Latest Documentaries
"Had the party given me orders, maybe East Germany would still exist today. You can count on that." (Erich Mielke, Minister of State Security from 1957-1989) An informative and chilling account of the history of the notorious East German secret police, the Stasi. Up to 90,000 full-time employees and more than 180,000 unofficial informants work for the Ministry for State Security of the GDR, and about one in 50 adults in East Germany collaborated with East Germany's Secret Police. Relative to population, it was the largest secret service in the history of mankind. Headed by the sinister Erich Mielke, the Stasi kept the East German population under constant surveillance. The Stasi - just another intelligence agency, in just another country? "Shield and Sword of the Party" is what the Stasi calls itself. The Party dictatorship never dares to face its opponents. Instead, the Stasi has to keep all dissenting opinions under control. The goal is total total surveillance. In addition to the state security, the "Stasi" is responsible for foreign intelligence and counter-espionage, personal and property protection, border and passport controls. As the party's shield and sword, the MfS is supposed to keep all enemies of the state under control. "Die Firma: Stasi" takes a look at the extent of Stasi work and shows the omnipresence of state security - from the enormous headquarters of the Ministry in Berlin through district administrations, local offices, detention facilities, prisons, disguised isolation camps, hidden bunkers, reconnaissance planes, eavesdropping stations to the secret execution site of the GDR. Through tapping phones, reading mail, and installing informers they created an insidious culture of fear and suspicion. This definitive doc reveals the calculated cruelty and brutal repression committed by East Germany's most infamous organization.
2007 • History
With a million species at risk of extinction, Sir David Attenborough explores how this crisis of biodiversity has consequences for us all, threatening food and water security, undermining our ability to control our climate and even putting us at greater risk of pandemic diseases. Extinction is now happening up to 100 times faster than the natural evolutionary rate, but the issue is about more than the loss of individual species. Everything in the natural world is connected in networks that support the whole of life on earth, including us, and we are losing many of the benefits that nature provides to us. The loss of insects is threatening the pollination of crops, while the loss of biodiversity in the soil also threatens plants growth. Plants underpin many of the things that we need, and yet one in four is now threatened with extinction. Last year, a UN report identified the key drivers of biodiversity loss, including overfishing, climate change and pollution. But the single biggest driver of biodiversity loss is the destruction of natural habitats. Seventy-five per cent of Earth's land surface (where not covered by ice) has been changed by humans, much of it for agriculture, and as consumers we may unwittingly be contributing towards the loss of species through what we buy in the supermarket. Our destructive relationship with the natural world isn’t just putting the ecosystems that we rely on at risk. Human activities like the trade in animals and the destruction of habitats drive the emergence of diseases. Disease ecologists believe that if we continue on this pathway, this year’s pandemic will not be a one-off event.
2020 • Nature
Few places on Earth remain largely untouched and uninhabited by humans, but such spots exist in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Welcome to the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, a vast chain of volcanic mountains that have surfaced as tiny, isolated islands thousands of miles from any mainland. These worlds serve as both playgrounds and sanctuaries, where some species struggle and others thrive. Discover the secrets of these little-known oases as we explore eight islands, from the Arctic to the Antarctic.
2016 • Environment
From his wardrobe to his secret tunnels to his private pimps, discover the true story of Charles II.
5/5 • Private Lives of the Monarchs • 2017 • People
Witness the decline into madness of King George III and the rise and fall of his overindulgent son.
4/5 • Private Lives of the Monarchs • 2017 • People
Louis XIV the Sun King had France's magnificent Palace of Versailles built and it pays extraordinary testimony to his reign. He ruled for an incredible 72 years at a time when France was all powerful. Discover the truth about the King's very open 'secret' second marriage to Francois D'Aubinge and his many affairs. It’s been claimed Louis bathed only three times in his entire life. How does that square with the luxurious Turkish bath at the Palace, or the stories of him disinfecting his skin with alcohol, or the fact that he had literally hundreds of pairs of underwear which he changed many times during a day? He was very conscious of his height at only five feet four inches tall, however in his wigs and heels he appeared to be alot taller, Tracy explains how this extraordinary effect was achieved.
3/5 • Private Lives of the Monarchs • 2017 • People
Recommended Documentaries
The Ebola outbreak of 2014 almost brought the world to its knees, but this crisis has mobilized scientists and researchers, paving the way for new treatments and vaccines. From antibiotics and vaccines to computer programs that predict how viruses will spread, new lifesaving tools will be used to fight a wide range of viruses in the near future, including HIV, influenza, dengue fever, malaria, and a host of other killer diseases.
S1E1 • Breakthrough National Geographic • 2015 • Health
In 1991, a small Medieval prayer book was sold at auction. Miraculously, some original writings of Archimedes, the brilliant Greek mathematician, were discovered hidden beneath the religious text. Through scholarly detective work with the help of modern technology, this book now reveals Archimedes' stunningly original concepts, ideas, and theories--revelations that, if known sooner, might have reshaped our world.
Astronaut Mike Massimino explores the dwarf planet Pluto, a tiny frozen world surrounded in secrets; using the latest science, he investigates the possibility of life in its mysterious ocean.
S1E6 • The Planets (US) • 2017 • Astronomy
Astronaut Mike Massimino reveals the mysterious secrets of the moon, a world permanently tied to Earth; using new research, he uncovers the mysterious origin of the moon and how it kick-started life on Earth.
S1E8 • The Planets (US) • 2017 • Astronomy
David begins his journey inside the magnificent Palm House, a unique global rainforest in London. Here, he explores the extraordinary plants that are so well adapted to wet and humid environments and unravels the intimate relationships between wet zone plants and the animals that depend on them. It was in the wet zones of the world that plants first moved on to land and in the Waterlily House David reveals how flowers first evolved some 140 million years ago. Watching a kaleidoscope of breath-taking time-lapses of these most primitive of flowers swelling and blooming ...
1/3 • Kingdom of Plants • 2012 • Nature
Plato was one of the world's earliest and possibly greatest philosophers. He matters because of his devotion to making humanity more fulfilled.
The School of Life • 2014 • People
Music Documentaries
Music promoter John Giddings takes us on an entertaining ride behind the stage lights to tell the story of how live performance has become a billion-pound industry. As the founder and promoter of the modern Isle of Wight festival and one of the world's biggest live promoters, John knows more than most how to put a show on the road. And how the world of live performance has changed. Where once bands would tour to promote an album, in the age of downloads and disappearing record sales, the live arena is a huge business. Bigger than ever before.
2/3 • Hits Hype and Hustle: An Insiders Guide to the Music Business • 2018 • Music
Tina Weymouth of Talking Heads and Tom Tom Club celebrates the extraordinary contribution of bass to popular music, tracing its progress from street-corner doo-wop and the overlooked ‘guy at the back’ in rock ‘n’ roll, via Paul McCartney, the anonymous James Jamerson and Carol Kaye - whose genius bass lines underpinned The Beatles, Motown and LA sound respectively - British jazzer Herbie Flowers’s immortal line in Walk on the Wild Side, the emergence of 70s funky bass stars Bootsy Collins and Chic’s Bernard Edwards, the driving lead bass of postpunk maverick Peter Hook in both Joy Division and New Order, through to the growth of bass culture in reggae, whose sound systems sparked whole new genres in drum and bass, grime and beyond. With Bootsy Collins, Dizzee Rascal, Ray Parker Jr, Nile Rodgers, Peter Hook, Carol Kaye, Herbie Flowers, Valerie Simpson, The Marcels’ Fred Jonson, DJ Aphrodite and Gail Ann Dorsey.
2/3 • Guitar, Drum and Bass • 2019 • Music
Like an actor's script, a sheet of music instructs a musician on what to play (the pitch) and when to play it (the rhythm). Sheet music may look complicated, but once you've gotten the hang of a few simple elements like notes, bars and clefs, you're ready to rock.
It was 1985. Guns N' Roses were soon to be known as the last mammoth rock entity to come out of LA after selling over 100 million albums. Jon Brewer brings alive never-before-seen video footage of Guns N' Roses in their earliest days as a fledgling band, filmed and meticulously archived over the years by their close friend. They became known as 'the most dangerous band in the world' and retained the title for reasons this film portrays, via interviews with band members and those who were there on, and off, tour. Venture down seedy Sunset Strip to the Whiskey, the Rainbow and the Roxy, all known as 'the Jungle'.
2016 • Music
How is it that Beethoven, who is celebrated as one of the most significant composers of all time, wrote many of his most beloved songs while going deaf?
Celebrate the 50th anniversary of the concert that became a touchstone for a generation. This film brings the three-day concert to life through the voices of those who were present at what became the defining moment of the counterculture revolution. In August, 1969, half a million people from all walks of life and every corner of the country converged on a small dairy farm in upstate New York. They came to hear the concert of their lives, but most experienced something far more profound.
American Experience • 2019 • Music
Lifehack Documentaries
How TV rubs our noses in other people's superior lifestyles.
3/6 • How TV Ruined Your Life • 2011 • Lifehack
Dr Xand Van Tulleken is single and looking for love. Mathematician Dr Hannah Fry wants to use him as her guinea pig to test whether the algorithms that dating sites use to match people actually work. While Hannah builds a dating site, Xand meets the scientists investigating online dating - and learns what pictures to use and what to write in his profile. He tries out a 'bot' that has automated a swiping app and has an MRI scan to find out whether his brain is equipped for love. 50 members of the public take part in some mini experiments at a date night - and Xand goes on various dates to test whether the algorithm is better than him choosing randomly.
Advertisements and movies' clichéd and unrealistic portrayal of romance.
4/6 • How TV Ruined Your Life • 2011 • Lifehack
Have you ever thought to yourself, "I wish I were ____"? Adjectives may have included: thinner, taller, smarter, etc. If so, you're like virtually everyone else, and afflicted by "The Missing Tile Syndrome." As Dennis Prager explains, we often focus on the missing tile(s) in our lives, which robs us of happiness. In five minutes, learn how to fix your focus.
A documentary that explores how we repeat trauma. It focuses on the childhoods of significant American politicans. It explores the idea that aggressors were originally victims. And that our 'leaders' are deeply wounded and feel powerless. All footage is credited and used under the principles of Fair Use. This video work is both transformative and educational.
2017 • Lifehack
Randoms! Documentaries
New Horizons took its famed look at Pluto and is now racing toward its next destination… and Alan Stern will take us all on the journey of exploration with it!
3/8 • Curiosity Retreats: 2016 Lectures • 2016 • Astronomy
One of the most significant scientific discoveries of the early 21st century is surely the Higgs boson, but the boson and the Higgs Field that allows for that magic particle are extremely difficult to grasp. Don Lincoln outlines an analogy (originally conceived by David Miller) that all of us can appreciate, starring a large dinner party, a raucous group of physicists, and Peter Higgs himself.
Pandemic season. How to deal with pandemic isolation.
In the 1950s, Howard Hughes eyed purchasing the precious Exuma Cays--that is, until the Bahamian government intervened to protect the untouched gems. Set sail with the scientists, tour guides, and guards who have carried on that legacy to protect reefs, patrol waters, and propagate coral.
5/5 • Ocean Parks • 2015 • Nature
Kevin explores life in orbit on board the Station. As Tim settles in to his new home he sends special reports about what it takes to live and work in space. Four hundred kilometres above the Earth, hurtling at a speed of 17,500mph, astronauts' bones and muscles waste away, the oxygen they breathe is artificially made, and they face constant threats from micrometeorites, radiation and extreme temperatures. If a medical emergency strikes, Tim is a very long way from home. In its 15-year lifetime, the International Space Station has never had a major accident. With a British astronaut in orbit, gravity-defying experiments and guest astronauts in the lecture theatre, Dr Fong shows us how to survive life in orbit.
2/3 • How to Survive in Space • 2015 • Astronomy
Dennis Rodman's attitude and energy help the team win, but bring the drama off the court. The Bulls struggle to overcome the Pistons in the late '80s.
3/10 • The Last Dance • 2020 • People