knobbly-kneed racehorse. His inspirational rise to triumphant form - also the subject of a new movie, due to open here in November - is told in this documentary.
This chronicle of Britpop, showing as part of the Storyville documentary strand, examines the phenomenon's socio-political and cultural impact, and features interviews from members of the bands associated with the scene. At the beginning of the 1990s, home-grown talent in the arts and fashion flourished across the globe. At the forefront of this cultural revolution was the music - labelled Britpop - that really caught the imagination as bands like Oasis, Blur, Pulp and the Stone Roses stormed charts worldwide. With contributions from Liam and Noel Gallagher, Damon Albam, Jarvis Cocker, photographer Kevin Cummins, Vanity Fair's Toby Young, fashion designer Ozwald Boateng, Damien Hirst, and Peter Mandelson.
Nicolas Philibert's documentary portrait of life in a tiny one-class primary school in the remote hills of France's Auvergne.
An intimate look at the recording of John Lennon 's Imagine album, filmed at his estate in Ascot in the summer of 1971.
Louis Theroux returns with a documentary about one of America's biggest legal brothels - the Wild Horse Resort and Spa - in Reno, Nevada. Louis moves into the ranch for six weeks, witnessing life among the working girls and delving into the relationship between its owners, Lance and his wife Susan.
Supporters and opponents of the Cultural Revolution recall the events that rocked China in the 1960s, in Richard Gordon and Carma Hinton 's documentary. Showing as part of Storyville.
Alan Bennett and Michael Frayn are among the interviewees in Leslie Woodhead's wry story of 1950s espionage.
An account of a Chinese family's struggle to cope with HIV. Showing to mark World Aids Day.
Steve James , director of the acclaimed Hoop Dreams, a Storyville documentary from 2002 about a dysfunctional family.
Culture-clash documentary highlighting the difficulties faced by Pakistan's most popular rock group, Junoon, and other musicians.
Chicago rock band Wilco were on the brink of greatness as they recorded fourth album Yankee Hotel Foxtrot in 2000, but a year later they were without a record deal and two of their original line-up. Sam Jones 's film tells the story.
Nudity, drugs and strong language abound in a Storyville tribute to the flamboyant, gender-bending hippies who staged exuberant musicals in late 60s/ early 70s San Francisco.
US power giant AES Corp tries to introduce the citizens of Georgia to a billed power supply, where previously it was gratis - but the Georgians devise new ways to get free electricity.
This true, shocking, astonishing story of what the Belgians did in the Congo was forgotten for over 50 years. Congo: White King, Red Rubber, Black Death describes Leopold II, King of the Belgium's private colony of the Congo between 1885 and 1908 as a gulag labor camp of shocking brutality. Leopold posed as the protector of Africans fleeing Arab slave-traders but, in reality, he carved out an empire based on terror to harvest rubber. Families were held as hostages, starving to death if the men failed to produce enough wild rubber. Children's hands were chopped off as punishment for late deliveries. The Belgian government has denounced this documentary as a "tendentious diatribe" for depicting King Leopold II as the moral forebear of Adolf Hitler, responsible for the death of 10 million people in his rapacious exploitation of the Congo. Yet, it is agreed today that the first Human Rights movement was spurred by what happened in the Congo.
Director Mohamed Kounda 's touching documentary, filmed over three years, captures the love-hate relationship between singer/trumpeter Chantz Powell - who does an uncanny imitation of Satchmo - and his formidable mother/manager Glinda, as Chantz tries to sell his talent to Europe and America.
Oscar-nominated film tells the story of the radical 1960s American political activists who believed that in order to protest against the Vietnam War, it was necessary to take violent action to avoid marginalisation by the government. Sam Green and Bill Siegel 's film includes interviews with the main protagonists involved with the movement.
How independent journalists risked their lives to report the true impact of war on the citizens of Baghdad.
Following a diverse group of immigrants and refugees struggling to settle in the United States. Subjects include a family who fled Nigeria's Ogoni delta, two Dominicans with dreams of sporting stardom and a young Palestinian woman.
Storyville examines the arrests and trial - over an eleven-month period from July 1963 to June 1964 - which saw Nelson Mandela and his co-defendants condemned to life imprisonment on Robben Island.
During the 1940s and 50s, Sophiatown in Johannesburg was an enclave of creativity amid the insanity of apartheid. Storyville pays tribute to a bygone era.
An Oliver Stone documentary. In 2002, the film-maker travelled to Havana to meet with Cuban leader Fidel Castro. This film details their discussions of pivotal moments in world history, including JFK's assassination, the Bay of Pigs invasion and the Cuban missile crisis.
For Storyville, Argentinian director Rodrigo Vazquez tells the story of Operation Condor, a 1970s bid to repress Latin America's left-wing groups in a collusion between military dictators, Interpol and the CIA.
in 1995, Italian student Giacomo Turra died while in Colombian police custody. Officials claim his injuries were self-inflicted, but his family dismiss this. Storyville follows their quest for the truth.
A Storyville account of repression and dissent during the 40 years of the German Democratic Republic. The secret police, aka the Stasi, cultivated a climate of fear and paranoia in the years after the Second World War - but resistance eventually led to the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.
Members of the al-Saud royal family recount the history of Saudi Arabia for Storyville, from its warrior origins through to the discovery of oil in the 1930s and its affluent present, while contributors such as Henry Kissinger reflect on the Islamic state's ties with America.
Sarah Goodman 's documentary follows three young people who, in the wake of 9/11, join the US Army to give direction to their lives. With strong language.
As the second intifada began in 2000, three young men died on the Gaza Strip. Why did they have to die? Contains strong language and images.
A critical look at the life of legendary one-eyed General Moshe Dayan, who took charge of his nation's occupation of the Palestinian areas of the West Bank and Gaza following the 1967 Israeli-Arab war.
A critical appraisal of the life and actions of Itzhak Rabin. A former general and statesman, he was assassinated in 1995 while attempting to implement the doomed Oslo peace accords.
A critical look at the life of Israeli leader Ariel Sharon, who was re-elected for the second time in January, 2003. Known in his homeland as 'Arik', he has courted controversy with his tough stance against the Palestinians in a military and political career spanning more than half a century.
Personal stories of a group of Hasidic and Orthodox Jews struggling to reconcile their faith with their strictly forbidden homosexuality.
Two gay New Yorkers seek help from a surrogate mother in a Storyville documentary.
Recovering crack addict Diane tries to reunite her family after her HIV-positive daughter Love gives birth to a baby boy. As Diane fights to regain the trust of Love and her five other children, the child welfare system in New York thwarts her efforts as Love's suitability as a parent is called into question following a depressive bout.
Documentary telling the story of the Funk Brothers, the Motown session musicians who were behind more number one hits that the Beach Boys, the Rolling Stones, Elvis and the Beatles combined. Drawn together from Detroit's jazz and blues scene, the film recounts their evolution of the Motown sound from its origins to its demise in LA during the 1970s, and reunites the surviving Funk Brothers for the first time in thirty years.
Storyville's Nick Fraser meets German-French documentary film maker and former actor, Marcel Ophüls.
Sheena McDonald examines her life and memory, four years after a car accident put her in a coma for 72 hours.
Battling through dirt and dustclouds - and finally across cobbled streets - cycling greats such as Merckx, De Vlaeminck, Martens and Moser took part in the 1976 Paris to Roubaix single-day race. Jorgen Leth caught the action.
Storyville documentary in which Athenian director Amalia Zepos investigates the impact of the Olympic Games on her city. Will Greek politicians and businessmen exploit the event for their own ends?
Set to the soundtrack of Papa Wemba's extraordinary music, this outrageous, funny and eye-opening film depicts the underground world of a flamboyant African cult. Nick Fraser (Editor) Papa Wemba is a well-known Congolese singer. He is also a big cheese in Le Sape, the Société des Ambianceurs et Persons Élégants, which translated into English means a society of people who spend huge amounts of money on designer clothes with the motive of making themselves as conspicuously elegant as possible. The film is a splendid evocation of Papa Wemba's music, but it is also an unusual insight into what it means to be an immigrant in contemporary Europe. The sapeur have borrowed from our own culture, creating something rich and strange and wholly Congolese. Don't miss the scene where they try on fur coats.
Garry Kasparov is arguably the greatest chess player who has ever lived. In 1997 he played a chess match against IBM's computer Deep Blue. Kasparov lost the match. This film shows the match and the events surrounding it from Kasparov's perspective. It delves into the psychological aspects of the game, paranoia surrounding it and suspicions that have arisen around IBM's true tactics. It consists of interviews with Kasparov, his manager, chess experts, and members of the IBM Deep Blue team, as well as original footage of the match itself. I suppose the strength of a documentary lies in its ability to make you believe its central thesis. Despite the lack of a definitive whistleblower, Vikram Jayanti's conspiracy thriller about chess legend Garry Kasparov's match against IBM's Deep Blue supercomputer does suggest something very unusual going on behind closed doors at the software firm. If the computer did what it did unassisted, then this is a triumph for science, yet IBM weren't acting like victors. Why, having developed what could have been a working prototype for an artificial intelligence, did the firm refuse to share details of its operational systems, and - a real smoking gun, this - dismantle it immediately after the last match? If they had nothing to hide, they were going a funny way about it. Jayanti and Kasparov both point the finger at the same scenario - human intervention on the machine's side of the game. Jayanti digs up a fascinating parallel to this - the tale of 'The Turk', a creepy-looking chess-playing robot that beat Napoleon and did indeed have a human covertly guiding it. Excerpts from a fascinating silent film about The Turk are peppered throughout this film. Even if you're not convinced, the film still has plenty of supplemental pleasures, not least in a dissection of a chess match as charged and fascinating as 'When We Were Kings' (1997)'s explanation of the Rumble in the Jungle. It also functions as a Cliff Notes guide to Kasparov's r
Arab broadcaster al-Jazeera is notorious for relaying the pronouncements of Osama Bin Laden to the world. But is it really an anti-American mouthpiece for Islamic terrorists?
New York, 22 June 1938: in one of the most compelling boxing rematches of all time, black American Joe Louis, reigning world heavyweight champion and representative of Franklin D Roosevelt's New Deal, sought - and got - revenge over Max Schmeling, perceived symbol of Nazi Germany. The bout drew 90,000 into Yankee Stadium, while millions more tuned in on their radios. But, as this documentary reveals, neither "Brown Bomber" Louis nor Schmeling matched the stereotypes presented to the public.
Modern-day Afghanistan: a beauty academy opens its doors in Kabul and is so overwhelmed by applicants that a lottery system has to be instituted to award places. This is the reality that lies in stark contrast to recent times in Afghanistan, when the ruling Taliban forced women to be faceless. Covered by burqas and forbidden to show even the tiniest patch of skin, they lived in this oppressive atmosphere for six long years. But life has changed, and Afghan women are increasingly taking an interest in their appearance. Tracing the opening of the academy.
Storyville' s journey through oil-producing regions begins in Ecuador and Angola - where oil has been more a curse than a blessing.
Storyville presents an American road trip with a twist: in the wake of 9/11, film-maker Nina Davenport drives from California to New York and hears stories of loss.
Storyville' s journey through oil-producing regions follows a new pipeline through some of the most politically dangerous and geographically challenging places on Earth.
Roland and Jonas, two of the 500,000 would-be immigrants entering Europe illegally every year, try to find gainful employment to support their families in this Storyville travelogue.
Storyville examines the wilderness areas being opened up to oil exploration. How far will we go to get it?
Following the recent murder of Anna Politkovskaya , Storyville follows investigations by human rights lawyer Karen Nersisyan into the murders of six other Russian journalists between 1995 and 2003.
Being frozen offers a second life - or so claim proponents of cryonics. Storyville takes a look at the, ultimate science-fiction fantasy.
An assassin robbed Bobby Kennedy of his brother John and a role that gave meaning to his life. Then, just as he began to move beyond his brother's shadow. he too was killed. Storyville looks at the remarkable and tragic life of the third Kennedy son - who may well have been president had he not been murdered.
Storyville asks, what do we know about George W Bush 's faith? Do his spiritual beliefs affect his political decision-making? And do Bush's views mirror those of the politically influential evangelical movement?
A look at the politics of hate. This award-winning Storyville film documents the changing face of right-wing politics in India through a study of the killing in 2002 of Muslims in Gujarat after an attack on a train left 58 Hindus dead.
Storyville film by Yulie Cohen Gerstel who left New York to give birth to and raise her children in Israel. Now. as she struggles to defend the policies of the country she loves, she questions whether she and her teenage daughters should leave.
Hyde Park in July 1969, Mick Jagger pays tribute to Brian Jones with a reading from Shelley before leading the Stones through Jumpin' Jack Flash , I'm Free, Honky Tonk Women, Midnight Rambler and more.
Storyville takes a look at the recording of the soundtrack to the satirical stage show, which includes Springtime for Hitler.
In the middle of the night of December 9th, 2001, wealthy novelist Michael Peterson called the emergency services in Durham, North Carolina, to tell them he had found his wife Kathleen unconscious at the bottom of the stairs. But when the police discovered the pool of blood around her body and the lacerations on her skull, they arrested Michael Peterson for murder. Was the death Michael Peterson's wife Kathleen an accident or a crime? Oscar-winner Jean-Xavier de Lestrade follows the dramatic story of a notorious murder case for Storyville.
Did Michael Peterson's wife uncover details of his bisexuality shortly before she died, and how will this affect the ongoing murder investigation into her death?
The prosecution unearth the story of another death from 1985 that only reinforces their convictions. It seems that Elizabeth Ratliff, a good friend of Michael Peterson, was also found dead at the bottom of a staircase in Germany. Prosecutor Jim Hardin decides to exhume her body and presses for a fresh autopsy in North Carolina.
The defence faces a blow as a new autopsy concludes that Elizabeth Ratliff was unlawfully killed. The prosecution also presents an iron poker - supposedly a replica of the murder weapon. What now for Michael Peterson?
The prosecution witnesses falter during defence lawyer David Rudolf's cross-examination.
As the trial continues, the prosecutor attempts to portray Michael Peterson as a deviant.
The defence witnesses take their turn, but there's a worry that the experts' account will not be enough to convince the jury.
The jury in the Michael Peterson case deliberates for five days before reaching a verdict.
Documentary about the final five, turbulent years in the life of civil rights activist Martin Luther King. The story begins at the Lincoln Memorial in August 1963, when a 34-year-old preacher galvanized millions with his dream for an America free of racism and comes to a bloody end five years later on a motel balcony in Memphis.
The tragic story of Kurt Gerron , a Jewish director and Weimar star, ordered to make Nazi propaganda films.
Storyville depicts eight months with an Iraqi pianist, now playing in a hotel bar and wondering about the future of his country.
Global companies wish to be well-thought of and very successful. Being Finnish, and therefore Scandinavian, Nokia is in the lead when it comes to feeling good about capitalism. But it is not always easy to feel good about the methods by which you make piles of money. Enter ethical consultants. Thomas Balmes' funny, perceptive film follows a Nokia executive and a British ethical management consultant as they make their way around Nokia's prime phone charger suppliers in China.
Documentary following the fortunes of Barcelona Football Club over a year of crisis. With poor performances and spiralling debts, reform of the club is urgently needed. The new board, under the leadership of the charismatic Joan Laporta, attempt to turn an old fashioned Catalan family affair into a global football business.
How was this seemingly simple creature actually revealed to be complex? Mark Lewis investigates for Storyville.
By selling the internet domain name .tv for$50 million, the previously impoverished Pacific island nation of Tuvalu landed a massive dot-com windfall. Nature, however, has dealt its citizens a cruel hand - rising sea levels caused by global warming. Can anything be done to stem the tide? Storyville investigates.
Is American foreign policy dominated by the idea of military supremacy? Has the military become too important in American life? Jarecki's shrewd and intelligent polemic would seem to give an affirmative answer to each of these questions.
Storyville documentary in which Jerusalem-born director Danae Elon tracks down the children of her Palestinian babysitter. who were sent to the US in the 1970s to avoid the conflict at home.
Storyville paints a portrait of a couple who live in Manila's railtrack slums. The film draws us into the heart of the urban poor world: the worries, prayers, squabbles and songs of life on the railtracks.
McLibel is a British documentary film directed by Franny Armstrong and Ken Loach for Spanner Films about the McLibel case. The film was first completed in 1997 as a 52-minute television version after the conclusion of the original McLibel trial. It was then extended with new footage to 85-minute feature length in 2005, after the McLibel defendants took their case to the European Court of Human Rights.
Archive footage and extracts from Goebbels' voluminous diaries combine to provide a vivid insight into the mind of Hitler's propaganda minister.
Storyville documentary featuring an interview with Traudl Junge , who worked as one of Hitler's secretaries from 1942 until the dictator's suicide in 1945.
Errol Morris's revealing Oscar-winning documentary. Former US secretary of defense Robert McNamara outlines what he learned about conflict from the many years he spent helping to direct and create US foreign policy - a lengthy period that stretches from the final months of the Second World War to the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 and the Vietnam War.
This Storyville documentary explores how Stalin's interest in American skyscrapers led to the building of seven Soviet versions in Moscow. Focusing on the building where the party elite were housed, director Pavel Lounguine meets those remaining, and their descendants, who are of course reluctant to leave what's become prime real estate.
Candid documentary about maverick director Terry Gilliam 's attempt to make the film The Man Who Killed Don Quixote. When shooting begins, Gilliam must contend with torrential rains, noisy military jets, a sick leading man and ever-spiralling costs, which all conspire to put an end to the production.
In November 2004, Tom Roberts spent 30 days with the US Army in south Baghdad. Filming started just after the Fallujah campaign was launched, heralding reprisal ambushes. Travelling with the patrols, Roberts witnessed the fatal escalation of tension.
Why did a Greek-Canadian statistician from Ottawa decide to learn Mandarin, strap on a guitar and reinvent himself as a Chinese folk star? Storyville follows this unlikely story and George Sapounidis 's bid to land a dream gig: the closing ceremony of the Athens Olympics and the transfer of the torch between Greece and China.
Director Pascale Lamche explores the allure of French actresses, which has fascinated generations of moviegoers. Includes interviews with Brigitte Bardot, Jeanne Moreau , Catherine Deneuve , Sophie Marceau , Audrey Tautou and Juliette Binoche.
A story of the Sicilian Mafia, American writer Alexander Stille and Palermo photographer Letizia Battaglia investigate the body-strewn and bloody mayhem created by gangsters in Sicily.
A South African man's personal tour of his country and a family he didn't know he had. Director Dumisani Phakathi 's film is showing as part of Storyville.
A decade after the massacre that I killed over 7,000, film-maker Leslie Woodhead returns to the town in eastern Bosnia. Have the survivors of the genocide rebuilt their lives and has reconciliation been possible? This Storyville film also highlights the failure of the international community to intervene in gross human-rights abuses and genocide.
In the wake of devasting civil war, in Sierra Leone, an inspirational athletics trainer attempts to set up a team to compete in the 2004 Athens Olympics. This moving documentary for BBC Storyville charted their extraordinary journey from barefoot training in the bombed-out streets of Freetown to their triumphant entry into the Olympic stadium.
Ten years after he headed the UN's disastrous mission in Rwanda, General Romeo Dallaire returns to the site of the genocide to confront survivors and his demons.
Werner Herzog takes the Galileo mission to Jupiter's moons as a starting point for a hypothetical investigation. Brad Dourif plays an alien refugee on Earth whose native planet has become uninhabitable. Herzog interweaves discussions with scientists and Nasa astronauts about colonising space beyond our solar system.
In 1974, a teenage newspaper heiress and Berkeley undergrad was kidnapped at gunpoint from her apartment, setting off one of the most bizarre episodes in recent American history. The kidnappers, completely off the map before Patty Hearst disappeared into the San Francisco night, were a small band of young, ferociously militant political radicals, dedicated to the rights of prisoners and the working class. They called themselves the Symbionese Liberation Army. Over the course of about three years they robbed banks, senselessly killed two innocent people, instigated a firefight after attempting to shoplift a pair of socks, and, most famously, converted their hostage and victim. They also achieved an undeniable visionary manipulation of the media, inciting perhaps the first modern media frenzy.
Werner Herzog 's compelling record of a daring expedition to the rainforests of South America English aeronautical engineer Dr Graham Dorrington plans to assemble a helium-filled airship in the Guyanese jungle and explore the the canopy's unique ecology. But the project is not without risk - a similar expedition 12 years earlier ended in catastrophe when Dorrington's friend Dieter Plage fell to his death.
Storyville film-maker Luke Holland , who has lived in Ditchling on the East Sussex Downs for the last ten years, explores aspects of village life past and present. He begins with a look at how economic uncertainty and the controversial ban on hunting with hounds have adversely affected a local farming family.
A global ceasefire day was the dream of film-maker Jeremy Gilley. For five years he documented his efforts to persuade the world, via the UN, Nobel Peace Prize laureates, aid agencies, freedom fighters, media moguls and victims of war. This Storyville film is the result.
Director John T Davis follows fellow Belfast native artist Noel Murphy as he completes a commission to paint all 108 members of the Northern Ireland Assembly over a six-month period.
Storyville continues its exploration of South Downs village Ditchling with a profile of the amateur-dramatics society, led by Sonia Stock.
Martin Scorsese 's superb record of the farewell concert given by the Band in San Francisco on Thanksgiving Day 1976. Dylan guests alongside Joni Mitchell , Neil Diamond , Emmylou Harris and Neil Young.
Artist Eric Gill of the Arts and Crafts movement arrived in Ditchling in 1907. His legacy includes the typeface gill sans - but his bohemian lifestyle remains controversial.
At one time. the Sandrock Inn was at the heart of Ditchling, East Sussex - but now the pub is under threat from developers. The villagers mount a spirited fight against an unpopular planning proposal - but is it enough to delay last orders?
Going for the Kill. Farmer Gary Lee , who also serves as master of the local hunt, and his brother Mark battle economic forces beyond their control in a desperate bid to keep their family business running. Meanwhile, the hunting fraternity offers its view on the February 2005 ban.
Dog judges, commentators and owners all contribute to Storyville's hilarious interpretation of the canine worldview.
In Liberia, the summer of 2003 was pure insanity. A rebel army attempts to overthrow a government run by an indicted war criminal. Two armies engage in the final battle of a decade long civil war. Hundreds of innocent civilians die from mortar shells launched from afar and thousands more suffer hunger while the soldiers, mostly teenagers, keep the capital city under siege. The nation prays that America, the world's sole superpower, will put an end to the violence. Conceived in Washington in the early 1800s, its constitution written at Harvard, its founding fathers freed slaves who returned to Africa, Liberia is the one country in the world worthy of the title, Made in America. By the year 2000, Liberia, once considered the gem of Africa, was ranked last in the world for quality of life.
Humorous Storyville documentary in which Mark Lewis delves into the world of pampered. pedigree felines.
A Storyville collection of true tales revealing the hidden dangers of the animal world, including a mad squirrel that terrorised a whole neighbourhood.
Based on David Maraniss's book They Marched into Sunlight, a documentary telling the story of two seemingly unconnected events in October 1967 that changed the course of the Vietnam War. Whilst a US battalion unwittingly marched into a Viet Cong ambush which killed 61 young men, half a world away angry students at the University of Wisconsin were protesting the presence of Dow Chemical recruiters on campus.
Competitors polish hooves and buff up bovine beauties for a livestock fair in Maine.
Storyville on how thousands of active-duty GIs created a huge movement against the war in Vietnam.
Political oppression, kidnap and corruption: the hallmarks of Alberto Fujimori , who, as Storyville reveals, held near-dictatorial power in 1990s Peru.
Storyville examines the disastrous decision to introduce toads from Hawaii to Australia as a pest control measure.
Storyville visits a carnival in the Amazon.
Storyville looks at the life and work of the controversial US biologist.
Oscar-nominated documentary on the migratory patterns of birds, filmed over the course of three years on all seven continents. Stunning techniques help contribute to this bird's eye view of the world.
An Islamic world tour is documented by visits to Pakistan, Afghanistan, Chechnia, and Qatar, the film endeavors to shed light on the process leading young men to the radical choice of self-sacrifice, becoming human bombs.
From the sewers of New York, the rat's journey reveals a different side of natural history. Showing as part of Storyville.
Nathaniel Kahn - one of two illegitimate children that the architect Louis Kahn had with two different women - seeks to find out who his late father really was.
A New York photojournalist teaches the marginalised children of Calcutta's prostitutes how to record the world around them.
Storyville arches an eyebrow at the 31st International Whistling Competition in North Carolina, where competitors, including an investment banker and a turkey hauler, compete with virtuoso renditions of Vivaldi, Mozart and Texan swing.
How the cannibalism of the Nile perch provides a pithy metaphor for the West's ecological destruction. An Oscar-nominated Storyville film.
Campaigner James Carville, who helped Bill Clinton win the US presidency, is in Bolivia. Can he help a very unpromising candidate?
How effectively does Hollywood depict reality? Is it possible to reconcile the demands of popular entertainment with a historical event as sombre as the Holocaust? Daniel Anker's film supplies many questions and some answers. He starts back in the 1930s by showing Hollywood's ham-fisted efforts to chronicle the rise of Nazism. Later, in 1945, a planeload of Hollywood executives were shipped to visit the newly liberated concentration camps. When the rushes were screened in Hollywood, many of them were overcome by what they saw. But, for the next 10 years, Hollywood didn't touch the Holocaust.
A chilling Storyville documentary using vivid TV-news footage to recount the hijacking of a bus in Rio de Janeiro by a lone gunman, whose brutal life story of grinding poverty, drugs and random violence is also explored.
In a witty Storyville expose, Italian satirist Sabina Guzzanti reveals how her TV show RAIot was banned by the state-owned broadcaster after just one transmission.
Storyville follows the male inmates of an American prison as they prepare and rehearse a production of Shakespeare's The Tempest.
Marc Isaacs' eye-opening Storyville film explores the life of a Jewish antiques dealer from a small English seaside town who believes it is his Biblical birthright to take as many wives as he chooses. Spending time with the family in Hove, Isaacs tries to understand why the women have chosen to live under the rule of this self-proclaimed Hebrew King.
A war-torn year in a Colombian district is chronicled by Storyville.
Storyville reveals BP's plans to build a pipeline through a stunning spa town in post-Soviet Georgia.
The Storyville tale of Danish pilot Simone Aaberg Kaern and her efforts to help a young Afghan girl who longed to become a pilot too.
Super-8 film, answerphone messages and news clippings are masterfully assembled by film-maker Jonathan Caouette in a unique, moving account of a childhood blighted by addiction, mental illness and abuse.
How does bipolar disorder - manic depression - impact on relatives of sufferers? Storyville charts the changes in one such family.
Storyville celebrates the work of documentary pioneers Albert and David Maysies.
Tony Montana's 2004 documentary, following a first-time director's attempts to get his film made.
Sex, lies and games abound in a 2004 documentary about a disastrous Finnish business venture.
A movie wannabe from Singapore and some of Hollywood's elite contribute to Storyville's illuminating view of the world of casting.
Storyville explores the unsettling yet strangely beautiful work of photographer Sally Mann , whose subjects range from rotting corpses to, most controversially, her children in semi-naked poses.
Storyville tribute to her father Alan Abel , a "professional prankster" whose attempts to fool the media included a campaign for a Sex Olympics.
Prostitution Behind the Veil explores a side of Iran rarely seen or talked about. For over a year, director Nahid Persson filmed the everyday lives of two young female prostitutes in Iran as they eked out a living in a country where the profession is banned. The filmmaker often took great risks to follow Minna and Fariba as they sought out customers-men who would often marry them briefly, so as not to violate the laws of Islam by having extramarital sex. The two women are good friends and neighbor, who have experienced the widespread mistreatment of women and the double standards that permeate Iranian society today.
A compelling, at times chilling, account of Second World War veteran Kenzo Okuzaki 's crusade to resolve a mystery. Why were some of his comrades executed by their own superiors - and what became of their bodies?
How jokes became the language of truth under the oppressive Communist regimes of the Soviet Union and its satellites, from bitter quips denouncing Stalin's gulags to digs at the technology gap of the 1970s and the cynicism of the 1980s.
Storyville sets out the nightmarish experiences of an Iraqi cameraman living in Baghdad who was arrested by US troops, accused of plotting to kill the British premier and imprisoned for eight months.
Storyville meets three lesbians struggling to reconcile their sexual identities with their duties as mothers and wives in Jerusalem's Orthodox communities.
Storyville follows Newark mayoral candidate Cory Booker 's electoral campaign, and the resistance he faces from the established four-term incumbent Sharpe James.
Storyville documentary musical, following Lewis Lapham as he guides two Ivy League graduates through their career possibilities.
James Marsh spends six months with members of the American team for the inaugural Homeless World Cup in Austria.
Performers from the Kirghiz tribe re-enact their exile to Turkey in British film-maker Ben Hopkins's Storyville special.
A Requiem in Four Acts: Acts I & II. Storyville presents the UK premiere of Spike Lee 's epic documentary, following the people of New Orleans as they search for new hope in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
A Requiem in Four Acts: Acts III & IV. The final part of Spike Lee 's epic documentary, following the people of New Orleans as they find new hope in the aftermath of the disaster.
Storyville looks at the role played by anti-war bloggers in the Connecticut Democratic Senatorial primary race of the 2006 mid-term elections.
For three years before his death from poisoning, former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko had been making a documentary with his friend Andrei Nekrasov about authoritarianism in post-communist Russia. Here is that film, the unexpected ending of which made world headlines at the end of 2006. Andrei Nekrasov was a friend of Alexander Litvinenko. They'd met when Nekrasov was making a film about the effect of the Chechen war on children. The two became closer as Nekrasov became interested in Litvinenko's career - from KGB man to critic of Putin and, latterly, critic of the entire society which had allowed KGB-style practises to continue in post-communist Russia. As Litvinenko says in the film, "In the old days there were communists and there were criminals. Now there are only criminals." Nekrasov's film, which was completed for the BBC with the assistance of Leslie Woodhead, is an extraordinary document. He doesn't attempt to 'solve' the Litvinenko murder. Instead he re-creates Livinenko's life and, more importantly, his consciousness. And he tells us how terrifying it is to be an intelligent, critical individual in contemporary Russia. The real subject of the film is Nekrasov's's admiration for Litvinenko, who was a remarkable and courageous man. His wife, too, appears in the film, and she is also remarkable. This is a wholly unexpected film - an intimate portrait of a man who was murdered in the most bizarre public circumstances at the end of 2006.
In June 2002 a suicide bomber destroyed a rush hour bus in a Jerusalem suburb. Filmed 16 months later, 29 people who are connected by the attack trace the memories and the outcomes of the catastrophe to give an alarming snapshot of our times.
Documentary in which Ivy Meeropol tells the story of how her family was torn apart in 1953 when her grandparents, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, were executed for 'conspiracy to commit espionage'. Their names were seared into American history that day as both martyrs and 'atom spies', but the young Jewish couple left behind two orphaned boys - Ivy's dad Michael, and six-year-old Robert. The film sheds new light on a chapter in American history and provides a personal perspective on an iconic event.
Storyville documentary about atheist Madalyn Murray O'Hair, founder of American Atheists, who was brutally murdered back in 1995.
Documentary which follows the war crimes trial of Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic from its beginnings at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia to its final stages in The Hague.
Documentary which follows the war crimes trial of Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic from its beginnings at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia to its final stages in The Hague.
Storyville documentary. A portrait of one family's response over five years to the debilitating neurological condition ALS, which is also known as Lou Gehrig 's Disease.
Documentary which details the turbulent history of controversial American proto-punk rockers The New York Dolls through the eyes of bassist Arthur Kane, telling the story of the band from its formation, through drug problems and the deaths of several members. After the Dolls' break up in 1975 Kane faded away into virtual obscurity and battled alcoholism in LA, but in 2004, Morrissey asked the surviving three New York Dolls to play at London's 2004 Meltdown Festival, of which he was the curator.
In Al Franken: God Spoke, the makers of The War Room capture the emergence of Al Franken as a political commentator. The film is shot over the course of two years and follows Franken from his highly publicized feud with Fox News anchor Bill O'Reilly to his fierce campaign against president George W. Bush during the 2004 election.
The remarkable story of a 13-year-old Japanese girl abducted by North Korean agents while on her way home from school. For twenty years, her parents remained unaware of her fate.
As Rock band System of a Down visit locations of genocide, the lead singer's grandfather talks about surviving the Armenian massacres of 1915-17.
Documentary about the Nagorno-Karabakh War (1989-1994), one of the first signs of Soviet collapse. Journalist Vardan Hovhannisyan was in the trenches alongside the soldiers and captured their last words to their families and their reflections on life and war. Ten years later he returned to the villages still in ashes, to the soldiers, nurses and ordinary people who survived to find out how people continue to live their lives after experiencing such extraordinary and traumatic events.
First of a two-part documentary telling the story of Cuba's interventions in Africa from the 1960s onwards and the USA's response, which captures the superpower rivalry, revolutionary idealism and the events that sowed the seeds of later wars. From Che Guevara's campaign in the Congo to the battle of Cuito Cuanavale in Angola, Jihan El Tahri shows how Cuba tried to carve out an alternative path for Third World nations, with unique archive stills and footage of Che and Fidel Castro.
Second of a two-part documentary telling the story of Cuba's interventions in Africa from the 1960s onwards and the USA's response, which captures the superpower rivalry, revolutionary idealism and the events that sowed the seeds of later wars. From Che Guevara's campaign in the Congo to the battle of Cuito Cuanavale in Angola, Jihan El Tahri shows how Cuba tried to carve out an alternative path for Third World nations, with unique archive stills and footage of Che and Fidel Castro.
Documentary which deconstructs the mythologies and controversy surrounding the JFK assassination. Featuring interviews with Norman Mailer, Gary Hart, Tom Hayden, Mark Lane and others, it probes the deep psychic wounds it made on American politics and culture, leading to a decade of governmental skullduggery, political paranoia, demagoguery and division on a huge scale. With the subsequent assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Bobby Kennedy in 1968 and the revelation of President Nixon's constitutional subversion in the early 70s, the last hopes of American idealism were shattered.
Storyville examines the work of attorneys as they take on cases of wrongful death.
Documentary about Hugues de Montalembert, blinded in a random street mugging in 1978, but who defied expectation and continued to travel the world, alone. Using Montalembert's own voiceover to show how he dealt with the life-changing event, film-maker and composer Gary Tarn constructs a poetic meditation on an extraordinary life without vision.
Classic rock film documenting David Bowie's last public appearance as his androgynous alter ego Ziggy Stardust. This memorable final concert at the Hammersmith Odeon includes Changes, Time and Suffragette City.
Documentary looking at Shanghai Circus school, where the gruelling training regimes result in some of the best acrobats and circus performers in the world. Children as young as eight have their unformed bodies stretched and tested to breaking point as they learn to master the most taxing feats of acrobatic grace and daring. Harsh demands are also made of teachers and parents as their proteges strive to be number one in the circus, the Chinese way.
Documentary which examines the history of the Third Reich through the jokes told by and about the Nazis and the fate that befell some of the joke tellers. In the early days of the Nazi era, jokes about Hitler were punishable as treason, and during the war they were even seen as unpatriotic, a crime punishable by death. Cabaret artiste, Werner Finck, was imprisoned in a concentration camp, but then released, while actor Fritz Muliar's anti-Hitler jokes landed him in a penal battalion in Russia.
First of a four-part series which goes inside the closed world of Western corporate outsourcing in the Indian town of Chennai. It's based around ambitious Office Tiger employees such as Amita and Sunita, who eagerly soak up the language and style of their bosses while holding on to the aspects of their own culture that serve them best, and the Americans who strive to guide them, including Joe (co-CEO), a former Goldman Sachs banker who believes in pushing himself and his workers to the limit.
Documentary in which filmmaker Jamie Kastner goes on a personal journey to find out what it means to be Jewish in the modern world. Along the way he meets anti-semitic politician Pat Buchanan, Israeli novelist AB Yehoshua, British anti-Israeli curmudgeon Richard Ingrams and Hasids in Brooklyn; he causes a near-riot in a Parisian suburb simply by asking what people think about Jews; and he meets the 'dominatrix' behind Berlin's largest memorial to dead Jews
The seventies in America were a time of growth and experimentation. Clothes became different, hairstyles exotic, and music was heading in strange new directions. With a wave of high-profile imports it was hoped soccer might become the next big thing. Players, coaches and journalists recall the The Cosmos, the high octane New York club whose all-star team were equally famed for their antics at Studio 54 as for their footballing skills.
Director Simon Chambers follows the lives of young Bengali sisters - and close personal friends of his - as they travel from London to Bangladesh to undertake the arranged marriages that have long been planned for them. Although apparently reluctant to submit to the agreed arrangements, the sisters nonetheless seem unable or unwilling to ultimately escape their traditional destiny.
Documentary about drug addiction. When he got a camera at the age of 14, Rick Kirkham began recording his life on tape. After his first break on TV he rose from local news to a job as correspondent for the daredevil magazine show Inside Edition. His girlfriend then got pregnant, and they married. Everything was golden... or was it? As well as capturing the good times, his camera shockingly reveals the dark side of his life with candour and vigour. What unfolds is a riveting journey into the heart and mind of a drug addict, with Rick's fight for survival caught on tape in an unprecedented way. He tries to be the devoted father and husband his family need, but his work assignments tip him back into his hellish cycle of drugs and despair. Directors Michael Cain and Matt Radecki have tackled the task of editing 3,000 hours of footage down to an intelligent and compassionate cautionary tale of a TV Junkie.
Documentary which follows five families as they deal day-to-day with the challenges of living with children suffering from cancer, a film in which a possibly daunting and depressing subject is made involving and life-enhancing. With a rare intimacy and closeness, the presence of the camera seems to fade away and the viewer is left with no sense of being a voyeur as the story unfolds.
Director Don Boyd's portrayal of the extraordinary love story between a retired bus driver from Croydon and a retired teacher from Chelsea. One took to cruising public toilets and succumbed to drug addiction, crime and prison before personal rehabilitation. The other moved in a social sphere of dinner parties and T S Eliot readings at the seaside, yet had struggles of a different kind.
Storyville presents Yunis Vally 's quirky examination of life at the height of the Apartheid era in 1960s South Africa.
Documentary about the Motion Picture Association of America's rating system and its effect on American culture. Implemented in 1968, the system, with its age based content classification using letter grades G, PG, PG-13, R, and NC-17, has become a cultural icon. But behind its simple facade is a censoring process kept entirely secret, and the film's director Kirby Dick tries to uncover the identities of the ratings board members themselves.
Storyville presents a profile of Irish-American poet and undertaker Thomas Lynch.
Documentary which illuminates post-war Iraq in three acts, building a vivid picture of a country pulled in different directions by religion and ethnicity. Mohammed Haithem is an 11-year-old auto mechanic in Baghdad with a missing father. Inside the Shiite political/religious movement of Moqtada Sadr, men push for regional elections and Islamic law, as moderate views are swept aside. Iraqi Kurds assert their bid for independence, through both the secular and the religious voices of the people.
In 1989 a youth radio station, B-92, started up in Belgrade. It almost immediately became a symbol of the resistance to Serbian nationalism and all that Slobodan Milosevic decreed. Here, the young radio workers give a candid account of life in Belgrade throughout the years of war. They also describe their own contribution, despite all the authorities' efforts to suppress them, to the liberation of their city and their country.
When Ellen Johnson Sirleaf became Africa's first ever elected female head of state, filmmakers Siatta Scott-Johnson and Daniel Junge were there to follow her. It was the start of an extraordinary year they spent with the Liberian president as she struggled to take control of a country devastated by years of civil war.
Weijun Chen's film takes us into the world of Chinese schoolchildren, learning about democracy for the first time as they try to vote for their class monitor. Elections are uncommon in China, so when the children in a school in Wuhan, Central China are presented with the chance to choose their own class monitor they don't quite know what to make of it. It doesn't take them long to get into the swing of it and soon all sorts of dirty tricks are going on. Urged on by their parents, the candidates launch elaborate campaigns of bribery and coercion. After tantrums and tears, it's finally time for the vote. Who will win - the sweet girl who woos her voters with her flute playing, the bully who beats his classmates or the boy who has the best sweets?
Documentary in which three Egyptian women, unable to sit by while their country is on the brink of drastic change, start a grass roots movement to educate and empower the public by raising awareness of the meaning of democracy. It shows footage from the first year of their Shayfeen ('We are watching you') movement, and looks at how ordinary citizens can shape and secure democracy.
Humorous and insightful documentary in which Japanese/American filmmaker Kazuhiro Soda follows his friend Yamauchi on the campaign trail. He's been 'parachuted' in to run for the seat and has just six weeks to make an impact on the local city, but his political skills aren't quite up to the task and his political mentors become ever more worried. Things aren't looking great, but then his party leader - Prime Minister Koizumi himself - comes to town to help him out.
Documentary about Russian patriot and businessman Mikhail Morozov, who owns Durakovo - the 'Village of Fools' 100km southwest of Moscow. When people come to live in the village they pledge to obey Morozov's rules, a place where democracy is a dirty word.
Documentary. Oscar-nominated director Alex Gibney investigates the story of Dilawar, a young Afghan taxi driver arrested and questioned by the US forces at Bagram airbase, who died just days after his arrest. Gibney looks at the methods employed by Dilawar's interrogators and traces the chain of command which authorised the techniques, ending up at the White House itself. He then explores how these interrogation methods migrated from Bagram to places like Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib.
Documentary which looks at how, after winning the Bolivian election, ex-coca leaf farmer Evo Morales nationalised the oil industry and passed laws on agrarian land reform, but struggled to wipe away the old system of corruption and nepotism. His movement is paralysed as the landowners conspire against him, and the film shows the growing tension as the people and Morales fight to achieve their revolution.
Documentary in which President Musharraf explores the different worlds and influences on political life in Pakistan at a dinner in his official residence, the Army House. Labourers and intellectuals, journalists and industrialists add to the debate, as the role that a military leader can play in guiding a state towards modern democracy is questioned.
Documentary in which Indian filmmaker Lalit Vachani retreads the route taken in the 1920s by Mahatma Gandhi as he led a march that was to change India's destiny. His famous Salt March saw him walk 240 miles to Dandi in Gujurat, where he broke the British ban on Indians making salt and started the slow journey to independence. Vachani tries to see what Gandhi would make of the modern India, the biggest democracy on Earth, and he finds a country still riven with caste divisions and racial tension.
Filmmaker Richard Symons asks members of the British government to support his campaign for truth in the Houses of Parliament, and attempts to get a pledge from MPs that they will never tell a lie.
Documentary about ex-Labour MP Oona King. Only the second black female MP and one of the most media friendly of the 'Blair Babes', her support for the Iraq War alienated her from her Muslim constituency in London's East End, and led to her defeat by George Galloway and his anti-war Respect Party in the 2005 election. King asked her childhood friend Nora Meyer to make a film about the issue but Meyer was also opposed to the war and wonders if her friend's youthful radicalism has been dulled.
Life and livelihood were threatened when a small Danish newspaper chose to print a selection of cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad. Karsten Kjaer looks at the events that resulted and travels the world to question the protesters and explore their motivations. He considers whether the cartoons could have affected the future of free speech.
Storyville documentary account of the Rolling Stones' turbulent free concert at the Altamount Speedway.
Showing as part of the Why Democracy? season. Following Belfast artist Noel Murphy as he completes a commission to paint all 108 members of the Northern Ireland Assembly.
Storyville documentary about the two men behind Europe's worst act of terrorism, in the Spanish capital.
Storyville documentary about Jorgen Vig , an elderly Danish man who bought a castle 50 years ago with the intention of turning it into a monastery. His dream is about to come to fruition with the aid of Sister Ambrosija, a Russian Orthodox nun.
In October 1972, a student rugby team boarded a small plane in Montevideo to fly across the Andes for a long weekend of playing rugby and partying in Chile. But they never reached their destination as a storm brought their plane down in the high Andes, leaving the survivors stranded on a remote glacier. Ill-equipped, with no food and little hope of rescue, the survivors faced extreme hardship and many life-or-death situations, including the agonising decision to eat the flesh of those killed in the crash to stay alive. Thirty years later, those that got down from the mountain relive their 72 days 'up there' to give this extraordinarily powerful, vivid and immediate account of human endurance and heroism.
On November 17th, 1978, San Francisco congressman Leo Ryan travelled to the Guyanan rainforest to investigate the Jonestown cult, led by Jim Jones. According to rumours from the area, US citizens were being imprisoned in death camp conditions, subject to violence and sexual abuse. As an impassioned human rights activist, Ryan wanted to find out the truth. But within 48 hours of his arrival, Ryan, Jones and more than 900 Jonestown settlers were dead in what may have been the largest mass suicide in history. In the next few days, grisly tales of cyanide-laced fruit punch and children poisoned by their parents emerged from the jungle. This documentary goes beyond the headlines to provide a revealing portrait of Jones, his followers and the times that produced the calamity in the Guyanese jungle. It is told by eye witnesses: Jonestown survivors, Temple defectors, relatives of the dead and journalists.
Documentary which uses the testimony of an American military observer to examine how the Arab government in Sudan seems to be systematically trying to destroy its black African citizens. US Marine Brian Steidle had access to parts of the country which journalists did not, including Darfur, and returned with over 1,000 uncompromising photographs. Frustrated by the inaction of the international community, Steidle resigned and returned to the US to expose the images and stories of the horrors he saw.
Documentary which tells the story of how a cabal of undertakers in the sleepy Polish city of Lodz conspired to bribe paramedics and doctors into murdering their patients, just to provide them with extra business. However, when bitter infighting and an assassination attempt divided the gang, prosecutors began to get suspicious. Featuring access to the key players and bizarre courtroom footage.
Documentary about Dmitriy Salita, a Russian immigrant, a professional boxer and a religious Jew. To overcome the loss of his mother, Dmitriy dedicated himself to boxing and to battle his fear of the ring, Dmitriy turned to God. The film shows Dmitriy growing up among the seemingly incompatible communities of boxing and Orthodox Judaism, and the cultures and characters working together to support his rare and remarkable devotion to both religion and the pursuit of a professional boxing title.
A disparate bunch of Oxford students learn about themselves while training for the varsity boxing bout against Cambridge
In 1982, filmmaker Ekaterina Eremenko was among 26 students accepted into Russia’s elite natural science school. A golden future lay ahead of them, but the birth of perestroika and the collapse of the old order meant that that future was no longer certain. Eremenko sets out to discover what happened to her classmates and how the seismic political changes of the 1980s affected her generation.
Series showcasing the best in international documentaries. In 1989, a woman was brutally murdered in broad daylight on a beach in Brittany. The detective assigned to the case was a young homicide cop, Jean Francois Abgrall. Abgrall was soon convinced that the murderer was a weird drifter called Francis Heaulmes who, despite an alibi, kept dropping mysterious hints. Abgrall recounts how he trailed Heaulmes through France to bring him to justice.
Documentary revealing how the cult of Marshall Tito remains alive and well in the former Yugoslavia over 25 years after the Communist dictator's death. Every year Tito devotees celebrate his birthday as if they hadn't noticed that the country he helped found had long since vanished in bloody civil wars. The protective fog of nostalgia surrounding his legacy has started to clear, and the hidden story of his long reign is now finally being told.
Documentary about Malian photographer Malick Sidibe, whose images captured the spirit of his generation asserting their freedom after independence.
Documentary about internationally-renowned author Ariel Dorfman, the third generation of his family to know exile. His father's leftwing beliefs saw the family uprooted from both Argentina and the US, before settling in Chile. When Allende came to power, Ariel was a prominent member of his circle, but the bloody 1973 coup saw many of his friends and colleagues killed or disappeared and Ariel forced into exile again. Peter Raymont journeys with Ariel as he looks back on his life.
Barking has one of the highest levels of immigration in Britain. Over ten thousand residents have recently voted for the BNP, making them the second largest party in the area. Film maker Marc Isaacs meets the locals, including a BNP activist and a mixed race couple, to ask questions about prejudice and integration.
Henry Marsh is one of Britain's leading brain surgeons. Ten years ago he befriended Igor Kurilets, a fellow neurosurgeon who works in the Ukraine, and ever since he has travelled to the Ukraine twice a year to operate on patients for free. Geoffrey Smith's moving film follows Henry as he travels to Kiev to help Igor operate on a young man called Marian, who without surgery has just months to live. When Henry arrives he faces a serious challenge - Marian must be awake when his tumour is removed, and Henry must use the most basic tools, including a Black and Decker drill.
Documentary about the extraordinary life of Baroness Moura Budberg - caught up in a plot to topple the Bolsheviks, lover of men like HG Wells and Maxim Gorky and a true heroine were it not for sinister rumours of murder and betrayal. Dimitri Collingridge, her great great nephew, attempts to find out whether she was actually callous Soviet agent.
As part of a season marking the 60th anniversary of the founding of Israel, Liran Atzmor's film documents a battle that took place in the Old City of Jerusalem in 1948 from three points of view - photojournalist John Philips, whose pictures for Life magazine depicted the Jews being evacuated from the Old City; Jack Padwa, the producer of a feature film which tells the story from a Jewish British perspective; and photographer Ali Zaarour, who tells the story from the Palestinian viewpoint.
Part of a season marking the 60th Anniversary of the founding of the State of Israel, a documentary about Yulie Cohen, a patriotic Israeli who survived a terrorist attack in London that killed a colleague. Her later friendship with a Palestinian changed her life and led her to attempt to free the surviving terrorist who attacked her, to question the myths of the state that she grew up in and to reconcile with her ultra-orthodox brother after 25 years of estrangement.
As part of a season marking the 60th anniversary of the founding of Israel, Yoav Shamir's documentary looks at why so many young Israelis use their National Service discharge bonus to go backpacking in northern India and Goa, with a high proportion experimenting with drugs and consequently suffering mental breakdowns.
Documentary focusing on Shillong, North India, where each year the village comes together to celebrate the birthday of their musical hero - Bob Dylan. At the heart of the celebrations is Lou Majaw, a local celebrity who tours India performing Dylan's songs to rapturous crowds. This film takes a behind-the-scenes look at Majaw's life, seeing how the rock and roll lifestyle seems to be tearing him apart.
Documentary which looks at what it takes to run a successful restaurant business in China. Owner Qin Linzi and her staff keep everything running smoothly, while the chefs' skills are put to the test in a competition. The restaurant prepares for a 70th birthday banquet. Qin Linzi discusses her difficult childhood and introduces her daughter, who has led a more privileged life. There's a banquet for a newborn baby and an anniversary show organised by the restaurant to celebrate its third year.
Documentary about the 2002 murder of Iranian football star Nasser Mohammad Khani's wife, the subsequent confession to the crime by his mistress Shahla and her fight to escape the death sentence.
Second of a four-part series looking at China's largest restaurant features the wedding between a wealthy property developer and his beautiful bride and examines attitudes towards marriage in contemporary China.
Part 3 looks at the strong sense of duty implicit in family relationships in China. Waitress Peng has sacrificed her own education to support her sister's studies, while owner Qin Linzi discusses her own difficult childhood and introduces us to her privileged daughter. The restaurant prepares a 70th birthday banquet for Sun and her family, with special dishes including steamed longevity buns and stir-fried turtle.
Documentary about Father Michael Cleary, an unlikely superstar of the Irish Catholic Church who had his own TV chatshow and two hit albums to his credit. He was the man who could seemingly do no wrong, but a year after his death a shocking truth emerged about his private life that would rock the Church to its foundations and leave his family's life in tatters. Alison Millar, who met with Cleary as a young film student, revisits her archive to discover the truth about the 'real Father Ted'.
Part 4 looks to the future with a banquet for a new baby and the anniversary show organised by the West Lake to celebrate its third year. Managers, chefs and waiting staff take to the stage in an all-singing, all-dancing extravaganza rounded off with a star turn by the owner, Qin Linzi. The restaurant addresses the high rate of staff turnover and gives the waiting staff a pay rise, while Qin discusses how important it is for her to drink with her customers.
Documentary which looks at what it takes to run a successful restaurant business in China. Owner Qin Linzi and her staff keep everything running smoothly, while the chefs' skills are put to the test in a competition. The restaurant prepares for a 70th birthday banquet. Qin Linzi discusses her difficult childhood and introduces her daughter, who has led a more privileged life. There's a banquet for a newborn baby and an anniversary show organised by the restaurant to celebrate its third year.
Documentary exploring the contradictions and passions of painter Chuck Connelly. Riding the same 1980s wave as Julian Schnabel and Jean-Michel Basquiat, Connelly seemed destined for art-world stardom. But unable to straightjacket his strong opinions and unorthodox behaviour, Connelly sabotaged his career and squandered his talent. Through interviews, intimate family videos and lively representations of Connelly's work, director Jeff Stimmel vividly captures the paradox of Connelly's repellent yet compelling personality.
Documentary telling the story of Stax, one of the most influential soul record labels ever. Founded in a black neighbourhood of Memphis by a white brother and sister in the 1960s as a studio with an open-door policy, the label went on to sign such iconic acts as Otis Redding, Isaac Hayes and their house band, Booker T and the MGs. Featuring interviews with Jesse Jackson, Elvis Costello, Chuck D, Justin Timberlake, Bono and Pete Townshend.
Documentary that gets to the heart of an extraordinary artworld cause célèbre. In the span of only a few months, 4-year-old Marla Olmstead rocketed from total obscurity into international renown - and sold over $300,000 dollars worth of paintings. She was compared to Kandinsky and Pollock, and called 'a budding Picasso'. Inside Edition, The Jane Pauley Show, and NPR did pieces on her, and The Today Show and Good Morning America got in a bidding war over an appearance by the bashful toddler. There was talk of corporate sponsorship with the family fielding calls from The Gap and Crayola. Then, five months into Marla's new life as a celebrity, and just short of her fifth birthday, a bombshell dropped. CBS's 60 Minutes aired an exposé suggesting strongly that the paintings were painted by her father, himself an amateur painter. As quickly as the public built Marla up, they tore her down. The New York Post asked whether 'the juvenile Jackson Pollock may actually be a full-fledged Willem de Frauding'. The Olmsteads were barraged with hate mail and ostracized, whilst sales of the paintings dried up and Marla's art dealer considered moving. Embattled, the Olmsteads themselves turned to a documentary filmmaker to clear their name. Torn between his own responsibility as a journalist and the family's desire to see their integrity restored, the director finds himself drawn deeper and deeper into a situation that can't possibly end well for him and them, and could easily end badly for both.
In 2002, Jennifer was 42-years-old, living the life she thought she had always wanted: based in New York, working as a filmmaker, surrounded by friends, with a married South African lover and a Swiss cinematographer boyfriend. But when her best friend was diagnosed with a brain tumour, she was forced to reassess her decision to stay single, shunning marriage, commitment and children. She decides to take her confusion and her camera out on the road to talk to women about their lives.
In 2002, Jennifer was 42, living the life she thought she had always wanted: based in New York, working as a filmmaker, surrounded by friends, with a married South African lover and a Swiss cinematographer boyfriend. But when her best friend was diagnosed with a brain tumour, she was forced to reassess her decision to stay single, shunning marriage, commitment and children. She decides to take her confusion and her camera out on the road to talk to women about their lives.
Documentary which charts the remarkable 10-year worldwide journey taken by filmmaker Jeremy Gilley to establish a Day of Peace on September 21st. During the course of his mission the camera follows Gilley as he galvanizes the countries of the world to recognise this as an official day of ceasefire and non-violence.
Documentary exploring what really happened throughout the world in the seminal year of 1968, a time of music and of revolution, asking why so many hopes were disappointed and what is the period's true legacy. Drawing on archive footage from the US, Vietnam, Britain, France, Germany, Czechoslovakia, Italy and Mexico, the film dynamically reconstructs the hopes, the fears and the ultimate sense of despair that pervaded the events of 1968.
Documentary telling the story of Lee Atwater, the blues-playing rogue whose rambunctious rise to become chairman of the GOP positioned him as kingmaker and political rock star.
In September 2009, Roman Polanski was arrested in Switzerland on a 30-year-old warrant. In 1978, the filmmaker skipped bail and escaped to France. For decades, no-one truly understood why. This documentary that reveals the truth about the bungled legal proceedings which brought about his escape. In her riveting reopening of this controversial and, as it turns out, very complex case, filmmaker Marina Zenovich fashions a perceptive and intelligent exploration of what really happened and casts a very different light on Polanski's decision, as well as the workings of the American legal system. Revisiting all of the key players, including the lawyers, the victim and the media, the film looks at the conduct of the judge whose handling of the case was unusual. In addition, it incorporates insightful interviews from the present, bringing new comprehension and clarity to events long clouded by myths and presumptions.
Documentary exposing the dark underbelly of Bollywood. It follows superstar Sanjay Dutt as he completes his final film before being sentenced for firearms offences.
When the villagers of a small Gypsy town welcomed the cast and crew of the film Borat, they thought only good things would come of their exposure to the glitz and glamour of the movie world. Little did they know they would become laughing stocks. To deal with their sense of having been exploited, the villagers are encouraged by lawyers to launch a lawsuit against the makers of Borat only to find theyve been had once again. Running parallel to this story are the dreams and aspirations of 17-year-old Carmen, who grapples with allegiance to family and tradition versus her own dreams and aspirations.
Documentary following American actor Liev Schreiber's idealistic notion of rescuing an Iraqi film student from the rubble of his country and bringing him to work in Hollywood.
Storyville documentary featuring film-maker Kimberly Reed , who is reunited with her brother Marc for the first time since she was transformed from a male sports jock into a woman.
Documentary about the inheritance of a Gothic home and a family's unspoken past. 78-year-old Ruth has promised her beloved estate to one of her twin daughters, with whom she has lived for the past 35 years. As tensions mount, Ruth flees to France into the arms of her other, estranged daughter. Ruth's granddaughter Elizabeth documents the struggle, unaware of the dark secrets that lie within the house's walls, as Ruth's turbulent journey sees the unravelling of a family consumed by the legacy of silence and denial.
Documentary which follows the story of Mark Devlin and his team of scientists as they try to figure out how all the galaxies formed by launching a revolutionary new telescope under a NASA high-altitude balloon. Their adventure takes them from Arctic Sweden to Inuit Canada, where failure forces the team to try again on the desolate ice of Antarctica. The obsessions, personal and family sacrifices, and philosophical and religious questioning of a professional scientist are all laid bare.
Documentary following Olly Williams and Suzi Winstanley, two unique wildlife artists who simultaneously work on the same painting of exotic and endangered animals while on location in the wildest corners of the world. The film shows how they work and why what they do is so important.
Documentary about punk band Heavy Load, subject to the combustible flux of ego, ambition, fantasy, expectation and desire that fuels any emerging band, but uniquely made up of musicians with and without learning disabilities. This makes the band's survival a precarious negotiation between two different worlds - on the one hand the institutional timetable of day centres, work placements and social workers and, on the other, the chaotic slacker life of rehearsal rooms, studios and gigs.
Powerful documentary from Emmy award-winning director Tom Roberts which explores the profound human consequences of America's frontier wars through the moving personal journey of retired US Major Robert 'Snuffy' Gray, who fought with the controversial 7th Cavalry Regiment.
Documentary telling the true story of five young British freestyle footballers' journey across the Americas to Argentina in the hope of meeting their hero, Diego Maradona, a coming-of-age road movie about a group of young men in pursuit of a lifelong dream.
Documentary about self-confessed war profiteer Fidelis Cloer, who, in a career spanning two decades of global turmoil, has supplied kings, presidents and the occasional dictator with the finest luxury armoured vehicles money can buy. In his world, where security is a commodity that can be bought and sold, violence is to sales as the weather is to wheat futures. Always with an on eye on growth opportunities, Fidelis found himself the perfect war when the US invaded Iraq.
Profile of iconic war photographer Robert Capa, whose career spanned five epic conflicts across three continents before his untimely death at the age of 40. The film traces Endre Freidman's transformation from a young Jewish boy in Budapest to his becoming Robert Capa, the most famous war photographer in the world.
Documentary about two children who have been directly affected by wars in their respective countries.
Documentary, made by her great niece, about the British Jewish baroness who fell in love with the jazz genius Thelonious Monk. Pannonica Rothschild was born with everything, got married and had five children, but one track by a man she had never met inspired her to leave and start a new life in America. Helen Mirren is the voice of 'Nica', while Sonny Rollins, TS Monk Jr, the Duchess of Devonshire, Quincy Jones, Lord Rothschild, Roy Haynes, Chico Hamilton and others appear as themselves.
Qatar is said to be the world's richest country, while competitive debating is said to be a training ground for future world leaders. So when the Qatari Emiress charged two recent Oxford graduates with creating the country's first national debate team and taking them to the world championships, the stakes were high. This documentary follows the journey of five ambitious teenagers as they are initiated into the cut-throat subculture of competitive high school debate. Training in London, Doha and New York, they learn more about the world as they hone their debating skills.
Nati Baratz's documentary chronicles a former disciple's search for his reincarnated Tibetan master. After 26 years of isolated meditation in a mountain cave, Lama Konchog became one of the greatest Tibetan masters of our time. When he passed away in 2001 at 84, the Dalai Lama instructed his shy, devoted disciple Tenzin Zopa to search for his master's reincarnation. This 'unmistaken child' must be found within four years, before it becomes too difficult to remove him from his parents' care.
After 50 years, will the Jew accused of collaborating with the Nazis during the Holocaust be exonerated? How much should you negotiate with the enemy? In Israel, the debate over that question evoked fury to the point of assassination. Such was the case of Kasztner. Dr Israel (Rezso) Kasztner, a Hungarian Jew who tried to rescue the last million Jews of Europe by negotiating face to face with Nazi leader Adolf Eichmann, was gunned down by another Jew who never set foot in Nazi Europe. After 50 years, his assassin Ze'ev Eckstein breaks his silence on the fateful night he shot and killed Kasztner.
D Carleton Gajdusek won the Nobel Prize for the discovery of Prions - the particles that would emerge as the cause of Mad Cow disease - while working with a cannibal tribe on New Guinea. He was a star of the scientific world. Over his years working amongst the tribes of the South Seas, he adopted 57 kids, bringing them to a new life in Washington DC. His adoptions were hailed as wonderful fatherly beneficence. But, at the height of his career, rumours began to spread he was a paedophile. Gajdusek would argue that if sex with children was okay in their own cultures, he wasn't wrong to join in. How could a great mind like Gajdusek's lose insight so totally, and why would the scientific community to which he was a hero be so quick to leap to his defence and dismiss the allegations?
Set against the breathtaking backdrop of the Himalayas, this documentary follows the gripping adventure of six Tibetan teenagers on a climbing expedition up the 23,000 foot Lhakpa Ri, on the north side of Everest. A dangerous journey soon becomes a seemingly impossible challenge made all the more remarkable by the fact that the teenagers are blind.
Detective Bechara Jahlk is the most famous private eye in Brazil, specialising in 'corporate crime' and employing a team of young female agents. This documentary follows the case brought to Jahlk's attention by a 68-year-old import-export entrepreneur, a divorced workaholic who suspects a link between his company and drug-trafficking in Rio's harbour and fears that his son Luiz might be involved. At 26 and loaded with cash, Luiz is a junior executive in his father's business and lives life in Rio's fast lane. Discretion is paramount, so Jahlk sends in his 'angels' Natasha, Julia and Tania, armed with sophisticated surveillance equipment, to infiltrate Luiz's social network and uncover any criminal activity. The agents quickly establish evidence of Luiz's drug use. In recorded conversations, some names pop up, giving the agents more leads to follow - Marcelo the drug courier, Claudio the drug dealer, former drug dealer-turned-agent Ze Carlos, right-wing extremist group the Integralistas and former torturer and policeman JC. The investigation takes the agents into the favelas, undercover in Rio's port, to nightclubs, restaurants, motels and Sao Paulo and back, giving insights into the case, Luiz's life and contemporary Brazilian society.
J Robert Oppenheimer was one of the most celebrated scientists of his generation. Shy, arrogant and brilliant, he is best known as the man that led the Manhattan Project to spectacular success. As the years progressed he also grew into a scientific statesman, leading a government agency, the Atomic Energy Commission, which was trying to develop ways to avoid a nuclear arms race. His attempts at politics, though, were a lot less successful than his scientific endeavours. As he grew more powerful, he started to make serious enemies amongst the establishment, particularly a friend of President Truman's - Lewis Strauss.
Set in a north London residential home for the active elderly, this documentary paints a portrait of life at the Mary Feilding Guild and of three of its oldest residents. With a combined age of almost 300, Rose, Hetty and Alison continue to be powerfully engaged in their individual brands of activism - from journalism to anti-war demonstrations - whilst quietly negotiating the final years of their lives. Rose, Hetty and Alison are fervently concerned about the state of the wider world and work energetically to make it a better place, but their private lives and loves are equally important. Through their intimate and surprising revelations, we learn the truth about how very old people experience life and how they deal with the intense challenges, and the indignities, that old age brings.
The definitive film biography of a mythic American figure, a man that Tom Wolfe called 'our greatest comic writer', whose suicide led Rolling Stone magazine, where Thompson began his career, to devote an entire issue to the man that launched a brash, irreverent, fearless style of journalism - named 'gonzo' after an anarchic blues riff by James Booker. Borrowing from Kris Kristofferson, Thompson was a 'walking contradiction, partly truth, mostly fiction'. While his pen dripped with venom for dishonest politicians, he surprised nervous visitors with the courtly manners and soft-spoken delivery of a Southern gentleman. By many, he is considered an iconic crusader for truth, justice and a fiercely idealistic American way. Like Jack Kerouac's On the Road, his book Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas has been a wanderlust myth for generation after generation of American youth. And for America's esteemed journalists - from Tom Wolfe, and Walter Isaacson to the NY Times' Frank Rich - he remains an iconic freelance who believed that writing could make a difference. The film focuses on Thompson's work, particularly his most provocative and productive period from 1965 to 1975. Gonzo is directed by Alex Gibney, the Academy Award-nominated director of Enron: the Smartest Guys in the Room and the director of the Academy Award-winning documentary Taxi to the Dark Side. While Gibney shaped the screen story, every narrated word in the film springs from the typewriters of Thompson himself, given life by Johnny Depp. The film is distinguished by its unprecedented cooperation of Thompson's friends, family and estate. The filmmakers had access to hundreds of photographs and over 200 hours of audiotapes, home movies and documentary footage.
Documentary based on Philippe Petit's autobiographical book To Reach the Clouds: My High Wire Walk Between the Twin Towers. In August 1974, French wire-walker Philippe Petit spent nearly an hour walking, dancing, kneeling and lying on a wire which he and his friends had strung in secret between the rooftops of New York's Twin Towers. Six years of intense planning, dreaming and physical training fell into place that morning. Already an accomplished wire-walker, Petit had caught sight of an article about the planned construction of the Twin Towers while in a dentist's waiting room in 1968, and at that moment an obsession was born. He spent every waking moment since that day plotting the details of his walk (which he called 'le coup') and gathered a team of people around him to assist in the planning. Petit's preparation was expert, thorough and top secret: he took precise measurements and even aerial photographs to help him construct models of the rigging; learned about the physical effects of the wind on the swaying of the buildings; even created fake ID cards and spied on office workers to plan how best to gain access to the towers without arousing suspicion. On that August morning, his dream was realised. Using contemporary interviews, archival footage and dramatic reconstructions, the film tells the story of this extraordinary feat, and also of Petit's previous walks between the towers of Notre Dame in Paris, and of the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
Documentary which tells the extraordinary unknown story of how the Beatles helped to destroy the USSR. In August 1962, director Leslie Woodhead made a two-minute film in Liverpool's Cavern Club with a raw and unrecorded group of rockers called the Beatles. He arranged their first live TV appearances on a local show in Manchester and watched as the Fab Four phenomenon swept the world. Twenty-five years later while making films in Russia, Woodhead became aware of how, even though they were never able to play in the Soviet Union, the Beatles' legend had soaked into the lives of a generation of kids. This film meets the Soviet Beatles generation and hears their stories about how the Fab Four changed their lives, including Putin's deputy premier Sergei Ivanov, who explains how the Beatles helped him learn English and showed him another life.
When thinking of devastated cities in the Second World War, Naples is often forgotten, but when it was liberated by the Allies it was on its last legs, with 200,000 homeless and no power, transport, food or running water. The Allies quickly brought food to the starving population and medicine to the sick, but the introduction of many troops and lots of supplies led to the creation of a huge black market involving almost the entire population. One third of women became prostitutes as Naples became a kind of Sodom and Gomorrah, a city of vice, crime and chaos where everything that could be sold and stolen was sold and stolen. Perplexingly, the Americans decided to introduce Italo-American criminals into positions of power in southern Italy, such as Vito Genovese, a gangster escaping a murder rap in New York. Genovese began setting up a crime empire in Naples - after Mussolini had effectively suppressed organised crime in Italy, the Allies brought it back. When World War II ended, alarmed and surprised by Soviet support for the Italian communist parties, the Allies responded with their own propaganda. Combined with the Marshall Plan, this became a massive covert effort by the Americans to swing the elections towards the parties of the right. The Catholic Church helped them, with priests telling congregations that they would go to hell if they didn't vote Christian Democrat. After great political and ideological struggle in which the Cold War was waged by proxy for the first time, the 1948 elections were won by the Christian Democrats, a result that may not have been truly fair. The CIA were pleased with the result and partially credited it to their own operations. They recommended that the US should continue with the covert manipulation of political outcomes in fore
People who work in the city either make money out of money, or from the proximity of money. But what do they feel about their jobs? In Men of the City, filmmaker Marc Isaacs goes behind the headlines to examine the state of mind and motivation of men in the city.
Documentary focusing on Section 60 of the historic Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia - the 'saddest acre in America' - where US service men and women from the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts are buried. An intimate look at the impact of lives lost too soon, the film bears witness to the rituals and traditions of the family and friends who come from around the country to visit the graves.
Nicky Haslam, renowned socialite, bon viveur, wit and best friend to all is also one of the world's most respected and highly paid interior designers, whose clients include royalty, rock stars and Russians. This documentary takes the viewer into a world to which few have access and most could hardly imagine, where apartments cost over 30 million pounds and people think nothing of spending four million to do up a house.
Filmmaker Michel Orion Scott captures a magical journey into a little-known world, in a documentary which chronicles Rupert Isaacson and Kristin Neff's personal odyssey to make sense of their child's autism, and find healing for him and themselves in the unlikeliest of places.
A failed coup attempt ... a British mercenary in a grim African prison ... a dictator accused by the West of torture ... and beneath it all, a spectacular underwater oil reserve that the world's major powers would love to get their hands on. It may sound like the latest John LeCarre bestseller, but it's the real-life intrigue behind Simon Mann's African Coup, Storyville's penetrating look at mysterious goings on in Equatorial Guinea, a tiny West African nation newly rich from oil and infamous for corruption. Filmed over eighteen months, with access to key players, the film offers a unique look inside a country that rarely allows in the foreign press.
Drama-documentary-animation hybrid starring Oscar-nominated Pete Postlethwaite as a man living alone in the devastated world of 2055, watching archive footage from 2008 and asking why climate change wasn't stopped before it was too late.
Cage fighting (aka mixed martial arts) is one of the world's fastest growing sports. It is violent, shocking and some say barbaric, but hugely popular. Inside the cage, punching, kneeing, kicking, elbowing and choking are all allowed. Whilst men have dominated the sport for years, female fights are now becoming an increasing attraction. Filmmaker Nick Holt follows the fortunes of two British female fighters as they travel to America for the biggest bouts of their lives. Both have their own reasons for stepping into the cage and both are prepared to lay their safety on the line in search of success.
Tom Cholmondeley, heir to one of the largest estates in Kenya and the Lord Delamere title, stands accused of murder in Nairobi, charged with killing black poacher Robert Njoya on his land. If convicted, Cholmondeley could hang. Serah Njoya, the widow with four children who lives on the edge of the Delamere estate, wants her husband's killer brought to justice.
A journalist with no scruples and a pair of Danish comedians travel to North Korea with a mission to use humour to uncover the truth behind one of the world's most notorious regimes On the pretext of being a small Danish theatre troupe on a cultural exchange, the filmmaker was granted permission by the North Korean government to stage a performance for a select audience in the capital. In reality, the troupe was comprised of an unscrupulous journalist, Mads Brugger, and two Danish/Korean comedians, Jacob and Simon, of whom the former is handicapped. Their goal is to use humour to expose the intricate effects of an oppressive regime.
In 1971, leading Vietnam War strategist Daniel Ellsberg concluded that the war was based on decades of lies. He leaked 7,000 pages of top-secret documents to the New York Times, a daring act of conscience that led directly to Watergate, President Nixon's resignation and the end of the Vietnam War.
On the evening of 5th November 2001, 28-year-old Dr Andrew Bagby was murdered in a parking lot in western Pennsylvania. The prime suspect, his ex-girlfriend Dr Shirley Turner, promptly fled the United States for St. John's, Newfoundland where she announced that she was pregnant with Bagby's child, a boy she named Zachary. Filmmaker Kurt Kuenne, Bagby's childhood friend, originally began this film as a way for Zachary to learn about his father. But when Turner was allowed to walk free on bail in Canada and given custody of Zachary while awaiting extradition to the US, its focus shifted to the desperate efforts of Zachary's grandparents, David and Kathleen Bagby, to win custody of the boy. A film that prompted standing ovations at film festivals across North America, it is the recipient of numerous honours and citations, was named one of the top five documentaries of 2008 by the National Board of Review and named in Best Films of 2008 lists by more than three dozen critics.
On an island where reggae is considered the voice of the people and an outlet for survival, Rise Up Reggae Star follows three aspiring artists who seek to 'rise up' from obscurity for their chance at success. This documentary takes the viewer off the beaten path far from any tourist attractions and sandy beaches, yet it is still able to capture the beauty and magic that the Island has to offer. From the deep countryside to the whirlwind ghettos of Kingston, no matter where you are, the film makes it evident that music is the heartbeat of the culture.
This four-part series looks at Barbados today through the lives - at work and at play - of the island's horse racing community. The series is centred on the Barbados Turf Club and following the stories of a colourful cast of characters, from the big white owners at the top of the tree right down to the poor black exercise riders and grooms. The Club and its racecourse have been based at the former British Army Garrison on the edge of the island's capital Bridgetown for over a hundred years. These quirky and, at times, spiritually-minded programmes look at how the culture of Barbados today, its institutions and the mindset of its people have been shaped by the colonial past and the legacy of and slavery. This programme explores what it is to be Bajan (Barbadian) during the run-up to Independence Day. Jonathon Simpson owns a farm and breeding stables in the hills, where groom Pat Coward is kept busy breaking in yearlings for training. Meanwhile in St Ann's Fort next to the Garrison Savannah the Barbados Defence Force's top Sgt. Maj. Cherrol Dean is drilling his troops for the 43rd annual Independence Day Parade. The programme discusses the ways in which Bajans - human and equine alike - are both bred and nurtured and compares the experiences of single mothers Pat and army medic Safreya Small. This first programme finds an island influenced - but perhaps surprisingly not overshadowed - by its colonial past, with a sense of historical contradiction and ambiguity that is the heartbeat of the series.
What might it be like to be a horse? Not just any horse, but a top-end racehorse in Ireland? This is the question Race Horses explores, following three promising, charismatic horses over the course of one rather difficult racing year, bringing us into their world and revealing their distinct individual characters. Beautiful, unusual, and highly entertaining, the film combines the drama of a sports movie with the exploration of an ancient human obsession, offering a subtle critique of humanity's quirks on the side.
Four-part series looking at Barbados today through the lives, at work and at play, of the island's horse racing community. The series is centred on the Barbados Turf Club and follows the stories of a colourful cast of characters, from the big white owners at the top of the tree right down to the poor black exercise riders and grooms. The Club and its racecourse have been based at the former British army garrison on the edge of the island's capital, Bridgetown, for over a hundred years. The quirky and, at times, spiritually-minded series looks at how the culture of Barbados today, its institutions and the mindset of its people, have been shaped by the colonial past and the legacy of slavery. This part is about the lives of three very different riders and centres on the life of the Bajan jockey - the trials and deprivations of keeping on top of your game, the glory and glamour of success and the temptations and pitfalls that can come hand in hand with financial rewards. All these forces create a tight-knit community united by their mutual competitiveness and their love of the adrenaline-fuelled buzz of the track
Imagine a scene never before witnessed - 16 French pastry chefs gathered in Lyon for three intense days of mixing, piping and sculpting everything from delicate chocolates to six-foot sugar sculptures in hope of being declared one of the best by the country's President. This is the prestigious Meilleurs Ouvriers de France competition (Best Craftsmen in France). The blue, white and red striped collar worn on the jackets of the winners is more than the ultimate recognition for every pastry chef - it is a dream and an obsession. The finalists, France's culinary elite, risk their reputations as well as sacrifice family and finances in pursuit of this lifelong distinction of excellence. Similar to the Olympics, the three-day contest takes place every four years and it requires that the chefs not only have extraordinary skill and nerves of steel but also a lot of luck.
Four-part series looking at Barbados today through the lives, at work and at play, of the island's horse racing community. The series is centred on the Barbados Turf Club and follows the stories of a colourful cast of characters, from the big white owners at the top of the tree right down to the poor black exercise riders and grooms. The Club and its racecourse have been based at the former British army garrison on the edge of the island's capital, Bridgetown, for over a hundred years. The quirky and, at times, spiritually-minded series looks at how the culture of Barbados today, its institutions and the mindset of its people, have been shaped by the colonial past and the legacy of slavery. It is not so long ago that the stands at the Barbados Turf Club were racially segregated, and until very recently the club was the preserve of the mainly white, wealthier classes. Now, however, the race track has attracted a new breed of small trainer determined to break into this exclusive gentleman's club. This is a tale of two trainers - one big, powerful and white, one small, cash-strapped and black - and shows that in the world of horse racing everyone can find themselves out of their depth.
Four-part series looking at Barbados today through the lives, at work and at play, of the island's horse racing community. The series is centred on the Barbados Turf Club and follows the stories of a colourful cast of characters, from the big white owners at the top of the tree right down to the poor black exercise riders and grooms. The Club and its racecourse have been based at the former British army garrison on the edge of the island's capital, Bridgetown, for over a hundred years. The quirky and, at times, spiritually-minded series looks at how the culture of Barbados today, its institutions and the mindset of its people, have been shaped by the colonial past and the legacy of slavery. There are two big races a year at the Turf Club - the Gold Cup and the Derby. This programme follows the build up for the Derby through the eyes of those who have trained and groomed the clear favourite in preparation for this historic race. Areutalkintome is on the verge of becoming only the sixth horse in over a century to complete the Triple Crown - all he has to do is win the Derby. As those around Areutalkintome face up to their role in his success, the programme becomes about more than just horse-racing. It is about chance, predictability, life, death, fate and faith.
Icelandic film which tells the story of Britain and Iceland's struggle over the once-plentiful cod fishing grounds in the North Atlantic from both sides. During the 1950s and 1960's Britain consumed 430,000 tons of cod each year, but as the stocks started to diminish the livelihoods of fishing communities in both countries were at stake. Iceland took steps to protect their fishing industry - the mainstay of their economy - resulting in the three so-called Cod Wars. This was a David and Goliath struggle, where the small fleet of Icelandic gunboats were pitted against the British trawlers and the Royal Navy.
What makes an inexperienced photographer decide he wants to cover wars in the most dangerous parts of the planet? In this documentary, filmmaker Richard Parry follows photo-journalist Robert King from his first brush with war in the Balkans in his early twenties to his Time magazine shoots in Chechnya. King seems like a danger addict and yet craves peace. His early naivity transforms itself to deep cynicism. He seems traumatised, yet continues to work. This compelling portrait asks two powerful questions about war journalists: why do they do it and how do they survive it?
Jaja was a 19th century slave who rose up to become a legendary king before being kidnapped by the British, never to see his homeland again. 140 years later Jaja's great grandson, and heir to the throne, returns to Nigeria. Having been educated in the West, Walter's public school accent lands him an unlikely role - he becomes the voice of Big Brother Nigeria. Walter is part of a new wave of elite young Nigerians returning to live in Lagos. The burgeoning media world is their playground, and we join them in an energetic romp through its screens, sets and socials. Walter becomes a hustling TV and music producer, and takes us along for the ride.
Film which travels inside the singular world of one of Italy's most famous fashion designers, Valentino Garavani, documenting the colourful and dramatic closing act of his celebrated career and capturing the end of an era in global fashion. However, at the heart of the film is a love story - the unique relationship between Valentino and his business partner and companion of 50 years, Giancarlo Giammetti. Capturing intimate moments in the lives of two of Italy's richest and most famous men, the film lifts the curtain on the final act of a nearly 50-year reign at the top of the glamorous and fiercely competitive world of fashion.
When Welsh filmmaker Dylan Williams followed his lover to Stockholm, the first thing his language teacher told him was that the way to fit into Swedish society was to join a club. Struggling to find work, approaching 40 and looking for a new purpose in life, he took her at her word. The club he found was Stockholm Arts Swim Gents, Sweden's only male synchronised swimming team, a ramshackle collection of men who were each looking for 'something different'. They found it. What ensues is an unexpected rollercoaster ride that ends at the unofficial world championships. By turns funny and moving, the film shows that happiness can be found in the strangest of places.
A historic gathering of over fifty African heads of state in Beijing reverberates in Zambia where the lives of three characters unfold. Mr Liu is one of thousands of Chinese entrepreneurs who have settled across the continent in search of new opportunities. He has just bought his fourth farm and business is booming. In northern Zambia, Mr Li, a project manager for a multinational Chinese company, is upgrading the country's longest road. Pressure to complete the job on time intensifies when funds from the Zambian government start running out. Meanwhile, Zambia's trade minister is en route to China to secure millions of dollars of investment. Through the intimate portrayal of these three characters, the expanding footprint of a rising global power is laid bare - pointing to a radically different future not just for Africa but also for the world.
At 14, Toronto school friends Steve 'Lips' Kudlow and Robb Reiner made a pact to rock together forever. Their band Anvil went on to become the 'demi-gods of Canadian metal', releasing 1982's Metal on Metal, which influenced a musical generation including Metallica, Slayer and Anthrax. All those bands went on to sell millions of records but Anvil's career would take a different path - straight into obscurity. But Lips and Robb never gave up on their childhood dream and kept rocking, always believing that one day Anvil would taste the success that had so long eluded them. The film follows Lips and Robb, now in their 50s, as they gear up to record their thirteenth album, This is Thirteen. Coping with increasingly impatient families, crippling mortgages and the effects of old age, they know this is their last chance to really make it.
Documentary about three teenage boys who escape a polygamist Mormon cult in Utah. Powerfully emotional and compelling, a fascinating insight to a community it's hard to believe exists.
Documentary giving an intimate view of the pressurised life of hard-working Liu Wei as he attempts to balance work and life commitments and satisfy his parents and his demanding girlfriend.
Focusing on the challenges of growing up, the film captures the flirting, fighting, showing off and anguish of children on the cusp of adolescence, and gives an insight into the formation of a new generation of Chinese children.
Filmmaker Ben Steinbauer tracks down Jack Rebney made famous when his 1989 video hit YouTube, and his journey turns into a fascinating exploration of viral video culture, and what it means on a personal level to its sometimes unwilling subjects.
How much freedom can there be in a Chinese marriage? This is a remarkable, intimate film about two people who want to have freedom and happiness at the same time. You may think this sounds like a western story, but it isn't - it's all deeply Chinese.
Documentary telling the story of the piracy explosion, with unique access to the coastal towns of war-torn Somalia, the boardrooms of the London, the operation hubs on warships in the Gulf of Aden, and the heartbreak of a hostage situation gone wrong.
Nazi accountant Walter Genewein helped to run the Lodx ghetto. He took color slides of what he considered the subhuman aspect of Jewish workers. This film uses the photographs to recreate the suffering of inmates, giving a compassionate picture of that it was like to be trapped in the ghetto.
Arch-political schemer Peter Mandelson invited cameras to follow him during Labour's ill-fated election campaign, resulting in a fly-on-the-wall documentary in the best traditions of the genre that offers a stripped-down view of politics in its rawest, most compelling form.
The field of anthropology goes under the magnifying glass in a fiery investigation of the seminal research on Yanomami Indians, also known as the 'Fierce People'. In the 1960s and 70s, a steady stream of anthropologists filed into the Amazon Basin to observe this 'virgin' society untouched by modern life. Thirty years later, the events surrounding this infiltration have become a scandalous tale of academic ethics and infighting.
Recounting the absurd and paradoxical history of Colombia's thirty-year struggle with international drug trafficking, at once a farce and a tragedy, as seen through the eyes of the extravagant pet of the most powerful drug baron in history: a hippopotamus named Pablo.
The devadasi are Hindus who are married to god in childhood, and at puberty sold for sex. In this fascinating film by acclaimed director Beeban Kidron, we go on an intimate journey into the twilight world of the devadasi and meet the girls of Karnataka, southern India who are forced to live in this ancient tradition despite it having been declared illegal for more than 60 years. The documentary investigates the surprising history of this little-understood community, reveals their rich and privileged past as concubines to the princes and priests of India's ruling class and explores their heritage as dancers and entertainers.
Filmmaker Rupert Murray takes us on a journey into the heart of climate scepticism to examine the key arguments against man-made global warming and to try to understand the people who are making them. Do they have the evidence that we are heating up the atmosphere or are they taking a grave risk with our future by dabbling in highly complicated science they don't fully understand? Where does the truth lie and how are we, the people, supposed to decide? The film features Britain's pre-eminent sceptic Lord Christopher Monckton as he tours the world broadcasting his message to the public and politicians alike. Can he convince them and Murray that there is nothing to worry about?
To mark the centenary of the birth of one of the most iconic figures in recent American politics, a documentary which examines the enigmatic career of screen star and two-term US president Ronald Reagan. He has been heralded as one of the architects of the modern world and since his death many Americans have been working to cement his legacy, but some critics argue that the aftershocks of Reaganomics continue to crumble economies the world over and that the hubris of Reagan's foreign policy continues to propel America into a cycle of overseas ventures. To such critics Reagan is an ominous figure who did more harm than good. But who was Ronald Reagan, and how did he come to shape world politics in the way he did? Featuring in-depth interviews with those who worked with him and knew him best, this film provides a definitive and penetrating look at Reaganism, whose grip on the public mind has been rekindled by recent events in Republican politics.
Against a backdrop of war and poverty, this documentary traces the extraordinary journey of a team of young Afghan cricketers as they chase a seemingly impossible dream, shedding light on a nation beyond burqas, bombs, drugs and devastation. The film follows the squad over two years as they go from playing in their shalwar-kameezes on rubble pitches to battling their way around the globe and up the international league tables. It travels from refugee camps in Pakistan - where many of the players learned the game as boys - to practice sessions in Kabul and on to qualifying tournaments overseas. With unrestricted access, the film follows the ups and downs of their epic journey.
Documentary which catalogues how a Spanish farmer named Juan Pujol became 'Garbo', one of the most successful double agents in history. The British code-named him Garbo for being the 'greatest actor in the world', because of his ability to gain the Third Reich's trust and make possible the successful D-Day landings that turned the course of history.
Documentary telling the story of the youngest marathon runner ever. At the age of four, he is plucked from the poverty of an Indian slum by his coach. Extraordinary drama and tragedy ensue. What starts as a simple inspirational story - the hope of a small boy and his trainer who unite to pursue a dream in a ruthless world - goes on to reveal the darker side of humanity and the complexities of Indian society as it struggles to come to grips with the realities of the slums, crippling poverty, organised crime and state-sanctioned corruption. Over a period of five years a compelling human story emerges, full of moral dilemma, dramatic twists and ethical and legal debate.
Single father Jesse Diaz pins his hopes for the family's fortunes and redemption for his own failed music career on his nine-year-old daughter Priscilla when he discovers that she can rap and perform. This documentary follows Priscilla, aka P-Star, and her father through the grit and glamour of the music industry, capturing the struggles of Jesse in raising his two children and the sacrifices of his daughter to make her dad proud.
Documentary which follows the stories of three young hopefuls through eight dramatic months of training and education as they prepare for the biggest event of their lives so far, Cuba's National Boxing Championship for Under-12s. But during the season, crisis strikes - Fidel Castro is taken ill and all of Cuba's Olympic boxing champions defect to the USA. As the championship draws closer, the Cuba that the boys have been taught to believe in is at a historic crossroads.
Thousands of poor Chinese workers wait years to petition against injustices suffered in their home districts with the court of the plaintiffs in Beijing - often the last resort for those seeking redress for dismissals, land confiscations, beatings and arrests. Filmed over a decade, director Zhao Liang gives an insight into the shared disenchantment of those who search for justice from a system that pays little to no significance to their individual suffering.
As a tropical storm beats down on the Philippine island of Cebu, two sisters leave work but never make it home. That same night, hundreds of miles away on a different island, 19-year-old Paco Larranaga is at a party in Manila, surrounded by dozens of reliable witnesses. The missing women, Marijoy, 23, and Jacqueline Chiong, 21, are pretty and innocent Chinese-Filipinos from a working class community. Paco, accused of their rapes and murders, comes from a prominent political family. An awkward adolescent with a past of petty offences, he is easily cast in the role of privileged thug by the hysterical media frenzy that surrounds the case. Populated by flamboyantly corrupt public officials, drug dealers, cops on the take and journalists both in thrall to and taking a lonely stance against the system, the documentary is a compelling account of the decade-long struggle to convict or free Paco.
Yuri Gagarin's flight into space was hailed by the Soviet Union as a triumph for socialist science over capitalism. But the true story is much stranger.
Ragnar Axelsson, known as Rax, is a photograher for Iceland's largest newspaper. This documentary follows him on his life's mission, to capture the human faces of climate change by photographing the vanishing lifestyles of the people of the north. Rax is among the most celebrated photographers in the world and his series of photographs, Faces of the North, is a living document of the dying cultures of the far northern reaches of the planet, mainly Icelandic farmers, fishermen and the great hunters of Greenland. 'It was really only one photograph that started me off,' he says. 'An old man in a rowing boat and his dog on a skerry. I thought to myself, these men are vanishing. If I don't photograph them now, no one will remember them and no one will know that they ever existed.' Rax spent his childhood summers on an isolated farm on the southern coast of Iceland, where the farmers lived off of the land as countless generations had before them. As a child he was enraptured by the landscape and the interactions between man and nature. Twenty-five years ago, his fascination with people who try to survive in extreme circumstances took him from Iceland to Greenland - a place which has continually inspired him to return. His photo essays of the hunters of Greenland are legendary. Rax could well have been a hunter himself - and we watch him as he stalks his images and strikes at the opportune moment. Fascinated by stories of half-forgotten people who have adapted to unspeakably harsh conditions, Rax is now documenting them as they cope with extreme changes to those conditions as the result of climate change. Last Days of the Arctic is a celebration of the photographer and his subjects, an elegy for a disappearing landscape and the people who inhabit it.
On 28 February 2009 Kaing Guek Eav, alias Duch, appeared in the ECCC courtroom and made a two-hour speech where he asked for forgiveness for the appalling torture and execution of at least 13,000 prisoners at Tuol Sleng and probably more in the security camps of M-13 and M-99. Until this date, with the exception of a handful of judges, lawyers and a priest, he had not been seen or heard of for the last thirty years. How did a man, known to be kind and generous to fellow students, possibly transform himself into Comrade Duch, the Khmer Rouge's infamous executioner? This documentary revisits and searches for clues.
To celebrate its 50th anniversary in May 2011, this probing documentary brings together an extraordinary cast of interviewees, from Sting to former home secretary Jack Straw, to shed light on how, as a 'letter-writing organisation, Amnesty International has changed the world and how the world has changed Amnesty International. It poses the fundamental question: has the human rights movement been able to hold back mankind's capacity for atrocity? Part of BBC4's Justice season.
As part of BBC 4's Justice season, this documentary which chronicles the brilliant life and tragic fate of Sergio Vieira de Mello, the former head of the UN mission to Baghdad. Colleagues and loved ones recount how his extraordinary career was cut short when a bomb exploded below his office in August 2003, and the film tracks the painstaking attempts to rescue him from the debris.
Critics say Luis Moreno-Ocampo's justice threatens peace, while champions of justice criticise his weaknesses. The world's first permanent International Criminal Court is making headlines - issuing an arrest warrant for a sitting head of state for war crimes, Sudanese President Al-Bashir in July 2008 and now seeking the arrest of Colonel Gaddafi, his son Saif and his brother-in-law, the intelligence chief Abdullah Sanussi. Cameras follow the prosecutor in New York as he defends the Al-Bashir warrant at the UN Security Council; in The Hague, as he opens the Court's first trial of alleged Congolese war criminal Thomas Lubanga; and in the Congo as he meets citizens affected by the trial. The prosecutor must keep one step ahead of them all. Part of BBC 4's Justice season.
Judge Chen journeys across the Xuan'en region to ensure that justice is served, even in the remotest corners of China. The hearings take place wherever he hangs the national emblem, be it nailed up in a barn or a field. In this first episode, Judge Chen presides over the case of a woman, Lin, who has filed for divorce from her husband Wang.
Judge Chen continues to bring justice to the Xuan'en region of China, and encounters neighbours disputing the ownership of a vital bridge in their village.
Judge Chen travels to another area of the Xuan'en region of China and hears the case of two parents who are trying to hold a school responsible for the suicide of their only son.
In this final episode, Judge Chen listens to complaints of a mother who is suing her son for maintenance.
Jacksonville, Florida, May 2000. Mary Ann Stephens is shot in the head at point blank range in front of her husband. Two hours later, a 15-year-old black American, Brenton Butler, is arrested walking down a nearby street. Jean-Xavier De Lestrade's Academy Award-winning film follows his trial. Everyone involved with the case, from investigators to journalists, is ready to condemn Butler, except his lawyer Patrick McGuiness. A dazzling and magnetic presence of Hollywood proportions, McGuiness reopens the inquiry, and in a dramatic and spine-tingling sequence of events, he and his team discover a slew of shocking and troubling elements about the case. Murder on a Sunday Morning is gripping and heart-wrenching - the stuff suspense novelists only dream of writing.
Errol Morris broke cinematic ground with The Thin Blue Line, establishing a new genre in the non-fiction feature by creating a fascinating reconstruction and investigation of a brutal and senseless murder. The case in question is centred on the 1976 murder of a Dallas policeman. The murder remained unsolved for over a month until the Dallas police department received word that 16-year-old David Harris had been arrested in Vidor, Texas, after having bragged to friends that he killed a Dallas cop. Although the murder weapon was found in a nearby swamp, Harris later insisted that his boasting was meant only to impress his friends and insisted the real murderer was a hitchhiker he had picked up earlier that day named Randall Adams. Morris assembles diverse interviews, photo montages, film clips and reenactments of the crime to make a strong case for Adams's innocence, leading to a shocking finale.
Documentary which chronicles the long and dramatic struggle for control of the Barnes Foundation, a private art collection valued at more than $25bn. In 1922, Dr Albert C Barnes formed a remarkable educational institution around his priceless collection of art, located just five miles outside of Philadelphia. Now, more than 50 years after Barnes's death, a powerful group of moneyed interests have gone to court for control of the art, intending to bring it to a new museum in Philadelphia. Standing in their way is a group of Barnes's former students and his will, which contains strict instructions stating the foundation should always be an educational institution and that the paintings may never be removed. Will politics prevail over a man's dying wishes?
Dubbed the Sheriff of Wall Street, Eliot Spitzer made his name as New York's attorney general, prosecuting criminal activity by America's largest financial institutions and some of the most powerful businessmen in the country. When he was then elected New York governor with the largest margin in the state's history, many believed Spitzer was on his way to becoming the nation's first Jewish president. Then, shockingly, his meteoric rise turned into a precipitous fall when the New York Times revealed that Spitzer - a paragon of rectitude - had been seeing prostitutes. With unprecedented access to the escort world as well as friends, colleagues and enemies of the ex-governor, Academy Award-winning director Alex Gibney explores the hidden contours of this tale of hubris, sex and power.
Documentary which goes inside the newsroom at one of the most venerable publishing institutions in the world, the New York Times. Director Andrew Rossi gained unprecedented access to America's pre-eminent news factory during one of its most tumultuous years, as the film follows its struggle to survive in a year where Wikileaks emerged as a household name and other newspapers folded. Led by people such as David Carr - a firebrand journalist and former crack addict - can the foot soldiers of this bastion of old media keep up with the torrent of information that is the world wide web?
The history of surfing culture is told through the exploits of the pioneers and contemporary heroes of big-wave surfing in Stacy Peralta's documentary, which features the likes of Greg Noll and Jeff Clark. Riding Giants makes palpable the magnitude and terrifying power of the waves they seek to conquer and captures the unfathomable combination of adrenaline and fear that the surfers experience each time they take on a monster swell.
Considered by many to be the world's greatest chess player, Bobby Fischer personified the link between genius and madness. His trajectory propelled him from child prodigy to world chess champion at the age of 29 and then into a nosedive of delusions and paranoia. Fischer was a recluse for decades before resurfacing for a bizarre final chapter as a fugitive. Veteran filmmaker Liz Garbus's documentary exposes the disturbingly high price Fischer paid to achieve his legendary success and the resulting toll it took on his psyche. Rare archival footage and insightful interviews with those closest to him expand this captivating story of a mastermind's tumultuous rise and precipitous fall.
Documentary which tells the surprising story of three dedicated individuals who try to protect their Chicago communities from the violence they themselves once perpetrated. These 'interrupters' intervene in conflicts before the incidents explode into violence. Their work and their insights are closely entwined with their own personal journeys, which, as each of them points out, defy easy characterisation. Shot over the course of a year by acclaimed filmmaker Steve James, it is a vivid portrayal of a city under siege from spiralling violence, including the brutal murder of Derrion Albert, a Chicago high-school student whose death was caught on videotape.
Charles Ferguson's Academy Award-winning forensic analysis of the 2008 global financial crisis. The film traces the emergence of a rogue culture within the finance industry which has corrupted politics, regulation, and academia. At a cost over $20 trillion, the crisis caused millions of people to lose their jobs and homes in the worst recession since the Great Depression, and nearly caused global financial collapse.
Enigmatic rascal and recovering addict Dick Kuchera has offended many people in his time. As part of Storyville's Survivors season, Despicable Dick follows him on a life-changing road trip to track down former loved ones in an attempt to right the wrongs of his chequered past. A surprising and moving tragicomedy of change, family and forgiveness.
As part of Storyville's Survivors season, My Friend Sam: Living For the Moment is about an extraordinary man named Sam Frears. Sam, now 39 years old, was born with an extremely rare genetic disorder - Familial Dysautonomia - which left him with only a 50% chance of making it to his fifth birthday. The film reveals a complex, engaging, exceptional person as he struggles with everyday life while pursuing his joint goals of getting his acting career back on track and finding love.
Heather Leach was a cheeky flame-haired documentary director living life to the full - maybe too full! But at the age of 30 she was suddenly diagnosed with a thyroid disease and then cancer. As part of Storyville's Survivors season, Lust For Life follows her battle with ill-health, despair and depression and her emergence to find a new way to live a cheekier and more fulfilling life.
The story of the 1974 kidnap of Patty Hearst, a teenage newspaper heiress and Berkeley undergrad, which set off one of the most bizarre episodes in recent American history. (2005)
Nominated for a 2011 Academy Award, this documentary tells the remarkable story of a young American environmentalist involved with the Earth Liberation Front - a group the FBI came to describe as America's 'number one domestic terrorism threat'. For years, the ELF - operating in separate anonymous cells without any central leadership - had launched spectacular attacks against dozens of logging companies they accused of destroying the environment. In December 2005, Daniel McGowan was arrested by federal agents in a nationwide sweep of radical environmentalists involved with the ELF. Part coming-of-age tale, part thriller, the film interweaves a verite chronicle of Daniel as he faces life in prison, with a dramatic recounting of the events that led to his involvement with the group.
Documentary which tells the story of a group of men and women who risked their lives to rescue a library - and preserve a nation's history - in the midst of the Bosnian war. Amid bullets and bombs and under fire from shells and snipers, this handful of passionate book-lovers safeguarded more than 10,000 unique, hand-written Islamic books and manuscripts - the most important texts held by Sarajevo's last surviving library.
Documentary which tells the story of how West Indies cricket triumphed over its colonial masters through the achievements of one of the most gifted teams in sporting history. Key players of the 1980s side recount how it emerged to smash the giants of cricket - first Australia and then England. In a turbulent era of race riots in England and civil unrest in the Caribbean, the West Indian cricketers, led by the enigmatic Viv Richards, struck a defiant blow at the forces of white prejudice worldwide. Their undisputed skill, combined with a fearless spirit, allowed them to dominate the genteel game at the highest level, on their own terms. This is their story, told in their own words.
Documentary which goes inside the secretive Traveller world - a world of long and bitter memories. Filmed over twelve years, the film chronicles a history of violent feuding between rival families, using remarkable access to document the bare-fist fights between the Quinn McDonaghs and the Joyce clans, who, though cousins, have clashed for generations. Vivid, violent and funny, the film explores the need for revenge and the pressure to fight for the honour of your family name.
Documentary exploring the sport of wheelchair rugby, unofficially known as murderball. Created by quadriplegic athletes and played with bone-breaking intensity, the game is as aggressive as the name suggests. It is an official event at the Paralympics and the film documents the fierce rivalry between the American and Canadian teams before and during the Athens games of 2004. Filmmakers Henry Alex Rubin and Dana Adam Shapiro document this fierce competition as well as the personal stories of the athletes who are passionate, driven and determined to win.
In a personal journey into a family tragedy, filmmaker Cosima Spender explores how she and her relatives have been shaped by her grandfather - the pioneering Abstract Expressionist painter, Arshile Gorky. Following a series of tragedies, he committed suicide in 1948, leaving a young wife and two daughters behind. Through conversations with her grandmother, Gorky's widow, Spender tries to make sense of his creativity, the reasons for his death and the shadow it subsequently cast. The film takes the viewer through the pain and courage of the family, coming to an emotional climax in Gorky's Armenian birthplace.
DURATION: 1 HOUR, 10 MINUTES An intimate portrait of Yemen as the revolution unfolds, told through the eyes of warm-hearted local tour guide Kais. Award-winning documentary filmmaker Sean McAllister portrays Kais' transformation from sceptic of the revolutionary cause to participant with characteristic intimacy and frankness. The film tracks Kais from his initial irritation with the demonstrations against President Saleh's 33-year reign to his witnessing the determination of the demonstrators, which culminates in a massacre of 52 protestors. This is a personal and at times deeply shocking documentary which takes the viewer to the heart of what is like as a normal civilian to live through a revolution.
Documentary which follows the stranger-than-fiction account of a former beauty queen whose single-minded devotion to the man of her dreams became a tabloid sensation. Allegations that Joyce McKinney had kidnapped her estranged lover and held him captive, handcuffed to a bed in a remote cottage, became the stuff of headlines. Directed by Academy Award-winning filmmaker Errol Morris, Joyce's crusade for love and personal vindication takes her through a surreal world of gunpoint abduction, manacled Mormons, oddball accomplices, bondage modelling, magic underwear and dreams of celestial unions.
During the early morning rush hour in Rio de Janeiro on 12 June 2000, a hijacker seized control of a bus near the city's historic botanical gardens. A lone gunman, seemingly insane or on drugs, held his victims captive as the authorities and the media surrounded the parked bus. Unable to determine his motives or purpose, the authorities stood their ground for four hours and tried to talk the hijacker into giving himself up while the television cameras broadcast every second with shocking intimacy, capturing the attention of the entire nation for the duration of the standoff. Jose Padilha's nail-biting documentary not only recounts the events of that fateful day, but also gives voice to the hijacker, 21-year-old Sandro do Nascimento. At a very young age, Sandro watched his mother be murdered. Later, as an orphaned teenager living on the streets of Rio, he survived the brutal police slaughter of several of his homeless friends. Poor, hopeless, and hooked on cocaine, Sandro finally reached his breaking point. Padilha's unflinching thriller boldly gives voice to Nascimento, proving that he also was a victim in this unfortunate situation.
For the first time, the true story of the mastermind behind World War II's Great Escape is told by his niece, Lindy Wilson. Squadron Leader Roger Bushell was a young London barrister, an auxiliary pilot and a champion skier when he was shot down and captured early in the war. He escaped three times and in spite of the Gestapo's threat to shoot him if he ever escaped again, Bushell accepted the role of 'Big X' on his return to the top-security POW camp, Stalag Luft 111. After 18 months of preparation, one of the greatest escapes of the war took place. Their aim to distract the enemy succeeded, as it was estimated that five million Germans were deployed to recapture the 76 escapees. However, Hitler's rage was uncontainable and he personally ordered a terrible reckoning.
Documentary telling the double-edged story of the grave risks we pose to our own survival in the name of progress. With rich imagery the film connects financial collapse, growing inequality and global oligarchy with the sustainability of mankind itself. The film explores how we are repeatedly destroyed by 'progress traps' - alluring technologies which serve immediate need but rob us of our long term future. Featuring contributions from those at the forefront of evolutionary thinking such as Stephen Hawking and economic historian Michael Hudson. With Martin Scorsese as executive producer, the film leaves us with a challenge - to prove that civilisation and survival is not the biggest progress trap of them all.
Storyville: documentary which exposes the shocking supply of ever younger girl models to the Japanese modelling industry. The film follows 13-year-old Nadya from poverty in Siberia to the city of Tokyo and a life as a model. American scout Ashley promises her a lucrative career, but all is not as it seems as Nadya's optimism quickly fades when confronted with the dehumanising culture of life in Japanese casting sessions.
Storyville: documentary which charts the attempts of two people with albinism to follow their dreams in the face of prejudice and fear in Tanzania. Against the backdrop of an escalation in brutal murders of people with albinism, quietly determined 15-year-old Veda still dreams of completing his education. Josephat Torner has dedicated his life to campaigning against the discrimination of his people, confronting communities who may be hiding the murderers. Harry Freeland's film reveals a story of deep-rooted superstition, suffering and incredible strength.
An investigation into who killed Welsh journalist Gareth Jones. Jones's greatest scoop was to reveal the starvation to death of millions in 1930s Ukraine, caused by Stalin's policies. A portrait emerges of a fiercely bright young man who preferred a journalist's life of courage and danger which took him from smalltown Wales to even hitching a lift in Hitler's private plane. However, in a 1930s world of competing ideologies, there existed a fine line between journalism and spying. This film explores to what extent this dual role, and taking on Stalin, may have contributed to his early death on the plains of Mongolia.
A documentary which takes a look at the life of South African singer and civil rights activist Miriam Makeba. Forced into a life of exile for exposing the harsh realities of apartheid, Makeba was the first African musician to win international stardom. Always anchored in her traditional South African roots, Makeba's music delivered messages against racism and poverty. Exposing a tumultuous life - Makeba married South African musician Hugh Masekela and Black Panther Stokely Carmichael - this film traces her life and music using rare archive of performances, interviews and intimate scenes.
The coming-of-age story of three kids who dream of one day becoming professional race car drivers. Eleven-year-old Annabeth, twelve-year-old Josh and thirteen-year-old Brandon compete for the championship in the World Karting Association's national series, widely considered the little league for professional racing. Clocking speeds of up to 110 kmh, these young drivers race their way through the year-long national series that spawned many top drivers. At the same time - in intimate moments of young love and family struggle - they navigate the treacherous road between childhood and young adulthood.
Manhattan attorney Marc Dreier funded an increasingly extravagant lifestyle through fraud that netted over 750 million dollars. Director Marc H Simon filmed his former employer and mentor during Dreier's 60-day wait under house arrest for sentencing.
In September 1972, Palestinian terrorists took12 Israeli athletes hostage in the Olympic Village in Munich. This film recounts in gripping hour-by-hour detail the horrifying story of the attempt to first negotiate with the terrorists, and then to rescue the athletes.
'A new kind of reporting, a new form of history', Robert Drew promised John F Kennedy. He was proposing a revolutionary, small camera filming live with Kennedy day and night for nearly a week during the climax of his 1960 Wisconsin presidential primary run against Hubert Humphrey. Capturing JFK's rock-star presence, this documentary grants viewers unprecedented access into the world of a young politician and his glamorous wife as they campaigned across the Wisconsin landscape, building dramatic tension as the candidates await the ballot.
Storyville takes an intimate look at the driven and talented British celebrity chef, Paul Liebrandt, who at 24 was the youngest chef to be awarded three stars by the New York Times. His controversial and hyper-modern dishes have meant that he soon became a chef whom critics loved or loved to hate. The film follows Liebrandt for over a decade as he rose to the peaks of success in the cutthroat world of haute cuisine in New York City. Exploring the complicated relationships between food critics, chefs and restaurant owners, the film delves into the life of an uncompromising, thought-provoking young chef ahead of his time.
Made from over 100 years of BFI archive footage, From the Sea to the Land Beyond offers a poetic meditation on Britain's unique coastline and the role it plays in our lives. With a soundtrack specially created by Brighton-based band British Sea Power, award-winning director Penny Woolcock's film offers moving testimony to our relationship to the coast - during wartime, on our holidays and as a hive of activity during the industrial age.
A documentary which takes a personal look at the history of Ireland's vanished Anglo-Irish classes through the quirky family of filmmaker Fiona Murphy. The director follows her father and his four siblings back to the estate in County Mayo where they grew up in the newly-independent Ireland of the 1930s, to trace lives rich in contradiction. While the siblings wrestled with their Anglo-Irish identity, their father carved out a successful career as a diplomat at the height of the British Empire. Tracking the family's fortunes from Cromwell's times, through first-hand accounts of the Civil War and mass exodus of the Anglo-Irish under Eamon de Valera, the film explores how this individualistic family tried to hold on, despite the odds.
As America remains embroiled in overseas conflict, a less visible war is taking place at home, costing countless lives, destroying families and inflicting untold damage on future generations of Americans. For over forty years, the War on Drugs has accounted for 45 million arrests, made America the world's largest jailer and damaged poor communities at home and abroad. Yet for all that, drugs are more available today than ever before. Filmed in more than twenty states, this film captures a definitive and heart-wrenching portrait of individuals at all levels of America's War on Drugs. From the dealer to the grieving mother, the narcotics officer to the senator, the inmate to the federal judge, the film offers a penetrating look inside America's longest war, revealing its profound human rights implications. While recognising the seriousness of drug abuse as a matter of public health, the film investigates the tragic errors and shortcomings that have instead treated it as a matter for law enforcement, creating a vast political and economic machine that feeds largely on America's poor, especially minority communities. Yet beyond simple misguided policy, the film investigates how political and economic corruption have fuelled the war for forty years, despite persistent evidence of its moral, economic and practical failures. Ultimately, the documentary seeks, through compassionate inquiry, to promote public awareness of the history and contemporary mechanics of this human rights crisis and to begin a national conversation about its reform.
Wonderfully archived and told with a remarkable sense of intimacy, visual style and musical panache, this inspiring biographical documentary surveys the life and times of singer/actor/activist Harry Belafonte. From his rise to fame as a singer and his experiences touring a segregated country to his provocative crossover into Hollywood, Belafonte's groundbreaking career personifies the American civil rights movement and impacted many other social justice movements. The film reveals Belafonte as a tenacious hands-on activist who worked intimately with Dr Martin Luther King Jr, mobilised celebrities for social justice, participated in the struggle against apartheid in South Africa and took action to counter gang violence, prisons and the incarceration of youth.
Meet Jackie and David Siegel – a former beauty queen and her billionaire husband who are triumphantly building their dream home in Florida. Once finished, it’ll be the largest house in America – a 90,000-square-foot super-mansion modelled on the Palace of Versailles, replete with 30 bathrooms, 10 kitchens, a sushi bar, bowling alley, skating rink, baseball park and ballroom. And then the economic crisis hits, and the rarefied world of a truly unique family is turned upside down... In the face of the worst economic crisis in decades, this rags-to-riches tale takes a tumble as Jackie, David, their eight children, maids, dogs, employees and business associates struggle to keep David’s time-share business afloat and finish their dream home. With the epic dimensions of a Shakespearean tragedy, this is the story of a couple who dared to dream big but lose, in a film that exposes the virtues and flaws of the American Dream.
Documentary which follows the dramatic hearing of a notorious murder case which split a family. In the middle of the night of December 9th, 2001, wealthy novelist Michael Peterson called the emergency services in Durham, North Carolina, to tell them that he had just found his wife Kathleen unconscious at the bottom of the stairs. But when the police discovered the pool of blood around her body and the lacerations on her skull, they arrested Michael Peterson for murder. Following a dramatic trial with shocking revelations about the accused, the subject of the original Death on the Staircase series, Peterson was convicted. Eight years later he is back seeking a re-trial following startling revelations about the prosecution's blood splatter expert's crucial evidence. Oscar-winning director Jean-Xavier de Lestrade picks up the case as Peterson makes a final bid to clear his name.
Documentary which follows the journey of a group of scientists and artists as they venture by ship into one of the last uncharted territories on Earth. Now global warming is melting the ice, an unexplored fjord system in north-east Greenland has opened for a few weeks each year. The explorers set sail on an Arctic journey where they encounter a polar bear, Stone Age playgrounds and an entirely new species. Awe, curiosity and humour bond the scientists and artists as they contemplate a landscape untouched by humanity. As the boat slips further away civilisation, the crew have a disturbing encounter which underlines the destructive impact of mankind. Epic, breath-taking and awe-inspiring, this documentary depicts both the wild beauty of the Earth and man's own transitory role in evolution.
Storyville: Documentary which tells the story of the most ambitious project ever conceived on the internet and the people who tried to stop it. In 1937 HG Wells predicted the creation of the 'world brain', a giant global library that contained all human knowledge which would lead to a new form of higher intelligence. 70 years later the realisation of that dream was under way, as Google scanned millions of books for its Google Books website. However, over half those books were still in copyright and authors across the world launched a campaign to stop them, climaxing in a New York courtroom in 2011. This is a film about the dreams, dilemmas and dangers of the internet, set in spectacular locations in China, USA, Europe and Latin America.
Documentary telling the story of The Pirate Bay, the world's largest file sharing site which facilitates downloading of copyrighted material. The film follows the three Swedish founders of The Pirate Bay through their trial after they are taken to court by Hollywood and the entertainment industry, accused of breaking copyright law. Seeing themselves as technicians whose aim is to run the world's largest web platform, in scenes bordering on the absurdly comedic they claim that their actions are about freedom and not money. The closer the film gets to them, it becomes increasingly clear that they are rather unworldly nerds, whose social skills and ability to comprehend the analogue world, and each other, are somewhat limited
Documentary that goes inside the complex network and history of Anonymous, the radical online 'hacktivist' collective. Through interviews with current members - some recently returned from prison, others still awaiting trial - as well as writers, academics and major players in various 'raids', the film traces the collective's breathtaking evolution from merry pranksters to a full-blown global movement, one armed with new weapons of civil disobedience for an online world. In recent years, Anonymous has been associated with attacks or 'raids' on hundreds of targets. Angered by issues as diverse as copyright abuse and police brutality, they have also taken on targets such as the Church of Scientology.
Documentary which chronicles an extraordinary story of murder, love and political conspiracy triggered when a video of a murdered Guatemalan lawyer surfaced on Youtube in which he foretold his own death and named the culprits. In May 2009, wealthy, charismatic lawyer Rodrigo Rosenberg went cycling near his home in Guatemala City and was murdered. In a country with one of the highest murder rates in the world, such killings were not uncommon. But what was extraordinary is that Rosenberg knew for certain that he was about to be killed. Rosenberg's lover had been murdered a few weeks before, driving him to investigate a case which, he told friends, he feared would lead to his death. In a video he recorded days before he died, he accused the Guatemalan president of his murder. It became a Youtube sensation, prompting crowds to take to the street demanding the president's resignation. But the subsequent investigation into Rosenberg's death would take multiple twists and turns, before reaching a stunning revelation.
Marking the second anniversary of the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe, this documentary tells an insightful and surprisingly funny story of a family adjusting to life after the tsunami. Director Kyoko Miyake revisits her Aunt Kuniko, who was forced to abandon her businesses and home following the disaster. Now living aimlessly in temporary accommodation on the edge of the contaminated zone, Aunt Kuniko is determined to return home as soon as possible. Miyake is puzzled as to why she and the family are not angry. As the first year after the disaster unfolds, she unearths the uncomfortable past that prevents things being so clear cut. Through the attempts of the warm and indefatigable Aunt Kuniko to adapt at her ripe age, this deeply personal film explores notions of homeland, nuclear power and family love.
Documentary in which critically-acclaimed filmmaker Marc Isaacs paints a rich portrait of multicultural life in the UK by looking at the lives of immigrants living along the A5, one of Britain's longest and oldest roads. Stretching from London to the Welsh coast, the road has always been an important lifeline for new émigrés. Today, it is a microcosm of the wider world, and the film meets people from across the globe whose lives now orbit around the road. From Irish immigrants like aspiring young singer Keelta, and Billy, an ageing Irish labourer struggling to find meaning to his life, to glamorous German-born air hostess Brigitte, Austrian Peggy, 95, who lost most of her family during the Holocaust, and Iqbal, a Kashmiri hotel concierge trying to secure a visa for his wife so she can join him in London, their poignant stories of loss and the search for belonging are woven together into a rich tapestry of human experience.
Documentary following horse whisperer Buck Brannaman from a painful childhood to his inspiring work as a trainer. It may be the stuff of Hollywood legend, but the cowboy who inspired the novel and film is very real. Buck - master horseman, raconteur and philosopher - is a no-excuses cowboy who travels the world sharing a hard-won wisdom that is often more about human relationships than about horses. As Buck says, 'Often instead of helping people with horse problems, I'm helping horses with people problems.' He possesses near magical abilities as he dramatically transforms horses - and people - with his deep understanding, compassion and respect.
Alex Gibney film exposes abuse of power in the Catholic Church and a cover-up that winds its way from Wisconsin, through Ireland's churches, all the way to the highest office of the Vatican. The film investigates the secret crimes of a charismatic priest who abused over 200 deaf children in a school under his control and documents the first known public protest against clerical sex abuse in the US - a struggle of more than three decades by four deaf young men who set out to expose the priest who had abused them. Their efforts ultimately led to a lawsuit against the former pope, Benedict XVI himself.
Documentary looking at justice in the land inhabited by Palestinians and captured by Israel in the 1967 war. The occupation began with the idea that Israel's presence would be temporary. Israelis dispensed justice through military courts, but these still exist. The film explores the challenges of administering this military justice system as seen through the eyes of those responsible for doing so. Do Palestinians receive the same level of justice that they would if they were Israeli citizens? Are these military courts adequate? Israeli authorities have always insisted that they are. Israeli filmmaker Ra'anan Alexandrowicz interrogates Israeli judges and officials in a haunting and factual film about the quality of justice under the occupation of the West Bank.
An epic venture into capitalism at the beginning of the 21st century. Made over five years, this documentary is a comprehensive insider account of a modern-day gold rush as Dallas-based Kosmos Energy race ahead to develop the first commercial oil field in Ghana's history, in the deep waters of the Gulf of Guinea. Director Rachel Boynton follows the larger-than-life cast as Kosmos, the Ghanaian government and numerous other stakeholders jostle to realise their huge ambitions. While in Ghana she makes side trips to nearby Nigeria, whose own oil reserves have been responsible for a vicious cycle of exploitation with little appreciable benefit to the country itself. The film poses vital questions about what fundamentally motivates mankind - is unchecked greed an intrinsic part of the human character? Can what unites us ever be greater than what divides us?
Portrait of legendary comedian Richard Pryor which chronicles his life from his troubled youth to his meteoric rise as one of the most respected - and controversial - comic actors of the 20th century. Often misunderstood during the height of his celebrity, the film lays bare the demons with which he struggled, reminding us just how daring and dangerous artistic freedom can be. Featuring appearances from comedy royalty including Mel Brooks and Robin Williams, it also offers unprecedented access to members of his family and inner circle and features rarely seen footage of the artist at work.
Foul-mouthed Californian hip hop duo Silibil n' Brains were going to be massive. But no-one knew the pair were really amiable Scotsmen, with fake American accents and made up identities. This documentary tells the audacious tale of how two lads from Dundee duped the record industry and nearly destroyed themselves. When their promising Scottish rap act was branded 'the rapping Proclaimers' by a scornful record industry, friends Billy Boyd and Gavin Bain reinvented themselves as Los Angeles homeboys. The lie was their golden ticket to a record deal and a dream celebrity life. With confessions from the rapping imposters, insight from the music industry they duped and animated elements, the film charts the rollercoaster story of this outrageous scam. A stranger-than-fiction true account of fractured friendship, the pressure of living with lies and the legacy of faking everything in the desperate pursuit of fame.
Sundance award-winning documentary which tells the compelling story of how a group of young, feminist punk rockers known as Pussy Riot captured the world's attention by protesting against Putin's Russia. Through first-hand interviews with band members, their families and the defence team, and exclusive footage of the trial, it highlights the forces that transformed these women from playful political activists to modern-day icons. In early 2012, members of the collective donned their colourful trademark balaclavas and participated in a 40-second 'punk prayer protest' on the altar of Moscow's cathedral. Once arrested, Nadia, Masha and Katia were accused of religious hatred in a trial that triggered protests and arrests in Russia and caused uproar around the world. The film reveals the personal motives and courage of the women behind the balaclavas and exposes the state of Russian justice through the court's final verdict.
Thrilling heist documentary about the world's most notorious gang of diamond thieves.
The Disappeared is the dramatic story of those killed and then secretly buried by the IRA. Darragh MacIntyre reveals the continuing trauma of the relatives of those taken, killed and buried, and investigates the alleged involvement of Republican leader Gerry Adams in one of the killings. At least 15 people were 'disappeared' by the IRA during the Troubles in Northern Ireland. Some of them are still missing. The most recent search was for the remains of 19-year-old Columba McVeigh who was disappeared in 1975. A specialist forensic team spent five months in 2013 digging in a bog in County Monaghan, but found nothing. The film highlights the powerful story of the life and harrowing death of widow and mother-of-ten Jean McConville. She was dragged from the arms of her young children by an IRA gang in 1972, then shot and buried. Her body was finally recovered in 2003. Michael McConville explains how at 11 years of age he was tied up and beaten when he threatened to tell police about what had happened. His sister Agnes recalls the abuse they got from other children afterwards, before the siblings were shipped off to various orphanages. The IRA policy of disappearing victims dates back to 1972 when four people were taken from Belfast. It is said to have ended in 1981 after an order from the IRA's governing Army Council. A policy of lies and intimidation appears to have run in parallel with the policy of disappearing people. One family after another explain how they were virtually silenced by a climate of fear. They also had to cope with rumours claiming their loved one was alive and well. The evidence suggests these rumours were invented by the IRA to keep the families away from the truth. A forensic detective outlines the mechanics of the killings and burials. He tells how most of the victims were shot once in the back of the head and then dumped in shallow graves. In some cases the bodies were weighted down with stones in case they rose to the surface if t
Filmed over five years, this is an emotional rollercoaster of a documentary which explores the sometimes extreme highs and lows of one of life's biggest gambles - buying a home. Helen has seven children, a new partner and a very comfortable lifestyle when they decide to get a mortgage to buy one of the most historical houses in England. They want to convert the shabby 72-room mansion in the centre of York into a tasteful hotel, but when the financial crisis hits their dream turns into their worst nightmare. For five years, feisty Helen fights the banks for a loan for the spiralling renovation costs and her neighbours over rights to the courtyard. While her house gradually becomes unsellable, she persists with her neigbourhood wars. Part black comedy, part nail-biting journey, this shows the human cost of the mortgage crisis.
Documentary exploring the murky circumstances behind the escape of one of Britain's most notorious spies. In 1963, at the height of the Cold War, a well-educated Englishman called Kim Philby boarded a Russian freighter in Beirut and defected to Moscow from under the nose of British Intelligence. For the best part of thirty years he had been spying for the Soviet Union, much of that time while holding senior jobs in MI6. Fifty years on, more questions than answers still surround his defection. Had he really confessed before he went? Was his escape from justice an embarrassing mistake or part of the plan? This film, shot in Beirut, London and Moscow, sets out to find the answers, revealing the blind spots in the British ruling class that made it so vulnerable to KGB penetration.
Documentary which unravels the story of notorious performing whale Tilikum, who - unlike any orca in the wild - has taken the lives of several people while in captivity. So what exactly went wrong? Shocking, never-before-seen footage and interviews with trainers and experts manifest the orca's extraordinary nature, the species' cruel treatment in captivity over the last four decades and the growing disillusionment of workers who were misled and endangered by the highly profitable sea-park industry. This emotionally-wrenching, tautly-structured story challenges us to consider our relationship to nature and reveals how little we humans have learned from these highly intelligent and enormously sentient fellow mammals.
Documentary which chronicles the staging of the musical Fame by the senior class at China's top drama academy, China's first official collaboration with Broadway. It unfolds as a unique coming-of-age story with Chinese characteristics. Fame is their graduation showcase and much is at stake. During the eight-month process, the students compete for roles, strive to meet the expectations of the American director and prepare to graduate into a cutthroat and corrupt showbusiness. Part of China's 'single-child' generation, they were spoiled growing up but now feel the pressure of fulfilling the failed dreams of their parents. They must confront complex social realities so different from their parents' generation and in the process of staging Fame, negotiate their own path to success in today's rapidly shifting China.
Documentary made by a young South African filmmaker before Nelson Mandela's death which raises important questions about the iconic leader's legacy. Khalo Matabane spent two years making the film, interviewing those who knew and loved Mandela, and also those who criticised him. Global thinkers, politicians and artists including the Dalai Lama, Henry Kissinger and Ariel Dorfman talk about the effect of his policies and his decision making. Their thoughts are weighed equally with ordinary South Africans like Charity Kondile, who refuses to forgive her son's apartheid operative murderer. Through these interviews, completed in the last months of Mandela's life, Matabane interrogates for himself the meaning of freedom, reconciliation and forgiveness. By doing so he challenges Mandela's enduring impact in today's world of conflict and inequality. Thought-provoking and reflective, Mandela, the Myth and Me is a moving film which frames Mandela from a fresh, deeply personal perspective.
Storyville follows artist Ai Weiwei, China's most notorious artist. In recent years his provocative work has brought him global recognition - and a prision sentence from the Communist authorities. The documentary follows Ai Weiwei in the tense year following his release from his three month confinement in 2011. It documents his ongoing legal battles while on parole, and the pressure exerted by the authorities, who monitor his every move. At home and in his studio, the artist reflects on his experiences in prison, the political climate and wonders how far he should take his activism - after all, he now has a young son to worry about. The troubles with his enemies provide inspiration for making new works of art, an outlet for him to vent his frustration. This absorbing documentary captures the life of a dissident artist, one recovering from the pyschological impact of his time in prison.
A film by Martin Wallace and Jarvis Cocker, The Big Melt combines 100 years of footage from the BFI National Archive with a score recorded live at the Crucible Theatre on the opening night of Sheffield Doc/Fest in June 2013 to tell the story of steel, the story of the men in the steelworks and the story of Sheffield. Taking us on musical journey into the soul of a nation, it brings to life the ghosts of our past, taking us into the belly of the furnaces and showing how our national character has been stamped from the mighty presses of our industrial heritage. Featuring leading Sheffield musicians including Jarvis Cocker and Pulp band members, the City of Sheffield Brass Band, Richard Hawley and his band members, the Forgemasters, a string quartet and a youth choir, the live soundtrack has been edited by Cocker to create a phenomenal music score - a new kind of Sheffield heavy metal, with pictures.
Documentary about the dark world of Colonel Gaddafi, the Libyan dictator who cannily combined oil and the implied threat of terror to turn Western powers into cowed appeasers.
In August 2008, 25 climbers from several international expeditions converged on high camp of K2, the final stop before the summit of the most dangerous mountain on earth. Just 48 hours later, 11 had been killed or simply vanished, making it the deadliest day in mountaineering history.
Oscar-nominated documentary which explores love, sacrifice and the creative spirit through the 40-year chaotic marriage of two Japanese artists in New York, by following the rivalries that emerge as the couple prepare for a joint exhibition. Surviving decades of hardship, thwarted aspirations and the husband's chronic alcoholism, they are a study in artistic symbiosis. Now 80 years old and finally sober, renowned 'boxing' painter Ushio still treats his wife Noriko as his assistant. Noriko, emerging from her husband's shadow, creates intimate drawings entitled 'Cutie' that tell the story of her challenging past with Ushio. The film moves fluidly between past and present, combining observational filming, archival footage and animated sequences of Noriko's drawings. A moving portrait of a couple wrestling with the eternal challenges of marriage, against a background of lives dedicated to art.
A gripping story of triumph and failure, set in the world's youngest country. South Sudan became an independent state in 2011, following almost 50 years of civil war. This documentary follows veteran Serbian coach Zoran Djordjevic as he seeks to forge South Sudan's first national football team. What follows is a fascinating and original portrait of the birth of a nation. Although still steeped in traumatic memories, the new nation is seeking to make a mark on the international soccer stage under the dynamic and hugely ambitious new coach. The film follows the team over its first year, from the hunt for new players to buying a sheep to be its mascot and the side's first international games. Zoran's aggressive style soon leads to conflict with the chair of the soccer federation. As the euphoria of independence subsides, the team finds itself hit by bitter infighting, malaria and a financial crisis that threatens the state itself.
Oscar-nominated film compiled from the video diary of a Palestinian farmer who documents unrest in his West Bank village. Emad Burnat starts filming with his first camera following the birth of his fourth son. At the same time in his village of Bil'in, a separation barrier is being built and the villagers begin to resist this decision. Over several years Burnat films this non-violent struggle against the Israeli army - which is led by two of his best friends - literally from his own point of view. Soon, these events begin to impact his own life. Bulldozers knocking down olive trees, the loss of life and night raids scare his family. His friends, brothers and even himself are either shot or arrested. One camera after another used to document these events is shot or smashed. Burnat collaborates with Israeli director Guy Davidi to produce this powerful and moving documentary of resistance life on a frontline.
Located alongside the Tennessee River, Muscle Shoals in Alabama is the unlikely breeding ground for some of America's most creative and defiant music. Under the spiritual influence of the 'Singing River', as Native Americans called it, the music of Muscle Shoals has helped create some of the most important and resonant songs of all time. At its heart is Rick Hall, who founded FAME Studios. Overcoming poverty and tragedy, Hall brought black and white together in Alabama's cauldron of racial hostility to create music for the generations. Greg Allman, Bono, Clarence Carter, Mick Jagger, Etta James, Alicia Keys, Keith Richards, Percy Sledge and others bear witness to Muscle Shoals's magnetism, mystery and why it remains influential today.
Documentary exploring one of Japan's biggest train crashes in modern history, caused when a driver tried to catch up with a delay of just 80 seconds. It's a cautionary tale of what happens when punctuality, protocol and efficiency are taken to the extreme. On Monday April 25th 2005, a West Japan Railway commuter train crashed into an apartment building and killed 107 people. Just what pressures made the driver risk so much for such a minimal delay? Piecing together personal accounts of those affected by the train crash, with insights from experts and former train drivers, the film poses a question for a society that equates speed with progress. It offers a fascinating insight into the railway's role in Japan's post-war economic boom and the dangers of corner-cutting in the prolonged economic stagnation that followed. Through the lens of this catastrophic train crash, Brakeless considers the ultimate cost efficiency.
Documentary looking into into the religiously obsessive, competitive and bitterly divided cult of Bigfoot hunting, as filmmaker Morgan Matthews accompanies three American Bigfoot search parties trying to capture proof of the elusive ape-like creature. Tom Biscardi has been hunting down Bigfoot for 37 years and adopts a military approach with his 'A team' of guys armed with thermal imagers and tasers in increasingly far-out attempts to capture the beast. Unemployed Dallas and Wayne in Ohio use more basic techniques, utilising cans of mackerel and Native American chants to lure the creature in. Only renowned 'master tracker' Rick Dyer is intent on shooting and killing the mysterious beast as he stakes out a stretch of woods in Texas populated by homeless people, many of whom claim to have seen Bigfoot. As truth and fact tip into malarkey, night-time hunts devolve into farcical displays of voodoo and comic stretches of the human imagination. What starts as a humorous look at perception gone off the rails, descends into a dark mystery as things get out of control during a close encounter in the woods.
Moving and deeply personal documentary about Tim Hetherington, the award-winning British war photographer and filmmaker killed in 2011 during the Libyan civil war. Director Sebastian Junger gracefully weaves together footage of Hetherington at work and emotional interviews with his family and colleagues to capture his collaborator and friend's compassion and intense curiosity about the human spirit. The film maps a career in which Hetherington searched for the humanity within wartime, as evidenced in their Oscar-nominated film Restrepo, about an American platoon in Afghanistan. Hetherington's footage of rebel army life during Liberia's civil war conveys a rare sense of intimacy in sharp contrast to the violence surrounding him. Although he spent most of his time travelling to the centre of war zones, he was seeking truths rather than adventure. A tribute to this remarkable, talented young man, Which Way is the Frontline from Here? also addresses fundamental questions about the very nature of conflict.
Oscar-winning documentary which tells the remarkable story of the American rock icon who never was. With a great soundtrack, moving interviews and a breathtaking twist, this is the ultimate film about the resonating power of music. In the late 60s, Detroit-based singer Sixto Rodriguez was momentarily hailed as the finest recording artist of his generation. But when his album bombed, he disappeared into oblivion amid rumours of a gruesome onstage suicide. The film tells the astonishing story of how a bootleg recording found its way into apartheid South Africa and became a phenomenon. Two South African fans turned detectives to find out what really happened to their hero. Their investigation led them to a story more extraordinary than any of the existing myths about the artist known as Rodriguez. This is a film about hope, inspiration and the realisation of deferred dreams. The film is directed by Malik Bendjelloul who sadly died this month.
Storyville tells the riveting story of what happened when, in 1973, tennis star Billie Jean King agreed to face former world champion and self-proclaimed male chauvinist pig Bobby Riggs. It was a tennis match that gripped the world, a culmination of the struggle for equal rights that King and other female tennis players had been demanding for years. Through scintillating match footage, archive and interviews with key tennis players and pundits, the film tells the interrelated stories of the birth of women's professional tennis and the growth of the women's liberation movement from the 60s. The forcefully contrasting characters of the focused King and buffoonish Riggs make for a highly entertaining watch and climactic ending. A defining moment in the history of tennis and society at large.
Documentary telling the intimate but explosive story about the man behind the greatest fraud in recent sporting history, a portrait of a man who stopped at nothing in pursuit of money, fame and success. It reveals how Lance Armstrong duped the world with his story of a miraculous recovery from cancer to become a sporting icon and a beacon of hope for cancer sufferers around the world. The film maps how Armstrong's cheating and bullying became more extreme and how a few brave souls fought back, until eventually their voices were heard. Director Alex Holmes tracks down some of his former friends and team members who reveal how his cheating was the centre of a grand conspiracy in which Armstrong and his backers sought to steal the Tour de France. Friends and fellow riders were brought into a dirty pact that no-one could betray, lest the horrifying extent of complicity be revealed. But the former friends whose lives he destroyed would prove to be his nemesis, and help uncover one of the dirtiest scandals in sports history.
Documentary looking at a century of cycling. Commissioned to mark the arrival of the 2014 Tour de France in Yorkshire, the film makes full use of stunning British Film Institute footage to transport the audience on a journey from the invention of the modern bike, through the rise of recreational cycling, to gruelling competitive races. Award-winning director Daisy Asquith artfully combines the richly-diverse archive with a hypnotic soundtrack from cult composer Bill Nelson in a joyful, absorbing watch for both cycling and archive fans.
Jorgen Leth's film focuses on the 1976 Paris-Roubaix single day bike race over the cobbled farm tracks of northern France, normally reserved for cattle. Leth covers the race with twenty cameras and a helicopter and captures the drama as some of the sport's greats, including Merckx, De Vlaeminck, Maertens and Moser, battle it out through the dirt and dust clouds.
China is one of the first countries in the world to label overuse of the internet a clinical condition. To combat what authorities deem the greatest social crisis for youth today, the Chinese government has created treatment facilities to detox and cure teenagers of their online addictions.
In 1999, the King of Bhutan made a landmark proclamation approving the use of television and the internet. The film begins at the end of this process as Laya, the last remaining village tucked away within the Himalayan kingdom, becomes enmeshed in roads, electricity and cable television. Through the eyes of Peyangki, an eight-year-old monk impatient with prayer and eager to acquire a TV set, the film documents the seeds of this seismic shift sprouting.
Storyville follows Viktor Bout, Russian entrepreneur, arms smuggler and, strangest of all, amateur film-maker. Until three days prior to his 2008 arrest on charges of conspiring to kill Americans, Bout kept his camcorder running. He documented a life spent in the grey areas of the arms industry, crossing the line morally, if not legally, many times over before he was eventually undone by a post-9/11 crackdown. Dubbed by some the Merchant of Death and portrayed by Nicolas Cage in Hollywood's Lord of War, Viktor Bout gained notoriety as the world's most famous arms dealer. With unprecedented access to Bout's home movies and US surveillance material gathered during the sting operation to bring him down, this film is a portrait of a garrulous, adventurous individual, intent on exploiting the murky loopholes of the arms industry. Interviews with his wife, family and former business partners describe moments both comical and harrowing in a career which ended in a 25-year prison sentence.
For the first time ever, six former heads of Israel's domestic secret service agency, the Shin Bet, share their insights and reflect publicly on their actions and decisions. Since the Six-Day War in 1967, Israel has been unable to transform its crushing military victory into a lasting peace. Throughout that entire period, these heads of the Shin Bet stood at the centre of Israel's decision-making process in all matters pertaining to security. They worked closely with every Israeli prime minister, and their assessments and insights had - and continue to have - a profound impact on Israeli policy. The Gatekeepers offers an exclusive account of the sum of their successes and failures. In the process it sheds light on the controversy surrounding the occupation in the aftermath of the Six-Day War.
Documentary which follows six brilliant scientists during the launch of the Large Hadron Collider, marking the start of the biggest and most expensive experiment in the history of the planet. Filmed over seven years, it is an emotionally charged journey with scientists attempting to push the edge of human innovation. For the first time, a documentary gives viewers a front row seat to a significant and inspiring scientific breakthrough as it happens. As they seek to unravel the mysteries of the universe, 10,000 scientists from over 100 countries join forces in pursuit of a single goal - to recreate conditions that existed just moments after the big bang and find the Higgs boson, potentially explaining the origin of all matter. Directed by a physicist-turned-filmmaker and masterfully edited by Walter Murch (The Godfather trilogy), Particle Fever is a celebration of discovery, revealing the human stories behind this epic machine.
With unprecedented access, this documentary looks into the hidden world of one of Russia's most impenetrable and remote institutions - a maximum security prison exclusively for murderers. Deep inside the land of the gulags, this is the end of the line for some of Russia's most dangerous criminals - 260 men who have collectively killed nearly 800 people. The film delves deep into the mind and soul of some of these prisoners. In brutally frank and uncensored interviews the inmates speak of their crimes, life and death, redemption and remorselessness, insanity and hope. The film tracks them though their unrelenting days over several months, lifting the veil on one of Russia's most secretive subcultures to reveal what happens when a man is locked up in a tiny cell for 23 hours every day, for life. A startling insight into inscrutable minds and the forbidding world they have been condemned to.
Documentary which explores timeless themes of love and marital commitment. For the past two decades, acclaimed documentary filmmaker Doug Block has helped support himself by shooting weddings. Hired for his intimate documentary style, he found himself emotionally bonding with his wedding couples on their big day, only to send off their videos and never see them again. Many years and 112 weddings later, having long wondered what has become of their marriages, Block begins to track down some of the more memorable couples. Is married life what they thought it would be? Are they still together? How have they navigated the inevitable ups and downs of marriage over the long haul? Juxtaposing rapturous wedding day flashbacks with remarkably candid present-day interviews, this is a funny, insightful and deeply moving insight into the long-term challenges of marriage.
Renowned magician James 'The Amazing' Randi has been wowing audiences with his jaw-dropping illusions, escapes and sleight of hand for over 50 years. When he began seeing his cherished art form co-opted by all manner of con artists, he made it his mission to expose the simple tricks charlatans have borrowed from magicians to swindle the masses. This entertaining film chronicles Randi's best debunkings of faith healers, fortune tellers and psychics. It documents his rivalry with famed spoon-bender Uri Geller, whom Randi eventually foiled on a high-profile television appearance. Another target was evangelist Peter Popoff, whose tent-show miracles and audience mind-reading were exposed as chicanery when Randi revealed a recording of Popoff's wife feeding him information through a radio-transmitter earpiece. In telling Randi's strange, funny and fascinating life story, the film shows how we are all vulnerable to deception - even, in a surprising twist, 'The Amazing' Randi himself.
Storyville presents a heartfelt and heartbreaking documentary following a cast of Nottingham amateur actors staging a production of Puss in Boots. It tells the story of how a small community theatre fights to keep afloat in austere times. With arts subsidies slashed, the cast must rely on ticket sales to keep afloat. This hilarious backstage glimpse follows their attempts to rehearse, provide costumes and scenery on a minuscule budget. Malfunctioning pyrotechnics and a donkey costume that exposes more than expected are just some of the challenges they face. With a cast of amateurs, some of the challenges are human rather than technical. The film follows their attempts to master the singing, dancing and acting required for a pantomime - a greater challenge than Shakespeare, according to one of the participants. The film movingly uncovers what it means to the cast, reflecting the vital and life-changing role the theatre plays in people's lives.
Documentary which tells the remarkable story of Matt Van Dyke, a timid 26-year-old with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, who left home in Baltimore in 2006 and set off on a self-described 'crash course in manhood'. He bought a motorcycle and a video camera and began a multi-year, 35,000-mile motorcycle trip through northern Africa and the Middle East. While travelling, he struck up an unlikely friendship with a Libyan hippie, and when revolution broke out in Libya, Matt joined his friend in the fight against dictator Muammar Gaddafi. With a gun in one hand and a camera in the other, Matt fought in - and filmed - the war until he was captured by Gaddafi forces and held in solitary confinement for six months. Two-time Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker Marshall Curry tells this harrowing and sometimes humorous story of a young man's search for political revolution and personal transformation.
Documentary which explores the life of internet activist Aaron Swartz, and the circumstances that led to his early death. It traces how tech wunderkind Swartz engaged in pioneering work from an early age, helping to devise several groundbreaking computer systems. But it was his work in social justice and political organising, combined with his aggressive approach to information access, that placed him on a collision course with the US government. It ensnared him in a two-year legal nightmare - a battle which ended with his suicide at the age of 26. Aaron's story touched a nerve with people far beyond the online communities, in which he was a celebrity. Through personal archive, testimonies from his family and world leaders in the computing field, the film paints a portrait of an exceptional young man, and explores the tragedy of how Swartz became a victim of the rights and freedoms for which he stood.
Political documentary thriller set in Zimbabwe, following two political enemies forced on a joint mission. Two top politicians, MP Paul Mangwana and MP Douglas Mwonzora, from the governing party and the opposition respectively, have been appointed to lead Zimbabwe through the process of writing a new constitution. It is the ultimate test that will either take the country a decisive step closer to democracy and away from President Robert Mugabe's dictatorship, or towards renewed repression. The film follows the two adversaries as they undertake their gargantuan task, travelling together throughout the country to ask Zimbabweans about their opinions on matters including the judicial system and the president's authority. Overcoming their initial suspicion, a kind of understanding grows between the two men, as they endure intrigue during the negotiations that follow. In a country impeded by economic sanctions from the international community and hyperinflation, failure is not an option.
Documentary which looks into how power works in the Chinese Communist Party, focused through the mission of one local mayor. Mayor Geng Yanbo is determined to transform the coal-mining centre of Datong, in China's Shanxi province, into a tourism haven showcasing clean energy. In order to achieve that, however, he has to relocate 500,000 residences to make way for the restoration of the ancient city. Geng Yanbo is one of the 'officials with personality' ('gexing guan yuan') to have emerged on China's political stage in recent years. In order to revitalise the city, he must first destroy. With remarkable access, the film follows him out and about, ordering in person the demolition of vast swathes of flats and facing the wrath of disgruntled residents. But beyond the battles on the street, the mayor faces more assaults from within the Communist party itself.
Through remarkable access, this documentary explores daily life inside a Japanese 'love hotel'. In this intimate portrait, we meet the everyday people who frequent the fantasy-themed rooms for refuge, privacy and play - a married couple visit to keep a spark alive in their relationship, two gay lawyers have nowhere else to stay and a popular dominatrix runs a thriving business. Pay by the hour or the night and order sexy underwear, condoms or anything else imaginable. Anything goes at the Angelo Love Hotel in Osaka, run by manager Ozawa and his efficient staff. Small living spaces, long work hours and the need for privacy drive 2.8 million Japanese a day to visit 'love hotels'. But now, these unique establishments are fighting to stay afloat against the 'entertainment police' who are shutting them down for what conservative groups deem to be overly risqué elements. A rare glimpse into a world destined to disappear.
An extraordinary portrait of eccentric New Yorker John Wojtowicz, the inspiration behind Al Pacino's character in the iconic 1975 film Dog Day Afternoon. Director Sidney Lumet's daylong saga, in which Wojtowicz took a bank hostage in the hopes of raising money for his trans lover's gender confirmation surgery, hardly exaggerated the actual 1972 event, but only captured one piece of a much larger story. Filmed over a ten-year period, the documentary chronicles wider aspects of Wojtowicz's life in the years leading up to his death. With jaw-dropping honesty, Wojtowicz describes how his excessive libido led him to have multiple female and male lovers, his own interviews interweaving with gripping archive footage of the robbery, 70s-era interviews and the early gay liberation movement. It all combines to create a larger-than-life persona - by turns lover, husband, soldier, activist, mama's boy and bank robber.
A magical and moving archive trip through the universal theme of love, set to a stunning soundtrack by Richard Hawley. It takes us on a journey through the 20th century, exploring love and courtship on screen in a century of unprecedented social upheaval. From the very first kisses ever caught on film, through the disruption of war to the birth of youth culture, gay liberation and free love, we follow courting couples flirting at tea dances, kissing in the back of the movies, shacking up and fighting for the right to love. This is the celluloid story of love and courtship since the birth of the movie camera, told with spellbinding archive footage and directed by award-winning director Kim Longinotto.
Authored documentary by Italian director Annalisa Piras and former editor of The Economist Bill Emmott, which explores the crisis facing Europe. Through case studies of citizens in different countries, the film explores a range of factors that have led to the present crisis, economic and identity challenges across Europe. High-level experts analyse how and why things are going so wrong. The film includes fictional scenes, set in a post-EU future, which feature archaeologist Charles Granda (played by Angus Deayton) travelling on a flight through a menacing storm, explaining to a child passenger what the EU was. Sombre, thought-provoking and witty, the film frames Europe through the eyes of those who have most at stake - the Europeans themselves. The Great European Disaster Movie will be immediately followed by a debate which will feature a range of contributors who will discuss issued raised in the film.
In October 2011, Olympus Corporation, a multi-billion dollar Japanese optical company, dismissed its president and CEO, British-born Michael Woodford, over cultural differences in management style. Japanese media dutifully reported the dismissal with minimum coverage, another foreign CEO failing to adapt to the Japanese way. But international media reported a brewing scandal where Japanese board members of the company unanimously voted to dismiss Woodford for blowing the whistle on a 1.7 billion dollar fraud that the 93-year-old Japanese company had kept secret for more than two decades. Film-maker Hyoe Yamamoto unravels the events that led to one of the most mystifying corporate scandals in the world.
India's Daughter tells the story of the brutal gang rape and murder of 23-year-old medical student Jyoti on a moving bus in Delhi in 2012, and the unprecedented protests and riots which this horrific event ignited throughout India, leading to the demand for changes in attitudes towards women. The film examines the values and mindsets of the rapists, and interviews the two lawyers who defended the men convicted of Jyoti's rape and murder.
In a Phnom Penh karaoke bar in 2009, Australian musician Julien Poulson hears the extraordinary voice of poor village girl Srey Thy. The result is romance and the birth of the Cambodian Space Project, a thrilling musical explosion that wows audiences worldwide with sounds from the 1960s and 70s golden age of Cambodian rock. Filmed over five years, this intimate documentary tells the story of performers whose struggle to overcome poverty, trauma and obscurity has never been easy.
Twenty years ago, Garnet Frost escaped London and headed into the desolate Scottish wilderness. Setting off without a map, disaster struck. Garnet found himself trapped between a mountain and the mysterious Loch Arkaig. Lost, cold and alone, he resigned himself to dying. But Garnet didn't die. By sheer chance, he was saved by a lone fisherman. For the past two decades, Garnet has been haunted by a memento from his doomed trip. He believes an unusual wooden staff he found while waiting to die is actually a marker for one of history's most famous lost treasures - a spectacular fortune once owned by Bonnie Prince Charlie and lost since 1746. Now, two decades after the trip which almost killed him, Garnet is ready to return to the mysterious loch in his quest to find the gold. What Garnet finds up there, amidst the towering landscape, changes his life forever. The film is more than a fascinating historical insight into a lost treasure. It is a journey into the mind of a man searching for meaning, a search with which we can all empathise. This is a film about dreams, inspiration and the resonating power of hope. This is a film about all of us.
He said he was doing God's work on earth, but betrayed his colleagues to the KGB. Sentenced to 42 years in jail, George Blake escaped from Wormwood Scrubs five years later and fled to the Soviet Union. George Carey's film follows the strange life of this enigmatic traitor, tracking down people who knew him, and ending with an unexpected encounter in the woods outside Moscow.
In this funny and moving documentary, acclaimed film-maker Daisy Asquith tells the very personal story of her mother's conception after a dance in the 1940s on the remote west coast of Ireland. By exploring the repercussions of this act, Daisy and her mother embark on a fascinating and emotional adventure in social and sexual morality. Her grandmother, compelled to run away to have her baby in secret, handed the child over to 'the nuns'. Daisy's mum was eventually adopted by English Catholics from Stoke-on-Trent. Her grandmother returned to Ireland and told no-one. The father remained a mystery for another 60 years, until Daisy and her mum decided it was time to find out who he was. Their attempts to find the truth make raw the fear and shame that Catholicism has wrought on the Irish psyche for centuries. It leads Daisy and her mum to connect with a brand new family living an extraordinarily different life.
Through previously undiscovered private letters, photos and diaries that were found in the Himmler family house in 1945, this documentary exposes a unique and at times uncomfortable access to the life and mind of the merciless 'architect of the Final Solution', Heinrich Himmler. Himmler writes, 'In life one must always be decent, courageous and kind-hearted'. How can a man be a hero in his own eyes and a mass murderer in the eyes of the world? The text of the film consists exclusively of original documents from Himmler's lifetime, combined with news and personal archive from sources ranging from the descendants of top Nazis to working-class individuals. It forms a unique portrait of one the most prominent figures of the Third Reich, the SS commander Heinrich Himmler.
Documentary which combines astonishing footage from Saigon in April 1975 with contemporary reflections from those who were there. During the chaotic final weeks of the Vietnam War, the North Vietnamese Army closes in on Saigon as the panicked South Vietnamese people desperately attempt to escape. On the ground, American soldiers and diplomats confront the same moral quandary - whether to obey White House orders to evacuate US citizens only - or to risk punishment and save the lives of as many South Vietnamese citizens as they can. The events recounted in the film mainly centre on the US evacuation of Saigon, codenamed Operation Frequent Wind. Vividly annotating one of the most haunting images of the Vietnam War, that of dozens of South Vietnamese struggling to climb the steps to a rooftop helicopter as Saigon fell, Last Days in Vietnam is a moving and visceral insight into this key moment in history.
The gripping and emotionally-charged story of Tyke, a circus elephant who went on a rampage in Honolulu, Hawaii, in 1994, killed her trainer in front of thousands of spectators and died in a hail of gunfire. Her break for freedom - filmed from start to tragic end - traumatised a city and ignited a global battle over the use of animals in the entertainment industry. Looking at what made Tyke snap, the film goes back to meet the people who knew her and were affected by her death - former trainers and handlers, circus industry insiders, witnesses to her rampage, and animal rights activists for whom Tyke became a global rallying cry. Tyke is the central protagonist in this tragic but redemptive tale that combines trauma, outrage, insight and compassion. This moving documentary raises fundamental questions about our deep and mysterious connection to other species.
Seventy years ago this month, the bombing of Hiroshima showed the appalling destructive power of the atomic bomb. Mark Cousins's bold documentary looks at death in the atomic age, but life too. Using only archive film and a new musical score by the band Mogwai, the film shows us an impressionistic kaleidoscope of our nuclear times - protest marches, Cold War sabre-rattling, Chernobyl and Fukishima - but also the sublime beauty of the atomic world, and how x-rays and MRI scans have improved human lives. The nuclear age has been a nightmare, but dreamlike too.
Award-winning documentary film by renowned filmmaker Sean McAllister, telling the poignant story of a family torn apart by the Assad regime. When Sean begins filming them in Syria in 2009, prior to the wave of revolutions in the Arab world, Raghda is incarcerated as a political prisoner and Amer is caring for their young boys alone. Raghda is eventually released from prison, but the family is forced to flee the country following the arrest of Sean McAllister himself. In exile, Raghda battles between being a mother or a revolutionary. Filmed over five years, this is an intimate and deeply moving portrait of a family trying to survive in exile - adapting to their new home, but missing their homeland. For Raghda and Amer, it is a journey of hope, dreams and despair: for the revolution, their homeland and each other.
For some 25 years, Ken Dornstein has been haunted by the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland - a terrorist act that killed 270 people, including his older brother David. Only one person was ever convicted of the plot - who else was involved remains an open case. In this emotional and suspenseful documentary, Dornstein sets out to find the men responsible for one of the worst attacks on Americans before 9/11. From the ruins and chaos of post-Gaddafi Libya, Dornstein hunts for clues to the identities and whereabouts of the suspects, who he tracks for almost five years across the Middle East and Europe. He encounters new witnesses and unearths fresh evidence that brings him closer to the truth about what really happened. This is a rare, real-life spy thriller, but also a meditation on loss, love, revenge and the nature of obsession.
From award-winning British film-maker Kim Longinotto comes a deeply moving film which explores the work of former prostitute Brenda Myers-Powell as she helps vulnerable women escape the dangers on the streets of Chicago. By day, Brenda counsels incarcerated prostitutes and schoolgirls at risk. By night, she drives the streets with her colleague, offering support to women enduring a lifestyle she knows only too well. Brenda is living proof that these women can change their lives and this intense, powerful documentary offers a non-judgemental eye on the day-to-day workings of the Dreamcatcher Foundation. A deserved winner at the 2015 Sundance Film festival, the documentary shows Brenda as an empathetic, charismatic and inspirational real-life character, who connects the viewer with a patchwork of personal stories from some of the most at-risk people within society.
Documentary telling the wonderfully weird story of Jimmy Ellis - an unknown singer plucked from obscurity and thrust into the spotlight, as part of a crazy scheme that had him masquerade as Elvis back from the grave. With an outlandish fictional identity, the backing of the legendary birthplace of rock 'n' roll Sun Records, and a voice that seemed to be the very twin of Presley's, the scheme - concocted in the months after Presley's death - exploded into a cult success and the 'Elvis is alive' myth was launched. Jimmy - as the masked and rhinestoned Orion - gained the success he'd always craved, the women he'd always desired and the adoration of screaming masses, but it wasn't enough. The film explores the manipulative schemes of the music industry, the allure of fantasy and the search for identity. It offers a dizzying analysis of the madness of the Orion myth alongside a movingly sympathetic account of Ellis's unsung talent.
This Sundance award-winning film is a fearless exposé of the terrifying Mexican drug war and the cartels that operate in and around the Mexico/US border. With astonishing access, it follows two vigilante leaders fighting the power of Mexico's drug gangs on both sides of the border. Tim 'Nailer' Foley heads the Arizona Border Recon, whilst in Mexico Dr José Mireles, a Michoacán-based doctor, runs the Autodefensas. From the setting up of the civilian group, the documentary follows the early success of the Autodefensas under the charismatic doctor. The rebel militia rousts the enemy, capturing Knights Templar gang henchmen even as the authorities attempt to impede its progress. But as the vigilantes' influence increases, so do questions about its conduct and motives. Are these new sheriffs any more reliable than those they have come to usurp? With twists and turns that defy expectation, Cartel Land is a gripping, at times harrowing exploration of the drugs trade.
With remarkable access, this documentary follows an unfolding active FBI counterterrorism sting operation, telling the story of Saeed 'Shariff' Torres, a 63-year-old former Black Panther turned informant for the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Shariff is an ex-convict who claims to have at one point made hundreds of thousands of dollars a year sidling up to Muslims accused of pro-terrorism leanings. From a rented Pittsburgh home he receives instructions by text from his FBI handler. He's told to befriend a white Muslim convert who has publicly made pro-terrorist statements. As the documentary observes Shariff closing in on the suspect, viewers get an unfettered glimpse of the government's counterterrorism tactics and the murky justifications behind them. Taut, stark and controversial, the film illuminates the fragile relationships between individual and surveillance state in modern America, and asks who is watching the watchers.
Documentary about a long-withheld piece of oral history - a series of tape-recorded interviews conducted with returning Israeli soldiers after Israel's land gains in the Six-Day War of 1967. Led by the author Amos Oz, a group of kibbutzniks joined together in intimate, taped conversations directly after returning from battlefield. At the time only a few of these recordings were permitted to gain a public hearing by the Israeli government, but this film reveals them to the public for the first time. The uncensored testimonies suggest that the soldiers were not euphoric about the outcome, but instead were profoundly depressed about what the victory cost. In this brilliantly-conceived documentary, director Mor Loushy takes the old testimonies recorded by the Israeli soldiers in the immediate aftermath of the war, and plays the recordings back to the now-aged veterans and observes their responses.
Roll up, roll up for an unforgettable experience! This film tells the story of itinerant circus performers, cabaret acts and vaudeville and fairground attractions. Rarities and never-before-seen footage of fairgrounds, circus entertainment, freak shows, variety performances, music hall and seaside entertainment are chronicled from the 19th and 20th centuries. Featuring early shows that wowed the world and home movies of some of the greatest circus families.
Documentary about a bankrupt Jordanian entrepreneur and an unemployed Irish actress who hatch a plan to scam £2.5m off the British taxman by faking the production of a £20m movie. But they are found out, arrested and then bailed. While out on bail, they decide to prove their innocence by actually making a film. They hire a former nightclub bouncer, now a self-made micro-budget gangster film director. In 2011, Paul Knight makes their movie for under £100,000 with a cast of soap and gangster movie stars including Danny Midwinter, Marc Bannerman and Loose Women's Andrea McLean. The film's title is A Landscape of Lies. But the cinematic alibi does not convince the jury when the trial runs in 2013. The producers are convicted of tax fraud and given long sentences. A comic British crime caper and classic heist movie, but in this movie the heist IS the movie.
After more than 20 years on death row, a convicted murderer petitions the court asking to be executed. But as he tells his story, it gradually becomes clear that nothing is quite what it seems. This film is a stylistically daring experiment in storytelling, in effect a one-man play constructed from a four-day interview. In a monologue that is part confessional and part performance, Nick, the sole protagonist, tells a tale with all the twists and turns of classic crime drama. But as the story unfolds it reveals itself as something much deeper, an emotionally powerful meditation on the redemptive power of love and literature. A final shocking twist casts everything in a new light.
The Palio is the oldest horse race in the world, and turns the Italian city of Siena into a high-stakes battleground of strategy, intrigue and simmering machismo. In the eye of the storm stand the jockeys - adored if they succeed, despised if they fail. This film follows the legendary maestro Gigi Bruschelli, winner of 13 races and master of the intrigues that surround the Palio, and his former protégé Giovanni Atzeni, a handsome young contender driven by a fearless passion to become number one. It exposes the notoriously closed world of this ancient race and the larger-than-life personalities of those involved in an epic and cinematic tale of Italian life in microcosm.
In 1971, the Shah of Iran, the self-proclaimed 'king of kings', celebrated 2,500 years of the Persian monarchy by throwing the greatest party in history. Money was no object - a lavish tent city, using 37km of silk, was erected in a specially created oasis. The world's top restaurant at the time, Maxim's, closed its doors for two weeks to cater the event, a five-course banquet served to over sixty of the world's kings, queens and presidents, and washed down with some of the rarest wines known to man. Over a decadent five-day period, guests were treated to a pageant of thousands of soldiers dressed in ancient Persian costume, a 'son et lumiere' at the foot of Darius the Great's temple, and the opening of the Azadi Tower in Tehran, designed to honour the Shah himself. Every party leaves a few hangovers. This one left a country reeling, never to recover. It crystallised the opposition, led by the Ayatollah Khomeini. More than any other event, this party marked the break between the king of kings and the people of Iran he reigned over.
The first feature-length documentary to explore the Black Panther party, its culture and political awakening for black people. Master documentarian Stanley Nelson weaves a treasure of rare archival footage with the voices of the people who were there - police, FBI informants, journalists, white supporters and detractors, and Black Panthers who remained loyal to the party and those who left it. An essential history, it is a vibrant chronicle of this pivotal movement that birthed a new revolutionary culture in America. Change was coming to America and the faultlines were no longer ignorable - cities were burning, Vietnam was exploding and disputes raged over equality and civil rights. The Black Panther Party for Self-Defense would, for a short time, put itself at the vanguard of a revolutionary culture that sought to drastically transform the system. This fascinating documentary tracks its rise and the painful lessons wrought when a movement derails.
The Bolshoi is worshipped as Russia's national treasure by its many fans. But in 2013 the theatre hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons - Sergei Filin, director of the ballet company, nearly lost his eyesight when a masked man threw acid in his face. It triggered months of intrigue and scandal, with both performers and managers desperate to repair the damage. Now, for the first time, filmmakers have been granted uncensored access backstage to record an entire season. This film follows performers and managers as they attempt to reclaim their reputation. New director Vladimir Urin vows to resist meddling from the Kremlin, but his antipathy towards Sergei Filin spills out into the open. Away from the backstabbing and political intrigue, it is left to the dancers to keep the prestige and legacy of Russia's most famous theatre intact.
Three men travel together across Europe. For two of them the journey involves a confrontation with the acts of their fathers, who were both senior Nazi officers. For the third, the eminent human rights lawyer and author Philippe Sands, it means visiting the place where much of his own Jewish family was destroyed by the fathers of the two men he has come to know. An emotional, psychological exploration of three men wrestling with their past, the present of Europe, and conflicting versions of the truth.
An enjoyable look at the first globally-famous stunt performer, exploring the charisma and showmanship at the heart of Evel Knievel's improbable success. Knievel made a career out of ridiculous stunts and rose to fame with multiple television appearances of his daredevil stunts that captured the public's imagination throughout the late 1960s and 70s. With fantastic archive, the film takes the audience on a rollercoaster ride from his early motorcycle stunts, through to his attempt to be fired across Snake River Canyon, to his time in jail for brutally assaulting his business partner. The darker side of Knievel's larger-than-life persona also emerges, especially among those who knew him best. Friends, family and business colleagues paint a complex portrait of a man who preferred to be seen as a self-styled myth. His love of alcohol, womanising, and temper were all eclipsed by an obsession with insane stunts bordering on a death wish.
Documentary following animal rights lawyer Steven Wise in his unprecedented challenge to break down the legal wall that separates animals from humans. Steve and his legal team are making history by filing the first lawsuits that seek to transform an animal from a thing with no rights to a person with legal protections. It is an intimate look at a lawsuit that could forever transform our legal system, and one man's lifelong quest to protect 'nonhuman' animals. Supported by affidavits from primatologists around the world, Steve maintains that, based on scientific evidence, cognitively complex animals such as chimpanzees, whales, dolphins and elephants have the capacity for limited personhood rights. Filing lawsuits used to free humans from unlawful imprisonment, Wise argues on behalf of four captive chimpanzees in New York State. The film captures a monumental shift in our culture, as the public and judicial system show increasing receptiveness to Steve's impassioned arguments.
Gripping first-hand account by a former Guantanamo detainee that chronicles the rise of modern jihad, its descent into terror and the reaction of the west. Moazzam Begg, a Birmingham-raised British Pakistani, has experienced a generation of conflict. He has been a witness to the escalation of global radicalisation for the past two decades, from the Bosnian conflict to wars in Afghanistan and Syria. The documentary captures his perspective on the escalation in tensions between the west and Islam - from his forced confession and testimony as a free man to his experience as a British Muslim and living the 'War on Terror'. Begg's story, intercut with news archive, raises important questions about how democracies respond to terrorism and how that response has impacted communities and individuals.
Paolo Macchiarini is one of world's most famous surgeons. He hopes to revolutionize medicine by creating a new type of synthetic organ - a vision that could save many lives. But the Italian surgeon has also been accused of using terminally ill patients as human guinea pigs as well as falsifying his science. Is he a genius - or is he behind one of medicine's biggest scandals? This series gains access to Macchiarini's closed world of organ transplants, animal experiments and stem-cell research. From his base at one of the world's most prestigious medical institutions - the Karolinska Institute, home of the Nobel Prize in Stockholm, Sweden - the series explores the fallout from his work across the world, from London to Russia. It poses a fundamental ethical question - how far can you risk a human life in the name of cutting-edge science?
The second episode of this gripping investigative series starts in the summer of 2012, with supersurgeon Macchiarini under pressure when problems start to arise. His pioneering transplant work seems at risk when he discovers faults with the new synthetic organs. Macchiarini still has faith in the procedure and plans new operations. This time it will no longer be fatally ill patients on whom he tries out his new methods, but patients whose condition is not life-threatening. Will Macchiarini succeed with his pioneering work?
The final episode of this investigative series uncovers that something was seriously wrong. By 2014, four Karolinska doctors started to question Macchiarini's transplantation of plastic tracheas and raised the alarm at Karolinska University Hospital and Karolinska Institute. They suspected that Macchiarini had been lying in his scientific papers and that patients' lives were being put at risk by a technique which had not been properly tested or investigated beforehand. But still his employer, the Karolinska Institute, defended him and claimed nothing was amiss. Investigative journalist Bosse Lindquist confronts Macchiarini and the vice-chancellor of Karolinska Institute, to uncover why Macchiarini was able to continue.
Documentary which exposes the impact of Australia's offshore detention policies through the personal accounts of people seeking asylum and whistleblowers who tried to work within the system. Australia has successfully stopped hopeful asylum seekers and refugees from reaching its shores. Anyone picked up making the treacherous journey across the Indian Ocean is sent to Australian off-shore detention camps on the remote tropical islands of Manus and Nauru. Once there, men, women and children are held in indefinite detention, away from media scrutiny. Featuring never-before-seen footage of the appalling living conditions and shocking testimonies from both detainees and camp workers, Chasing Asylum exposes the impact of this policy on those seeking a safer home.
Documentary about American politician Anthony Weiner, renowned for scandals relating to sexting. Weiner resigned from Congress in 2011 after his sexting exploits were made public. He attempted a political comeback by running for mayor of New York City, but his ambitions were thwarted once more as he was foreced to admit to fresh allegations. The programme also traces the personal cost to Weiner, his family and campaign team and the unrelenting media scrutiny on him.
Documentary telling the story of how a young journalist came to be the first American to be executed by ISIS. On 22 November 2012, photojournalist James 'Jim' Foley was kidnapped in Syria. Two years later, the infamous video of his public execution introduced much of the world to ISIS. The film documents Jim's life through intimate interviews with his family, friends and fellow journalists - while former hostages reveal never-before-heard details of his captivity with a chilling intimacy that reveals their untold story of perseverance. Made with unparalleled access, including footage Foley shot himself, childhood friend and director Brian Oakes reveals Jim's enormous courage during his captivity in this powerful chronicle of bravery, compassion and pain.
This absorbing Storyville tells the inspirational story of a teenage girl pursuing her dreams against the odds. Sonita dreams of being a rap star performing for adoring fans, but as an 18-year-old illegal Afghan immigrant living in the poor suburbs of Tehran, opportunities are hard to come by. Undeterred, Sonita pursues her dream, and with her friend Ahmad finds a recording company prepared to risk an unauthorised rap song that includes an illegal female solo, only to have their plans thwarted by Sonita's family. One of her brothers wants to get married, so Sonita must return to Afghanistan and be sold into marriage herself. The bride price she fetches will pay for her brother's wife. Feisty, defiant and spirited Sonita continues the fight to live life her own way and overcome the many obstacles in her path, experiences which are powerfully and unflinchingly captured in her music.
An incendiary, heartbreaking investigation into one of Australia's most notorious cults, and the scars its survivors still bear today. Anne Hamilton-Byrne was beautiful, charismatic, delusional and damaged. She was also incredibly dangerous. Convinced she was a living god, Hamilton-Byrne headed an apocalyptic sect dubbed The Family, which was prominent in Melbourne through the 60s and 70s. With her husband Bill, she acquired numerous children - some through adoption scams, some born to cult members - and raised them as her own. Isolated from the outside world, the children were dressed in matching outfits, had identically dyed blonde hair, and were allegedly beaten, starved and injected with LSD. Taught that Hamilton-Byrne was both their mother and the messiah, the children were eventually rescued during a police raid in the mid 80s, but their trauma had only just begun.
Documentary which follows events at Israel's most notorious football club. Beitar Jerusalem FC is the most popular team in Israel and the only club in the Premier League never to sign an Arab player. Midway through a season the club's owner, Russian-Israeli oligarch Arcadi Gaydamak, brought in two Muslim players from Chechnya in a secretive transfer deal that triggered the most racist campaign in Israeli sport and sent the club spiralling out of control. The film follows the famous football club through the tumultuous season, as power, money and politics fuel a crisis and shows how racism is destroying both the team and society from within.
Documentary thriller about warfare in a world without rules - the world of cyberwar. It tells the story of Stuxnet, self-replicating computer malware, known as a 'worm' for its ability to burrow from computer to computer on its own. In a covert operation, the American and Israeli intelligence agencies allegedly unleashed Stuxnet to destroy a key part of an Iranian nuclear facility. Ultimately the 'worm' spread beyond its intended target. Zero Day is the most comprehensive account to date of how a clandestine mission opened forever the Pandora's box of cyber warfare. A cautionary tale of technology, politics, unintended consequences, morality, and the dangers of secrecy.
An inside account of a scandal that duped celebrities and the literary world. Former homeless youth JT LeRoy become an 'it boy' beloved by stars like Madonna and Courtney Love. His tough prose about his sordid childhood captivated icons and luminaries internationally. But in 2005 an article in a New York magazine sent shockwaves through the literary world when it unmasked JT LeRoy. It turned out LeRoy didn't actually exist. He was dreamed up by 40-year-old San Francisco punk rocker and phone sex operator Laura Albert. The JT LeRoy Story takes us down the infinitely fascinating rabbit hole of how Laura Albert breathed not only words but also life into her avatar for a decade. Albert's epic and entertaining account plunges us into a glittery world of rock shows, fashion events, and the Cannes red carpet where LeRoy becomes a mysterious sensation. As she recounts this astonishing odyssey, Albert also reveals the intricate web spun by irrepressible creative forces within her. Her extended and layered JT LeRoy performance still infuriates many, but for Albert, channelling her brilliant fiction through another identity was the only possible path to self-expression. A gripping yarn about fantasy, deceit and the nature of celebrity.
In 1983, after decades of steady deterioration, John Hull, a professor at the University of Birmingham, became totally blind. To help him make sense of the upheaval in his life, he began documenting his experiences on audio cassette. Over three years he recorded over 16 hours of material.
Nominated for an Academy Award, this film tells the uplifting story of Owen Suskind, an autistic young man and his family. After unremarkable early years, at the age of three Owen withdrew and suddenly stopped speaking. Diagnosed with autism, Owen slowly emerged from his isolation by immersing himself in Disney animated films, using them as an emotional road map to reconnect with the wider world. Owen and his family describe the challenges he faced growing up and the understanding he drew from these stories. Oscar-winning director Roger Ross Williams tracks how by repeatedly watching these Disney classics, Owen learned to view the world as deep and complex, as well as inspirational and instructive. Life, Animated is a remarkable insight into Owen's unique way of seeing the world, and an emotional coming-of-age story as he leaves home and takes his first steps towards independence.
Documentary about a compelling murder mystery, fuelled by a passionate young love affair. It all looked clear-cut when German student Jens Soering confessed to the brutal murder of his girlfriend's parents. But all was not as it seemed - by the time it came to trial, Jens was claiming he confessed to the murders to protect his beloved girlfriend, the beautiful Elizabeth Haysom - and that she had actually been the killer. Through access to the dramatic trials, love letters and new evidence, Killing for Love attempts to get to the truth of what happened on that fateful night. The 20-year-old Elizabeth Haysom was widely admired at the University of Virginia for her wild past. Jens Soering, the son of a German diplomat, was a first-year Jefferson Scholar and had just turned 18 when he met her. He was instantly entranced and they embarked on an intense, obsessive relationship. Three months into their affair, on 30 March 1985, Elizabeth's parents were brutally murdered in their Virginia home and the couple fled. Crisscrossing Asia and Europe they were eventually arrested in London, where Jens confessed to the murder in what he later claimed was an act of love.
On Friday, 26th November 2010, in the close-knit town of Bergamo, Letizia Ruggeri received a telephone call. It was Maura Gambirasio, a mother whose 13-year-old daughter Yara hadn't come home from the gym. Letizia, who spent years investigating mafia murders in Sicily, thought of her own daughter and promised she would find Yara. Three months later, Yara's body was tragically discovered - she had been attacked. With just one piece of DNA evidence to go on, Letizia started a hunt for a perpetrator that would take four years, 20,000 DNA samples, ingenuity and tenacity to find the identity of 'Unknown Male no 1'. It was a revelation that would unlock deep family secrets that still reverberated when the suspect was finally brought to trial.
The bizarre and sensational story of the despot who stole a film star. In 1978, North Korea's movie-loving dictator Kim Jong-il arranged for the Hong Kong kidnap of South Korea's leading lady, Choi Eun-hee. Choi had left South Korea in search of a new start. Her marriage to Shin Sang-ok, her long-term collaborator and one of the country's most successful filmmakers, had collapsed when Choi found out about his affair and second family with a younger actress. After her disappearance Shin, retracing her last known steps, also fell into the hands of Kim's kidnappers. Kim Jong-il had his prize. The golden couple of Korean cinema made movies at his command for seven years until, on a trip to Vienna, they eluded their minders and made a break for the American Embassy.
In 2011, Maine State Prison launched a pioneering reform programme to scale back its use of solitary confinement. Bafta and Emmy-winning film-maker Dan Edge and his co-director Lauren Mucciolo were given unprecedented access to the solitary unit - and filmed there for more than three years. The result is an extraordinary and harrowing portrait of life in solitary - and a unique document of a radical and risky experiment to reform a prison. The US is the world leader in solitary confinement. More than 80,000 American prisoners live in isolation, some have been there for years, even decades. Solitary is proven to cause mental illness, it is expensive, and it is condemned by many as torture. And yet for decades, it has been one of the central planks of the American criminal justice system.
Five-part series and winner of the 2017 Academy Award for Best Documentary chronicling the rise and fall of OJ Simpson. To many observers, the story of the crime of the century is a story that began the night Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman were brutally murdered outside her Brentwood condominium. But as the first episode lays bare, to truly grasp the significance of what happened not just that night, but the epic chronicle to follow, one has to travel back to points in time long before that. To generations prior, when African-Americans began migrating to California en masse, trying desperately - and fruitlessly - to outrun the racism that had defined their lives. To the late 1960s, when in the heart of Los Angeles, OJ Simpson rose to instant fame as an unstoppable running back for the USC Trojans. To the early 1970s, when he expanded that fame in the NFL, becoming the first player ever to rush for 2,000 yards in a season, and emerging as one of the most visible faces in sports. And to a few years after that, when with his celebrity transcending the game, Simpson retired from American football and returned to Los Angeles - his acting, advertising, and broadcasting careers in ascendance. It was also then that he fell madly in love - with a young, beautiful woman named Nicole Brown.
There was never one Los Angeles, California. There were always two. One was the world inhabited by OJ Simpson - wealthy, privileged, and predominantly white. A world where celebrity was power, and where OJ - race be damned - was one of the most popular figures around, cultivating the perfect image, even if it hardly lined up with what lay beneath. Then there was the other LA, just a few miles away from Brentwood and his Rockingham estate, a place where millions of other black people lived an entirely different reality at the hands of the Los Angeles Police Department. It was in that 'other' Los Angeles where riots erupted in 1992, and more than 50 people died with thousands more injured. The city burned for nearly a week that spring, laying bare all the anger, and all the alienation, that black people in Los Angeles felt towards the police. For his part, back in Brentwood, OJ Simpson had other concerns.
The police arrived at the condo on Bundy Drive at 4:25 a.m. on June 13th, 1994. It was a gruesome murder scene, clearly the result of a violent confrontation that had left two people dead - one of whom, they'd quickly discover, was the estranged wife of OJ Simpson. It was just the start of a chapter of American history like none other, one that would lay bare the realities of race, power, the legal system, the media, and so much more in Los Angeles, California and far beyond. Two decades later, the disagreements between the figures at the centre of investigating the case are still palpable. The events of June 17th 1994 are nearly as unfathomable as they were as they unfolded. And the beginnings of the battle in the courtroom are just as fascinating - the defence's strategy, just as unambiguous. OJ Simpson had spent his entire life running from the colour of his skin. Now, in so many ways, he was going to depend on it to avoid spending the rest of his life in prison.
In January 1995, the crime of the century gave way to the trial of the century. It would be like nothing before it, nor anything that's come since, and reshape the landscape of the media, and, truly, American culture along the way. Over the better part of ten months, there would be dozens of dramatic twists and turns, revelations and surprises, accusations and betrayals. The recollections of so many of the case's protagonists make for section after section of riveting film, all bringing back to life a trial that somehow evolved into a phenomenon that left the brutal murders of two people deep in forgotten shadows. Nothing, though, proved larger than the context - of everything that came before in the Los Angeles that OJ Simpson never knew. And in the trial's closing arguments, the dividing line of race - in Los Angeles, and America - was never starker.
On the morning of October 3rd 1995, it was announced that OJ Simpson had been found not guilty of all charges. To many Americans, it was a stunning, almost explicable miscarriage of justice; a tragedy; a disturbing example of what money and power could buy in America. But to another group, it was an historic victory - payback for all the losses and all the injustice that they'd incurred over generations of history. As black America rejoiced, OJ went home, beginning what would become the strange, next phase of his life, a life lived in a form of celebratory purgatory - in many quarters shunned, scorned, and mocked, but in others, welcomed as a character in the circus that his saga had undeniably helped to create. From running from a guilty verdict in a wrongful death suit to working on a book that was a 'hypothetical conviction', his existence became more and more outlandish, until it all came crashing down on a night in 2007 in Las Vegas, a night that left Simpson where he is today, in prison for perhaps the rest of his life.
Girl bands and pop music permeate Japanese life. This film gets to the heart of a cultural phenomenon driven by an obsession with young female sexuality and internet popularity. Meet Rio - a bona fide Tokyo idol who takes us on her journey toward fame. Now meet her 'brothers' - a group of adult male superfans who devote their lives to following her, in the virtual world and in real life. Once considered to be on the fringes of society, the brothers who gave up salaried jobs to pursue an interest in female idol culture have since become mainstream via the internet, illuminating the growing disconnect between men and women in hypermodern societies. Tokyo Girls explores the Japanese pop music industry and its focus on traditional beauty ideals, confronting the nature of gender power dynamics at work. As the female idols become younger and younger, the film looks at the veil of internet fame and the new terms of engagement that are playing out in real life around the globe.
Oink explores man's relationship to pigs, diving headfirst into a beguiling mix of sentimentality and violence - from keeping pigs in your bed to factory farming. The documentary veers wildly from the birth of Dorothy, our saddleback narrator, to zeno-transplantation of organs, from Ralph Steadman cartoons for Animal Farm to wild hogs being machine-gunned from a helicopter. Oink is a mad, bad journey from China to Wiltshire via Brooklyn, which reflects on who we are and how we deal with the world around us.
A profoundly intimate documentary filmed by Bafta-winning director Morgan Matthews over a period of more than ten years in the life of Morgan's father Geoff and his wonderfully eccentric partner Anna. In an attempt to reconnect with his dad after becoming estranged, Morgan uses the camera as both a facilitator and a filter that enables him to stay close during challenging times. The film follows Geoff and Anna through a financial crisis that sees them losing their home, it captures the challenges of their relationship, and documents the decline in Geoff's health as a result of emphysema and cancer. With the warmth, love and humour that is so often mixed up in family dramas, this is a documentary made from the inside by a film-maker who is used to turning his camera towards other people's families - but never his own. The result is deeply personal, but the themes of a challenging paternal dynamic, a relationship under pressure, and death in the family, are widespread and universal.
The former EU commissioner of health, Mr John Dalli, recently left his post having been accused of being in the pocket of 'big tobacco'. Two Danish journalists, Mads Brugger and Mikael Bertelsen, travel to Malta expecting to uncover proof of a vast conspiracy against Mr Dalli, when a secret source steps forward, claiming to possess documents and recordings. Mr Dalli attempts to strike a deal with the source, taking them on a disturbing, thrilling and darkly humorous odyssey from the hallways of Brussels to an island in the Caribbean Sea.
Carne Ross was a career diplomat who believed western democracy could save us all. But after the Iraq war he became disillusioned and resigned. This film traces Carne's worldwide quest to find a better way of doing things - from a farming collective in Spain, to Occupy Wall Street to Rojava in war-torn Syria - as he makes the epic journey from government insider to anarchist.
Created from a treasure trove of archive, Queerama traverses a century of gay experiences, encompassing persecution and prosecution, injustice, love and desire, identity, secrets, forbidden encounters, sexual liberation and pride. The soundtrack weaves the lyrics and music of John Grant, Goldfrapp and Hercules & Love Affair with the images and guides us intimately into the relationships, desires, fears and expressions of gay men and women in the 20th century- a century of incredible change.
In 1974 two men vanished several months apart. Iceland, with a population of just over 200,000, was a close, tight-knit community where everyone knew everyone, but the police got nowhere: there were no bodies, no witnesses and no forensic evidence. Then six suspects were arrested and confessed to the murders, many facing long, harsh sentences. It seemed like justice had been done, but nothing could be further from the truth. Forty years later, this notorious murder case was reopened when new evidence brought into question everything that had gone before. It became clear that the suspects had very quickly lost trust in their memories and were confused about their involvement in the crimes they had confessed to. The extreme police interrogation techniques were brought under intense scrutiny. This tense, psychological thriller tells the true story of the biggest-ever criminal investigation in Iceland's history, exploring one of the most shocking miscarriages of justice Europe has ever witnessed.
Documentary looking at the black market website known as the Silk Road, which emerged on the darknet in 2011. This 'Amazon of illegal drugs' was the brainchild of a mysterious, libertarian intellectual operating under the avatar The Dread Pirate Roberts. Promising its users complete anonymity and total freedom from government regulation or scrutiny, Silk Road became a million-dollar digital drugs cartel.
On 25 November 1999, a six-year-old Cuban boy was found floating alone off the Florida coast after his mother drowned during an attempt to escape Cuba for the United States. Set against the tense and acrimonious relationship between the two countries, The Boy Who Changed America tells the story of Elian Gonzalez and the bitter custody battle that played out in the aftermath of his rescue between his Cuban father and American relatives. Eighteen years later and in the wake of Fidel Castro's death, the now 23-year-old Elian and his family tell their story for the first time
Set inside one room in Folsom Prison in California, this film follows three men from outside as they take part in a four-day group therapy retreat with convicts serving long sentences for violent or gang-related crimes including murder, assault and robbery.
The story of the homecoming of US Army sergeant and former Taliban prisoner Bowe Bergdahl, after five years in captivity. After walking off his post in Afghanistan in 2009, US Army sergeant Bowe Bergdahl was captured by the Taliban and held in captivity for five years. This documentary by the film-maker and former Taliban hostage Sean Langan, who gained exclusive access to the former POW and his family, gives a unique perspective on Sgt Bergdahl's incredible story. Sgt Bergdahl was tortured and kept in a tiny cage by the Taliban, and endured the worst case of prisoner abuse since the war in Vietnam. But his real nightmare began on his return home to America. Freed in 2014 by President Obama in exchange for five Taliban prisoners in Guantanamo, he was then vilified in sections of the media as a traitor who collaborated with the enemy and 'converted to Islam'. To the American public, he was being portrayed as the real-life version of Homeland's Sgt Brody, and presidential candidate Donald Trump called for him to be shot as a 'dirty rotten traitor'. Days before his court martial in October 2017, he pleaded guilty to charges of desertion and endangering the lives of fellow soldiers but totally denied collaborating with the enemy. So what was his side of the story? Film-maker Sean Langan was himself held captive for four months by the same group that captured Bowe Bergdahl. He too was locked in a dark cell, interrogated and put through mock executions. With his special insight, Langan gets exclusive access to Bowe Bergdahl and to his parents, Bob and Jani. He presents a moving story about a soldier who made a mistake but who then in captivity fought his captors hard and paid a terrible price, and about a family caught in a storm of false allegations and fake news. Bowe Bergdahl, Sean Langan discovers, was a man with serious psychological issues who became a political football in a deeply divided America.
It was a scandal that shook the British establishment to its roots. In June 1951, the government was forced to admit that two Foreign Office diplomats had disappeared. One of them, Donald Maclean, had slipped through their fingers three days before he was due to be questioned for passing secrets to the Russians. The other, Guy Burgess, was a total surprise. He was a charming, clever Etonian, with powerful friends everywhere. And lovers too - at a time when homosexuality was illegal, Burgess made no secret of his sexual tastes. He turned out to be the most flamboyant of a ring of privileged Cambridge students who had secretly joined the Communists in the 1930s, disgusted by their own government's policy of appeasing Hitler. With the help of newly declassified documents, George Carey's film shows how the most celebrated spy ring of the 20th century grew out of the class system, sexual hypocrisy and the sheer incompetence of some people who then ran Britain.
A Storyville documentary: an eccentric Jewish family is thrown into turmoil when two stolen children reappear after 40 years.
After five years of war in Syria the remaining 350,000 citizens of Aleppo are constantly under siege. Through the eyes of the volunteers of the White Helmets, in this film we experience daily life and death in the streets of Aleppo. Khalid, Subhi and Mahmoud are founding members of the White Helmets and are the first to enter destroyed buildings, scouring through the rubble in search of bodies and signs of life. They have chosen to stay in Aleppo to help save their people during the never-ending siege. Many lives including those of countless children and infants are lost during the bombings. But each day is a dilemma and a conflict for the men - should they stay and risk death themselves, or should they try to get out and save their own families, as other have? The film is a collaboration with the Aleppo Media Centre, and tells the extraordinary story of real heroes in an epic human tragedy.
Twelve billion miles away a tiny spaceship is leaving our solar system and entering the void of deep space. It is the first human-made object ever to do so. Slowly dying within its heart is a plutonium generator that will beat for perhaps another decade before the lights on Voyager finally go out. But this little craft will travel on for millions of years, carrying a Golden Record bearing recordings and images of life on Earth. The story of Voyager is an epic of human achievement, personal drama and almost miraculous success. Launched 16 days apart in 1977, the twin Voyager space probes have defied all the odds, survived countless near misses and almost 40 years later continue to beam revolutionary information across unimaginable distances. With less computing power than a modern hearing aid, they have unlocked the stunning secrets of our solar system. This film tells the story of these magnificent machines, the men and women who built them and the vision that propelled them farther than anyone could ever have hoped.
To the surprise of a whole world, the ex-Yugoslavian now Slovenian cult band Laibach became the first rock group ever invited to perform in the dictatorially repressed state of North Korea. Under the firmguidance of an old fan turned director and cultural diplomat, Laibach must deal with strict ideology, cultural differences and many technological difficulties in order just to perform. Struggling to get their songs through rigorous censorship, they race against the clock so they can be unleashed on an audience never before exposed to alternative rock'n'roll.
Through the eyes of impassioned individuals who drive this business - from a Texas trophy hunter on a mission to kill 'the big five', to the world's largest private rhino breeder in South Africa, who believes he is saving these extraordinary beasts from becoming extinct - the film grapples with the consequences of imposing economic value on animals. What are the implications of treating animals as commodities? Does breeding, farming and hunting offer the option of conserving endangered animals? Trophy raises provocative debate about the rights and wrongs of killing animals for sport and for profit, and questions the value of these pursuits in saving the planet's great species from extinction.
Bafta-nominated documentary telling the story of website Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently (RBSS), where a group of young men band together and risk their lives to document and release videos, photos and written testimony of Islamic State atrocities in their home city of Raqqa. From acclaimed Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Matthew Heineman, City of Ghosts follows the visceral and at times distressing journey of a network of brave young activists who band together to report the stories of atrocities inflicted on the Syrian citizens of Raqqa by ISIS, who invaded their city in 2014. The film reveals the very real dangers for this tight-knit group of citizen journalists, working undercover both inside and outside their homeland. They risk their lives daily to report stories of terror and destruction in the besieged city of Raqqa. The stories are posted on an online site -'Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently' - in the hope that they will reach the mainstream media and governments globally. A dramatic and heartbreaking story unfolds, as we witness the huge personal sacrifices the young journalists make to bring the plight of their people to the world. City of Ghosts premiered at Sundance Film Festival and was nominated for Best Documentary at the 2018 Baftas.
Follow Aisholpan, a 13-year-old girl, as she trains to become the first female in twelve generations of her Kazakh family to become an eagle hunter, and rise to the pinnacle of a tradition that has been typically been handed down from father to son for centuries. TV transmission of a Film released in 2016.
A Storyville documentary. A raw and unfiltered insight into the bloodiest conflict since the Second World War. Over the last two decades, the mineral-rich Democratic Republic of Congo has witnessed over five million conflict-related deaths, multiple regime changes and the impoverishment of its people. Following the lives of four diverse characters - a government whistleblower, a patriotic military commander, a mineral dealer and a displaced tailor - this programme offers a visceral, yet intimate insight into a nation caught between the foreign-backed M23 rebels and the government ruled by president Joseph Kabila, who cancels elections and refuses to relinquish power. As the conflict resonates through their lives, the film reveals the insidious legacy of colonialism, resource exploitation and the genocidal wars that has created a never-ending cycle of violence.
'You're not a human being, you're an athlete,' 20-year-old Rita is told by one of her two merciless coaches as she prepares to represent Russia in rhythmic gymnastics at the Olympics. It is the most crucial year of her career and her last chance to achieve her ultimate dream, a gold medal. However gracefully Rita catches rings or rolls a ball across her shoulders, her coaches expect more from her, time and again. Described as the 'Black Swan' of sports documentaries, Over the Limit offers unprecedented access to the hidden world of elite gymnasts and the unrelentingly brutal training demanded by the Russian system.
One of the greatest ice skaters of all time, John Curry transformed a dated sport into an art form and made history by becoming the first openly gay Olympian in a time when homosexuality was not fully legal. Directed by James Erskine, this is a searing documentary about a lost cultural icon - a story of art, sport, sexuality and rebellion. Featuring incredible unseen footage of some of Curry's most remarkable performances and with access to his letters, archive interviews, and interviews with his family, friends and collaborators, this is a portrait of the man who turned ice skating from a dated sport into an exalted art form.
As Pakistan prepare for their 2018 elections, Insha'Allah Democracy follows film-maker Mo Naqvi during the country's last election, when he was a first-time voter and wanted to back a candidate who would prevent Pakistan from becoming a terrorist state. But Mo faced a tough choice - either vote for religious hardliners or a secular liberal leader who happened to be a former military dictator. Insha'Allah Democracy chronicles one voter's journey to discover if democracy is possible in an unstable Muslim country, whilst providing a fly-on-the-wall exploration into a controversial leader, Pervez Musharraf.
For director Roger Ross Williams, prison was not a distant possibility when he was growing up, but a daily threat. 'As a young black man in a chaotic environment, I always felt there was a chance that, whether or not I committed a crime, I could end up behind bars.' Determined to avoid this fate, Roger left his hometown of Easton, Pennsylvania as a teenager to pursue his dreams of being a film-maker. Overcoming the odds, he became the first black director to win an Academy Award. As his success grew, he thought about Easton less and less, until the day he heard about the suicide of his old friend Tommy Alvin. Now, after 30 years, Roger returns home to pay his respects and reconnect with close childhood friends. He is shocked and distressed to learn virtually all of the men in the Alvin family are, have been, or currently are, in prison. Haunted by how easily this could have happened to him, Roger embarks on a deeply personal journey into the heart of the American prison system to try and understand how this is possible. He starts in his own hometown but soon finds himself navigating a Byzantine maze of powerful institutions: police precincts, courtrooms, local jails, maximum security prisons and corporate empires. As he begins to explore a massive and dysfunctional system, he encounters complicit politicians and prison profiteers, each with their own self-serving motivations to maintain the status quo. Roger discovers prison administrators who recognise that most of their inmates should be free, yet are helpless to release them. He seeks counsel and knowledge from frustrated community leaders and activists, including the tireless Adam Foss. Foss's mission is to personally reeducate America's 31,000 prosecutors to 'cut off the supply' of people flowing into the system, and also try and save lives in his own neighbourhood, one young man at a time. Roger comes face to face with the endless hoard of Americans trapped behind the walls of the prison industrial co
A Woman Captured is a raw and intimate portrayal of the psychology behind enslavement. Director Bernadett Tuza-Ritter offers an evocative study of a woman so debased and disregarded that even she has lost sight of her own life. A 52-year-old Hungarian woman has been kept by a family as a domestic slave for a decade. Marish has been exploited and abused by a woman for whom she toils as a housekeeper - entirely unpaid, performing all manner of back-breaking household duties seven days a week. In exchange, she only gets cigarettes, leftovers and a couch to sleep on. The money she earns from night shifts in a factory is taken away from her. Deprived of her ID and deep in forced debt, she is forbidden to even leave the house without permission. Marish's 16-year-old daughter ran away a couple of years ago, unable to bear her circumstances any longer. Marish lives with too much fear in her heart to leave but dreams of being reunited with her daughter. Drawing courage from the film-maker's presence, Marish eventually reveals her plan: she will leave the unbearable oppression behind and attempt to escape. The film follows Marish's heroic journey back to freedom.
For middle-class Indian director Pankaj Johar, child slavery was an issue seemingly far removed from his life. Despite seeing children in the marketplace, factories and street corners, Pankaj rarely considered the circumstances which led millions of children to be forced into labour. This changed when Cecilia, a long-serving maid employed by Pankaj's family, suffered a devastating loss: her 14-year-old daughter killed herself following the trauma of being trafficked into sexual slavery. Pankaj sets out to understand how, in the world's largest democracy, it is possible for children to be bought and sold with such ease. Meeting with Nobel peace prize winner and child rights activist Kailash gives Pankaj a sense of the magnitude of the issue as well as a better understanding of the ways in which poverty, illiteracy and corruption conspire to provide a breeding ground for child trafficking. He travels the country, meeting with both trafficked children and the traffickers, as well as activists, legal experts and the police. Working with activists from the organisations Save the Childhood and Guria, Pankaj gets exclusive access to film rescue operations and speaks with some of the enslaved children, who have been denied a childhood and an education, offering an insight into their lives. Pankaj discovers how bigoted attitudes and corruption have lead to a state-wide failure to protect those who are most vulnerable. While he struggles to reconcile India's rapid economic development with the poverty and lack of opportunity which defines the lives of so many victims of child trafficking, an uncomfortable truth emerges: India's booming economy and the subsequent rise of the middle class is a major force which fuels the demand for cheap labour in the form of child slaves. Pankaj invites us to take responsibility, as consumers and as passive bystanders, to put an end to the selling of children in India and the world over.
An intimate portrait of the African-American Rainey family as they navigate life in their north Philadelphia neighbourhood gripped by poverty, drugs and gun violence. Filmed over the eight years of Obama's presidency, the film follows Christopher 'Quest' Rainey and his wife Christine's 'Ma Quest' as they try to raise their children and keep a group of local hip hop artists off the streets by cultivating a creative hub in their home music studio. Capturing the generosity, self-reliance and hope of a community, Quest is a vivid illumination of race, class and life in modern-day America.
A Storyville documentary following a group of citizens in West Virginia who take on a corporation after they discover it has been dumping a toxic chemical into the water supply.
The heart-stopping story of 'Crazy Fakhir', a Kurdish colonel in the Iraqi army and legendary bomb disposal expert who single-handedly disarmed thousands of landmines across the country with just a pocket knife and a pair of wire clippers. Between the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003 and the chaos and destruction wreaked by IS ten years later, Fahkir's unwavering bravery saved thousands of lives throughout Iraq. 'Hurt Locker Hero' tells Fakhir's story through the raw and visceral amateur footage captured by his soldiers on a camcorder intended for filming family occasions. Instead, it records Fakhir endlessly snipping wires, searching family homes and digging out roadside IEDs, insisting it's too dangerous to wait hours for the highly trained American bomb disposal teams to arrive. Whilst their father and husband becomes a hero, Fahkir's wife and eight children struggle to make ends meet and worry endlessly about his safety. Fakhir will be remembered as the man who risked his life to save others -'If I fail, only I die, but if I succeed, I can save hundreds of people.'.
In 1993, Mt. Carmel Ranch outside Waco, Texas, was the site of the deadliest siege in American history. A 51-day standoff with federal agents ended in tragedy, all at the hands of charismatic cult leader David Koresh. Now, a new group of Branch Davidians is living on the same property under a new leader, Charles Pace. His goal: to repopulate the Branch of Davidian sect before the coming apocalypse. This two-part feature documentary weaves a current-day narrative with the story of Koresh and his doomed followers. It is now 25 years since the Waco tragedy took place. The programme combines interviews with survivors on location at Mt. Carmel Ranch, some of whom have never spoken publicly before, as well as family, friends and key ATF/FBI officers, along with dramatic reconstructions of past events.
This episode begins with the fateful ATF raid. The two-and-a-half-hour gun battle rapidly develops into a stand-off with the FBI, watched by the world’s media. Tanks are sent in and sniper positions set up. Inside, the Branch Davidians, believing that prophecy is being fulfilled, sit tight, while the FBI dismiss Koresh and his followers’ words as just ‘Bible babble’. Finally, Koresh announces he will write his version of the Seven Seals and that they will all come out when it is complete. But it is too late. On April 19, a frustrated FBI starts inserting teargas into the compound with tanks. A fire develops and, fanned by high winds, devours Mount Carmel along with David Koresh and his followers. Now we finally answer the controversy that has been disputed ever since that fateful day - who lit the fire?
On 13 February 2012, war-correspondent Marie Colvin and photographer Paul Conroy entered war-ravaged Syria to cover the plight of civilians trapped in the besieged city of Homs, under attack by the Syrian army. Only one of them returned. This is their story. Marie Colvin was one the most fearless reporters of her time. She dedicated her life to bearing witness to the lives of ordinary people caught up in the world’s most dangerous conflicts. She covered Afghanistan, Iraq, Israel and Palestine, Sri Lanka, Chechnya and East Timor, and was on first-name terms with leaders like Muammar Gaddafi and Yasser Arafat. In 2001 she lost the sight in her left eye after being caught in crossfire by a piece of shrapnel. On 13 February 2012, Marie was smuggled into Syria with her photographer, Paul Conroy. Despite intelligence reports that foreign journalists found in the area ‘would be executed and their bodies put on the battlefield, as if caught in crossfire’, they headed to Homs, determined to uncover the horror of Syrian civilians trapped by the conflict. Only one of them would return. Based on the book of the same name by Paul Conroy, Under The Wire is the incredible story of Paul and Marie’s fateful mission, and Paul’s epic battle to escape the city to tell the world of his fallen colleague and the plight of the people of Homs. Under the Wire is a film about real journalism, about war and about an extraordinary commitment to telling the truth, whatever the cost.
Every year during the December school holidays the ‘cutting season’ takes place in Tanzania. Even though Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) is illegal, thousands of young girls are forced to undergo an ordeal that could cost them their lives. Defying the Cutting Season follows the brave and courageous girls fighting against a tradition that goes back thousands of years and reveals the one safe place they can escape to. Rhobi Samwelly, who was herself a victim of FGM, now valiantly runs a safe house and works with the local police to rescue and protect girls at risk while arresting parents and cutters. But they have a tough and dangerous job and old customs die hard. Men believe that girls must be cut to reduce promiscuity and cut girls command twice the bride price in cows as uncut girls. Girls like Rosie Makore, just 12 years old, have had to make the most difficult choices of their young lives - run away from home, not knowing if they will ever see their families again, or submit to female genital mutilation and child marriage. Set in the stunning landscape of East Africa’s Serengeti district, this is ultimately a hopeful story of brave young girls standing up for their human rights and fighting for change in their community.
7,000 miles from Silicon Valley in downtown Manila, a secret team of content moderators have a target of 25,000 Facebook, Google and Twitter posts to delete each day. Trawling through the world’s most violent, disturbing and highly contentious online material - in the form of terrorist videos, child pornography, self-harm material and political propaganda - 'the cleaners' are individually responsible for deciding what stays online and what gets removed. This film explores the hidden and complex world of digital content moderation where undesirable material is 'cleaned' from the internet by a hidden army of nameless people. The Cleaners raises important questions for all of us who use these platforms daily without knowing what goes on behind the scenes: Who are these people that 'clean up' social media and what criteria do they operate by? Where does content moderation end and censorship begin? And what happens when their split-second decisions affect the lives of people in political hotspots like Myanmar or Istanbul?
The war crimes trial of Ratko Mladic, accused of masterminding the murder of over 7000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica in the 90s Bosnian war, the worst crime in Europe since WW2.
Pervert Park is a film about the people no-one wants as a neighbour. It follows the everyday lives of sex offenders, living in a trailer-park community and struggling to reintegrate into society. The film-makers deep access allows us to get inside the minds and pasts of some of the residents and to gain a deeper understanding of the devastating ongoing cycle of sex crimes and the lives it destroys.
Avicii: True Stories is Tim Bergling's own story. Made from extensive personal and family archive and behind the scenes footage, the film is an unparalleled insight into his life.
The gripping untold story of the Brexit negotiations... from the other side. For two years, Belgian film-maker, Lode Desmet, has had exclusive access to the Brexit co ordinator of the European parliament, Guy Verhofstadt, and his close knit team. This revelatory fly-on-the-wall film captures the off-the-record conversations and arguments of the European negotiators as they devise their strategy for dealing with the British. Episode one watches as the Europeans’ respect for a formidable negotiating opponent turns into frustration and incredulity as the British fail to present a united front. At moments funny and tragic, it ends with the debacle in December 2017 when Theresa May flies in to Brussels to finalise details of a deal and is publically humiliated by her coalition partner, Arlene Foster of the DUP, who refuses to support the deal.
The gripping untold story of the Brexit negotiations... from the other side. For two years, Belgian film-maker, Lode Desmet, has had exclusive access to the Brexit co ordinator of the European parliament, Guy Verhofstadt, and his close knit team. This revelatory fly-on-the-wall film captures the off-the-record conversations and arguments of the European negotiators as they devise their strategy for dealing with the British. Episode two follows the rollercoaster events from December 2017 to the present day. Europe watches on incredulously as divisions in the British parliament and cabinet become more bitter and leave the talks paralysed. Eighteen months after the referendum, Britain still does not know what it wants and spends more time discussing internally than negotiating with Europe. Respect for Britain turns to irritation and finally ridicule.
The extraordinary story of Brunhilde Pomsel, secretary and stenographer to the Nazi proganda minister, Joseph Goebbels.
In 1973, five men and six women drifted across the Atlantic on a raft as part of a scientific experiment studying the sociology of violence, aggression and sexual attraction in human behaviour. Although the project became known in the press as 'The Sex Raft', nobody expected what ultimately took place on that three-month journey. Through extraordinary archive material, and a reunion of the surviving members of the expedition on a full-scale replica of the raft, this film tells the hidden story behind what has been described as 'one of the strangest group experiments of all time'.
Eyewitness accounts and leaked secret documents provide a deeper understanding of the final bloody days of the 1989 Tiananmen Square democracy demonstration.
A Malaysian wealth fund is robbed of US$3.5 billion. It is the world’s biggest white-collar heist involving government corruption at the highest level, an abuse of power and international money laundering. With little to go on, dogged investigative reporters from The New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Hollywood Reporter retrace the dirty money - via real estate deals and movie financing including ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’ - back to the top echelons of the Malaysian government. Malaysia’s prime minister and his inner circle are implicated, assets are frozen, money is seized, but the Malaysian people fight back.
Storyville film that tells the story of President Duterte's bloody campaign against drug dealers and addicts in the Philippines, told with unprecedented access to people on both sides of the war.
How one man's refusal to overlook its financial irregularities led to the exposure of the subprime mortgage scandal that engulfed Lehman Brothers.
The inspirational story of how Tracy Edwards became the skipper of the first all-female crew to enter the Whitbread Round the World Race in 1989.
Documentary that reveals the continuing impact of China's one-child policy, abandoned in 2015, on the country's people.
Danish director Mads Brügger and Swedish private investigator Göran Björkdahl are trying to solve the mysterious death of Dag Hammarskjöld. As their investigation closes in, they discover a crime far worse than the murder of the secretary-general of the United Nations. In 1961, United Nations Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld’s plane mysteriously crashed, killing Hammarskjöld and most of the crew. With the case still unsolved over 50 years later, Danish journalist, film-maker and provocateur Mads Brügger leads us down an investigative rabbit hole to unearth the truth. Scores of false starts, dead ends and elusive interviews later, Brügger and his sidekick, Swedish Göran Björkdahl, begin to sniff out something more monumental than anything they had initially imagined.
A Storyville documentary that reveals the struggle of the victims of Franco's dictatorship in Spain, as they fight a government-sanctioned 'pact of forgetting' the crimes that they suffered.
Why did Jim Jones, a charismatic American preacher and leader of the People's Temple, compel his members in 1978 to commit 'revolutionary suicide' in northern Guyana?
The Jonestown project quickly begins to implode. Jones's excessive drug use, irrational behaviour and the isolation of his followers raises the alarm back home.
The biggest tech revolution of the 21st century isn't digital, it's biological. A breakthrough called CRISPR has given us unprecedented control over the basic building blocks of life. It opens the door to curing diseases, reshaping the biosphere and designing our own children. This Storyville documentary is a provocative exploration of CRISPR's far-reaching implications, through the eyes of the scientists who discovered it, the families it’s affecting and the bio-engineers who are testing its limits. How will this new power change our relationship with nature? What will it mean for human evolution? To begin to answer these questions, we must look back billions of years and peer into an uncertain future.
Jewish lawyer Lea Tsemel is a controversial figure in Israel. For the last 50 years, she has fearlessly defended Palestinians prosecuted in Israeli courts for resisting the occupation both violently and non-violently. Taking on tough cases, including charges of terrorism, the odds are stacked sharply against her. To many Israelis, Lea defends the indefensible, but for Palestinians she is more than a lawyer, she is an advocate. This documentary follows Tsemel’s caseload, including the high-profile trial of 13-year-old Ahmed - her youngest client to date - charged with the attempted murder of two Israelis for his involvement in a stabbing attack. Ahmed, whose 15-year-old cousin led the attack but was killed by police on the scene, now depends on Lea to prove he had no intent to kill, in order to save him from a lengthy sentence in an adult prison.
A Storyville documentary that reveals the complex and surprising truth behind the relationships of four Thai-Danish married couples in a small fishing community in Denmark.
When 23-year-old Israeli Jonathan Agassi arrived with a bang on the gay porn scene in the late 2000s, his rise to fame was stratospheric, revolutionising the industry. After a traumatic childhood growing up gay in the suburbs of Tel Aviv, the man behind the performer claims that porn saved his life, but at a cost. The Rise and Fall of a Porn Superstar charts Agassi’s journey from prolific adult superstar to male escort, battling many demons. Filmed over seven years, this unflinching, emotional and at times funny and shocking film explores the deeper and more devastating reasons for Agassi's self-destructive behaviour with sensitivity and compassion. The film also provides a rare and intimate insight into an industry that prioritises hedonism and fantasy above all, but at its core, this rollercoaster tale is a rare portrait of a damaged family and its lasting impact on those who are part of it.
In Pakistan, the blasphemy law prescribes a compulsory death sentence for disrespecting Prophet Muhammad and life imprisonment for desecrating the Qur’an. This Storyville documentary follows the stories and fates of four people accused of blasphemy. The most famous of them is Asia Bibi, a Christian woman who claims she was falsely accused by her Muslim co-workers after a disagreement. As the elections in Pakistan loom, the country is split between those who feel the law is being misused and want to change it, and those who believe it must be preserved at any cost. Its greatest advocate, cleric Khadim Hussain Rizvi, goes on a mission to do just this. As his campaign heats up, he gathers millions of supporters, sympathetic to his goal, and silences anyone attempting to change the law by condemning them to death.
A two-part Storyville documentary that tells the inspiring story of a group of men and women in the USA struggling to earn college degrees while in prison for serious crimes. The Bard Prison Initiative is one of the most rigorous and effective prison education programmes in the United States. Shot over four years in maximum and medium security prisons in New York State, the films tackles a pressing issue - the failure to provide meaningful rehabilitation for over two million Americans living behind bars. Through the stories of the students and their families, we discover many dropped out of high school before being incarcerated and never imagined they would go to college. During four years of study, however, they become accomplished scholars, beat the Harvard debating team, reckon with their pasts and discover how truly transformative education can be.
The debate team faces West Point and Harvard. Seniors complete their 100-paged thesis projects. Giovannie is sent to the Special Housing Unit and might not finish his project. Students at Taconic and Eastern receive their degrees at graduation.
Documentary examining how the National Enquirer became the most infamous tabloid in America by churning out obscene stories that blur the lines between truth and fiction
A Storyville documentary that lays bare Chechnya's deadly war against its gay citizens and which reveals the bravery of those running rescue missions to protect the republic's LGBTQ community.
A Storyvile documentary that looks at the tough reality of running for politics in a country riven by corruption and tribal factionalism through the story of Boniface 'Softie' Mwangi.
Documentary exploring the campaign to save the US's last standing roller rinks from closure against a backdrop of growing racial tension. The film reveals the story of underground subculture that has grown up around these venues and given rise to some of the world's greatest musical talent - but has itself remained virtually unknown to the mainstream.
At a time when drug money fuelled the sport known in the underworld as "Narco-soccer", the fates of Andres Escobar, the inspirational captain of Colombia's Nacional, and Pablo Escobar, the notorious leader of the Medellin cartel, were permanently linked. When Andres was murdered 10 days after scoring an own goal against the USA in the first round of the 1994 World Cup, it cost the country more than a shot at the title.
A real-life undercover thriller about two ordinary men who embark on an outrageously dangerous ten-year mission to penetrate the world's most secretive and brutal dictatorship: North Korea.
Pepe the Frog started life in 2005 as a cute cartoon character in Boy’s Club, an American indie comic on Myspace. Today, he is known as an international hate symbol after being hijacked by the alt-right. Pepe the Frog: Feels Good Man follows Pepe’s creator, artist Matt Furie, as he fights to bring back his lovable comic-book character from the dark forces who stole him. As the internet exploded, memes of the benign and chill frog-dude started sweeping the internet with lightning speed. Once his image found its way into controversial online community 4chan – the anonymous, anything-goes forum rife with misogyny and racism - there was no turning back. Pepe re-emerged from the darkest corner of the internet decorated with swastikas and spewing racist slurs. He was even caught up in Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.
A Storyville documentary that tells the dramatic story of the devastating fire at Notre-Dame Cathedral on 15 April 2019. Blow by blow, it follows the team of brave firefighters - from the men and women on the frontline to the brigade chief - as they face the epic responsibility of saving one of the city's most emblematic and much–loved symbols from burning to the ground. As well as on-the-ground helmet cam and drone footage of the unfolding, dramatic events, the film-makers – the Naudet Brothers – who famously recorded the collapse of the Twin Towers on 9/11 in New York – were themselves at the scene to record a moment in history in their own capital city. In one tense moment, after the collapse of the spire, we are inside the situation room where President Macron must decide whether to risk the lives of 40 firefighters by sending them into the burning towers to stop the fire bringing total devastation to the building. This observational footage is intercut with the testimony of the firefighters themselves, whose pride and heroic dignity in fulfilling their roles cannot fail to bring a viewer to tears.
A mysterious fugitive, a hijacked airplane and a daring mid-air escape. This is the extraordinary, real-life tale of one of the greatest unsolved heists in American history and a case that has taunted the FBI for decades. This documentary brings the stories of the four possible suspects to life through candid testimony, archive footage and stylised drama. Each account is gripping and highly plausible. But who is telling the truth, who is lying and, ultimately, who is DB Cooper?
An intimate, personal and surprisingly life-affirming story with a rare illness, Guillain-Barré syndrome, at its heart. Director Xavier Alford is finally confronting an illness he has been hiding from family, close friends and even himself. Locked In: Breaking the Silence follows him trying to make sense of the mysterious illness that has taken over his life in the only way he knows how - by making a film about it. What is it like to get a diagnosis of an incredibly rare condition that turns your whole world upside down? No-one can tell you why or how you got it, not even doctors. No-one knows how to beat it and there is no cure. In a time when much of the world is experiencing lockdown, Locked In offers, with unflinching positivity, a fresh perspective on coping mechanisms and the recovery from virus-related diseases.
A tale of capitalism and opportunism run amok - complete with gangsters, strippers and live bears serving beer on a hockey rink in Moscow. Shortly after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Pittsburgh Penguins and the famed Red Army hockey team formed a joint venture that showed that anything was possible in the new Russia. Eccentric marketing whiz Steve Warshaw is sent to Russia and tasked with transforming the team into the greatest show in Moscow. He takes the viewer on a bizarre journey, highlighting a pivotal moment in US-Russia relations in a lawless era when oligarchs made their fortunes and multiple murders went unsolved.
A Storyville documentary that revisits the 1994 scandal that embroiled competing US Olympic figure skaters Nancy Kerrigan and Tonya Harding.
Flying high above Los Angeles in a whirling news helicopter, Marika Gerrard and Zoey Tur (then known as Bob) spent the 80s and 90s capturing the city’s most epic breaking news stories. Before the advent of the 24-hour news cycle, this daring husband-and-wife team invested in a helicopter and pilot’s licence, taking their cameras to the sky and changing broadcast news forever. The cameras not only captured the adrenaline of live news culture, but also the subsequent strain on their relationship and an identity struggle that eventually culminated in a major life transition for Zoey. A wholly unique take on the story of Los Angeles, told through stunning aerial footage and remarkable home videos, Whirlybird reframes many of the city’s pivotal moments of the 1990s, including the OJ Simpson pursuit and the 1992 riots.
After finding a broken surfboard on his local beach, Jhonny Guerrero, a teenager from one of Peru’s toughest barrios, sets his heart on becoming a professional surfer. With his father in prison for armed robbery and a mother struggling to feed and clothe his younger brother, the sea is his escape. When Jhonny is spotted by Peru’s most successful surf champion, Sofia Mulanovich, he is taken under her wing and given a chance to succeed. Yet the pressure to do so weighs hard. Without his dad around, the lure of his friends and the risks of life in the barrios threaten to jeopardise everything he has worked for. When he’s injured outside a nightclub in a drive-by shooting, Jhonny is forced to decide once and for all which path to take.
This investigative Storyville documentary takes us inside the dark and mysterious world of spies, special forces and political insiders as they race to find Colonel Muammar Gaddafi’s billions in a dangerous treasure hunt. In life, the Libyan leader ruled with an iron fist for 42 years and treated Libya’s wealth as his own. He died the richest man on the planet with a fortune of $150 billion. A dictatorial leader in life, the spell of Gaddafi’s money remained in place after his death, triggering a ruthless race to find his missing billions. Two journalists pick up the trail of a mysterious $12.5 billion in cash, flown out of Libya in the dead of night just months before Gaddafi’s demise. In South Africa, they discover an eyewitness who seems to know all about the money. His testimony changes everything, but before he can provide them with proof the story takes a sinister twist, the first of many.
Dark Secrets of a Trillion Dollar Island: Garenne tells the extraordinary story of the child abuse scandal that erupted on the idyllic island of Jersey in 2007. For a long time, the victims’ voices had remained unheard, but when widespread allegations of sexual abuse resurfaced in the late 2000s, Jersey’s then health minister Stuart Syvret spoke out about the scale of this historic child abuse and the damage done to the victims. Syvret’s words sparked a moment of reckoning for the small community, whose leaders were determined to protect the island’s reputation, home to a trillion dollars in offshore investment. This discreet offshore tax haven found itself in the middle of a major police investigation as the world’s media descended on the island, creating a media circus. In the midst of all this, the community became divided, with one group fearful that the scandal would drive investors away, and another demanding justice for the victims.
A recently widowed 83-year-old goes undercover in a Chilean nursing home in a warm-hearted and surprising look at age, isolation and loneliness. Sergio is a Chilean spy - sort of. At least, he is offered the role of one after a casting session organised by Detective Romulo, a private investigator who needs a credible mole to infiltrate a retirement home. Romulo’s client, the concerned daughter of a resident, suspects her mother is being abused and hires him to find out what is really happening. However, Sergio is 83, not 007, and not an easy trainee when it comes to technology and spying techniques. But he is a keen student, looking for ways to distract himself after recently losing his wife. What could be a better distraction than some undercover spy action? While gathering intelligence, Sergio grows close to several residents and realises that the truth beneath the surface is not what anyone had suspected.
In 2015, a fire at a nightclub in Bucharest, Romania, leaves 27 dead and 180 injured. Soon afterwards, the burn victims recovering in hospital - from seemingly non-life-threatening injuries - begin dying too. A doctor at the heart of the story acts as whistleblower to a team of journalists, who in turn uncover outrageous corruption in Romania’s hospitals that goes all the way to the top. One revelation leads to another as the journalists begin to find fraud on a vast scale in the healthcare system. When a new health minister is appointed, the journalists follow his attempts, in the face of monumental obstacles, to reform a system riddled with corruption. Oscar-shortlisted and Bafta-longlisted for best documentary, Collective: Unravelling a Scandal examines the explosive impact of investigative journalism.
A sensitive and moving account of a year in the life of Sasha, a seven-year-old French girl assigned male at birth, and her family's fight for her acceptance. The film follows her parents as they come to terms with their daughter's gender dysmorphia and reveals how Sasha is affected by the societal norms that make it far from easy for her to experience childhood in the same way as most of her peers.
A Storyville documentary in which three parents in the US talk about what it is like to have a child who was not the victim of a high school shooting but its perpetrator.
A Storyville documentary about the rise and fall of the former superstar CEO of Nissan, from celebrated industry leader to wanted fugitive.
This Storyville documentary is granted rare access to globally trending megachurch Hillsong, where key church figures and followers shed light on the organisation's current scandals.
A portrait of the last living generation of everyday people to participate in the Third Reich. Men and women ranging from former SS officers to children who grew up in Hitler's Germany speak for the first time about their memories and perceptions of some of the greatest crimes in human history
A Storyville documentary. A woman's Holocaust memoir took the world by storm, but a fallout with her publisher revealed an audacious deception created to hide a darker truth.
A Storyville documentary that follows Nelson Chamisa's campaign to restore democracy to Zimbabwe. Can a free, fair and transparent election truly be possible?
A Storyville documentary that follows students at San Francisco's Lowell High School as they navigate their way through the highly competitive US university application process.
In Putin’s Russia, former music radio producer Natasha Sindeeva dreams of becoming famous and decides to build her own TV station to focus on pop culture. Tango with Putin charts Natasha’s journey, from building the station, Dozhd, to recruiting an open-minded team of outcasts who find themselves reporting on some of the biggest and most controversial stories of the day while trying to protect independent journalism in their country.
In a cluttered news landscape dominated by men, a group of women set up India’s only newspaper run entirely by women. All of them are from the lowest caste, Dalit, and are expected to fail, but instead they stir a revolution. This Oscar-nominated film follows chief reporter Meera and her team of journalists as they break with tradition to work on the frontlines of India’s biggest issues.
A Storyville documentary that follows a year in the life of a 10-year-old Ukrainian boy during the war in Donbas.
Single mother Anna and her four children are living under siege in Ukraine in 2019. Eldest daughter Mira dreams of becoming a film-maker and so, as bombs descend on neighbouring homes, she and her siblings construct, act in, and edit a film about their lives in the war zone. The Earth Is Blue as an Orange observes the family as they cope with war by using their cameras to create meaning out of a meaningless conflict.
Deep in the forests of Piedmont, Italy, a handful of elderly men hunt for the rare and expensive white Alba truffle. This award-winning film follows these truffle hunters, who live and work alongside their cherished dogs in an eccentric world, guided by a secret culture and a training passed down through the generations.
In August 2020, a plane travelling from Siberia to Moscow made an emergency landing. One of its passengers, Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, was deathly ill. Taken to a local Siberian hospital and eventually evacuated to Berlin, doctors there confirmed that he had been poisoned with Novichok, a nerve agent implicated in attacks on other opponents of the Russian government. President Vladimir Putin immediately cast doubt on the findings and denied any involvement.
A compelling coming-of-age story of four friends, sharing important turning points in their lives as they transition to a new gender. Nic, Leo, Raff and Andrea meet in Bologna, where each of them is going through their gender transition. Their discussions gently revolve around their personal experiences, providing a unique insider's look at hormones, surgery, the longing for facial hair and the legal hurdles faced by transgender people.
Documentary that tells the little-known story of sports legend Arthur Ashe off the tennis court. Known to most on account of his stellar sports career – he became the first black man to win Wimbledon in 1975 – the film uncovers Ashe's work as a social activist, a role that embraced not only the civil rights movement in the US and African Americans but all oppressed peoples throughout the world.
On 13 January 2018, Hawaiians were suddenly confronted by an urgent nuclear threat. This was the text message they received from their country's emergency management agency: Ballistic missile threat inbound to Hawaii. Seek immediate shelter. This is not a drill. This documentary captures the voices of the people who experienced the events of that day, viscerally recreating what happened during the 38 minutes they had to react and make impossible decisions in the face of a possible nuclear catastrophe.
Mikhail Gorbachev helped to shape the 20th century, being the architect of glasnost and perestroika. His actions brought down the Berlin Wall, giving countries of the former Soviet Union a chance to break away and be free. But while to many in the west he remains a hero, in his own country Gorbachev is condemned for destroying the Soviet empire. This film is an intimate portrait of the former Russian leader in his final years, before his death in August 2022, living alone in an empty house outside Moscow and carrying the burdens of his past.
A snapshot of one day in a country under siege. Filmed on 14 March 2022, the 2,944th day of the Russian-Ukrainian war, by a collective of Ukrainian film-makers who wanted to document life in Kyiv for ordinary civilians, citizens-turned-activists and groups of territorial defence soldiers. Written and directed by Volodymyr Tykhyy and the Babylon 13 Collective.
Controversial Afghan pop star and activist Aryana Sayeed mentors young hopefuls as they prepare to appear on their country's hit TV show Afghan Star. With two young women on the verge of being named the show's first ever female winners, the Taliban take over and their lifelong dreams of becoming pop stars are suddenly under threat.
Hla and Nyo Nyo live in a country torn by conflict. Hla is a Buddhist and the owner of an under-resourced medical clinic in western Myanmar, where the Rohingya (a Muslim minority community) are persecuted and denied basic rights. Nyo Nyo is a Rohingya and an apprentice midwife who acts as assistant and translator at the clinic.
In 2014, following a tip-off, a group of journalists exposed a troubled history for indigenous Sámi women, men and children in Norway. It revealed generations of negligence, abuse and suffering, supported by a mass of evidence and previously unseen archival footage.
On 3 June 1991 at 3.18pm, a pyroclastic flow erupted from Mount Unzen in Japan. A cloud of superheated gases and particles descended at more than 100mph from the peak of the volcano, consuming everything in its path.
Tears turn to soap bubbles, and hugs turn to fights, in this award-winning film about an orphanage in eastern Ukraine, filmed before Russia’s invasion in February 2022. In a large ramshackle house near the front line in war-torn eastern Ukraine, a group of Ukrainian women run an orphanage. Children whose homes have been shattered by poverty, violence and alcohol can safely stay there for up to nine months until a decision is made on whether to return them home, foster them or move them to another orphanage. When one child checks out of the orphanage, a new one always checks in, missing their parents. Children like Kolya, who smokes cigarettes on the sly, steals, and draws tattoos on his arms, but who also looks after his younger siblings before collapsing, crying, into his drunk mother’s arms.
A bunch of amateur film-makers, with nothing left to lose, tackle one of Hollywood's greatest musicals in order to save their beloved Bradford Film Club.
Three minutes of footage, filmed in 1938, is all that remains of the Jewish community of Nasielsk, Poland. Storyville unravels the tales hidden within the celluloid.
A Storyville documentary in which Diane and Kate reminisce about their experiences of Casa Susanna, a holiday home for cross-dressers in America in the 1950s and 60s.
investigation of Pegasus spyware. Sold to governments around the world by Israeli company NSO Group and used on journalists, activists and others, including both the wife and fiancée of Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi.
Despite the huge risks, two Russian film-makers have been filming the impact of the invasion of Ukraine in their country. Many thousands have fled. Those that have stayed have had to make a choice – oppose the war, support it, or stay silent.
A Storyville documentary that explores the process of creating sex scenes in Hollywood, the toll on those involved in filming them, and the impact such images have on women and girls in the real world. The film features candid interviews with actors and creators, including Jane Fonda, Rosanna Arquette, Joey Soloway, Angela Robinson, Karyn Kusama, Rose McGowan, Alexandra Billings, Emily Meade and David Simon, and highlights the voices of women who have spoken out against abusive behaviour on set and were punished for it.
From living with incurable bowel cancer, to receiving a damehood, to her untimely death, this archive-based feature documentary details the extraordinary last five years of Deborah James's life.
A Storyville documentary about two women who fall in love in the Ravensbrück concentration camp.
A Storyville documentary about the violent five-day standoff between inmates and law enforcement which gripped America in 1971.
UK artist and film-maker Lisa Selby turns the camera on herself as she tries to understand her relationship with her late mother and her partner, both heroin addicts.
Access to the closed Jewish Hasidic Breslov community in Israel reveals shocking stories of violence and sexual abuse that emerge after the leader’s death.
A Storyville documentary. Animated film based on the voice notes that two young Afghani women, Raha and Marwa, exchanged in the months that followed the Taliban's return to power in 2021.
Ukrainian filmmaker Igor Ivanko attempts to record the recollections of his grandfather, renowned cinematographer Leonid Burlaka, before they faded into oblivion.
For five teenagers living in the conflict-ridden Donbas region of Ukraine, a Himalayan expedition provides a brief escape from reality. A portrait of a generation that, in spite of everything, is able to recognise and celebrate the fragile beauty of life.
In early 2022, Russian troops withdrew from Bucha, leaving Ukrainian citizens to re-build their lives while war rages on. Heart-rending stories of loss, hope, and resistance.
The story of vinyl – past and present – taking in the fandom, the production and sound. Plus, how the recent record renaissance has brought new fans to a classic format.
A tale of resolute faith and devoted fandom. Jeremy Deller and Nick Abrahams capture the touching, rebellious and bizarre side of what it means to love a band and their music.
Based on the acclaimed English National Ballet production, choreographed by Akram Khan and directed by Academy Award-winning director Asif Kapadia (Senna, Amy, The Warrior), Creature is a genre-busting collaboration that fuses film, contemporary dance and music in an immersive and visceral film. In an abandoned arctic research station, Creature (Jeffrey Cirio) is unknowingly enlisted into an experimental military programme. While enduring extreme conditions, Creature falls in love with Marie (Erina Takahashi) a compassionate cleaner who also has the unwanted attention of the station’s violent mayor.
A gut-wrenching glimpse of the brutal realities of life and death on the Eastern front in Ukraine's fight to keep back Russian invaders.
Self-proclaimed 'bopstar' Lizzo is at the height of her music career, with six Grammy nominations and a successful international tour under her belt, but, as she reveals in Love, Lizzo, life hasn’t always been this glamorous. Behind Lizzo’s (also known as Melissa Jefferson) confident and infectious persona is a young woman who deals with the same issues as her fans around the world: insecurity, rejection, and heartbreak. In this documentary, Lizzo details the ten-year music journey that began in a Detroit, Michigan, church and has led her to selling out arenas across the world.
A Storyville documentary looking at the history and impact of grime.
A Storyville documentary. Artificial intelligence now permeates every aspect of our lives, but only a handful of people have any control over its influence on our world. With unique access to some of the most powerful pioneers of the AI revolution, iHuman asks whether we know the limits of what artificial intelligence is capable of and its true impact.
A Storyville documentary. Brave account of how the Jewish National Fund acquired land in Palestine before and after the creation of the State of Israel.
A Storyville documentary following two identical twins in their twentieth year together. Benjamin and Joshua confront the limits imposed on them by their learning disability.
In the aftermath of the war in Afghanistan, western troops were part of a Nato force, working with the then-new Afghan authorities to help ‘win the hearts and minds’ of locals, with Danish and British troops deployed in the key southern province of Helmand. In this Storyville film, a former Danish soldier turned film-maker goes back to Musa Qala, the capital of Helmand, to investigate allegations that the Afghan police were abusing young boys and men when the Danish and British were in control. With access to the-then local chief of police, to former members of the military and to some of the alleged victims, this is a powerful and painful exploration that tries to shed light on why western forces didn’t win the hearts and minds of local people.
What would make a middle-class Dutch woman want to join a revolutionary struggle thousands of miles from home? This Storyville film tells the story of Tanja Nijmeijer, the former teacher who became a member of the Colombian FARC rebel group, rising to become one of its most senior leaders and later a campaigner for peace.
A Storyville documentary that shows London from an exhilarating perspective. A group of young people express themselves through biking as an alternative to gang culture.
A Storyville documentary that follows the fierce sporting rivalry between the two best teams, England and France, and their journeys in the 2021 Wheelchair Rugby League World Cup.
Twenty-five years ago, Viagra kick-started the second sexual revolution and a controversy unlike any drug before it. From Wales to New York, this is the big story of the little blue pill.
A Storyville documentary that goes behind the scenes of the International Chopin Piano Competition, one of the most prestigious competitions in classical music.
This epic nature documentary follows in the footsteps of the director’s 85-year-old father as he hikes during all four seasons through raw and magnificent meditative landscapes in the mighty Oldedalen valley in Nordfjord in western Norway.
Hundreds of Nazi war criminals fled to Australia after World War Two hoping to start over and avoid prosecution. Not all of them found the refuge they had sought; quite a few died prematurely in freak accidents or by taking their own lives, or at least that was how their deaths were reported. In this real-life murder mystery, three Australian Jewish brothers investigate whether their father and uncle, the sole survivors of a large Eastern European family, may have been involved in these mysterious deaths.
A Storyville documentary that takes a suspenseful, immersive look at the lengths people go to to gain freedom, following various individuals as they attempt to flee North Korea.
A Storyville documentary that follows a college student's investigation after she discovers that her face has been digitally altered to appear in online hardcore porn videos.
A Storyville documentary that offers a moving portrait of unconditional love and devotion. A Chilean political journalist is cared for by his wife after his Alzheimer’s diagnosis.
A Storyville documentary that explores, in intimate detail, state surveillance and digital social control in China by following the experiences of two families and a journalist.
Documentary in which the survivors of a famous plane crash relive their experiences 30 years later. In 1972, a student rugby team boarded a small plane in Montevideo to fly to Chile, but a storm brought their plane down in the high Andes, leaving the survivors stranded on a remote glacier. Ill-equipped, with no food and little hope of rescue, the survivors faced extreme hardship and many life or death situations, including the agonising decision to eat the flesh of those killed in the crash.
The War Room presents a compelling behind the scenes account of the 1992 US Presidential campaign of the then relatively unknown Democratic hopeful Bill Clinton. The film's stars are spin doctors George Stephanopoulous and James Carville, communications director and campaign strategist respectively, completely different in background and personality, but singular in mission. The War Room, released in 1993, follows their rollercoaster ride to Election Day in a documentary classic about the selling of a President.
The people of the Faroe Islands believe that pilot whale hunting is vital to their way of life, but when a local professor makes a discovery about the effects of marine pollution, environmental changes threaten to change the community and their way of life forever.
In a tiny remote Cuban fishing village, where the shops are empty and basic transportation is non-existent, everyone is utterly dependent on the sea and many have drowned trying to leave. This is the story of one young woman, longing for a better life, who has tried to escape before and now wants to try again.
