Community Patrol

It’s been widely reported that Detroit is making a comeback, but long-term residents of Detroit’s mostly black neighborhoods aren’t seeing much benefit. Crime, lack of opportunity and infrastructure problems still persist. Community Patrol explores neighborhood self-policing through the eyes of Minister Malik Shabazz, a long-time Detroit activist and community organizer. Determined that more black men don’t end up in jail or killed, the minister confronts drug offenders directly rather than reporting them to the police.

Schwarze Adler

The documentary Schwarze Adler (Black Eagles) lets black players of the German national football team tell their personal stories for the first time. What road did they take before they got to where we cheer for them? What hurdles did they have to overcome? What prejudices and racist hostility were they exposed to – and what was it like in the past, what is it like today?

Queens of Jazz: The Joy and Pain of the Jazz Divas

The documentary tracks the diva's difficult progress as she emerges from the tough, testosterone-fuelled world of the big bands of the 30s and 40s, to fill nightclubs and saloons across the US in the 50s and early 60s as a force in her own right. Looking at the lives and careers of six individual singers (Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Peggy Lee, Sarah Vaughan, Nina Simone and Annie Ross), the film not only talks to those who knew and worked with these queens of jazz, but also to contemporary singers who sit on the shoulders of these trailblazing talents without having to endure the pain and hardship it took for them to make their highly individual voices heard above the prejudice of mid-century America.

Rogues In Robes

A clinical review of judicial corruption, the good and the bad guys showcased. The need for complete, federal and state judicial reform, term limits, with no immunities.

Maestra

Cuba, 1961: 250,000 volunteers taught 700,000 people to read and write in one year. 100,000 of the teachers were under 18 years old. Over half were women. MAESTRA explores this story through the personal testimonies of the young women who went out to teach literacy in rural communities across the island - and found themselves deeply transformed in the process.

O Corpo de Afonso

How would it look like, the body of Dom Afonso Henriques, first king of Portugal, tutelary figure, subject to successive mythifications throughout Portuguese history?

The Story of Yosemite National Park

Mountain men Joseph R Walker was probably the first non-Indian to see Yosemite, in 1833, but not until the California militia entered the valley rounding up the Ahwahneechee Indians was the region discovered. In June, 1864, President Abraham Lincoln signed the Yosemite Grant, making it a California State Park. It became famous through the writings of Horace Greeley and the efforts of John Muir. Cinematographer Dennis Burkhart captures in this video the magnificence of Yosemite Valley (El Capitan, Bridalveil Fall, Half Dome), the High Sierra (John Muir Trail, Tuolumne Meadows, Tioga Pass) and the Mariposa Grove of giant sequoias. The camera catches the wildlife that roams the 1,1170 square miles of Yosemite, i.e. the mule deer, mountain lion, black bear, coyotes, bighorn sheep, and the rare peregrine falcon. This video reveals why 3.8 million visitors come each year and stand before awe-inspiring panoramas they will never forget.

A Doctor's Sword

An Irish doctor survived the atomic bomb attack on Nagasaki and was given a Samurai sword for the lives he saved. 70 years later his family searches for the origin of their father's sword.

La banlieue, c’est le paradis

In the 1960s, the suburbs were meant to be modern havens for newcomers from rural France, Portugal, Spain, North Africa, and Africa, helping rebuild post-war France. Large housing complexes symbolized this ideal, offering comfort, heating, and electricity. But by the 1980s, disillusionment set in as economic crisis, unemployment, poverty, crime, racism, and police violence took hold. Mohamed Bouhafsi tells the story of a dream that didn’t last.

Leigh-Anne: Race, Pop and Power

Pop star Leigh-Anne Pinnock confronts her experience as the only black member of Little Mix, and as a black woman in the music industry. She embarks on her own very personal journey to understand how she can use her platform and privilege to combat the profound racism she sees in society around her.

Seven Wonders of Ancient Egypt

At the dawn of history, the ancient Egyptians showed the world how to build the impossible... In an age before machines, when copper was the strongest metal yet discovered, great pharaohs like Khufu and Ramses II demonstrated how boundless ambition and vast quantities of human labour could transform rock and stone into some of the most incredible monuments ever created from carving out spectacular tombs in the Valley Of The Kings to the building of the iconic Great Pyramid. In this fascinating documentary special we uncover the secrets of Ancient Egypt Pharaoh, engineers and architects and bring to life great buildings and the ancient Egyptians saw them - towering over their great civilisation in the history of Africa, and perhaps the World....

New Country - New People

A documentary about the history of settler groups that came to New Zealand from Europe.

Dreamland: The Burning of Black Wall Street

This documentary celebrates the Black cultural renaissance that existed in the Greenwood district of Tulsa, OK, and investigates the 100-year-old race massacre that left an indelible, though hidden stain on American history.

The Lost City of the Pharaohs

The World of Nat King Cole

Combining rare original archive footage, home movies and authored by 40 intimate interviews with friends and celebrity fans this feature length film charts Nat "King" Cole's battle with racist 50’s America to become a superstar. An intimate portrait, it’s filled with music and accompanied the release of the album of the same name.

She-Wolves: England's Early Queens

Helen Castor presents an in depth and insightful series covering England's early Queens, from the High Middle Ages with Eleanor and get daughter-in-law Eleanor of Aquitane, through the Late Middle Ages with Isabella of France and Margaret of Anjou and finishing with Lady Jane Grey, Mary I and Elizabeth I.

Integration Report 1

Integration Report 1, Madeline Anderson's trailblazing debut, was the first known documentary by an African American female director. With tenacity, empathy and skill, Anderson assembles a vital record of desegregation efforts around the country in 1959 and 1960, featuring footage by documentary legends Albert Maysles and Richard Leacock and early Black cameraman Robert Puello, singing by Maya Angelou, and narration by playwright Loften Mitchell. Anderson fleetly moves from sit-ins in Montgomery, Alabama to a speech by Martin Luther King Jr. in Washington, D.C. to a protest of the unprosecuted death in police custody of an unarmed Black man in Brooklyn, capturing the incredible reach and scope of the civil rights movement, and working with this diverse of footage, as she would later say, “like an artist with a palette using different colors.”

When We Were Kings

It's 1974. Muhammad Ali is 32 and thought by many to be past his prime. George Foreman is ten years younger and the heavyweight champion of the world. Promoter Don King wants to make a name for himself and offers both fighters five million dollars apiece to fight one another, and when they accept, King has only to come up with the money. He finds a willing backer in Mobutu Sese Suko, the dictator of Zaire, and the "Rumble in the Jungle" is set, including a musical festival featuring some of America's top black performers, like James Brown and B.B. King.

Richard Glazier: From Broadway to Hollywood

Pianist Richard Glazier offers a unique view of Broadway and Hollywood music using fascinating interviews, piano performances and commentary in this broadcast special.

Feindbild Frau

Women are sexually insulted and threatened by men every day. Experts around the world are registering an anti-feminist backlash that seems to be on the verge of becoming socially acceptable. Particularly affected: women in publicly visible positions – such as politicians, actresses or entrepreneurs. Who is behind the attacks and what are the motives?