"She's the youngest child ever to wear contact lenses, she has highlights in her hair, and she had plastic surgery when she was seven." –Mother of a baby beauty queen

As the American phenomenon of the children's beauty pageant hits the UK, this documentary uncovers a surreal new world where nine-year-olds get fake tans and seven-year-olds wear contact lenses.

With the grand final of the first ever Mini Miss UK beauty contest taking place at a leisure centre in Milton Keynes, it soon becomes clear that tantrums and tiaras may prevail over perfect poses and pouts. The mastermind behind the pageant is a middle-aged ex-beauty queen, who plans the entire event from her stairwell in Colchester.

The film follows three girls and their mothers in the lead up to the big event, and as they prepare to dazzle the judges the real reasons why they are all desperate to be crowned Mini Miss UK become apparent. From the evangelical Christians who are convinced that God will help them win the pageant to the disadvantaged kid for whom the contest holds the key to a better life, the film portrays an eccentric, and at times disturbing, snapshot of modern Britain. (Excerpt from main website)

Please visit the official website for more information:
http://www.bbc.co.uk

"While war raised, there were British and American bankers who continued to do business with the Nazis."

371 Swiss banks stand accused of collaborating with the Nazis during World War II. This was suspected at the time by by U.S. Secretary of Treasury Henry Morgenthau, who began investigating this collaboration. He found the Swiss were not alone. His archives reveal that both British and American bankers continued to do business with Hitler, even as Germany was invading Europe and bombing London.

This investigative film shows in detail the roles played by the Anglo-German banking clique. Key members of the Bank of England together with their German counterparts established the BIS, the Bank for International Settlement, which laundered the plundered gold of Europe. On its board were key Nazis such as Walther Funk and Hjalamar Schact The president of BIS was an American, Thomas McKittrick, who readily socialized with leading Nazis. Not only the BIS, but other allied banks worked hand in hand with the Nazis. One of the biggest American banks kept a branch open in Occupied Paris and, with full knowledge of the managers in the U.S., froze the accounts of French Jews. Deprived of money to escape France, many ended up in death camps.

When Pres. Roosevelt died in April 1945, Morganthau lost his protector and his crusade against the banks came to an end. He was further weakened when men in his department were accused of being Communists during the McCarthy era. This incredible story contains interviews with surviving members of banking families and Morganthaus investigative team as well as newly found archive material. (Excerpt from main website)

"Nobody was prepared for such a crisis. For the next seven months, 500,000 men will wage hand-to-hand combat with an invisible enemy – a ruthless battle that has gone unsung, which claimed thousands of unnamed and now almost forgotten heroes. Yet, it is thanks to these men that the worst was avoided; a second explosion, ten times more powerful than Hiroshima which would have wiped out more than half of Europe. This was kept secret for twenty years by the Soviets and the West alike."

Thursday 26th April 1986 became a momentous date in modern history, when one of the reactors at the Chernobyl nuclear power station in northern Ukraine, exploded. It was the most significant reactor failure in the history of nuclear power, a Maximum Credible Accident (MCA).

The plant, just 20 km away from the town centre, was made up of four reactor units each generating an output of 1,000 megawatts. The reactor in question exploded due to operational errors and inadequate safety measures and the meltdown was directly linked to routine testing on the reactor unit’s turbine generators. The test required reactor activity and the thermal reactor output to be run down to a lower level. During the procedure, however, the reactor plummeted to an unexpectedly low and unstable level of activity. At this point, it should have been shut down; as the operators chose to continue with the test, the events subsequently proved to be catastrophic.

More than 200 people died or were seriously injured by radiation exposure immediately after the explosion. 161,000 people had to be evacuated from a 30 kilometre radius of the reactor and 25,000 square km of land were contaminated. As time went on millions of people suffered radiation related health problems such as leukaemia and thyroid cancer and around 4,000 people have died as a result of the long-term effects of the accident. (Excerpt from main website)

Please visit the official website for more information:
http://www.discoverychannel.com.au

"Put it simply, this is what Snyder says, 'Savants see the world as it really is and not as we do through mindsets, the filters of our experiences. In savants, this filter system doesn't work. This is the filter in our heads that sorts the important from the irrelevant. Professor Snyder believes that this 'brain defect' in savants is the key to exceptional creativity.'"

"Beautiful Minds - A Voyage into the brain" presents a series of super-talented savants like the "real" Rainman, Kim Peek, the inspiration of Dustin Hoffman's character in the movie "Rainman", who knows about 12,000 books by heart - word by word; or Matt Savage a 13 year-old piano and composition genius, who released his first CD with own jazz compositions at the age of 7; or Stephen Wiltshire, nicknamed the "living camera" due to his unbelievably precise drawing by heart, or Temple Grandin, who looks at the world through the eyes of animals, or the German Calculating Champion Rüdiger Gamm, who raises within seconds 56 to the power of 33 without calcualtor or recalls over 160 decimal digits of 62 divided by 167.

In the three episodes the stars among the savants and world leading neuroscientist take us on a journey to three outstanding research fields: episode 1 ("Memory Masters") focuses on the phenomenon of the human memory; episode 2 on creativity and on the striking human talent to think for the first time a "thought" that has never been thought before ("The Einstein Effect"); episode 3 faces the "eternal" question: Are the male and the female brain in fact alike? (Excerpt from main website)

Please visit the official website for more information:
http://www.colourfield.de

"Ever since MTV arrived in our living rooms, there has been an inordinate amount of emphasis on beauty and youth and appearance - none of which enters our consciousness through our ears"

Never have so few companies controlled so much of the music played on the radio and for sale at retail stores. At the same time, there are more bands and more ways to discover their music than ever. Music seems to have split in two - the homogenous corporate product that is spoonfed to consumers and the diverse independent music that finds devoted fans online and at clubs across the country.

BEFORE THE MUSIC DIES tells the story of American music at this precarious moment. Filmmakers Andrew Shapter and Joel Rasmussen traveled the country, hoping to understand why mainstream music seems so packaged and repetitive, and whether corporations really had the power to silence musical innovation. The answers they found on this journey ultimately, the promise that the future holds are what makes BEFORE THE MUSIC DIES both riveting and exhilarating.

At the heart of BEFORE THE MUSIC DIES are interviews with musicians, industry insiders, music critics, and fans that reveal how music has reached this moment of truth. Featured performances from a truly diverse group of artists, ranging from The Dave Matthews Band and Erykah Badu to Seattle street performers and Mississippi gospel singers show us that great music is always out there as long as you know where to look. BEFORE THE MUSIC DIES will renew your passion for great music, and inspire you to play an active part in its future. (Excerpt from main website)

Please visit the official website for more information:
http://www.beforethemusicdies.com

"The executives, the editors in print media, the senior producers, executive producers in the visual media these are the people who have the ideological bias and what's probably almost as important their personal friendships. They go to the same country clubs, they go to the same dinners, they socialize with a lot of the people that they cover." –Roger Charles, former Correspondent at ABC News

The mainstream news media, while Americans rely on it daily for the latest reports on world and domestic events, a recent study conducted by the Cronkite School of Journalism indicates that nearly 67% of Americans don't trust major media for accurate reporting. Ask Americans specifically why they distrust the media and the answers are generally vague. After all, reports of news media abuses aren't normally found on the front page or the nightly news. Nonetheless, they do exist. Today, standards in mainstream news reporting had more to do with career enhancement than reporting the truth.

Today the CFR maintains its' goal is to increase America's understanding of the world. However, the actual objective of this highly exclusive club is revealed by the rare admonitions of the insiders themselves. In the early 60's, a Georgetown University Professor collects information for a book favorable to the network of powerful men who founded the CFR. For two years, Professor Carroll Quigley is allowed to examine the confidential papers and secret records of this network. Quigley reveals that these men aim to create a world system of financial control, in private hands, able to dominate the political system of each country, and the economy of the world as a whole. In short, they seek total and quiet control of the entire world and the CFR is the most visible conduit for carrying out that agenda. (Excerpt from film)

Please visit site for more information:
http://www.jbs.org

"It's the ordinary Afghan people that suffer the most...I asked these children how many of their parents have been killed out by the Taliban. Seven out of ten of their parents are killed by the Taliban."

An anonymous woman, covered from head to toe in a blue burka, is dragged across a football pitch and shot in front of 30,000 spectators. This haunting image of Taliban justice was filmed secretly in Channel 4's award-winning documentary Beneath the Veil broadcast in June 2001. The woman was Zarmina, 35-year-old mother of seven. In a new Dispatches film, Lifting the Veil, Carla Garapedian went to Afghanistan to discover her story and see whether women's lives have improved since the fall of the Taliban.

After a secret trial, Zarmina was jailed with her six-month-old twins. They were confined to one room for three years. She confessed that her husband, Alozai, had discovered she had committed adultery saying: 'He said, "Tomorrow I will go to the Taliban and they will stone you to death." That night I was afraid. I hit him over the head with a mallet.'

Money could have saved Zarmina's life. The final Supreme Court ruling stated that her life would have been spared if she paid 10,000 dirhams ($8,000 dollars) to her seven children for the loss of their father. But she had no money.

Under Taliban law, Zarmina was judged by her own children. Children often participated in Taliban justice and witnessed executions. Alozai's brother brought the couple's children to court. Zarmina's mother says: 'They were always beating the children to say their mother had killed.' (Excerpt from main website)

Please visit the official website for more information:
http://www.channel4.com

"Trapped now inside the school were over 1200 people, mostly women and children, some no more than babies. Their only hope of survival was that somehow someone would strike a bargain between the ruthless men who would seize them and an uncompromising Russian state."

The school siege at Beslan was the bloodiest act of terrorism ever to take place on Russian soil. Yet beyond this horrible truth remain many unanswered questions. There is no agreement on who the terrorists were. How many they numbered? Where they came from? How they got to Beslan? What they wanted? Whether they were all killed or captured? And just how the siege which began on September 1 2004, ended so catastrophically?

This Dispatches special uses testimony from eyewitnesses, survivors and security services. This is combined with video and audio archive footage presents the fullest account of what happened at Beslan.

The film examines the background to the events of Beslan. It also looks at the Russian state’s reaction to the atrocity and the motivation of the hostage-takers. Beslan School Siege also documents how a small town is coming to terms with the loss of its children. (Excerpt from main website)

Please visit the official website for more information:
http://www.channel4.com

"This documentary is dedicated to those who served in the U.S. military for the right reasons, who wonder why they are not and never will be the same, why they are sick, and why military leaders, veterans leaders in the three branches of our government do not assist them in getting medical care and compensation. The majority of our veterans only want to know what is wrong with them, why they became ill, and how they can be made well again. We will focus on the experiments conducted, the documents that support this experimentation, and what must be done to advance the cause of basic human rights for all active duty, guard, reserve, and veterans. For those of you who are not familiar with military experimentation, you are about to get a lesson in history, for to experiment without consent is truly beyond treason."

Department of Defense documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act expose the horrific underworld of the disposable army mentality and the government funded experimentation upon US citizens conducted without their knowledge or consent.

Is the United States knowingly using a dangerous battlefield weapon banned by the United Nations because of its long-term effects on the local inhabitants and the environment?  Explore the illegal worldwide sale and use of one of the deadliest weapons ever invented.

Was Gulf War Illness actually predicted by the DoD before hand?
Why are thousands of our men and women in uniform dying?
Why won't the mainstream media report this story?

Beyond the disclosure of black-ops projects spanning the past six decades, Beyond Treason also addresses the complex subject of Gulf War Illness.  It includes interviews with experts, both civilian and military, who say that the government is hiding the truth from the public and they can prove it. (Excerpt from main website)

Please visit the official website for more information:
http://www.beyondtreason.com

"At the end of the synthesis, I got in a very strange psychic situation, a kind of dream world appeared, a feeling of oneness with the world. A very strange experience which reminded me of an experience I had in childhood." –Albert Hoffman

There is more to reality than meets a normal eye.  Behind the curtain of everyday consciousness is hidden another unutterably strange universe. It's the world of mystical experiences and those who have been there describe the visit as the most significant event in their lives. Until recent times, it was a world known only to holy man, to saints, and perhaps to the insane.  Then a generation ago, this drug, LSD, escaped from the laboratory and was consumed by millions of young people. To some, it's a doorway to the mystical universe - chemical ecstasy, enlightenment in a bottle. To others it's a dangerous and subversive poison. The drug challenges our very conception of reality and its turbulent history raises sharp questions about the dividing line between private experience and public policy. (Excerpt from film)

Please visit Max Whitby's official website for more information:
http://217.158.75.167

"For as long as we've been able to think, we've wondered how we got here. And some of the ideas we've come up with have been, well, remarkable. Every civilization and religion in history has had its own. In one, the universe arrived after a snail shell mysteriously released a hen and a pigeon. In another, a giant emerged from an enormous egg. Today, we have the big bang, the equally remarkable idea that the universe simply began from nothing." –Professor Jim Al Khalili

Professor Jim Al Khalili delves into over 50 years of the BBC science archive to tell the story behind the emergence of one of the greatest theories of modern science, the Big Bang.

The remarkable idea that our universe simply began from nothing has not always been accepted with the conviction it is today and, from fiercely disputed leftfield beginnings, took the best part of the 20th century to emerge as the triumphant explanation of how the universe began. Using curious horn-shaped antennas, U-2 spy planes, satellites and particle accelerators, scientists have slowly pieced together the cosmological jigsaw, and this documentary charts the overwhelming evidence for a universe created by a Big Bang. (Excerpt from main website)

Please visit the official website for more information:
http://www.bbc.co.uk

"Detailed personal information is being collected everyday and used in ways we could never imagine. Internet searches are being recorded, driving habits are being monitored, employees are surveiled, shoppers are observed, recorded, and analyzed, and personal phone calls?"

Every day technologies are being used to monitor Americans with unprecedented scrutiny -- from driving habits to workplace surveillance. Shoppers and diners are observed and analyzed; Internet searches are monitored and used as evidence in court.

It is big business that collects most of the data about us. But increasingly, it's the government that's using it.

In a Special Report airing Thursday at 9pm and midnight ET, "Big Brother Big Business," CNBC takes a look at the companies behind the powerful business of personal information and the people whose lives are affected by it, including: a woman who lost her job due to mistaken identity; a man whose cell phone records were stolen by his former employer; a woman whose personal information was stolen from a company she had never heard of; a man who discovered his rental car company was tracking his every move.

The documentary also looks at how the FBI, the Border Patrol, police departments and schools are using biometric technologies to establish identity as well as an inside peek at an AOL division that works solely to satisfy the requests of law enforcement for information about AOL's members. (Excerpt from main website)

Please visit the official website for more information:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com

"In recent years, Big Pharma has pushed its way into the traditional doctor/patient relationship and found a new way to increase sales by targeting patients directly and independently, largely through television advertising. Between 1996 and 2004, industry spending on direct-to-consumer advertising (or DTC) rose over 500 percent."

Big Bucks, Big Pharma pulls back the curtain on the multi-billion dollar pharmaceutical industry to expose the insidious ways that illness is used, manipulated, and in some instances created, for capital gain. Focusing on the industry's marketing practices, media scholars and health professionals help viewers understand the ways in which direct-to-consumer (DTC) pharmaceutical advertising glamorizes and normalizes the use of prescription medication, and works in tandem with promotion to doctors. Combined, these industry practices shape how both patients and doctors understand and relate to disease and treatment. Ultimately, Big Bucks, Big Pharma challenges us to ask important questions about the consequences of relying on a for-profit industry for our health and well-being. (Excerpt from main website)

Please visit the official website for more information:
http://www.mediaed.org

"FEMA knew at eleven o’clock on Monday that the levees had breached, at 2 o’clock they flew over the 17th St. Canal and took video of the breaches, by midnight on Monday the White House knew, but none of us knew."

In this half-hour film, Greg Palast and his team travel to New Orleans to investigate what has happened since Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast last year. On his visit, he discovers that the population of New Orleans is miniscule, the reconstruction sparse, suicide rates are climbing, and many have not, nor know how to, return to the city that care forgot. He examines why residents had to leave, what really caused the flood and why they aren’t returning. (Excerpt from main website)

Please visit the official website for more information:
http://gregpalast.com

"Big sugar used to make people very rich and it still does. It used to make people very poor and it still does. Now, it makes people fat and sick." –Brian McKenna

Big Sugar explores the dark history and modern power of the world's reigning sugar cartels. Using dramatic reenactments, it reveals how sugar was at the heart of slavery in the West Indies in the 18th century, while showing how present-day consumers are slaves to a sugar-based diet.

Going undercover, Big Sugar witnesses the appalling working conditions on plantations in the Dominican Republic, where Haitian cane cutters live like slaves. Workers who live on Central Romano, a Fanjul-owned plantation, go hungry while working 12-hour days to earn $2 (US). (Excerpt from video.google.com)

Please visit the official website for more information:
http://www.cbc.ca

"The American pharmaceutical industry spends almost 5 billion dollars a year on advertising, and we in turn spend 250 billion on their drugs. That's more than any other country by far. Are we the most unhealthy people in the world or do we just watch too much TV?"

In America, we define ourselves in the superlative: we are the biggest, strongest, fastest country in the world. We reward speed, size and above all else: winning at sport, at business and at war. Metaphorically we are a nation on steroids. Is it any wonder that so many of our heroes are on performance enhancing drugs?

From the producers of Bowling for Columbine and Fahrenheit 9/11 comes a new film that unflinchingly explores our win-at-all-costs culture through the lens of a personal journey. Blending comedy and pathos, BIGGER, STRONGER, FASTER* is a collision of pop culture, animated sequences and first-person narrative, with a diverse cast including US Congressman, professional athletes, medical experts and everyday gym rats.

At its heart, this is the story of director Christopher Bell and his two brothers, who grew up idolizing muscular giants like Hulk Hogan, Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger, and who went on to become members of the steroid-subculture in an effort to realize their American dream. When you discover that your heroes have all broken the rules, do you follow the rules, or do you follow your heroes? (Excerpt from official website)

Please visit the official website for more information:
http://www.biggerstrongerfastermovie.com

"Bill Clinton has become just the second president in U.S. history to be impeached. The evidence is overwhelming that Mr. Clinton has committed serious crimes against the people and government of the United States."

'His Life' follows Bill Clinton through his college days as a war protester, his years of purported womanizing as governor of Arkansas, his possible connections to drug trafficking and subsequent murders, 'Filegate,' the Whitewater scandal and his questionable decisions, campaign financing and practices during his two terms as President of the United States -- always in the shadow of wife Hillary.

"Interspersed with interviews, 'His Life' is a thought-provoking documentary in the narrative style which compels the viewer to take a hard look at the life of one of the most controversial American presidents of all time. (Excerpt from DVD)

Please visit the official website for more information:
http://www.citizens-for-honest-government.org

"Rubbish rage has hit Britain as people discover their weekly bin collections have been cut back to forth nightly. Bin wars are set to escalate. The latest weapon: pay as you throw announced by the government today. Every time you put out your bin, you pay to have your rubbish collected."

Dispatches investigates whether the nation's anger over fortnightly collections is justified, examining why the changes have been brought about and why they have resulted in a level of protest reminiscent of the petrol crisis of 2001.

Is the reduction in service necessary to improve our recycling rates as the government has claimed? Or are we facing a new threat to our health with mounting piles of rotting rubbish?

Using scientific analysis, this film provides hard facts about the bacteria breeding in our bins and investigates whether fortnightly collections are impacting on vermin populations.

Dispatches travels across the country to meet residents who are so incensed by the reduction in collections and the policing of their rubbish disposal that they are staging a variety of protests, including refusing to pay their council tax.

The film will examine the wider issues surrounding the disposal of rubbish including what happens to recyclable waste recycling rates in the UK and the reliance on landfill sites to deal with our domestic rubbish. (Excerpt from main website)

Please visit the official website for more information:
http://www.channel4.com

"Since the earliest years of man flight, pilots and astronauts from around the world have encountered UFOs high in our skies and beyond."

The History Channel's "Black Box UFO Secrets" reveals for the first time the cockpit and control tower audio recordings of pilot and astronaut confrontations and sightings of unidentified flying objects high in our skies. 

From a detailed account of one of the very the first reported pilot case - the Arnold case in 1947 - to recent recordings over New England and Texas and NASA recordings and video from 2005, the programme features interviews with pilots, witness and experts, including UCLA's Joseph Nagy, actor Ed Asner, and pilot/UFO researcher Don Berliner. (Excerpt from main website)

Please visit the official website for more information:
http://www.thehistorychannel.co.uk

"The mobile phone is a remarkable piece of engineering. But look inside. There's blood in this machine. There's blood in this device because your mobile contains tiny electronic circuits, and they couldn't work without mineral called COLTAN. It's mined in the eastern Congo. There is blood here, the blood of Congolese who are dying in a terrible conflict."

The West's demand for Coltan, used in mobile phones and computers, is funding the killings in Congo. Under the close watch of rebel militias, children as young as ten work the mines hunting for this black gold. Blood Coltan exposes the web of powerful interests protecting this blood trade. Meet the powerful warlords who enslave local population and the European businessmen who continue importing Coltan, in defiance of the UN.(Excerpt from main website)

Please visit the official website for more information:
http://www.javafilms.fr

"This is not a film about saving the environment; it's a film about saving ourselves. Because whatever one's environmental, political, or religious opinions; whatever one's race, sex, or economic standing; whomever of us goes without water for a week cries blood."

In every corner of the globe, we are polluting, diverting, pumping, and wasting our limited supply of fresh water at an expediential level as population and technology grows. The rampant overdevelopment of agriculture, housing and industry increase the demands for fresh water well beyond the finite supply, resulting in the desertification of the earth.

Corporate giants force developing countries to privatize their water supply for profit. Wall Street investors target desalination and mass bulk water export schemes. Corrupt governments use water for economic and political gain. Military control of water emerges and a new geo-political map and power structure forms, setting the stage for world water wars.

We follow numerous worldwide examples of people fighting for their basic right to water, from court cases to violent revolutions to U.N. conventions to revised constitutions to local protests at grade schools. As Maude Barlow proclaims, "This is our revolution, this is our war". A line is crossed as water becomes a commodity. Will we survive?  (Excerpt from main website)

Please visit the official website for more information:
http://www.bluegold-worldwaterwars.com

"Our planet is a blue planet: over seventy percent of it is covered by the sea. The Pacific Ocean alone covers half the globe. You can fly across it non-stop for twelve hours and still see nothing more than a speck of land. This series will reveal the complete natural history of our ocean planet, from its familiar shores to the mysteries of its deepest seas."

BLUE PLANET is the definitive natural history of the world's oceans, covering everything from the exotic spectacle of the coral reefs to the mysterious black depths of the ocean floor. With revealing interviews with the scientists and production team, Discovery Channel takes viewers on an epic journey that will profoundly change how we view our planet's oceans forever. Blue Planet: Seas of Life is the result of a six-year collaboration between Discovery Channel and the British Broadcasting Corporation.

The Deep

A place of mountain ranges, perpetual night and cold, pressure extremes and the strangest life forms on our planet, the deepest depths of the world's oceans are worlds rarely seen. Because of the difficulty to reach and explore these depths, much of the life residing there remains a mystery. Now, through the use of advanced technology, creatures that would seem to appear only in our imaginations are revealed in a dazzling array. The Deep explores the darkest depths of our oceans and is a true voyage into the mysterious unknown.

Open Oceans

Open Oceans reveals an endless blue expanse of a water, where the nearest land mass is more than 300 miles (500 kilometers) away. In this liquid desert, it seems impossible anything could survive, but many do. The Blue Planet team reveals massive communities and lone drifters who call this open expanse home, and explores the rarely seen interdependent ecosystems necessary for life in the open oceans.

Coral Seas

Bathed in warm, clear tropical water and brilliant sunlight, coral reefs are the rain forests of the sea. Surrounded by desertlike expanses of ocean, they are rich oases of life. Spectacular numbers make it necessary to stand out to survive. This competition is highly visible as brightly colored fish compete for food, territory and mates. Watch these daily dramas unfold in stunning detail.

Polar Seas

Life on the edge of a frozen sea is tough. Pack ice at both poles is constantly on the move, and in winter freezes solid with air temperatures 158 degrees Fahrenheit (70 degrees Celsius) below freezing. Only in spring, with the retreating ice and waxing light reaching the water, does life begin again. Plankton blooms and feeds vast hordes of migrating fish, birds, whales, seals and polar bears. Walruses rake the seabed for clams. Minke and humpback whales gorge themselves on gigantic swarms of krill. But it is a brief indulgence, for the ice soon returns and pushes life back into the ocean. (Excerpt from main website)

Please visit site the official website for more information:
http://dsc.discovery.com

"There is nothing called hope in my future.”

Born into Brothels, by Ross Kauffman and Zana Briski, is the winner of the 77th annual Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. A tribute to the resiliency of childhood and the restorative power of art, Born into Brothels is a portrait of several unforgettable children who live in the red light district of Calcutta, where their mothers work as prostitutes. Zana Briski, a New York-based photographer, gives each of the children a camera and teaches them to look at the world with new eyes. (Excerpt from main website)

Please visit the official website for more information:
http://www.kids-with-cameras.org

"Ben has no guide dog and never uses a white cane. He's not even using his hands. Instead, he sees with sounds. He makes a sharp click which bounces back off nearby objects. Amazingly, Ben's ears picks up the echoes and he can precisely locate where things are. Ben is the only person in the world who sees using nothing but echolocation."

Ben Underwood lives with his family in the suburbs of Sacramento, California where he attends his local high school. Like any other 14-year-old boy, he loves to play with his friends and chat to girls his age, with whom he seems popular. He looks like any other boy, until he removes his $4,600, hand-crafted eyes. Ben is blind and, like other blind people, relies on some specialist equipment to survive. He uses talking computer software and a Braille machine to help with his homework.

Ben does not have a guide dog, uses no stick, and does not even use his hands to aid his mobility. Instead, he has developed something of a super sense: he is the only person in the world who navigates using clicks. As he walks, he makes a continuous clicking noise with his tongue. As these clicks echo around him, he is able to draw up a detailed mental plan of his surroundings and adjust his direction accordingly. So accurate is his technique that he is even able to go rollerblading on the street, negotiating narrow gaps between parked cars that even sighted children might find challenging. In fact, Ben's mother, Aquanetta, inds that her son is far more attentive to the dangers of the road than his friends, always the first to move onto the pavement when a car approaches. Ben first noticed his talent at the age of seven, when at summer camp. While it began as just a habit, Ben explains, he soon realised that it had potential benefits for navigation. He began to practise every day and developed the system to the point it is at today. It is the fact that Ben is entirely self-taught that is perhaps most astonishing and has led people to use the term genius when referring to the boy. (Excerpt from main website)

Please visit the official website for more information:
http://demand.five.tv

"The bigger question is whether we all have some of those abilities within us and that is what I refer to as the 'little rain man' in each of us."

This is the breathtaking story of Daniel Tammet. A twenty-something with extraordinary mental abilities, Daniel is one of the world’s few savants. He can do calculations to 100 decimal places in his head, and learn a language in a week. This documentary follows Daniel as he travels to America to meet the scientists who are convinced he may hold the key to unlocking similar abilities in everyone. He also meets the world’s most famous savant, the man who inspired Dustin Hoffman’s character in the Oscar winning film ‘Rain Man’. (Excerpt from video.google.com)

Please visit the official website for more information:
http://www.five.tv

"The Daily Mirror was the best of them. It was a tabloid when tabloids still meant a peoples' paper that respected its readers and earned their trust and affection...This film is a personal tribute, but it's also the story of what happened to the once popular Mirror. How the reporting of the blood, sweat, and tears of ordinary people has changed out of all recognition. Above all, it's the story of a rise of a new kind of tabloid and a new kind of media power now set to dominate much of the world."

The British public were told that the new information technology, heralded by The Sun's move to Wapping, would bring a greater variety of newspapers and a more diverse media. But it produced a contracted press controlled by ever fewer proprietors. John Pilger describes the downfall of his old paper and the all-pervasive influence of Rupert Murdoch. (Excerpt from video.google.com)

Please visit the official website for more information:
http://www.johnpilger.com

"We were sold this war on the basis of Iraq possessing a massive arsenal of weapons of mass destruction, which was never found, and won't be found, because there was no massive arsenal of weapons. We were also promised a need for war on the basis of active cooperation between Iraq and Al-Qaeda and the fact that it was just a matter of time before some of these weapons from this massive arsenal were passed to this terrorist group...There was no hard intelligence to establish there was a link between Iraq and Al-Qaeda."

John Pilger dissects the truth and lies in the 'war on terror'. Award-winning journalist John Pilger investigates the discrepancies between American and British claims for the 'war on terror' and the facts on the ground as he finds them in Afghanistan and Washington, DC.

In 2001, as the bombs began to drop, George W. Bush promised Afghanistan "the generosity of America and its allies". Now, the familiar old warlords are regaining power, religious fundamentalism is renewing its grip and military skirmishes continue routinely. In "liberated" Afghanistan, America has its military base and pipeline access, while the people have the warlords who are, says one woman, "in many ways worse than the Taliban".

In Washington, Pilger conducts a series of remarkable interviews with William Kristol, editor of the Weekly Standard, and leading Administration officials such as Douglas Feith, Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, and John Bolton, Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security. These people, and the other architects of the Project for the New American Century, were dismissed as 'the crazies' by the first Bush Administration in the early 90s when they first presented their ideas for pre-emptive strikes and world domination. (Excerpt from video.google.com)

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"Many of the claims house builders make are false. They say they want to deliver affordable homes, but they don't and they won't. They blame the planning system for the affordability crisis, but that is not true. In fact, I've found part of the blame lies with the house builders themselves."

Earlier this month, Prime Minister Gordon Brown placed housing firmly at the top of the government's agenda, unveiling plans to build three million homes by 2020 - possibly the biggest building programme in Britain for 30 years. But in this edition of Dispatches, reporter Andrew Gilligan investigates the private house builders charged with solving Britain's chronic housing shortage.

Gilligan raises serious concerns about the way in which house-builders currently operate. He exposes the business tactics which are used to manipulate the planning process, questions the quality of houses and shows how public authorities have allowed developers control over housing policy.

Gilligan uncovers the underhand ways in which some developers seek to gain planning permission. He reveals the dirty tricks used by one lobbying company on behalf of a developer in London to influence the local planning committee and discovers cases where developers have made donations to local political parties which control the planning committees - around the same time their applications for profitable developments are being considered.

With housing in three-quarters of the country now too expensive for first-time buyers, Gilligan examines one of the government's key solutions to the astronomical pricing - building more 'affordable' homes. But he discovers that previous attempts to build cheap, good quality homes in the past have failed dismally with prices for flagship schemes inflating by more than three times the original target price. (Excerpt from main website)

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http://www.channel4.com

"Recently, there's been a dramatic increase in the number of old UFO documents coming forward in the public domain. Over the past few years, we've seen the release of documents which at the time were classified as top secret."

While the American Government's alleged knowledge of discoveries of UFO's has long been known, THE BRITISH UFO FILES reveals for the first time the secret history of alien aircraft investigations led by the most powerful forces within the British establishment. The programme explores hitherto secret departments within the Ministry of Defence as well as controversial claims made by those working within the government and military that the British government has long known about the existence of extra-terrestrial visitors.

Despite consistent public denial of the existence of 'flying saucers' by the MOD, it has always as a matter of course investigated sightings, ever since pilots during the First World War reported strange 'aerial phenomena'. Winston Churchill himself ordered investigations by the Admiralty in 1929 into such disturbances. Indeed, the British government began to formally study UFO sightings in 1950 following changes in public opinion fuelled by flying saucer fictional stories serialised in British newspapers and magazines. (Excerpt from main website)

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http://www.thehistorychannel.co.uk

"When I look around, I always learn something and that is to be always yourself, and to express yourself, to have faith in yourself; do not go out and look for a successful personality and duplicate it."

Bruce Lee (27 November 1940 – 20 July 1973) was an American-born martial artist, philosopher, instructor, martial arts actor and the founder of the Jeet Kune Do combat form. He was widely regarded as the most influential martial artist of the twentieth century and a cultural icon.[1] He was also the father of actor Brandon Lee and of actress Shannon Lee.

Lee was born in San Francisco, California, and raised in Hong Kong. His Hong Kong and Hollywood-produced films elevated the traditional Hong Kong martial arts film to a new level of popularity and acclaim, and sparked the first major surge of interest in Chinese martial arts in the West. The direction and tone of his films changed and influenced martial arts and martial arts films in Hong Kong and the rest of the world as well. Lee became an iconic figure particularly to the Chinese, as he portrayed Chinese national pride and Chinese nationalism in his movies.[2] He primarily practiced Chinese martial arts (Kung Fu). (Excerpt from wikipedia)

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"I have come here because Bulgaria has the highest number of physically and mentally disabled children growing up in institutes anywhere in Europe, children who have been abandoned"

The Social Care Home - where 75 unwanted children are growing up - is the main employer in the small village of Mogilino. Few of the children can talk, not necessarily because they are unable but rather because no one has ever taught them how.

Kate meets the children in this tragic, silent world, such as Milan, the gentle giant who spends his days doing chores and watching over the others, and mildly autistic 18-year-old Didi, who is able to talk, and has plenty to say, but no one to speak to. The children that surround them suffer a variety of problems, many are blind or deaf and some are unable to leave their beds, many are literally wasting away.

Abandoned into the hands of the staff at Mogilino these children inhabit a bleak uncaring world, so devoid of normal everyday stimulus that many have taken to rocking slowly and constantly in their chairs just for something to do.

Bulgaria has more institutionalised mentally and physically disabled children than anywhere else in Europe. This film is a heart-rending and eye-opening look into the life of one such institution. (Excerpt from main website)

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http://www.bbc.co.uk

"A village is burnt to the ground, civilians forced to run for their lives, these children were fleeing through the jungle when soldiers hunted them down and murdered them one by one. This is Burma, a country where thugs are hired to assassinate political opponents, where the people elected leader has been locked away for most of the past 16 years by a military dictatorship in which Britain is the second biggest investor."

For most of the past 16 years the truly elected leader of Burma, Aung San Suu Kyi, has been held under house arrest by a brutal military dictatorship that suppresses all opposition through a policy of rape, forced labour and systematic killings. This is a country unique in failing all five crucial tests by which the UN measures human rights, yet until now the world has all but ignored.  Finally, the UN Security Council is beginning to debate how to deal with this renegade nation, in which Britain is the second biggest investor.

Journalist Evan Williams goes undercover for Dispatches deep inside Burma on a highly dangerous journey to witness new levels of violence by the regime against its own people.  Evan documents atrocities committed against the Karen people, and follows up by illegally entering Burma again - this time as a tourist.  He meets dissidents willing to sacrifice their freedom so that people on the outside should know what is going on.  Despite Aung San Suu Kyi’s plea for an end to foreign investment in Burma, Evan discovers that – thanks to the tax loophole of a British Protectorate – Britain remains the second biggest investor in this systematically brutal dictatorship. (Excerpt from main website)

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http://www.hardcashproductions.com

"And as we know, all of this was being done based on the fact that the United States, which is the National Institutes of Health, together with a pharmaceutical company, which is Elan Pharmaceuticals, was trying simply to steal my invention. That's what they wanted. It's not that we had a successful visit from the National Cancer Institute in which they determined that "this treatment works great" and they decided that we should go into Phase 2 clinical trials which would be sponsored by them. No. This gave the idea of some high-ups at the FDA to conspire with the pharmaceutical company so that they could steal the invention from me and get it, because it was good. That's the whole story." -Dr. Burzynski

Burzynski is the story of a pioneering medical doctor and PhD biochemist who discovered and invented a new form of cancer therapy. This documentary takes the audience through the treacherous, yet victorious, 14-year journey both Dr. Burzynski and his patients have had to endure in order to obtain FDA-approved clinical trials of Antineoplastons - resulting in the largest and most convoluted defeat against the Food and Drug Administration in American history.

When Eric Merola set out to make this film, his initial intention was to explore for himself the remarkable stories of countless patients who have claimed to have been cured of what was once a terminal cancer diagnosis. Particularly since most of these patients had never undergone any "traditional" treatments before starting Dr. Burzynski's treatment, Mr. Merola felt it was a story that is both topical and of invaluable importance.

Eric spent months traveling the United States interviewing various cancer survivors who were treated by Dr. Burzynski. After obtaining these on-camera interviews, Eric was granted permission from both the patients and the Burzynski Clinic to publish all original medical records confirming diagnosis and recovery of these survivors. Eric Merola was granted written permission to publicly exhibit these medical records in the film and supporting website.

This documentary also exposes some of the deepest corruption within the medical industry in relation to the business of treating cancer., and how this industry reacts to new, competing therapies not invented and owned by the pharmaceutical industry.

It is the opinion of director and producer Eric Merola, that the story contained in his documentary Burzynski-makes the "Watergate scandal" look like a kindergarten pottery class in comparison.(Excerpt from main website)

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http://ericmerola.com

"There were other connections between the Bushs and the Saudis. Carlyle Group, which hired both George Bush junior and senior, received major funds and worked for Saudi Royals and the Bin Laden family."

This hour long documentary follows the award-winning reporter-sleuth Greg Palast on the trail of the Bush family, from Florida election finagling, to the Saudi connection, to the Bush team's spiking the FBI investigation of the bin Laden family and the secret State Department plans for post-war Iraq.

These are the hard-hitting reports that have been seen in films like Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11, broadcast internationally on BBC Newsnight television, and are found in Palast's international bestselling book The Best Democracy Money Can Buy. (Excerpt from video.google.com)

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http://www.gregpalast.com

"By knowing and exercising your rights, you become a better citizen. In addition, you'll be more prepared to balance the power between yourself and police, who often try to get you to wave your rights. Although you're generally better off respectfully asserting your rights, doing so is no guarantee against police misconduct, but showing the police that you know your rights can make them cautious about violating your rights" –Ira Glasser

Created by Flex Your Rights and narrated by retired ACLU director Ira Glasser, BUSTED realistically depicts the pressure and confusion of common police encounters. In an entertaining and revealing manner, BUSTED illustrates the right and wrong ways to handle different police encounters and pays special attention to demonstrating how you, the viewer, can courteously and confidently refuse police searches. (Excerpt from main website)

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http://www.flexyourrights.org