Documentary

It's every director's nightmare: to return home without your material. This is exactly what happened to Rob Smits, the acclaimed director of Jungle Rudy and other documentaries. Smits is the epitome of a filmmaker who speaks through images, not words. Long, silent shots of ragged beauty are his trademark. At the beginning of Room 2017 we find him in a hotel room in Taipei. He has just returned from a trip to the Yanomami Indians in the deep green of Venezuela...

A year before the presidential elections of 2008, a crew of young European filmmakers goes on a journey all across the USA in a little old motor home to search for America's missing voters.

Celebration is the latest version of the American Dream, a town built in 1996 in the swamp of central Florida by the master of make believe The Disney Company. The entertainment company famous for happy endings ventured into new territory: reality. Once again Disney had its thumb on the pulse of the American public: to return to community, to a neighborhood.

Ever since man entered Asia, through the Nile valley and the fertile Crescent, he crossed the deserts of the Near East, until he came to a barrier of mountains in the North. Some settled there, attracted by the fertile valleys, and in each valley isolated cultures emerged, and numerous different ethnic groups and races developed. These peoples who managed to survive in a hostile world, and who made the most of what nature offered them, are "THE HIMALAYAN DWELLERS".

This film follows a group of people who, despite holding down normal jobs, invest every free hour into running a race team. They choose to enter into the Privilege GT Championship – a high profile, televised series that supports the British Grand Prix. It is a David and Goliath story about undaunted determination pitted against money, innovation against effortlessness, inexperience against professionalism.

Tensions between the Allies mount. The British want to strike into the heart of Germany but the Americans are cautious and don’t want to loose men. This allows the Russians to advance deep into Eastern Europe. Churchill did not trust Stalin. But he didn’t know that Roosevelt was also manoeuvering behind his back. This double dealing was most obvious in the case of Poland. The British had gone to war over Poland, which now lay in ruins. Churchill knew Stalin had designs on their country. Roosevelt was prepared to abandon Poland. And Stalin got what he wanted. The 3 leaders agreed to move Poland’s borders to the West into Germany and Stalin gained territory which suited his political goals. In the Pacific the war was far from over and the Americans realized it was going to be costly in lives to beat the Japanese. The strategic value of the relentless bombing campaign of German cities is the source of vehement disagreement to this day. Most hotly debated is the carpet bombing of Dresden - however there is more recent evidence that The Soviet Union asked for the City to be bombed for strategic reasons.

The true horror of the Nazi regime is exposed as the Allies fight the Germans in their homeland and liberate survivors of the concentration camps. The retreating Nazi’s force millions of people onto Death Marches across Europe – the cost to human live is massive. But the Allies also force million on the march as they set out the future ethnic shape of Europe. The pre-war “mixing” up of ethnicities in Europe is reversed as the big 3 seek to segregate Europe into different ethnic groups. The Allies had agreed Germany’s fate – the division into different zones of occupation. But there was no such agreement about the rest of Europe. The Red Army fought relentlessly in the knowledge that the countries it liberated would be under their control – determining these countries fate for fifty years. The Allied Generals had ignored the agreed zones of occupation in order to beat Germany. But now that the Nazis were on their last legs, political manoeuvring between the big three started in earnest. The Americans sided with the Russians because they wanted the Red Army to join them in the war against the Japanese. They went as far as brokering a secret deal to allow American bombers to use a Siberian air base. The British were excluded from this negotiation. The American firebombing of Tokyo killed more people that the two atom bombs.

Once the War in Europe had been won the fate of the big three powers changed radically. The Russians wanted to control large parts of Europe and the Americans were not prepared to back up the British in their fight to keep Eastern Europe out of Stalin’s grip. By July a new world order began to emerge dominated by two, not three, superpowers. The British threw out Churchill and elected a Labour government, bringing in a welfare state, which set the shape of British politics for the rest of the century.The Americans decided to end their pre war isolation and become a world power, taking on their new rival Russian which went from being an ally to an enemy in 12 months. And Stalin chose to crack down at home rather than liberalise.The human cost of war was massive and it continued after the war ended in Europe. During peacetime millions died from starvation and violence born of retribution.Veiled threats and broken promises between the big three started to shape the future of millions of people.

Japan’s bombing of Pearl Harbour was the result of the battle between Japan and America for influence in the East. The Japanese industrialised early in the Twentieth Century but with no supply of natural resources, they embarked on a strategy of territorial expansionism and sought to stamp their mark on the region. The Americans and British were not happy about this and wanted to protect their own colonial interests in the region. The Americans put an embargo on trade with Japan. The Japanese choice was to give in to American wishes or launch a war against the USA. As the war came to an end, there was little discussion by the Americans about whether to use the Atom Bomb and a leading Japanese expert is certain that it was the quickest way to get the Japanese to surrender. When the war was won in South East Asia and the Pacific the US did not want to see Britain reclaim its Empire. But, in the short term, were forced to allow British troops back to restore order. They in turn used Japanese forces to quell growing calls for nationalism in the region, the combustible mixture which was to lead to the Korean, Vietnam and Cambodian wars was hatched in 1945.

During six years of war, across the world,55 million people had been killed. After the end of the war millions of people were forced to move home and country, as borders were redrawn and new occupying governments installed. The war had made the Americans the richest nation in the world and they were ready to impose their views around the globe. Britain was victorious but bankrupt. The big 3 feared that a third world war would be provoked by a series of ethnic conflicts, particularly in those European countries where there were German speaking people. So millions of people were forcibly removed from their homes, 12 million of whom were Germans. Europe became a continent primarily of ethnically separated countries. The exception was Yugoslavia. Britain was no longer a world player America had become an economic powerhouse, determined to convert the world to capitalism. And the Soviet Union, although economically weak, was ideologically strong and determined to defend communism. As American attitudes hardened towards the political and ideological shape of the new world order, their government ensured that they seized effective control of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, both established during the 1945. The co-operation and support of the war years and the hopes of this continuing in peace, were soon forgotten and Europe was to face years of extreme hardship. By the end of the year America and the Soviet Union were on the brink of the cold war. The forces which were to shape international politics for the next fifty years, had taken root in 1945

The Boeing B-29 Superfortress was the most advanced bomber aircraft to see operation service during World War II. It was the first bomber with pressurised crew compartments. It differed from its predecessors by the use of remotely controlled machine gun turrets. During the war it was sent to the Pacific area, where its great range made it particularly suited to the long attack flights to Japan from bases in China. The B-29s “Enola Gay” and “Bock’s Car” became the only two aircraft to drop atomic weapons during wartime – in August 1945 over Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The F4U Corsair is regarded by many as one of the greatest combat aircraft in history. When conceived, it mounted the most powerful engine and biggest propeller of any fighter in existence, and was the first US combat aircraft to exceed 400 mph. The US Navy adopted the F4U as a shipboard fighter-bomber in 1944, despatching large numbers from the carriers of the Pacific Fleet. By the end of the war, it had established a destruction ratio of 11:1 against the enemy.

Auckland Harbour, New Zealand. July 10th 1985. French navy combat frogmen place two bombs against the hull of the Greenpeace flagship Rainbow Warrior. They explode at ten minutes to midnight, sinking the ship and killing photographer Fernando Pereira. The French government wants to stop Greenpeace protesting at Moruroa Atoll – the French military test site for nuclear weapons from 1966 to 1996. France is desperate to cover up both the attack on the Warrior and their nuclear weapons programme. So desperate that it is prepared to kill its opponents. The French Secret Service, the DGSE, sends a team of 11 agents to New Zealand to carry out “Operation Satanic”. Two of them, Captain Dominique Prieur and Major Alain Mafart, are arrested as they tried to leave New Zealand. Comvicted of conspiracy, arson and manslaughter, they are sentenced to ten years in jail. After less than three years they return to Paris. At first the French government deny involvement in the bombing, but eventually they are forced to admit liability. The Head of the DGSE, Admiral Pierre Lacoste, is sacked. Defence Minister Charles Hernu resigns. President Francois Mitterrand is widely believed to be implicated. France pays NZ$13 million compensation to the New Zealand government and NZ$8 million to Greenpeace. “The Boat and The Bomb” is a story of international espionage, government cover-up and the nuclear arms race. It’s a story which has disturbing parallels with today’s “war on terror”. It’s a story which won’t go away.

Claiming the Memory uncovers a paradoxical generational battle for the right to pass on Holocaust legacy, through the conflicting responses of three Australian Jewish generations. From this moving, confrontational and unique perspective, the film explores the impact of the past on our contemporary world, questioning the future of this seminal collective memory.

Comrade Philby: a traitor in his native Britain, but a hero in Russia. The Oxbridge gent was a senior agent in the British secret services during the Second World War. As one of the former KGB spies of the Cold War ERA, Philby infiltrated the higher echelons of the British MI5 like no-one in espionage ever has. But what do we now know about the man, other than his strong communist convictions? This documentary investigates the man, and what effects his spying activity had on the Second World War and the Cold War.

Gaudi’s Barcelona is the story of a remarkable man whose work has defined a city. He left a legacy which has thrilled visitors to Barcelona for decades. This programme tells the stories of the buildings as well as the man, who was beset by illness but still dreamed of building glorious monuments.

In this trilogy, the preparations for, and the events of World War II are seen through the eyes of the German nation. Taken from a wealth of newsreel footage and private sources, this is an invaluable resource for understanding the Second World War through the perspective of Germany.

In this trilogy, the preparations for, and the events of World War II are seen through the eyes of the German nation. Taken from a wealth of newsreel footage and private sources, this is an invaluable resource for understanding the Second World War through the perspective of Germany.

In this trilogy, the preparations for, and the events of World War II are seen through the eyes of the German nation. Taken from a wealth of newsreel footage and private sources, this is an invaluable resource for understanding the Second World War through the perspective of Germany.

A pictorial overview of the varied aspects of Steam Railway operations, from A-Z.