A series of films which ask what it means to live in poverty in the 21st Century.
Social & External
A risky expedition along thoroughfares that harbor mortal danger for those who use them or live on them. They run through deserts, ice, and snow, deep in the jungle, along water, and over mountains: the world's most dangerous roads, truly "hot roads." Many have died along these roads.
In the midst of unprecedented national prosperity in the 1960s, poverty was "rediscovered" by American policy makers, media and the public. This series examines how the poor fared during these years and the resultant evolution of foundation and public sector programs addressing the challenges of poverty.
Lenny Henry, Samantha Womack, Reggie Yates and Angela Rippon experience unimaginable poverty as they spend a week living it for real in this ground-breaking, two-part documentary for Comic Relief.
The people, ideas, and events that created our current world economy.
A look at the legacy of Band Aid, Live Aid and Live 8 in reshaping global charity and politics. Featuring interviews with Bob Geldof, Bono, Sting, and African and western leaders of the time.
Four famous volunteers try to untangle the complicated reasons and life choices that lie behind Britain's hidden hunger crisis and are challenged to help UK households find a way out of food poverty
Four famous volunteers agree to swap their fame and fortune for a world of joblessness, job-hunting and surviving on the poverty line and benefits
Jude the Obscure is a British television serial directed by Hugh David and dramatised by Harry Green, based on Thomas Hardy's 1895 novel of the same name. Born into poverty, young Jude Fawley refuses to accept his lot in life. As his dreams are shattered one by one, his life gradually descends into tragedy.
Mayuko Chigasaki is an ordinary girl from the countryside, who now is attending university in big city Tokyo. She struggles each day to make ends meet while studying for her exams, barely scraping up the yen to afford bus fare to and from school. And at the end of the day, she comes home to a gluttonous, freeloading alien living in her closet!
After her divorce, Kariya Mako returned to work as a contract editor for an economics magazine. There, she is ordered to be in charge of a serialization based on the theme of women in poverty. She interviews people living in various difficult situations, and it gradually makes her realize that this is a widespread problem that she herself is not entirely impervious to, as she is also someone dealing with employment instability while struggling to raise her children.
Two seasoned drug dealers return to the gritty street of London, but their pursuit of money and power is threatened by a young and ruthless hustler.
The Oblongs are not so much dysfunctional as slightly nonfunctional. Living next to a polluted swamp has left them with the occasional missing limb or mysterious growth, but through it all, this close-knit family sticks together.Sometimes literally.
When the Boat Comes In is a British television period drama produced by the BBC between 8 January 1976 and 21 April 1981. Taking place between 1919 to 1937, Jack Ford is a veteran of The Great War who returns to his poverty-stricken (fictional) town of Gallowshield in the North East of England. It dramatises the interwar political struggles of the 1920s and 1930s, and explores the impact of national and international politics upon Ford and those around him.
Simala longs to leave behind the humble life she shares with her family in Lilypad House, while Warodom seeks a path to greater social status. When they meet, both hide their true backgrounds behind carefully crafted appearances, only to find themselves entangled in a relationship where neither is quite what they seem.
The series is based on the award-winning Brazilian film City of God, which itself was nominated for Oscars in four categories, including Best Director for Fernando Meireles. Based on the story of two friends, Laranjinha and Acerola, who live adventurous and dangerous lives in a Rio de Janeiro slum, 'City of Men' brings into sharp relief the condition of children and adolescents in these areas, realistically yet with a dose of humor.
A loving heart trapped beneath an ugly facade, ignored and unappreciated by those who fail to see beyond what is skin-deep. She is a woman whose only desire is to feel a little affection from the world that has deprived her of everything she has always longed for.
A crime suspense drama that follows four female college students who live in the same dormitory. After discovering one of their friends has fallen unexpectedly pregnant, and that the man who impregnated her is treating her badly, they hatch a plan to steal 1 million yen out of revenge.
Bleak House is BBC television drama first broadcast in 1985. The serial was adapted by Arthur Hopcraft from Charles Dickens' novel Bleak House and it was the second adaptation by the BBC.
Infographics and archival footage deliver bite-size history lessons on scientific breakthroughs, social movements and world-changing discoveries.
In this true-crime documentary, a cult expert and filmmaker infiltrate a polygamist sect to expose a self-proclaimed prophet and bring him to justice.
This compelling series investigates the motives and m.o. of female murderers. While males are often driven by anger, impulse and destruction, women usually have more complex, long-term reasons to kill.
Explores the experiences of James Safechuck and Wade Robson, who were both befriended and sexually abused by singer Michael Jackson, and the complicated feelings that led them both to confront their experiences.
An in-depth look at the history and pop cultural significance of horror films.
Biography is a documentary television series. It was originally a half-hour filmed series produced for CBS by David Wolper from 1961 to 1964 and hosted by Mike Wallace. The A&E Network later re-ran it and has produced new episodes since 1987. The older version featured historical figures such as Helen Keller and Mark Twain, or long-dead entertainment figures such as Will Rogers or John Barrymore. The A&E series has placed the emphasis on such people as Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley, Plácido Domingo, Freddie Mercury, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Eric Clapton, Pope John Paul II, Gene Tierney, Selena, Diego Rivera, Mao Zedong and Queen Elizabeth II, and fictional characters like The Phantom, Superman, Hamlet, Betty Boop, and Santa Claus. The program ended up profiling enough figures that in 1999, A&E spun it off into an entire network, The Biography Channel.
Explore Marvel’s rich legacy of pioneering characters, creators and storytelling to reflect the world outside your window. Each documentary, helmed by a unique filmmaker, showcases the intersections of storytelling, pop culture, and fandom within the Marvel Universe.
Motoring programme featuring reviews of and reports about cars of all types.
Filmed across six continents, this docuseries uses cutting-edge camera technology to capture animals' nocturnal lives, revealing new behaviours filmed in full color like never before.
Horizon tells amazing science stories, unravels mysteries and reveals worlds you've never seen before.
From crippling payday loans to cars that cheat emissions tests, this investigative series exposes brazen acts of corporate greed and corruption.
Porn has gone mainstream; the question is, can we handle it? This exploration of the intersection of sex and technology is told through the stories of the people whose lives are defined by the current explosion of internet porn-whether they're creating it, consuming it, or both.
A tense, filmic and high-octane drama-documentary series that brings to life the stories of people who have lived through paranormal experiences that defy explanation. Using a mixture of intimate first-hand testimony and grittily realistic drama, the audience is transported into a world turned upside down by extraordinary and terrifying events.
A series of standalone documentaries powered by the unparalleled journalism and insight of The New York Times, bringing viewers close to the essential stories of our time.
Death row inmates convicted of capital murder give a firsthand account of their crimes in this documentary series.
Sir Kenneth Clark guides us through the ages exploring the glorious rise of civilisation in western man. Beginning with the bleakness of the dark ages to the present day, we consider civilisation's articulations and expressions in some of man's finest works of art.
TV's most-watched history series brings to life the compelling stories from our past that inform our understanding of the world today.
MegaStructures is a documentary television series appearing on the National Geographic Channel in the United States and the United Kingdom, Channel 5 in the United Kingdom, France 5 in France, and 7mate in Australia. Each episode is an educational look of varying depth into the construction, operation, and staffing of various structures or construction projects, but not ordinary construction products. Generally containing interviews with designers and project managers, it presents the problems of construction and the methodology or techniques used to overcome obstacles. In some cases this involved the development of new materials or products that are now in general use within the construction industry. MegaStructures focuses on constructions that are extreme; in the sense that they are the biggest, tallest, longest, or deepest in the world. Alternatively, a project may appear if it had an element of novelty or are a world first. This type of project is known as a Megaproject.
Influential builders, dreamers and believers whose feats transformed the United States, a nation decaying from the inside after the Civil War, into the greatest economic and technological superpower the world had ever seen. The Men Who Built America is the story of a nation at the crossroads and of the people who catapulted it to prosperity.
American Masters is a PBS television series which produces biographies on enduring writers, musicians, visual and performing artists, dramatists, filmmakers, and others who have left an indelible impression on the cultural landscape of the United States.