Storyville
Showcasing the best in international documentaries, Storyville has developed an enviable reputation since its inception more than a decade ago. Screening over 340 films, from some 70 different countries, the strand has garnered a staggering array of awards: five Oscars, 15 Griersons, three Peabodys and two International Emmys. In true, unique, Storyville style, the new series promises to deliver the strand's usual eclectic mix of compelling stories from across the globe.
Genre: Documentary
Country: United Kingdom
Type: tv
Season: 1
Episode: 1
Duration: 1h 25m
Release: 1997
Rating: 7.6
Season 1 - Storyville
2008-05-27
"First in a four-part series looking at China's largest restaurant looks at what it takes to run a successful restaurant business in China."
"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."
1997-11-29
"Victor Kossakovsky searched obsessively for inhabitants of St. Petersburg who were born on Wednesday 19 July 1961, his own birthday, in former Leningrad. Fifty-one women and fifty men fitted the profile. In the course of time a few of these 101 people had died, others had moved to another community or abroad. But in 1995 Kossakovsky managed to capture on film all seventy remaining residents, in the street, at work or simply at home. While doing so he spent time with doctors and patients, entertainers and businessmen, construction workers and homeless people. In his unorthodox style Kossakovsky has produced a beautiful profile of people in their thirties in St. Petersburg."
2002-06-24
"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."
2002-07-11
"What are the forces that shape and propel American militarism? This award-winning film provides an inside look at the anatomy of the American war machine.\n\nWhy We Fight is the provocative new documentary from acclaimed filmmaker Eugene Jarecki (The Trials of Henry Kissinger) and winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival.\n\nNamed after the series of short films by legendary director Frank Capra that explored America\u2019s reasons for entering World War II, Why We Fight surveys a half-century of military conflicts, asking how \u2013 and answering why \u2013 a nation of, by and for the people has become the savings-and-loan of a government system whose survival depends on an Orwellian state of constant war."
Season 2 - Storyville
1998-01-03
"A look at Communist musicals that strove to be ideologically correct - and entertaining, besides."
1998-05-24
"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.\n\nIn 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."
1998-10-31
"After rocker Kurt Cobain's death, ruled a suicide, a film crew arrives in Seattle to make a documentary. Director Nick Broomfield talks to lots of people: Cobain's aunt who provides home movies and recordings, the estranged father of Cobain's widow Courtney Love, an L.A. private investigator who worked for Love, a nanny for Kurt and Courtney's child, friends and lovers of both, and others. Although Love won't talk to him and his inquiries lose him financial backing, he comes to believe the coroner's verdict. Portraits emerge: a shy, slight Kurt, weary of touring, embarrassed by fame, hooked on heroin; an out-going Courtney, dramatic, controlling, moving from groupie to star."
1998-10-31
"Portrait of the artist as a young man. In spring, 1965, Bob Dylan, 23, a pixyish troubador, spends three weeks in England. Pennebaker's camera follows him from airport to hall, from hotel room to public house, from conversation to concert. Joan Baez and Donovan, among others, are on hand. It's the period when Dylan is shifting from acoustic to electric, a transition that not all fans, including Baez, applaud. From the opening sequence of Dylan holding up words to the soundtrack's \"Subterranean Homesick Blues,\" Dylan is playful and enigmatic."
1998-11-14
"444 Days offers a detailed insight into the troubled history between the USA and Iran, telling the story of the 1979 hostage crisis at the American Embassy in Tehran. On 4 November 1979, hundreds of Islamic students occupied the Embassy, taking 52 US diplomats hostage and beginning a siege that would topple a president. Featuring exclusive interviews with captors and victims, 444 Days delivers a gripping account of the crisis as it unfolded."
1998-11-21
"Year of the Dogs is a documentary detailing the turbulent 1996 season of the Australian Football League (AFL) team Footscray Football Club (now Western Bulldogs)."
1998-11-28
"A reassessment of the tragedy at Waco that left 76 members of the Branch Davidian religious sect dead."
1998-12-05
"This documentary, made by several of the Dardenne Brothers regular collaborators, tells the story of a group of Romanian teenagers living on the streets of Bucharest, particularly focusing on 'Gigi' and his pregnant girlfriend 'Monica'. We watch their struggles, listen to their ambitions and witness their lives unfold as their child is born and they must find a way to support her and themselves.\n\nThis is an uncompromising documentary, that shows the hardships its characters are facing in graphic detail, but without commentary or sentiment. Much like the Dardenne's feature films, the characters and situations are left to speak for themselves and it's hard not to be emotionally effected."
1998-12-21
"A chronicle of the ups and downs that occur during the rehearsals and previews process of Ken Ludwig's Broadway comedy \"Moon Over Buffalo\"."
Season 6 - Storyville
2002-05-28
"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."
2002-06-24
"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."
2002-07-11
"What are the forces that shape and propel American militarism? This award-winning film provides an inside look at the anatomy of the American war machine.\n\nWhy We Fight is the provocative new documentary from acclaimed filmmaker Eugene Jarecki (The Trials of Henry Kissinger) and winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival.\n\nNamed after the series of short films by legendary director Frank Capra that explored America\u2019s reasons for entering World War II, Why We Fight surveys a half-century of military conflicts, asking how \u2013 and answering why \u2013 a nation of, by and for the people has become the savings-and-loan of a government system whose survival depends on an Orwellian state of constant war."
Season 7 - Storyville
Season 8 - Storyville
2004-05-10
"Accused #1: Nelson Mandela is a 2004 documentary TV film directed by Pascale Lamche."
Season 9 - Storyville
2005-02-08
"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."
2005-05-05
"Archive footage and extracts from Goebbels' voluminous diaries combine to provide a vivid insight into the mind of Hitler's propaganda minister."
Season 10 - Storyville
2006-02-21
"Now that global warming is officially acknowledged, the world's eyes are on which country will be the first to sink beneath the waves. A candidate is Tuvalu, an island in the midst of the Pacific and home to 11,000 inhabitants. This tiny island sold its internet domain name, .tv, to a Californian company for $50 million, but now global warming is causing the island to sink. How are they spending the windfall?"
2006-03-26
"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."
2006-10-02
"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."
Season 11 - Storyville
2007-10-23
"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."
2007-03-22
"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."
2007-04-24
"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."
2007-05-01
"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."
2007-05-22
"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."
2007-05-29
"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."
2007-06-04
"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."
2007-06-05
"David Grubin's probing and perceptive biography reassesses the remarkable and tragic life of Bobby Kennedy, whose early life was spent in the shadow of his elder brother John. After JFK's assassination, he discovered his own identity in the forefront of American politics before his career was also tragically curtailed by an assassin's bullet."
2007-06-05
"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."
2007-06-06
"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."
2007-06-07
"Alexandra Pelosi's informal portrait of George W Bush, filmed over nearly a year as she followed the then president-to-be as part of the press corps travelling with him on planes and buses. She learns a lot about the man, and asks whether it is possible to spend so much time with someone without attaining any degree of intimacy."
2007-06-08
"What are the forces that shape and propel American militarism? This award-winning film provides an inside look at the anatomy of the American war machine. Why We Fight is the provocative new documentary from acclaimed filmmaker Eugene Jarecki (The Trials of Henry Kissinger) and winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival. Named after the series of short films by legendary director Frank Capra that explored America\u2019s reasons for entering World War II, Why We Fight surveys a half-century of military conflicts, asking how \u2013 and answering why \u2013 a nation of, by and for the people has become the savings-and-loan of a government system whose survival depends on an Orwellian state of constant war."
2007-06-09
"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."
2007-06-19
"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."
2007-06-26
"Mark Kidel's film looks at the unique licensed brothels of Paris which remained a central part of French life until their closure in 1946."
2007-06-27
"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"
2007-06-27
"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."
2007-07-04
"Four-part series which goes inside the closed world of Western corporate outsourcing in the Indian town of Chennai. It's based around the 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 never sleeps and is always asking his workers for more effort."
2007-07-11
"Four-part series which goes inside the closed world of Western corporate outsourcing in the Indian town of Chennai. It's based around the 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 never sleeps and is always asking his workers for more effort."
2007-07-15
"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."
2007-08-05
"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."
2007-08-16
"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."
2007-08-29
"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."
2007-10-07
"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?"
2007-10-08
"Following Belfast artist Noel Murphy as he completes a commission to paint all 108 members of the Northern Ireland Assembly.\n\nOne of eleven Storyville documentaries screened as part of the worldwide Why Democracy? event."
2007-10-10
"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.\n\nOne of eleven Storyville documentaries screened as part of the worldwide Why Democracy? event."
2007-10-15
"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.\n\nOne of eleven Storyville documentaries screened as part of the worldwide Why Democracy? event."
2007-10-16
"Nicolas Philibert's documentary portrait of life in a tiny one-class primary school in the remote hills of France's Auvergne. A dedicated and inspirational teacher guides a class of just 13 pupils, aged from four upwards, through the delicate process of learning and growing up."
2007-10-23
"Documentary by Albert and David Maysles recalling the events surrounding a free concert by the Rolling Stones at the Altamont Speedway outside San Francisco in 1969. Worried about the security, the Stones asked the Hell's Angels to keep order for them, but the day ended tragically as violence broke out and a fan was killed."
2007-10-30
"Behind the scenes at FC Barcelona, during their turbulent 2003\/04 season, as a new management team try to claw the club out of debt and towards glory. Barca is a study of Barcelona Football Club from the inside, during one of its more traumatic years. This is a film about the business of football - you will see the players but ultimately you spend far more time with the people who do the contracts, figure out whether the club is going bust or not, and show up to every match with a sense of pride that is usually reserved for bright children at school. Barca is a rarity among football clubs, in the sense that its members and fans are also its shareholders. It's run by an attractive oligarchy of forty-something Catalan businessmen. Watch the chorizo consumption in the film - see how the managerial class get fatter and fatter as the season goes on, and as Barca manages to rescue itself from disaster, becoming a first-rate club again. Wonderful."
2007-10-31
"Documentary telling the story of legendary Brazilian footballers Pele and Garrincha, whose emergence following Brazil's defeat at home in the 1950 World Cup Final heralded the dawn of a golden age of football for the country. But while one man became known as the world's greatest footballer, the other died a broken alcoholic at the age of 49."
2007-11-06
"Documentary telling the story of the chaotic post-Soviet transition in Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia, through culture clash, electricity disconnections and blackouts. AES Corp - an American global power company - struggles to train the formerly communist populace that, in this new world, customers must pay for their electricity, while the Georgians devise ever more clever ways to get it for free."
2007-11-06
"Film-maker Viktor Kossakovsky paints a revealing portrait of a generation growing up in a changing Russia. He returns to Leningrad to trace contemporaries and record the experience of a generation that grew up under Communism, only to encounter in adulthood the chaos of contemporary Russia."
2007-11-13
"Documentary about the two men who became the leaders of the terrorist cell that committed the Madrid bombings of 2004, Europe's worst ever terrorist atrocity, in which 191 people died and nearly 2,000 were injured. The film looks at the connection between the worlds of religious extremism and the drug-dealing criminal underworld, the untold religious schism in the mosques of Spain and Europe, and how individuals are connected to Al Qaeda's ideology."
2007-11-20
"Prize-winning documentary following two high-school friends over the course of a year as they begin an internet startup. A gripping tale of big money, suspense and intrigue."
2007-11-21
"Documentary about the murders of six Russian journalists between 1995 and 2003 and the subsequent police investigation which some, including human rights lawyer Karen Nersisyan have seen as a cover up. The film also charts a Moscow newspaper's battle to maintain a critical voice in contemporary Russia."
2007-11-22
"Ben Lewis's documentary tells the real history of Communism through the jokes told by ordinary people about the oppressive Communist regimes of the Soviet Union and its satellites. Jokes became the language of truth in a society denied free speech and confronted daily with the gap between political propaganda and reality."
2007-11-27
"444 Days offers a detailed insight into the troubled history between the USA and Iran, telling the story of the 1979 hostage crisis at the American Embassy in Tehran. On 4 November 1979, hundreds of Islamic students occupied the Embassy, taking 52 US diplomats hostage and beginning a siege that would topple a president. Featuring exclusive interviews with captors and victims, 444 Days delivers a gripping account of the crisis as it unfolded."
2007-12-10
"A Storyville documentary first broadcast on 24 November 2003. Director Leslie Woodhead recalls his experiences as a 19-year-old National Serviceman in the late 1950s when he was recruited for secret Russian language training. Along with 5,000 other young conscripts he became a sleuth on the front line of the Cold War in Berlin, listening in on Soviet pilots, army units and naval exercises. Includes interviews with Alan Bennett and Michael Frayn, who were part of the same project."
2007-12-18
"Documentary about 82-year-old bachelor Vig, who has never known love, and Sister Amvrosija, a young Russian nun, who by chance becomes part of his life. 50 years ago Vig bought Hesbjerg Castle, in the Danish countryside, with the intention of turning it into a monastery. Now he is about to realise his dream, with a group of Russian Orthodox nuns on their way. But the nuns have plans of their own, and Vig must realise that the road to fulfilment is different from that which he had imagined."
Season 12 - Storyville
2008-01-22
"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."
2008-01-30
"Acclaimed film comprising an extended interview with 81-year-old Traudl Junge, who recalls her role as Adolf Hitler's personal secretary during his final years."
2008-02-24
"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."
2008-03-04
"Documentary about celebrated Malian photographer Malick Sidibe, whose iconic images of his country from the late 1950s through to the 1970s captured the carefree spirit of his generation asserting their freedom after independence, up until an Islamic coup ushered in years of military dictatorship. The filmmakers travel to Malick Sidibe's studio in Bamako to witness him at work and meet many of the subjects of his earlier photographs, whose personal stories also tell the history of Mali."
2008-03-09
"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."
2008-03-30
"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."
2008-05-15
"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."
2008-05-21
"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."
2008-07-27
"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."
2008-09-22
"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."
Season 13 - Storyville
2009-01-07
"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.\n\nTheir 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."
2009-01-21
"Documentary telling the strange story of fashion designer Gianni Versace, a household name and designer to the stars, who was murdered on the steps of his Miami mansion in 1997."
2009-02-02
"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."
2009-02-09
"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.\n\nThis 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."
2009-02-14
"Director Nahid Persson follows the lives of two Iranian women whose misfortunes have landed them in the same run-down building. Their husbands are serving long prison sentences, both have been left to look after their young children and both have had to resort to prostitution to support their heroin habits.\n\nPersson's sympathetic portrait follows them as they struggle to create a better life for themselves and their children."
2009-02-16
"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."
2009-02-23
"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.\n\nThe group is made up of urban youths, most of whom have never been abroad before. There is a devout Christian, a cheeky scouser, a failed footballer, a pampered teen and an asylum seeker from Somalia. These boys, ranging in age from 17 to 22, represent the diversity and attitude of British youth today. For them, Maradona epitomises everything they love about football, both the creator of their art and their inspiration during hard times in their lives. Along the way they find that it wasn't just Diego they were searching for, but something inside themselves as well."
2009-03-02
"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.\n\nIn 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"
2009-03-07
"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."
2009-03-09
"Documentary about two children who have been directly affected by wars in their respective countries.\n\nSix-year-old Murtaza took a landmine home to play with and it blew up in his hand, a familiar story in Afghanistan where one child is killed or injured every day by unexploded munitions.\n\nFifteen-year-old Yagoub suffers from rheumatic heart disease, which if left untreated is life-threatening. Refugees from Sudan's 20 years of unrest, his family are unable to pay for treatment at the local hospital, giving him little more than six months to live.\n\nThis moving film follows the stories of these two resilient boys and the efforts of the remarkable Italian NGO Emergency to give them back their futures."
2009-04-17
"Documentary, made by her great niece, about the British Jewish baroness who fell in love with the jazz genius Thelonious Monk.\n\nPannonica 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.\n\nHelen 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."
2009-05-11
"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.\n\nThis 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.\n\nWill the team overcome their inexperience and hold their own against the sarcastic English, meticulous Singaporeans and ferocious Australians, all with years of practice at reducing lesser teams to tears? How will they deal with America, what will they make of Team Israel, and are they worldly enough to triumph?"
2009-05-18
"Nati Baratz's documentary chronicles a former disciple's search for his reincarnated Tibetan master.\n\nAfter 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.\n\nHis search crosses countries, passing through mountains and villages that appear to have remained unchanged for hundreds of years. Assisted by astrology, signs from dreams and the whispers of villagers, Tenzin travels by helicopter, mule and foot. When he comes upon an apparent contender, the documentary accompanies Tenzin and his young charge through the mysterious procedures that may confirm the reincarnation."
2009-05-25
"After 50 years, will the Jew accused of collaborating with the Nazis during the Holocaust be exonerated?\n\nDr 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.\n\nAfter 50 years, his assassin Ze'ev Eckstein breaks his silence on the fateful night he shot and killed Kasztner.\n\nThis documentary re-opens the history books on Kasztner's life and the events surrounding this controversial figure. It follows Kasztner's family and survivors, plagued by a legacy they are determined to change. Ze'ev Eckstein reveals, step-by-step, his transformation into an assassin.\n\nIntensely emotional for those still living it, part real-time investigation and part historical journey, filmmaker Gaylen Ross unearths the Kasztner story and its ramifications for his family and his country."
2009-06-06
"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. Over his years working amongst the tribes of the South Seas, he adopted 57 kids, bringing them to a new life in Washington DC. But, at the height of his career, rumours began to spread he was a paedophile.\n\nGajdusek 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 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?\n\nThis striking and powerful documentary explores the limits of insight and the power of self-delusion, through one of the century's true geniuses - a man prepared to defy convention and challenge people's most cherished beliefs, a man whose scientific brilliance seemed to blind many to his extraordinary personal failings."
2009-06-07
"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.\n\nBelieved by many Tibetans to be possessed by demons, the children are shunned by their parents, scorned by their villages and rejected by society. Rescued by Sabriye Tenberken, a blind educator and adventurer who established the first school for the blind in Lhasa, the students invite the famous blind mountain climber Erik Weihenmayer to visit their school after learning about his conquest of Everest.\n\nErik arrives in Lhasa and inspires Sabriye and her students to let him lead them higher than they have ever been before. The resulting three-week journey is beyond anything any of them could have predicted."
2009-06-08
"Detective Jahlk is the most famous private eye in Brazil, specialising in 'corporate crime' and employing a team of young female agents.\n\nThis 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 and fears that his son Luiz might be involved. Discretion is paramount, so Jahlk sends in his 'angels' Natasha, Julia and Tania to infiltrate Luiz's social network and uncover any criminal activity. They quickly establish evidence of Luiz's drug use. In recorded conversations, names pop up - 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.\n\nThe investigation takes the agents into the favelas, undercover in Rio's port, to nightclubs, restaurants, motels and Sao Paulo and back, giving insights into contemporary Brazilian society."
2009-07-15
"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.\n\nAs 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."
2009-07-20
"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.\n\nRose, 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."
2009-07-26
"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.\n\nGonzo 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.\n\nThe 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."
2009-08-02
"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."
2009-09-06
"Nati Baratz's documentary chronicles a former disciple's search for his reincarnated Tibetan master.\n\nAfter 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."
2009-09-14
"When thinking of devastated cities in the World War II, 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 this led to the creation of a huge black market involving almost the entire population as Naples became a city of vice, crime and chaos.\n\nWhen the war ended, alarmed by Soviet support for the Italian communist parties, the Allies responded with their own propaganda. Combined with the Marshall Plan, this became a covert effort by the Americans to swing the elections. After great political and ideological struggle, 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 recommended that the US should continue with the covert manipulation of political outcomes in foreign countries."
2009-10-13
"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.\n\nIn 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.\n\nRevisiting 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."
2009-10-24
"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."
2009-11-09
"\"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.\n\nAn 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.\""
2009-11-17
"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.\n\nThis 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."
2009-11-24
"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."
2009-12-01
"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.\n\nIt 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."
2009-12-14
"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."
Season 14 - Storyville
2010-01-14
"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.\n\nWhilst men have dominated the sport for years, female fights are now becoming an increasing attraction.\n\nFilmmaker 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."
2010-02-02
"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."
2010-02-08
"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\n\nOn 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."
2010-02-15
"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."
2010-02-22
"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.\n\nFilmmaker 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.\n\nA 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."
2010-03-01
"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."
2010-03-11
"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.\n\nBeautiful, 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."
2010-03-18
"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.\n\nThis 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."
2010-05-09
"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.\n\nDuring 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."
2010-05-24
"What makes an inexperienced photographer decide he wants to cover wars in the most dangerous parts of the planet?\n\nIn 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.\n\nThis compelling portrait asks two powerful questions about war journalists: why do they do it and how do they survive it?"
2010-05-31
"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.\n\nHaving 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."
2010-06-07
"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.\n\nHowever, 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."
2010-06-21
"A historic gathering of over fifty African heads of state in Beijing reverberates in Zambia where the lives of three characters unfold.\n\nMr 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.\n\nIn 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.\n\nThrough 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."
2010-06-14
"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.\n\nWhat 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."
2010-06-28
"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.\n\nAll 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.\n\nThe 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."
2010-07-05
"Documentary aboutf 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."
2010-07-08
"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."
2010-07-15
"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."
2010-08-31
"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."
2010-09-06
"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."
2010-09-13
"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."
2010-09-20
"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."
2010-11-23
"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."
Season 15 - Storyville
2011-01-10
"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."
2011-01-17
"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."
2011-01-24
"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.\n\nThe 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."
2011-01-31
"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.\n\nDo 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?\n\nThe 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?"
2011-02-06
"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.\n\nHe 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.\n\nBut 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."
2011-02-07
"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.\n\nThe 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.\n\nWith unrestricted access, the film follows the ups and downs of their epic journey."
2011-02-22
"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."
2011-03-16
"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.\n\nWhat 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.\n\nOver a period of five years a compelling human story emerges, full of moral dilemma, dramatic twists and ethical and legal debate."
2011-03-23
"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.\n\nThis 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."
2011-03-30
"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."
2011-04-05
"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.\n\nFilmed 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."
2011-04-06
"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.\n\nThe 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.\n\nPopulated 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."
2011-04-10
"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."
2011-05-09
"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.\n\nRax 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.\n\n'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.'\n\nRax 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.\n\nTwenty-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.\n\nHis 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.\n\nLast 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."
2011-05-30
"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."
2011-05-31
"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?\n\nPart of BBC4's Justice season."
2011-06-01
"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."
2011-06-02
"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.\n\nCameras 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.\n\nPart of BBC 4's Justice season."
2011-09-07
"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."
2011-09-14
"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."
2011-09-21
"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."
2011-09-28
"In this final episode, Judge Chen listens to complaints of a mother who is suing her son for maintenance."
2011-11-06
"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.\n\nJean-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.\n\nMurder on a Sunday Morning is gripping and heart-wrenching - the stuff suspense novelists only dream of writing."
2011-11-09
"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.\n\nThe 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.\n\nMorris 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."
2011-11-14
"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?"
2011-11-15
"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.\n\nThen, 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."
2011-11-22
"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?"
2011-11-27
"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."
2011-11-30
"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.\n\nVeteran 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."
2011-12-04
"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.\n\nShot 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."
2011-12-07
"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."
2011-01-07
"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."
2011-01-14
"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."
2011-01-21
"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."
2011-01-27
"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."
Season 16 - Storyville
2012-01-09
"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."
2012-01-16
"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.\n\nThe 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."
2012-01-23
"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."
2012-02-13
"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'.\n\nFor 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.\n\nPart 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."
2012-02-20
"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."
2012-02-27
"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."
2012-03-05
"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."
2012-03-06
"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.\n\nFilmmakers 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."
2012-03-12
"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."
2012-03-19
"DURATION: 1 HOUR, 10 MINUTES\n\nAn 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.\n\nThe 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."
2012-03-26
"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.\n\nDirected 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."
2012-04-18
"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.\n\nUnable 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.\n\nJose 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."
2012-04-19
"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.\n\nAfter 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."
2012-06-25
"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."
2012-07-02
"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."
2012-07-05
"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."
2012-07-23
"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."
2012-08-13
"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."
2012-09-05
"Just days before Bernard Madoff captured headlines as the largest Ponzi schemer in US history, Marc Dreier, a prominent Manhattan attorney, was arrested for orchestrating a massive fraud that netted over 750 million dollars. For six years, Dreier funded an increasingly extravagant lifestyle of yachts, artwork, houses and celebrity events sponsored by his law firm by living a lie. But his white collar crime spree could not outrun the credit crunch and, after a few headline grabbing acts of desperation, Dreier was arrested in December 2008.\n\nDirector Marc H Simon filmed his former employer and mentor during Dreier's 60-day wait under house arrest for sentencing. This documentary is an insightful, first person account of Dreier's struggle to comprehend his criminal demise and reflects the wider culture of greed that permeates today's corporate landscape."
2012-09-12
"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."
2012-11-04
"'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."
2012-11-12
"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."
2012-11-18
"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."
2012-12-16
"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."
2013-12-16
"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."
Season 17 - Storyville
2013-01-14
"Storyville: 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.\n\nFilmed 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."
2013-01-21
"Storyville: 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.\n\nFrom 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.\n\nThe 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."
2013-01-28
"Jackie and David Siegel, a former beauty queen and her billionaire husband, are triumphantly building their dream home in Florida. Once finished, it will 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, sushi bar, bowling alley, skating rink, baseball park and ballroom.\n\nBut when the economic crisis hits, 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.\n\nWith 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."
2013-02-04
"Storyville: Documentary which follows the dramatic hearing of a notorious murder case which split a family.\n\nIn 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.\n\nFollowing 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."
2013-02-11
"Storyville: 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.\n\nNow 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.\n\nEpic, breath-taking and awe-inspiring, this documentary depicts both the wild beauty of the Earth and man's own transitory role in evolution."
2013-02-18
"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."
2013-02-19
"Storyville: 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."
2013-02-20
"Storyville: 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.\n\nIn 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."
2013-02-25
"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.\n\nIn May 2009 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.\n\nRosenberg's lover had been murdered a few weeks before, driving him to investigate a case which 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."
2013-03-18
"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."
2013-03-31
"Storyville: 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 \u00e9migr\u00e9s. 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.\n\nFrom 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."
2013-06-03
"Storyville: 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.\n\nAs 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."
2013-06-10
"Oscar-winning filmmaker Alex Gibney 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."
2013-06-17
"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.\n\nIsraeli 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."
2013-06-24
"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.\n\nDirector 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.\n\nThe 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?"
2013-08-25
"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.\n\nFeaturing 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."
2013-10-11
"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.\n\nWhen 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.\n\nA 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."
2013-10-21
"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."
2013-10-22
"Thrilling heist documentary about the world's most notorious gang of diamond thieves, featuring exclusive and unprecedented interviews with the Pink Panther members for the first time on television.\n\nThe Pink Panthers have stolen over \u00a3270m in diamonds in more than 241 robberies in cities from Paris to Tokyo. The film explores the rise of the group during the 1990s Balkan conflict when economic sanctions imposed on Serbia fuelled illegal activities. The criminals reveal an underworld driven by fast wealth and paranoia, while the detectives and inspectors, who are working with Interpol, are on a mission to stop their crime spree with growing success.\n\nCombining surveillance footage of the heists, archive of the Balkans' turbulent past, animation and strong testimonies, the film draws connections between international affairs, economics and the shady world of part of the diamond industry."
2013-11-05
"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.\n\nAt 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.\n\nThe 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."
2013-11-11
"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.\n\nHelen 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.\n\nFor 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.\n\nPart black comedy, part nail-biting journey, this shows the human cost of the mortgage crisis."
2013-11-18
"Documentary exploring the murky circumstances behind the escape of one of Britain's most notorious spies.\n\nIn 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.\n\nFifty 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."
2013-11-21
"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?\n\nShocking, 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.\n\nThis 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."
2013-12-04
"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.\n\nPart 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."
Season 18 - Storyville
2014-03-03
"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.\n\nOver 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.\n\nBurnat collaborates with Israeli director Guy Davidi to produce this powerful and moving documentary of resistance life on a frontline."
2014-03-07
"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.\n\nAt 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."
2014-03-19
"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."
2014-03-31
"Moving and deeply personal documentary about Tim Hetherington, the award-winning British war photographer and film-maker 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.\n\nA tribute to this remarkable, talented young man, Which Way is the Frontline from Here? also addresses fundamental questions about the very nature of conflict."
2014-05-30
"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.\n\nIn 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.\n\nThe film is directed by Malik Bendjelloul who sadly died in May 2014."
2014-06-22
"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.\n\nThrough 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.\n\nA defining moment in the history of tennis and society at large."
2014-07-06
"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.\n\nIt 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.\n\nDirector 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. 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."
2014-07-06
"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."
2014-07-10
"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."
2014-09-15
"Documentary which follows three Chinese teenagers inside a Beijing rehabilitation centre for internet addicts.\n\nChina 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.\n\nWith extraordinary access, the film shows how the teens are lured to the centre against their will by anxious parents and must endure the military boot camp conditions combined with intensely emotional counselling sessions. It documents how the boys begin to share with the health professional and their parents the reasons why they feel more connected to virtual life than their families.\n\nA thoughtful examination of a society in flux and a technology-addled generation on the precipice of an unknown future."
2014-09-22
"Documentary which provides a vivid glimpse into a vanishing way of life in the Himalayas, as new technology extends its tentacles even into these remote regions.\n\nIn 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.\n\nDuring a three-day journey to the thriving capital of Thimphu, the young boy discovers cars and toilets in the search for the perfect television to bring back to the village. The trip enforces the sense that their tranquil village life is about to become extinct."
2014-09-29
"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.\n\nWith 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."
2014-10-11
"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.\n\nSince 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.\n\nThe 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."
2014-10-15
"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."
2014-10-19
"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.\n\nIn 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.\n\nA startling insight into inscrutable minds and the forbidding world they have been condemned to."
2014-10-26
"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.\n\nMany 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."
2014-11-02
"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."
2014-12-22
"Storyville presents a heartfelt and heartbreaking documentary following a cast of Nottingham amateur actors staging a production of Puss in Boots.\n\nIt 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.\n\nWith 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.\n\nThe film movingly uncovers what it means to the cast, reflecting the vital and life-changing role the theatre plays in people's lives."
Season 19 - Storyville
2015-01-26
"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."
2015-02-02
"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."
2015-02-09
"Political documentary thriller set in Zimbabwe, following two political enemies forced on a joint mission.\n\nTwo 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.\n\nThe 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."
2015-02-10
"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."
2015-02-16
"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 risqu\u00e9 elements. A rare glimpse into a world destined to disappear."
2015-02-18
"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."
2015-02-22
"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.\n\nThis 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."
2015-03-01
"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.\n\nThe 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."
2015-03-02
"In October 2011, Olympus Corporation, a multibillion 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.\n\nFilm-maker Hyoe Yamamoto unravels the events that led to one of the most mystifying corporate scandals in the world."
2015-03-04
"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."
2015-03-09
"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."
2015-03-17
"Twenty years ago, Garnet Frost escaped London and headed into the desolate Scottish wilderness, where, not having a map, he got lost. Trapped between a mountain and the mysterious Loch Arkaig, cold and alone, he resigned himself to dying.\n\nBut Garnet didn't die. By sheer chance, he was saved by a lone fisherman.\n\nFor 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."
2015-03-23
"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."
2015-03-30
"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.\n\nBy 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.\n\nTheir 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."
2015-04-27
"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?\n\nThe 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."
2015-07-13
"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. \n\nThe 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."
2015-07-22
"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.\n\nHer 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.\n\nTyke 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."
2015-08-09
"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."
2015-09-28
"Award-winning documentary film by renowned filmmaker Sean McAllister, telling the poignant story of a family torn apart by the Assad regime.\n\nWhen 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.\n\nFilmed 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."
2015-11-02
"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."
2015-11-09
"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."
2015-11-16
"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."
2015-11-23
"This Sundance award-winning film is a fearless expos\u00e9 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 Jos\u00e9 Mireles, a Michoac\u00e1n-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."
2015-11-30
"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."
2015-12-07
"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."
Season 20 - Storyville
2016-01-17
"Roll up, roll up for an unforgettable experience!\n\nThis 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."
2016-01-24
"Documentary about a bankrupt Jordanian entrepreneur and an unemployed Irish actress who hatch a plan to scam \u00a32.5m off the British taxman by faking the production of a \u00a320m 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 \u00a3100,000 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.\n\nA comic British crime caper and classic heist movie, but in this movie the heist IS the movie."
2016-01-31
"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.\n\nThis 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."
2016-02-07
"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.\n\nThis film follows the legendary maestro Gigi Bruschelli, winner of 13 races and master of the intrigues that surround the Palio, and his former prot\u00e9g\u00e9 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."
2016-02-14
"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."
2016-02-21
"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."
2016-02-28
"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.\n\nNow, 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."
2016-03-30
"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."
2016-04-07
"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."
2016-06-22
"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."
2016-10-16
"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."
2016-10-25
"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?"
2016-10-26
"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?"
2016-10-27
"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."
2016-11-01
"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."
2016-11-06
"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."
2016-11-20
"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."
2016-11-27
"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."
2016-11-29
"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."
2016-12-04
"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."
Season 21 - Storyville
2017-01-16
"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."
2017-02-01
"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."
2017-02-16
"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."
2017-02-20
"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."
2017-03-07
"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."
2017-03-13
"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. Three months later, Yara's body was tragically discovered. 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'."
2017-03-20
"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."
2017-03-27
"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."
2017-05-14
"Five-part series and winner of the 2017 Academy Award for Best Documentary chronicling the rise and fall of OJ Simpson.\n\nTo 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.\n\nTo 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."
2017-05-14
"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.\n\nIt 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."
2017-05-16
"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.\n\nTwo 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."
2017-05-17
"In January 1995, the trial of the century took place. 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.\n\nNothing, 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."
2017-05-18
"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.\n\nAs 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.\n\nFrom 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."
2017-06-27
"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."
2017-07-02
"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."
2017-07-10
"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."
2017-07-17
"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."
2017-07-24
"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."
2017-07-31
"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."
2017-08-14
"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."
2017-08-21
"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."
2017-09-06
"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"
2017-10-26
"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."
2017-10-30
"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."
2017-11-13
"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."
2017-11-20
"A Storyville documentary: an eccentric Jewish family is thrown into turmoil when two stolen children reappear after 40 years."
2017-11-27
"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.\n\nKhalid, 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.\n\nMany 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?\n\nThe film is a collaboration with the Aleppo Media Centre, and tells the extraordinary story of real heroes in an epic human tragedy."
2017-11-30
"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.\n\nThe 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.\n\nThis 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."
2017-12-07
"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."
Season 22 - Storyville
2018-01-29
"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."
2018-06-11
"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."
2018-06-17
"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."
2018-06-27
"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."
2018-07-01
"'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."
2018-07-09
"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."
2018-07-22
"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."
2018-10-08
"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."
2018-10-22
"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."
2018-10-29
"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."
2019-11-11
"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."
2018-11-19
"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."
2018-11-26
"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."
Season 23 - Storyville
2019-01-02
"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."
2019-04-22
"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\u2019s 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\u2019 words as just \u2018Bible babble\u2019. 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?"
2019-02-11
"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\u2019s 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."
2019-02-26
"Every year during the December school holidays the \u2018cutting season\u2019 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."
2019-03-19
"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\u2019s 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:"
2019-04-01
"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."
2019-04-08
"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."
2019-05-08
"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\u2019 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."
2019-05-09
"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."
2019-05-13
"The extraordinary story of Brunhilde Pomsel, secretary and stenographer to the Nazi proganda minister, Joseph Goebbels."
2019-06-02
"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'."
2019-09-30
"Eyewitness accounts and leaked secret documents provide a deeper understanding of the final bloody days of the 1989 Tiananmen Square democracy demonstration."
2019-10-21
"A Malaysian wealth fund is robbed of US$3.5 billion. It is the world\u2019s 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 \u2018The Wolf of Wall Street\u2019 - back to the top echelons of the Malaysian government. Malaysia\u2019s prime minister and his inner circle are implicated, assets are frozen, money is seized, but the Malaysian people fight back."
2019-10-24
"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."
2019-10-28
"How one man's refusal to overlook its financial irregularities led to the exposure of the subprime mortgage scandal that engulfed Lehman Brothers."
2019-11-11
"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."
2019-11-18
"Documentary that reveals the continuing impact of China's one-child policy, abandoned in 2015, on the country's people."
2019-11-25
"Mads Br\u00fcgger and G\u00f6ran Bj\u00f6rkdahl investigate the mysterious death of Dag Hammarskj\u00f6ld, the United Nations Secretary-General, killed in a plane crash in 1961."
2019-12-02
"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."
2019-04-20
"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."
Season 24 - Storyville
2020-01-07
"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?"
2020-01-08
"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."
2020-01-27
"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\u2019s 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."
2020-02-10
"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\u2019s 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."
2020-02-17
"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."
2020-02-24
"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\u2019s 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."
2020-03-02
"In Pakistan, the blasphemy law prescribes a compulsory death sentence for disrespecting Prophet Muhammad and life imprisonment for desecrating the Qur\u2019an. 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."
2020-06-15
"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."
2020-06-15
"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."
2020-06-24
"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"
2020-07-01
"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."
2020-07-08
"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."
2020-07-14
"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."
2020-09-06
"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."
2020-10-13
"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."
2020-10-13
"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."
2020-10-26
"Pepe the Frog started life in 2005 as a cute cartoon character in Boy\u2019s 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\u2019s 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 \u2013 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\u2019s presidential campaign."
2020-11-16
"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\u2013loved 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 \u2013 the Naudet Brothers \u2013 who famously recorded the collapse of the Twin Towers on 9\/11 in New York \u2013 were themselves at the scene to record a moment in history in their own capital city."
2020-11-23
"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?"
2020-11-30
"An intimate, personal and surprisingly life-affirming story with a rare illness, Guillain-Barr\u00e9 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."
2020-12-07
"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."
2020-12-14
"The world could not keep its eyes off two athletes at the 1994 Winter Games \u2013 Nancy Kerrigan and Tonya Harding. Just weeks before the Olympics in 1994, at the US Figure Skating Championships, Kerrigan was injured by an unknown assailant. Harding's ex-husband had plotted the attack with his misfit friends to eliminate Kerrigan from the competition. The Price of Gold takes a fresh look at the scandal that elevated the popularity of professional figure skating, with Harding still facing questions over what she knew and when she knew it."
Season 25 - Storyville
2021-02-15
"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\u2019s 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\u2019s 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\u2019s pivotal moments of the 1990s, including the OJ Simpson pursuit and the 1992 riots."
2021-02-22
"After finding a broken surfboard on his local beach, Jhonny Guerrero, a teenager from one of Peru\u2019s 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\u2019s 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\u2019s injured outside a nightclub in a drive-by shooting, Jhonny is forced to decide once and for all which path to take."
2021-03-01
"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\u2019s billions in a dangerous treasure hunt. In life, the Libyan leader ruled with an iron fist for 42 years and treated Libya\u2019s 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\u2019s 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\u2019s 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."
2021-03-15
"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\u2019 voices had remained unheard, but when widespread allegations of sexual abuse resurfaced in the late 2000s, Jersey\u2019s then health minister Stuart Syvret spoke out about the scale of this historic child abuse and the damage done to the victims. Syvret\u2019s words sparked a moment of reckoning for the small community, whose leaders were determined to protect the island\u2019s 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\u2019s 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."
2021-03-22
"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\u2019s 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."
2021-03-29
"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\u2019s 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."
2021-06-30
"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."
2021-07-07
"As the disaster of yet another school shooting hits, some parents are faced with a brutal fact: their child was the one pulling the trigger. In this powerful and sensitively told Storyville documentary, set in America, three parents share their personal stories. Jeff Williams is the father of Andy, who in 2001, at the age of 15, shot and killed two classmates and wounded 13 other students. Andy, 25 at the time of filming, is now serving life in prison. Clarence Elliot\u2019s son Nicholas shot and killed his teacher and wounded another in 1988. He too is serving life in prison. Sue Klebold\u2019s son Dylan was one of the two teenagers behind the Columbine High School massacre in 1999, one of the deadliest school shootings in history. Dylan ended the shooting by committing suicide."
2021-07-14
"In December 2019, Carlos Ghosn, former CEO of the Renault-Nissan Alliance, charged with financial crimes, stunned the world by fleeing Japan in a box supposedly containing a priceless cello. It was an audacious Hollywood-worthy escape. With exclusive access to Ghosn himself, this gripping Storyville documentary charts the rise and fall of a superstar CEO from celebrated industry leader to wanted fugitive, exploring themes of corporate greed, ruthlessness, vanity and racism."
2021-07-21
"This Storyville documentary details the story of celebrity favourite and globally trending megachurch Hillsong. In a relatively short time it has grown explosively, from small family church to international phenomenon. Gaining rare access to this highly-guarded organisation, director Nick Aldridge follows key church figures and a number of its followers, who tell personal stories of salvation and shed light on the scandals currently engulfing the church."
Season 26 - Storyville
2022-01-26
"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\u2019s Germany speak for the first time about their memories and perceptions of some of the greatest crimes in human history"
2022-02-02
"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."
2022-02-09
"A Storyville documentary that follows Nelson Chamisa's campaign to restore democracy to Zimbabwe. Can a free, fair and transparent election truly be possible?"
2022-02-16
"The American college application process can be stressful at the best of times. For the super-smart, mostly Asian-American students at San Francisco\u2019s Lowell High School, it\u2019s emotionally draining. At Lowell, it\u2019s cool to be a nerd \u2013 everyone is talented.\n\nThis Storyville documentary follows a group of students as they make their university applications, all of them under pressure to get a prized spot at one of the country\u2019s most elite institutions. Try Harder! is a portrait of young adults in the most diverse American generation ever, navigating their way through a quintessential rite of passage."
2022-03-02
"Putin\u2019s Russia, former music radio producer Natasha Sindeeva dreams of becoming famous and decides to build her own TV station to focus on pop culture.\n\nTango with Putin charts Natasha\u2019s 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."
2022-03-09
"In a cluttered news landscape dominated by men, a group of women set up India\u2019s 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.\n\nThis Oscar-nominated film follows chief reporter Meera and her team of journalists as they break with tradition to work on the frontlines of India\u2019s biggest issues."
2022-03-23
"Ten-year-old Oleg lives with his grandma in eastern Ukraine, close to the front line of the war between pro-Russian separatists and Ukrainian government forces. His village, Hnutove, is just a mile from the war zone. Whilst friends and family have been able to flee, Oleg has no other place to go.\n\nThis Storyville documentary follows him over the course of a year, from 2016 to 2017, examining what it is like to grow up in the midst of armed conflict."
2022-03-30
"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.\n\nThe 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."
2022-04-06
"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."
2022-04-25
"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.\n\nWhile recovering, Navalny and his team unravel the plot against him, finding evidence of the Kremlin\u2019s involvement, and prepare to go public with their findings."
2022-05-10
"In this documentary, Dutch film director Klaartje Quirijns originally set out to document therapy. She was interested in the sessions of a friend, Michael Moskowitz, who was unravelling a lifetime of family trauma inherited from the legacies of World War II. In these rarely filmed sessions, led by esteemed American psychotherapist Kirkland Vaughans, Klaartje begins to understand that all lived experience is shaped through the lives of our parents.\n\nIn the ultimate display of vulnerability, Klaartje then decides to turn the camera on herself, beginning a journey to unravel her own family secrets. She traces the lineage of her story across three generations \u2013 her mother, herself and now her two daughters. Meanwhile, Vaughans continues to guide viewers through the complexities of the mind, showing how easy it is to become colonised by the behaviour of our parents."
2022-06-21
"A compelling coming-of-age story of four friends, sharing important turning points in their lives as they transition to a new gender.\n\nNic, 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\u2019s look at hormones, surgery, the longing for facial hair and the legal hurdles faced by transgender people."
2022-06-28
"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 \u2013 he became the first black man to win Wimbledon in 1975 \u2013 the film uncovers Ashe\u2019s work as a social activist, a role that embraced the civil rights movement in the US, African Americans and oppressed people throughout the world."
2022-07-05
"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."
2022-08-31
"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."
2022-09-20
"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."
2022-09-27
"Controversial Afghan pop star and activist Aryana Sayeed mentors young hopefuls as they prepare to appear on their country\u2019s hit TV show Afghan Star. With two young women on the verge of being named the show\u2019s first ever female winners, the Taliban take over and their lifelong dreams of becoming pop stars are suddenly under threat."
2022-10-04
"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. Despite living in the area for generations, Nyo Nyo and her family are still considered intruders. Risking her own safety daily by helping Muslim patients, she is determined to become a steady healthcare provider and resource for the families who desperately need her. Snow Hnin Ei Hlaing\u2019s remarkable feature debut won the World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival. Made over the course of five turbulent years in Myanmar, it shines a spotlight on these courageous women, who unite to bring forth life, despite the risks and challenges of their own, and offers a rare insight into the complex reality of Myanmar and its people."
2022-10-11
"In 2014, following a tip-off, a group of journalists exposed a troubled history for indigenous S\u00e1mi 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. As the case goes to court, the community remains defiant against a judicial system whose attitudes highlight fissures in the purported equal treatment of all citizens. The community\u2019s battle aims to break a vicious cycle of racism and to achieve meaningful, lasting change for future generations."
2022-10-18
"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. It instantly killed Katia and Maurice Krafft, volcanologists and film-makers from the Alsace region in France. They were too close. They were almost always too close. On the day before they died, Maurice said in an interview, 'I am never afraid, because I\u2019ve seen so many eruptions in 25 years that, even if I die tomorrow, I don\u2019t care.' The Fire Within pays homage to the Kraffts, who left an archive of more than 200 hours of footage of their final journey, unprecedented in its spectacular and hypnotic beauty."
2022-11-08
"Tears turn to soap bubbles, and hugs turn to fights, in this award-winning film about an orphanage in eastern Ukraine, filmed before Russia\u2019s 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\u2019s arms."
2022-12-13
"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. As its members grow old amid flickering memories and hardships, a handful of diehard members desperately cling to their dreams, and to each other, in this warm and funny look at shared artistic folly that speaks to the delusional dreamer in us all."
Season 27 - Storyville
2023-01-24
"Three minutes of footage is all that remains of the Jewish community of Nasielsk, Poland, filmed in 1938 by photographer David Kurtz. This Storyville documentary unravels the tales hidden within the celluloid, including insights from the film-maker\u2019s grandson and a boy who appears in the faded footage \u2013 one of the few survivors of the decimated village. Kurtz's footage was made available courtesy of the Steven Spielberg Film and Video Archive in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum."
2023-01-31
"In the 1950s and 60s, deep in the American countryside at the foot of the Catskill mountains, there was a small wooden house with a barn behind it called Casa Susanna, a holiday home for one of the first clandestine networks of cross-dressers in the US. Back then, Diane and Kate used to enjoy weekend visits to the house with their wives and friends. Now in their 80s, Diane and Kate tell a forgotten chapter of some of the early days of trans identity."
2023-02-14
"A Storyville documentary that investigates a powerful and terrifying spyware called Pegasus, sold to governments around the world by Israeli company NSO Group and used on journalists, activists and others, including both the wife and fianc\u00e9e of Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi."
2023-02-19
"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 \u2013 oppose the war, support it, or stay silent."
2023-02-28
"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."
2023-04-25
"A Storyville documentary about two women who fall in love in the Ravensbr\u00fcck concentration camp."
2023-05-02
"A Storyville documentary about the violent five-day standoff between inmates and law enforcement which gripped America in 1971."
2023-05-09
"Storyville documentary in which UK artist and film-maker Lisa Selby turns the camera on herself as she tries to understand her relationships with her late mother and her partner, both heroin addicts.\n\nThe film won the audience award at the 2022 London International Film Festival."
2023-05-16
"A Storyville documentary that, with extraordinary access to one of Israel's most Orthodox Hasidic communities, explores the scandal that erupted when the rabbi who established and led the community died. Inheritance battles, violent reprisals, sexual abuse and underage marriages are revealed by those that experienced it."
2023-05-23
"When the Taliban returned to power in 2021, the lives and destinies of two young Afghani women, Raha and Marwa, were changed forever. Inside Kabul is an animated film based on the voice notes that Raha and Marwa exchanged in the months that followed. Raha chose to stay in Kabul, where she was confronted with the violence of the regime, the sudden change in what ordinary people, especially women, were allowed to do and the crisis into which the country gradually sank. Marwa left with her husband just in time and found herself in a refugee camp in Abu Dhabi, waiting to be welcomed to another country."
2023-08-22
"They called it young black kids\u2019 punk rock - a genre that radio stations wouldn\u2019t play and records that labels refused to sell. But grime would not be stopped. With machine-gun lyrics that shred the eardrums and syncopated electronics that pound the chest like a sledgehammer, grime was a product of social unrest, urban culture and disenfranchised youth colliding in early 2000s UK. It didn\u2019t just rouse a grassroots audience, however. Today, grime is surging in popularity all over the globe and widely influencing the music charts. This is the story of the genre\u2019s roots."
2023-08-29
"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."
2023-09-05
"Blue Box is a brave account of how the Jewish National Fund acquired land in Palestine before and after the creation of the State of Israel. Film-maker Michal Weits' great-grandfather Joseph was a key figure in the organisation. In her family, and across Israel, he is celebrated as the father of the country\u2019s forests, taking \u2018a land without a people for a people without a land', but when Michal finds his private diaries, she discovers a very different story. In conversations with her family, she questions her great-grandfather's actions, resulting in an exploration of Israel's past and an uncomfortable truth."
2023-09-12
"When high school ends and adulthood begins, Benjamin and Joshua Israel, two identical twins of Jewish origin, start feeling burdened. While friends and schoolmates are planning a new life, they don\u2019t seem able to imagine their own future. Being in your twenties and having a natural charisma combined with a sassy attitude is not enough if you have an intellectual disability and the world makes it hard for you to fit in. Feeling left out, Benji and Josh confront the limits imposed by others, without fear of smashing right into them. Josh wants to have sex for the first time, while Benji follows the reverie of a new love. Even if the twins are often in conflict with each other, their bond is impossible to break. They will soon learn that growing up also means giving the other space without casting a shadow."
2023-09-19
"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 \u2018win the hearts and minds\u2019 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\u2019t win the hearts and minds of local people"
2023-09-26
"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."
2023-10-03
"This is London from an exhilarating, rarely seen perspective. With knife violence rising, social activist Mac creates BikeStormz, a movement for kids across the city to express themselves beyond any threats of violence. Groups of young people glide through the capital on their bikes, doing wheelies, tricks and death-defying acrobatics, but as they come together and find ways to express themselves through biking - the kind of liberation that surfers and skateboarders eulogise - they are challenged with the threat of arrest by the police and accusations of antisocial behaviour."
2023-10-10
"Back in November 2022, England played host to the Wheelchair Rugby League World Cup. The unflinching action and raw passion on display took many new fans by surprise, and as the tournament progressed, audience numbers - both in the stadiums and those watching on television - began to build in a moment of important visibility for the sport. This film tells the inside story of the world's two best wheelchair rugby league teams, England and France, with privileged access to each side's progress through the tournament towards a potential winner-takes-all meeting in the final. Following players from each squad both on and off the pitch also introduces us to the varied characters who play and coach this demanding sport, discovering the circumstances that brought them to the game and hearing about the often different philosophies they have on the subject of who should take part."
2023-12-08
"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."
2023-12-17
"Considered to be one of the most prestigious competitions in classical music, the International Chopin Piano Competition, held in Warsaw every five years since 1927, has been a career launchpad for such some of the world\u2019s greatest virtuoso pianists. The competition itself is a real rollercoaster of a classical ride, with extremely tough qualifying rules, multiple stages, legendary jurors and a whole lot of pressure.\n\nPianoforte takes us behind the scenes of this fascinating contest, meeting some of the most talented young professional piano players from across the world and watching them navigate the competition, along with its intense practices, new friendships, lots of drama and even more nerves."
2023-12-25
"This epic nature documentary follows in the footsteps of the director\u2019s 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."
Season 28 - Storyville
2024-01-23
"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."
2024-01-30
"A suspenseful, immersive look at the lengths to which people will go to gain freedom. The film follows various individuals as they attempt to flee North Korea, one of the most oppressive places on earth and a land they grew up believing was a paradise. At the film\u2019s core are a mother desperate to reunite with the child she was forced to leave behind; a family of five - including small children and an elderly grandmother - embarking on a treacherous journey across the Yalu River and into the hostile mountains of China; and a South Korean Christian pastor on a mission to help them. Leaving their homeland is fraught with danger - severe punishment if caught and possibly even execution - as well as potential exploitation by unscrupulous brokers. Family members who remain behind may also face retribution. Yet these individuals are driven to take the risk."
2024-02-06
"When 22-year-old American engineering student Taylor discovers that her face has been digitally altered to appear in online hardcore porn videos, she is devastated and doesn't know who to trust or what to do.\n\nThe police tell Taylor that what this person did is not even a crime, but when she learns that a fellow student, Julia, has also been targeted, she and Julia take the investigation into their own hands, diving into the underground world of deepfake technology and discovering a society of men who terrorise women."
2024-02-13
"An extraordinary portrait of unconditional love and devotion directed by Oscar-nominated documentary director Maite Alberdi.\n\nAugusto G\u00f3ngora and Paulina Urrutia have been a couple for 23 years. Augusto is one of Chile's most prominent cultural journalists and television presenters, whose work was dedicated to publicising and ensuring that the atrocities of the Pinochet dictatorship were never forgotten. His wife, Pauli, is an actress who also served as the Minister of Culture and Arts. Eight years ago, Augusto was diagnosed with Alzheimer\u2019s disease and since then, Pauli has been caring for him.\n\nAs Augusto\u2019s memory slowly deteriorates, Pauli\u2019s unwavering support is tested as they both try to maintain his identity despite the challenges of his illness. Each day, the couple face the difficulties caused by Alzheimer's disease, but they also maintain a tenderness and sense of humour that binds them together."
2024-02-20
"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. Zijuan Chen is fighting for the release of her imprisoned husband, human rights lawyer Weiping Chang, while trying to keep his memory alive for their son. Wenzu Li and her newly freed husband, Quanzhang Wang, struggle against surveillance that is not only stopping him from being able to work but also affecting ordinary tasks like taking their son to school. Journalist Sophie Xueqin Huang, a pivotal figure in bringing the Me Too movement to China, is at constant risk of arrest. Chinese film-maker Jialing Zhang gives an exclusive and previously impossible intimate insight into the interior of China and tells a deeply disturbing story of how the state uses technology to control its citizens as well as propaganda to convince its people to trust it."
2024-05-14
"Praying for Armageddon is a political thriller that explores the power and influence of American Evangelical Christians as they aim to fulfil the Armageddon prophecy.\n\nThe film observes American believers as they prepare for what they call The Holy War and exposes the powerful megachurch pastors who call for the 'final battle' that they believe will trigger the Second Coming of Christ. Completed before the current crisis in Israel and Gaza, it also unveils how politicians driven by faith embrace the State of Israel as the key to their prophetic vision for the end of days."
2024-05-21
"A Storyville documentary that takes the audience on a wild ride of unbelievable twists and turns. What begins as an eerie story of family reunification sees three women's lives spiral out of control."
2024-05-28
"An intimate look at the life of X Factor winner Dalton Harris as he tries to build on his success and embrace his identity in the face of prejudice."
2024-06-04
"A Storyville documentary that follows two Indian fishermen, Rakesh and Ganesh, whose friendship is tested as one continues with traditional fishing methods and the other tries modern technology."
2024-06-11
"A Storyville documentary about an extraordinary football tournament, told through the fearless voices of the women who took part and including recently uncovered archive footage."
2024-06-18
"A Storyville documentary, mostly animated, that charts the extraordinary true tale of Ali, a gay Afghan man, and the desperate measures he is forced to take to escape persecution."
2024-06-25
"A Storyville documentary that tells the enthralling, edge-of-your-seat story of a defiant journalist's battle for freedom of the press and against state-censored media."
2024-07-02
"A Storyville documentary about an indigenous Argentinian mother and daughter and the challenges they face living in an inherited crumbling mansion deep in the Argentine Pampas."
2024-09-26
"A powerful film providing a harrowing glimpse into the assault on partygoers at the Nova Music Festival - one of the sites in Israel, attacked by Hamas on October 7 2023."
2024-10-01
"A Storyville documentary that sweeps viewers into an elaborate simulation which dramatically escalates the threat posed in the USA by the Capitol attack on 6 January 2021."
2024-10-15
"From terrifying bombing raids to multiple evacuations, the intensity of family separations and reunions, to deaths and even the birth of a new life amidst the chaos. Life and Death in Gaza is self-shot over the course of the year and captures the fight for survival through direct, personal experiences."
2024-10-20
"A Storyville documentary that tells the untold story of a seemingly ordinary Englishman who spent more than 40 years as a mercenary, fighting other people\u2019s wars for money. Basingstoke-based Dave Tompkins was a petty thief who craved adventure. His career as an international mercenary began in Africa and took him all over the world - to Afghanistan, Croatia and later to Colombia, where he led a team commissioned to assassinate notorious Columbian drug lord Pablo Escobar. In Dogs of War, Dave tells his extraordinary story."
2024-10-29
"A Storyville documentary exploring the digital afterlife business.\n\nWhat if a person's death did not mean the end of their life? What if their loved ones could still talk to them long after their body has been cremated or is lying lifeless in the ground? What sounds like the scenario of a science fiction movie is already offered by companies today. By using AI, these startups create avatars of deceased people to allow their loved ones to interact with them.\n\nEternal You tells the story of a human experiment: what does it do to people to resurrect their deceased loved ones in order to talk to them? Who takes responsibility for the psychological and ethical consequences? And do we even want all this?"
2024-11-05
"A Storyville documentary that follows, with unprecedented access to one of the most secretive cabals in the world, a group of Talib leaders in their first year back in power in Afghanistan."
2024-11-12
"A Storyville documentary following Gina, a queer artist from a small Russian town, who stages radical performances in public that become a new form of art and activism \u2013 and put their life in danger."
2024-11-19
"A Storyville documentary that follows Amber and Guna, happiness agents for the government of Bhutan, as they travel the mountainous Himalayas, meeting people and measuring how happy they are"
2024-11-26
"Five-year-old Veeru has to endure relentless bullying and discrimination. Born to an Indian mother and a Nepalese father, in the Indian Himalayan village where he lives, he is taunted for being mixed race. This Storyville documentary follows the little boy over five transformative years as he grapples with the profound effects of racism, never retaliating, finally triumphing when he discovers a talent for a sport that turns his \u2018enemies\u2019 into his teammates."
Season 29 - Storyville
2025-01-28
"A Storyville documentary following the rise of Aubrey Gordon, from anonymous blogger to best-selling author, whose aim is to promote a paradigm shift in the way we view fatness."
2025-02-04
"A Storyville documentary that follows 25-year-old journalist Shiori Ito\u2019s courageous investigation of her own sexual assault in 2015 and attempt to prosecute her high-profile offender."
2025-02-11
"A Storyville documentary that tells a story of transformation and second chances as three men sentenced to life for murder undertake running a marathon around a crowded prison yard."
2025-02-18
"A Storyville documentary that follows the lives of Argentina\u2019s gauchos (cowboys and cowgirls), as they try to preserve their traditions in a fast-changing world."
2025-02-25
"A Storyville documentary, shot over several years in one of Africa\u2019s most famous conservation areas, that charts mounting tensions between the Samburu people and fourth-generation European settlers."
2025-03-04
"A humorous and humane snapshot of life in a Covid-19 vaccine centre. Five years after the world first locked down to limit the spread of the virus, this film serves as collective therapy for the post-Covid era.\n\nThe documentary was filmed in Croatia, where at the time, the government was still chasing down supplies of hard-to-get-hold-of vaccines. The queues of people waiting for them stretch endlessly along streets, with a tapestry of personalities amongst them - from the stern \u2018gatekeeper\u2019 of the line to elderly women deliberating their vaccine preferences. This is a reminder of a unique moment in time - one shared by people across the globe."
2025-03-11
"In 2002, a group of Falun Gong practitioners in China came up with an audacious plan to hit back at the government\u2019s crackdown on their faith. This film explores the aftermath of that brazen stunt."
2025-05-25
"A Storyville documentary that traces the shocking, gruelling and emotional 1500-mile walk that white film-maker Rob Bliss embarked on in 2020, walking through America\u2019s southern states, in the wake of George Floyd\u2019s murder, wearing a Black Lives Matter T-shirt."
2025-06-03
"This Storyville documentary features the first public account from Carlos the Jackal, one of the 20th century's most notorious terrorists. Speaking from a French prison, he recounts his path from Venezuelan childhood to global infamy, reflecting on his actions and ideology with stark honesty."
2025-06-10
"A Storyville documentary in which ultra-orthodox Jewish couples speak bravely about their feelings during matchmaking, the engagement period, the wedding ceremony, their first night alone together and the morning after."
2025-06-17
"The incredible true story of a man who lived for 15 months trapped inside a small room, naked, starving and alone... completely unaware that his life was being broadcast on national TV to over 17 million viewers a week."
2025-06-24
"A beautiful film, shot in Mongolia, telling the moving story of a young couple left devastated by a sandstorm which kills their entire flock of sheep. They are forced to move to the city and leave behind the land and rural lives they treasure."
2025-07-01
"A young woman returns to Srebrenica, the town of her birth, to find out more about her father, who was one of the 8,000 Bosnian Muslims massacred there during the Bosnian War."
