Documentary

M-F Brière a eu le privilège d'assister à la formidable histoire d'amour qui lie les chansons françaises et québécoises. Elle a vécu les rencontres et les collaborations des artistes de part et d'autre de l'océan Atlantique. Tous ont tissé un lien qui a changé l'histoire de la chanson. M-F Brière a souhaité nous raconter cette histoire, l'occasion d'entendre et de fredonner des chansons populaires. Avec Julien Clerc, Aznavour, Bruel, Luc Plamendo, Maxime Le Forestier, Maurane, Charlebois...

Cheik Oumar Sissoko

Né en 1945 à San au Mali. Il part en France où il obtient un DEA en histoire et sociologie d'Afrique. Il passe un diplôme en cinéma et continue ses études à l'Ecole Louis Lumière. Auteur d'une dizaine de films, il a été récompensé de l'Etalon de Yennenga au FESPACO et du Prix spécial du Jury au Festival de Locarno en Suisse. De retour dans son pays, il a été nommé directeur du Centre National de la Cinématographie du Mali (CNPC), puis ministre de la culture en 2004.

Moustapha Alassane

Il est une véritable légende vivante du cinéma africain et nigérien. Moustapha est né en 1942 à N'Dounga au Niger. Avec Jean Rouch, il se forme à la technique cinématographique. Il part ensuite au Canada où il rencontre Norman MacLaren qui lui enseigne le cinéma d'animation. En 1965, il réalise le premier dessin animé africain « La Mort de Gandji ». Son premier long métrage voit le jour en 1972. Moustapha Alassane a à son actif une trentaine de films.

Mahama Johnson Traoré

Il est né à Dakar en 1942. Son père le destine à une carrière d'ingénieur électronicien. Il l'envoie en France et c'est dans un cours de travaux pratiques animé par un professionnel du cinéma qu'il a la « révélation ». Il veut réaliser des films. Il s'inscrit au Conservatoire libre du cinéma français puis fait des stages à l'ORTF et dans des équipes cinématographiques italiennes et allemandes. Il sera membre fondateur du FESPACO et du Festival de Carthage.

Philippe Mory

Né au Gabon en 1932, il fait ses études en France, apprend le théâtre et fait ses premiers pas dans « Irma la douce ». En 1959, il est le 1er Africain à jouer dans un long métrage français : « On n'enterre pas le dimanche » de Michel Drach. Il retourne au pays où il réalise son 1er long métrage : « Les tam-tams se sont tus ». Aujourd'hui âgé, il avoue avoir porté la casquette de réalisateur pour assurer la relève afin de transmettre son talent aux jeunes.

Certains pays européens ont encouragé la production de bananes dans leurs ex-colonies et territoires tropicaux. Cette banane européenne et ACP (Afrique, Caraïbe, Pacifique) n'a pu se développer que parce qu'elle bénéficiait de mesures protectionnistes. Sous la pression des instances commerciales internationales, saisies par l'Amérique Latine et les multinationales américaines qui dominent le marché mondial, l'Union européenne a, peu à peu, dû déréglementer son marché.

Director Tommy Pallotta made a compelling documentary about his friend Stephen Prince: a very engaging storyteller who worked extensively with film icon Martin Scorsese in the seventies, both as a producer and as an actor (Taxi Driver).

Prince was also the subject of Scorsese's lost film 'American Boy', in which the young Stephen tells fascinating, some time totally absurd anecdotes from his rock&roll life. For example: the most memorable scene from Tarantino's Pulp Fiction, in which Travolta injects adrenaline into the heart of Uma Thurman who overdosed, is based on a story that Stephen tells in this documentary.

Three decades after Scorsese's film was released, Tommy Pallotta brings us 'American Prince', where he draws out Steven Prince once more to recount his days since 'American Boy', share why he turned his back on the entertainment industry and to compose the next chapter of his story.

Safety First explores the indirect effects of 9-11 on our lives after entering an airport or travelling at ten thousand feet. Anyone who travels by air knows that since 9-11 our private lives are under extreme scrutiny in order to prevent terrorist attacks. Although many countries have endorsed the War on Terrorism, nations worldwide are still entitled to their own ways of dealing with potential terrorist attacks.

In the history of military aviation, there has never been an aircraft that could match the P-47 Thunderbolt for ruggedness and dependability. The piolts who flew it called it “The Unbreakable” and “The Plane that can do anything”. They were not wrong. P-47s often came back from combat shot full of holes, their wings and control surfaces in tatters, but in one piece. They flew more than 546,000 combat sorties between March 1943 and August 1945, destroying 11874 enemy aircraft , 9000 locomotives and 6000 armoured vehicles and tanks. Only 0.7% of these remarkable machines were lost in combat.

In this episode, the scene is switched to North Africa, following the continuous battle between the British 8th Army, the Desert Rats, under General Montgomery, and the Deutsche Afrika Korps, led by the Desert Fox, General Erwin Rommel. Meanwhile, the Germans were launching a massive attack at Kursk, which was to become the biggest tank battle in history, involving over 6,000 tanks, 2 million troops and some 4,000 aircraft. The new anti-tank gun of the Soviets was a significant factor on the ultimate German defeat.

As the US race riots raged in the 1960’s, and influential leaders such as Martin Luther King and Malcolm X rose in the civil rights and Black Power movements, Britain had its own, controversial, figure of Black rights. The figure of Michael X, dubbed so after his public meeting with Malcolm, has since those heady days slipped into obscurity. Opinion is divided about this man, who was born in Trinidad and joined many of the Caribbean ‘Windrush’ generation in migrating to England. Whilst some believed him to be an inspirational focal point for a Black movement, others saw him as an opportunistic lowlife pimp and hustler always eager to improve his station. The film follows his life and times, from the increasingly open and multicultural Notting Hill area of London, to his gruesome end in his home country.

The President’s groundbreaking visit to China came at the start of his re-election year, and was almost a disaster for him. For the first time, the Chinese diplomat who interpreted for Nixon on the trip reveals how she and the Chinese premier intervened to save the political fortunes of a Republican president, who sold out his closest political allies to woo Chairman Mao. Nixon arrived home to cheering crowds and won an election landslide – but the Watergate scandal brought him down before he delivered his promises to China.

In 1989, 2000 demonstrators were massacred in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, provoking demands throughout the world for sanctions. However, US President George Bush was concerned about the effect on the already fragile relationship with China’s leaders. This programme for the first time provides detailed accounts of the secret meetings held between Bush’s advisors and the Chinese government to avert a potential disaster, and how the process was undermined by the “Tiananmen Hostage”, Fang Lizhi, an ardent campaigner for human rights, wanted for counter-revolutionary crimes, who was forced to seek asylum in the US embassy.

From the rutted football pitches and lethal minefields of Kosovo, comes the compelling story of a football dream amid the on-going Balkan nightmare. Filmmaker Doug Aubrey follows football coach Scotty Lee on a near heart-of-darkness type journey through a country scarred by inter-ethnic hatred and littered with the lethal debris of NATO's war. A Different Pitch is a unique and at times shocking grass-roots insight into the effects of war on a generation. It is a timely reminder that Football, the people's game, is not just a way of life, but can actually help save lives.

MAGIC(S) is a passionate, subject-driven account of a medical magician's daily routine throughout many of Israel's pediatric wards where he treats kids of all ethnicities with large doses of humour in an effort to speed healing and medical recovery. It further tells the story of contemporary life amidst security and political tensions in a time when cultural tensions are at a heightened level throughout this land. Science has already proven that laughter is a very effective medicine. MAGIC(S) demonstrates that no matter the cultural differences, children really do smile the same way all over the world.

Lemonade Stories by award-winning filmmaker Mary Mazzio, explores the powerful impact mothers have had on igniting entrepreneurial spirit and innovative thinking. Featuring successful entrepreneurs including Richard Branson (Virgin) - whose sense of risk-taking emerged from the life and example of his mother Eve, a pilot and WWII veteran. Billy Starr, founder of the Pan-Mass Challenge, who was motivated by his mother's untimely death from cancer to raise more than $100 million for cancer research. Russell Simmons (Def Jam Records), whilst nursing a few failed business attempts, accepted his mother's gift of $250 and turned it into a multi-million dollar company. Arthur Blank's vision for The Home Depot (the world's largest home improvement retailer) was inspired by the example of his mother, a widow with no business experience who took over and ran a family business with enormous success. What do all these entrepreneurs have in common? We explore the lessons each have learned from their mother and the unique bond they share. Through intimate interviews with each entrepreneur and their mother and exclusive access to their family albums, Lemonade Stories will take you into a world rarely seen by anyone outside of each entrepreneur's inner circle. This is a salute to all mothers out there!

John Armstrong's beautiful elegy to white water

kayaking. One kayaker, a lush cascading

tropical waterfall in Mexico and a multiple Emmy

Award-winning cameraman.

Stunning journey up the Meking River by boat through Vietnam and Cambodia to Angkor - the ancient Khmer ruins deep in the Cambodian jungle.

Tells the heroic story of river, bay and soundkeepers around the U.S. - part environmental investigators, scientists, and litigators who take pollutors to court under the federal Clean Water Act. Featuring Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

Enchanting, wild journey by two extreme unicyclers through the mountains and valleys of the remote Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutan.