Where would we be without the world’s alphabets? Writing has played a vital role in the development and expansion of cultures throughout history. But researchers are only now uncovering the origin story to our own alphabet, which may have gotten its beginnings in a turquoise mine 4,000 years ago. From the shape of the letter A to the role of writing in trade and storytelling, discover how the written word shaped civilization itself.
Hundreds of thousands of mobile phones, LCD TVs, notebooks and the likes become useless and “out” relatively soon and end up in Ghana where children and adolescents dismantle them in toxic smoke. A “clean” business for some, a poisonous routine for others.
The film explores high peaks around the world while telling the relationship between humans and mountains across time.
Dr George McGavin and Dr Zoe Laughlin chronicle the history of rubbish and explore how what we throw away tells us about the way we live our lives.
Take a mind-blowing voyage to the most powerful and mysterious objects in the universe.
Tickled is a 2016 New Zealand documentary about “competitive endurance tickling” and videos featuring it, and the practices of those producing the videos, directed by David Farrier and Dylan Reeve. The film explores possible legal and ethical issues with certain individuals making the videos, and has itself been the subject of legal challenges.
Explorer Adam Shoalts embarks on an estimated 4000 km journey across the Canadian Arctic by canoe and on foot, alone.
Wildlife biologist Liz Bonnin works with some of the world’s leading marine biologists and campaigners to discover the true dangers of plastic in our oceans.
For some years now, the US has been in the midst of a second “New Age” wave. Shamans, life coaches and spiritualists are doing good business thanks to people’s search for meaning. One current trend is self-healing using kambo, a highly toxic secretion of the American giant macaque frog, which is administered in group ceremonies. It leads to vomiting, palpitations and dizziness, which adherents regard as a cleansing of the body. If used incorrectly, the substance can lead to cardiac arrest. One guru’s career is continuing, despite the deaths of his followers. Life-coach James Arthur Ray was sentenced to two years in prison in 2011, after three participants in one of his workshops died in a home-made sauna. In 2019, he celebrated his comeback in Las Vegas, and now sells self-realization seminars for thousands of dollars. For his followers, it’s proof that Ray’s strategy works. The US has given birth to huge sects that survive thanks to the utter financial dedication of their members. In 2019, cult-founder Keith Raniere was convicted in a sensational trial, having exploited and at times abused 15,000 women. One former member shares the barbaric methods that were used to keep women in the cult. This documentary takes a journey through America’s quest for spiritual fulfillment, shedding light on the questionable practices of self-appointed gurus.
Love, power, money, ghosts of empire, conspiracies, artificial intelligence – and You.
An emotional history of the modern world by Adam Curtis.
Steve Irwin’s impact far exceeded his hit series The Crocodile Hunter. Chronicling his childhood to his time as a global icon, those who knew him best reflect on the remarkable life of the man, father, husband and wildlife conservationist.
COVID-19 is far from the first pandemic to wreak havoc in the world. A long line of infectious diseases have devastated and in some cases destroyed entire societies. Almost all of them started in animals and made the jump to humans.