January 1953: On the eve of his death Stalin finds himself yet another imaginary enemy: Jewish doctors. He organizes the most violent anti-Semitic campaign ever launched in the USSR, by fabricating the "Doctors' Plot," whereby doctors are charged with conspiring to murder the highest dignitaries of the Soviet Regime. Still unknown and untold, this conspiracy underlines the climax of a political scheme successfully masterminded by Stalin to turn the Jews into the new enemies of the people. It reveals his extreme paranoia and his compulsion to manipulate those around him. The children and friends of the main victims recount for the first time their experience and their distress related to these nightmarish events.
L'Enfer de la bataille de Normandie
This documentary on the effect the talent competition "Afghan Star" has on the incredibly diverse inhabitants of Afghanistan affords a glimpse into a country rarely seen. Contestants risk their lives to appear on the television show that is a raging success with the public and also monitored closely by the government.
Chris Packham presents, mentioning others that didn't quite make the list, his favorite top ten animal - and plant species from the half million discovered in the first decade of the 21st century. The animals include the most endangered African monkey, a lemur (Madagascar simian), a mouse-size and -resembling relative of the elephant, a Caribean island-adapted sloth, a shark which 'walks coral reefs on an arm', the largest mega-stick, a deep sea jellyfish without tentacles and a jungle gecko mutation happening in Malaysian state Perlis in order to flee serpent predation into caves. Plant species include a giant Venus-flytrap on Palawan (Philipines) and the largest ever orchid from Peru.
Paris : Les Lieux secrets de l'occupation
Aalto is one of the greatest names in modern architecture and design, Aino and Alvar Aalto gave their signature to iconic Scandic design. The first cinematic portrait of their life love story is an enchanting journey of their creations and influence around the world.
For some time now, there have been schools in Germany whose aim is not to segregate any child. Everyone should be integrated with their minor or major handicaps, advantages or weaknesses, whether highly gifted or severely disabled. Klassenleben tells the story of such a school, its teachers, its children and the immense challenge of learning. From winter to summer 2004, Hubertus Siegert and his film team accompanied class 5d at the Fläming elementary school in Berlin. At eye level with its protagonists, the film observes the learning and life of pupils with extremely different abilities in a class of 20 children, four of whom have learning difficulties or severe multiple disabilities, and 16 "normal pupils", including some so-called gifted pupils. Do lessons succeed in such a heterogeneous group? Is everyone motivated to learn where the competition is not between "gifted" children?
Filmmaker S.R. Bindler profiles Texas contestants trying to win a truck by keeping one hand on it longer than everyone else.
In this documentary, Stephen Fry tells the story behind his success, after presenting the BAFTAs for more than ten years. With an outstanding career in film and television which began with a chance meeting with comedy partner Hugh Laurie at Cambridge, he went on to create the outrageous Melchett in Blackadder and has become a firm favourite on BBC2 with the quite interesting quiz QI. Featuring a supporting cast of friends, including interviews with Michael Sheen, Hugh Laurie and Alan Davies.
A portrait of a dilapidated Olympic-sized pool in Accra, Ghana.
In a country where people can own two or three homes, these are the stories of those who don’t have one.
Follows the plight of real-life dancers as they struggle through auditions for the Broadway revival of A Chorus Line and also investigates the history of the show and the creative minds behind the original and current incarnations.
A year in the life of troubled Australian graffiti artist Justin Hughes.
Waffen-SS officer Otto Skorzeny (1908-75) became famous for his participation in daring military actions during World War II. In 1947 he was judged and imprisoned, but he escaped less than a year later and found a safe haven in Spain, ruled with an iron hand by General Francisco Franco. What did he do during the many years he spent there?
This short film was created by a group of Indigenous filmmakers at the NFB in 1972 and is essentially a song by Willie Dunn sung by Bob Charlie and illustrated by John Fadden: "Who were the ones who bid you welcome and took you by the hand, inviting you here by our campfires, as brothers we might stand?" The song expresses bitter memories of the past, of trust repaid by treachery, and of friendship debased by exploitation upon the arrival of European colonists.
In-depth look at the life of John McCain, from his time as a POW in Vietnam to his three decades of service in the US Senate.
The Channel Tunnel linking Britain with France is one of the seven wonders of the modern world but what did it take to build the longest undersea tunnel ever constructed? We hear from the men and women, who built this engineering marvel. Massive tunnel boring machines gnawed their way through rock and chalk, digging not one tunnel but three; two rail tunnels and a service tunnel. This was a project that would be privately financed; not a penny of public money would be spent on the tunnel. Business would have to put up all the money and take all the risks. This was also a project that was blighted by flood, fire, tragic loss of life and financial bust ups. Today, it stands as an engineering triumph and a testament to what can be achieved when two nations, Britain and France put aside their historic differences and work together.
Schaub and Schindelm’s documentary follows two Swiss star architects, Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron, on two very different projects: the national stadium for the Olympic summer games in Peking 2008 and a city area in the provincial town of Jinhua, China.
With the Fifth Panzer Army fighting its way towards the River Meuse, the cross roads town of Bastogne, vital for the success of Hitler's last attempt to check the Allies in the west, the Americans rushed reinforcements to hold it. 101st US Airborne Division was resting in reserve near Paris when the call for immediate deployment to the Ardennes came and reached Bastogne just before the German ring around the town closed. Wearing only normal uniforms, the 101st joined the other garrison troops in a siege where they fought not only the enemy's panzers but the freezing, snowy, cold to hold the vital road junction. Filmed on the ground we tell the story of the heroic defence of Bastogne.
The compilation documentary We Will Remain Faithful is a testimony to the Czechoslovak resistance during the Second World War. The film covers the period from the end of the First Czechoslovak Republic to the victorious Allied advance in 1944. Director Jiří Weiss compiled it from archival footage, his own authentic and subsequently staged war footage, and material from both Allied and enemy newsreels.