The Australian heroine from start, when she carried the Olympic torch into the stadium, to finish, as she crossed the line to take 400m gold, was the indigenous athlete Cathy Freeman. Against the will of many of her still oppressed people, she came to represent the symbol, albeit shallow, of reconciliation between White and Aboriginal Australia. But the frenzy of flames and fireworks surrounding t
These are strange times indeed. While they continue to command so much attention in the mainstream media, the ‘battles’ between old and new modes of distribution, between the pirate and the institution of copyright, seem to many of us already lost and won. We know who the victors are. Why then say any more? Because waves of repression continue to come: lawsuits are still levied against innocent pe
In 2018 Daryll Rowe hit the news headlines as the first person in the United Kingdom to be jailed for deliberately infecting men with HIV. It is an extraordinary case but at the time the media attention was all on Daryll Rowe himself, but this powerful documentary focuses on the victims Rowe had abused, giving them an opportunity to tell their shocking accounts of what happened.The men feat
In 2007 the BBC documentary film Bulgaria’s Abandoned Children caused an international outcry because the images of neglect were so shocking to witness in a country that had just become a member of the European Union. Viewers were overwhelmed with emotion and anger when they saw Bulgarian children brutalized and dying before their eyes when in State care, having been abandoned by their parents bec
The 'Fight for Water' is about an oil spill that happened on Feb. 28th, 2009 in the Ecuadorian Amazon Rain forest. About 14,000 barrels of crude oil seeped into the Napo and Coca Rivers, both of which are tributaries of the Amazon River.Through the eyes of the local residents, both indigenous and non-indigenous, the film explores not only the specific case of the Santa Rosa spill, but als
Second Skin takes an intimate, disturbing look at three sets of computer gamers whose lives have been transformed by the emerging genre of computer games called Massively Multiplayer Online games (MMOs). World of Warcraft, Second Life, and Everquest allow millions of users to simultaneously interact in virtual spaces. Second Skin introduces us to couples who have fallen in love without ever meetin
The seeds of the world are now owned primarily by one company, Monsanto. The American biotechnology firm is aiming to extend its control to pigs by patenting and thus privatising gene sequences, many of which are found naturally in pigs.Monsanto, has applied for a patent for pig breeding in 160 countries. The patent is for specific parts of the genetic material of pigs which Monsanto’s genetic r
Simple yet riveting, The Untold Story of Emmett Louis Till articulates the madness of racism in the South of the 1950s. Combining archival photos and footage with deeply felt interviews, this documentary tells the harrowing story of what happened when a mischievous 14 year old black boy from Chicago, visiting his relatives in Mississippi, whistled at a white woman in the street. The lynching that
The Lifecycle From kids shows to Countdown, TV has something to infuriate anyone of any age. Warning: this episode contains creepy dolls and the 1980s Oxo dad.