A hot summer afternoon in the northeast. Residents of New York and Toronto look forward to the weekend. No one could predict what is about to happen.In a matter of seconds, 50 million people simply fall off the grid. Phone lines and water systems fail, and thousands of people are trapped in elevators and subways. It is August 14th 2003, and the largest blackout in North American history causes
A hot summer afternoon in the northeast. Residents of New York and Toronto look forward to the weekend. No one could predict what is about to happen.In a matter of seconds, 50 million people simply fall off the grid. Phone lines and water systems fail, and thousands of people are trapped in elevators and subways. It is August 14th 2003, and the largest blackout in North American history causes
Can organs be built in a lab? This research isn’t something that might happen in the distant future. It’s being used today to grow fresh organs, open up new ways to study disease and the immune system, and reduce the need for organ transplants. Organ-farming laboratories are popping up across the planet, and showing impressive results. Here we look at the state of the union of a rapidly advancing
This Oscar®-winning short documentary is an impressionistic record of a flamenco dance class given to senior students of the National Ballet School of Canada by two great teachers from Spain, Susana and Antonio Robledo.For a few weeks each year, in the depths of winter, senior students at the National Ballet School of Canada are treated to a style of dance that is unlike any other – flamenco. Su
Dispatches exposes the myths and misconceptions that surround a condition said to affect 10 per cent of the population. The Dyslexia Myth argues that the common understanding of dyslexia is not only false but makes it more difficult to provide the reading help that hundreds of thousands of children desperately need.Drawing on years of intensive academic research on both sides of the Atlantic,
Broadcast 2 February 1995, the fifth programme explores the alliances formed between the animal and plant worlds. Attenborough dives into Australia’s Great Barrier Reef and contrasts the nocturnal feeding of coral, on microscopic creatures, with its daytime diet of algae. Some acacias are protected by ants, which will defend their refuge from any predator. Besides accommodation, the guards are rew
Whatever happened to the hunt for Bin Laden? In the wake of 9/11, President Bush vowed not to “rest until we find him.” But five years into the most expensive manhunt the world has ever seen, “Public Enemy Number One” remains at large. How has he continually evaded capture? In this controversial and fascinating documentary, key personnel involved in the search speak out. Was Osama Bin Laden resp
This film, shot by 100 amateur camera operators, tells the story of the enormous street protests in Seattle, Washington in November 1999, against the World Trade Organization summit being held there. Vowing to oppose, among other faults, the WTO’s power to arbitrarily overrule nations’ environmental, social and labor policies in favor of unbridled corporate greed, protesters from all around came o
Can we trust our elections? My name is John. Since I was a kid, I have been a proud American. But after questionable elections led to disastrous outcomes for my country, I felt I had to find out if our process of electing leaders was secure. This investigation led me on a journey throughout Ohio, the pivotal swing state that decided the last presidential election. I met politicians, activists, ele