Social & External
Self
National identity, social class, inequality. David Olusoga shines a light on our fractured modern society through the lens of the past, exposing the fault lines dividing the UK.
Glittering facades, vibrant life, and people facing the daily struggle for survival. ZDF correspondents each profile a megacity within their reporting area. How do people celebrate, laugh, and love in such a city? How are problems like housing shortages, food supply, transportation, and climate change solved – in metropolises with over ten million inhabitants?
Soon after his birth-mother contacted him for the first time, Gary L. Stewart decided to search for his biological father. His disturbing identity would force Stewart to reconsider everything he thought he knew about himself.
China: The Making of a Nation is the story of the painful transformation of the vast Qing Empire into the Chinese nation after the 1911 revolution. Spanning more than a century up to the Xi Jinping era, the story pits the two pivotal leaders of this transformation against each other: Chiang Kai-shek, leader of the Republic of China for 47 years, and Mao Zedong, who rose from ‘red bandit’ to master of the mainland in 1949. Sworn enemies, they fought a merciless battle: first military, then diplomatic, and finally, beyond their deaths, in the conflicting memories of the Taiwanese and the Chinese of the People's Republic. Beyond their fierce hatred, the two tyrants also had much in common: a certain vision of Chinese territory and the greatness of China, the desire to regain the country's sovereignty and the quest for a Chinese identity in a nation that also includes Tibetans, Uighurs, Mongols... and a certain ability to rewrite history.
Artist and social commentator Grayson Perry crosses the US, exploring its biggest fault lines, from race to class and identity, making art as he goes
The journey through Ireland begins in the Rugged North, in the middle of the rough and untamed nature. From there, we travel to the West of Ireland, where the original, traditional life is preserved. From the traditional west, our route takes us to the popular south, with a milder climate and lush vegetation. Our journey ends in the lively East, where the contrast between today and the past is not only palpable, but also visible. On our journey we meet people who would never leave their homeland despite the harsh living conditions, we wander through spectacular landscapes, get an insight into the traditional ways of life and experience the four sides of Ireland in a completely new way.
In beautifully crafted episodes, presenter Ben Fogle embarks on a once-in-a-lifetime journey to understand China - to see its most staggering sights, go beyond the stereotypes and discover its true identity. Ben delves into an epic 3000-year tale of how China has got to where it is today - how centuries of Imperial rule gave way to Communist revolution under Chairman Mao and the breakneck economic transformation as the state capitalist China of recent years has emerged. Mixing both the experiences from the people themselves, and a tour of this magnificent region Ben takes the temperature of a country now at the very centre of humanity in the 21st century. So why and how has contemporary China become so important to all our lives?
Artist Sir Grayson Perry visits Silicon Valley to explore how AI and robotics will shape the future, in a series that raises profound questions about what it is to be human.
What do we need to live a happy life? Follow Ronja von Rönne, author and self-proclaimed sceptic, as she explores this age-old question by meeting people with fascinating or surprising answers. A unique insight into the different mindsets and strategies that people employ to find happiness.
A two part film series exploring the struggles, strength & healing of Black men. “My Vulnerability is NOT weakness.”
For the 1994 World Cup, Germany entered as the favorite and defending champion, but was eliminated in the quarterfinals. Internal conflicts, media campaigns, and public criticism of coach Berti Vogts led the so-called "eleven friends" – players like Lothar Matthäus, Jürgen Klinsmann, Stefan Effenberg, Bodo Illgner, and Matthias Sammer – to maneuver themselves into a collective nightmare within just a few weeks. This documentary takes a behind-the-scenes look at Germany’s memorable World Cup and shows how one of the strongest German teams of all time spectacularly failed.
"Never lose that strength or nobility, even when you grow up." When Utena was just a child and in the depths of sorrow, she found salvation in those words. They were the words of a prince, who bestowed upon her both a ring and the promise that it would lead her to him again. She never forgot the encounter. Now a teenager, Utena attends the prestigious Ohtori Academy; however, her strong sense of chivalry soon places her at odds with the student council and thrusts her into a series of mysterious and dangerous duels against its members.
In the near future a new phenomenon starts happening all over the world with powerful flashes of light occurring in the ocean and people from the past mysteriously reappearing. Called "beforeigners," these people come from three separate time periods: the Stone Age, the Viking era and late 19th century. A couple of years later, Alfhildr – who comes from the Viking Age – has to partner up with a burned-out police officer, Lars Haaland, to investigate the murder of a beforeigner. The pair begins to unravel a larger conspiracy behind the origin of the mysterious mass arrivals.
Peter Lum, a football star, lives an ideal life in Cronulla until a diagnosis links his concussions to a brain disorder. Unable to accept it, he tries escaping through pub nights but his ex-wife and son know the game caused his downfall.
Young Americans is an American television drama. The show explores themes of forbidden love, morality, social classes and gender roles.
One gunshot, one death, one moment out of time that irrevocably links eight minds in disparate parts of the world, putting them in each other's lives, each other's secrets, and in terrible danger. Ordinary people suddenly reborn as "Sensates."
Take a Letter, Mr Jones was a short-lived 1981 British sitcom produced by Southern Television for ITV. It ran for a single series of six episodes. Graham Jones works as personal secretary to female executive Joan Warner within a London-based multinational corporation called 8-Star. Although he ably assists her in their busy office, Graham often helps Joan with her equally hectic domestic arrangements as she is a single mother to seven-year-old Lucy.
Édouard does not meet the popular standards of virility, and this generates in him a feeling of inferiority. During a weekend at the chalet with Renaud and Xavier, his childhood friends, he discovers that despite their mutual affection, they no longer have a positive influence on each other, being trapped in a dangerous game of virility.
Céline, Selma, Nathalie and Agathe live in a suburban town and all try to survive while the crisis spares no one. The closure of the women's lingerie factory is jeopardizing the city's economy. The joy of living gives way to unemployment and a social fracture more and more gaping, a boon for the National Party. The factory workers react and organize a women's wrestling tournament. The destinies of the four friends will then capsize...
Motoring programme featuring reviews of and reports about cars of all types.
An in-depth look at the history and pop cultural significance of horror films.
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.
Drivers, managers and team owners live life in the fast lane — both on and off the track — during each cutthroat season of Formula 1 racing.
Horizon tells amazing science stories, unravels mysteries and reveals worlds you've never seen before.
An insider's look at the engineering and scientific miracles behind the things that form the modern world.
Doctor Who Confidential is a documentary to complement the revival of the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. Each episode was broadcast on BBC Three on Saturdays, immediately after the broadcast of the weekly television episode on BBC One. The running time of the first two series was 30 minutes, being extended to 45 minutes in the third. BBC Three also broadcast a cut-down edition of the programme, lasting 15 minutes, shown after the repeats on Sundays and Fridays and after the weekday evening repeats of earlier seasons.
30 for 30 is the title for a series of documentary films airing on ESPN, its sister networks, and online highlighting interesting people and events in sports history. This currently includes four "volumes" of 30 episodes each, a 13-episode series under the ESPN Films Presents title in 2011–2012, and a series of 30 for 30 Shorts shown through the ESPN.com website. The series has also expanded to include Soccer Stories, which aired in advance of the 2014 FIFA World Cup, and audio podcasts. This entry refers to the main Volumes of the series presented by ESPN
Infographics and archival footage deliver bite-size history lessons on scientific breakthroughs, social movements and world-changing discoveries.
TV's most-watched history series brings to life the compelling stories from our past that inform our understanding of the world today.
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.
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.
A celebration of Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward’s iconic careers and decades-long partnership. Director Ethan Hawke brings life and color to this definitive history of their love, lives, and philanthropy.
Explore the surprising things we know (and don’t know) about why people are the way they are through expert interviews, rare footage from historical experiments, and brand-new, ground-breaking demonstrations of human nature at work.
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.
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.
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.
In a docuseries set at one of NCAA football's most fertile recruiting grounds, guys with red flags seek to prove their worth on the field and in class.
A British genealogy documentary series in which celebrities trace their ancestry, discovering secrets and surprises from their past.
Have you ever wondered how the products you use every day are made? How It's Made leads you through the process of how everyday products, such as apple juice, skateboards, engines, contact lenses, and many more objects are manufactured.