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Synopsis
Showcasing the best in international documentaries, Storyville has developed an enviable reputation since its inception more than a decade ago. Screening over 340 films, from some 70 different countries, the strand has garnered a staggering array of awards: five Oscars, 15 Griersons, three Peabodys and two International Emmys. In true, unique, Storyville style, the new series promises to deliver the strand's usual eclectic mix of compelling stories from across the globe.
Episode 26 : Panto! Mayhem, Make Up and Magic
December. 22,2014
Storyville presents a heartfelt and heartbreaking documentary following a cast of Nottingham amateur actors staging a production of Puss in Boots.
It tells the story of how a small community theatre fights to keep afloat in austere times. With arts subsidies slashed, the cast must rely on ticket sales to keep afloat. This hilarious backstage glimpse follows their attempts to rehearse, provide costumes and scenery on a minuscule budget. Malfunctioning pyrotechnics and a donkey costume that exposes more than expected are just some of the challenges they face.
With a cast of amateurs, some of the challenges are human rather than technical. The film follows their attempts to master the singing, dancing and acting required for a pantomime - a greater challenge than Shakespeare, according to one of the participants.
The film movingly uncovers what it means to the cast, reflecting the vital and life-changing role the theatre plays in people's lives.
Episode 25 : Exposed: Magicians, Psychics and Frauds
November. 02,2014
Renowned magician James 'The Amazing' Randi has been wowing audiences with his jaw-dropping illusions, escapes and sleight of hand for over 50 years. When he began seeing his cherished art form co-opted by all manner of con artists, he made it his mission to expose the simple tricks charlatans have borrowed from magicians to swindle the masses. This entertaining film chronicles Randi's best debunkings of faith healers, fortune tellers and psychics. It documents his rivalry with famed spoon-bender Uri Geller, whom Randi eventually foiled on a high-profile television appearance. Another target was evangelist Peter Popoff, whose tent-show miracles and audience mind-reading were exposed as chicanery when Randi revealed a recording of Popoff's wife feeding him information through a radio-transmitter earpiece. In telling Randi's strange, funny and fascinating life story, the film shows how we are all vulnerable to deception - even, in a surprising twist, 'The Amazing' Randi himself.
Episode 24 : 112 Weddings
October. 26,2014
Documentary which explores timeless themes of love and marital commitment. For the past two decades, acclaimed documentary filmmaker Doug Block has helped support himself by shooting weddings. Hired for his intimate documentary style, he found himself emotionally bonding with his wedding couples on their big day, only to send off their videos and never see them again.
Many years and 112 weddings later, having long wondered what has become of their marriages, Block begins to track down some of the more memorable couples. Is married life what they thought it would be? Are they still together? How have they navigated the inevitable ups and downs of marriage over the long haul? Juxtaposing rapturous wedding day flashbacks with remarkably candid present-day interviews, this is a funny, insightful and deeply moving insight into the long-term challenges of marriage.
Episode 23 : Russia's Toughest Prison: The Condemned
October. 19,2014
With unprecedented access, this documentary looks into the hidden world of one of Russia's most impenetrable and remote institutions - a maximum security prison exclusively for murderers. Deep inside the land of the gulags, this is the end of the line for some of Russia's most dangerous criminals - 260 men who have collectively killed nearly 800 people. The film delves deep into the mind and soul of some of these prisoners.
In brutally frank and uncensored interviews the inmates speak of their crimes, life and death, redemption and remorselessness, insanity and hope. The film tracks them though their unrelenting days over several months, lifting the veil on one of Russia's most secretive subcultures to reveal what happens when a man is locked up in a tiny cell for 23 hours every day, for life.
A startling insight into inscrutable minds and the forbidding world they have been condemned to.
Episode 22 : Particle Fever: The Hunt for the Higgs Boson
October. 15,2014
Documentary which follows six brilliant scientists during the launch of the Large Hadron Collider, marking the start of the biggest and most expensive experiment in the history of the planet. Filmed over seven years, it is an emotionally charged journey with scientists attempting to push the edge of human innovation. For the first time, a documentary gives viewers a front row seat to a significant and inspiring scientific breakthrough as it happens. As they seek to unravel the mysteries of the universe, 10,000 scientists from over 100 countries join forces in pursuit of a single goal - to recreate conditions that existed just moments after the big bang and find the Higgs boson, potentially explaining the origin of all matter. Directed by a physicist-turned-filmmaker and masterfully edited by Walter Murch (The Godfather trilogy), Particle Fever is a celebration of discovery, revealing the human stories behind this epic machine.
Episode 21 : The Gatekeepers
October. 11,2014
For the first time ever, six former heads of Israel's domestic secret service agency, the Shin Bet, share their insights and reflect publicly on their actions and decisions.
Since the Six-Day War in 1967, Israel has been unable to transform its crushing military victory into a lasting peace. Throughout that entire period, these heads of the Shin Bet stood at the centre of Israel's decision-making process in all matters pertaining to security. They worked closely with every Israeli prime minister, and their assessments and insights had - and continue to have - a profound impact on Israeli policy.
The Gatekeepers offers an exclusive account of the sum of their successes and failures. In the process it sheds light on the controversy surrounding the occupation in the aftermath of the Six-Day War.
Episode 20 : Arms Dealer: The Notorious Mr Bout
September. 29,2014
Storyville follows Viktor Bout, Russian entrepreneur, arms smuggler and, strangest of all, amateur film-maker. Until three days prior to his 2008 arrest on charges of conspiring to kill Americans, Bout kept his camcorder running. He documented a life spent in the grey areas of the arms industry, crossing the line morally, if not legally, many times over before he was eventually undone by a post-9/11 crackdown. Dubbed by some the Merchant of Death and portrayed by Nicolas Cage in Hollywood's Lord of War, Viktor Bout gained notoriety as the world's most famous arms dealer.
With unprecedented access to Bout's home movies and US surveillance material gathered during the sting operation to bring him down, this film is a portrait of a garrulous, adventurous individual, intent on exploiting the murky loopholes of the arms industry. Interviews with his wife, family and former business partners describe moments both comical and harrowing in a career which ended in a 25-year prison sentence.
Episode 19 : The Himalayan Boy and the TV Set
September. 22,2014
Documentary which provides a vivid glimpse into a vanishing way of life in the Himalayas, as new technology extends its tentacles even into these remote regions.
In 1999, the King of Bhutan made a landmark proclamation approving the use of television and the internet. The film begins at the end of this process as Laya, the last remaining village tucked away within the Himalayan kingdom, becomes enmeshed in roads, electricity and cable television. Through the eyes of Peyangki, an eight-year-old monk impatient with prayer and eager to acquire a TV set, the film documents the seeds of this seismic shift sprouting.
During a three-day journey to the thriving capital of Thimphu, the young boy discovers cars and toilets in the search for the perfect television to bring back to the village. The trip enforces the sense that their tranquil village life is about to become extinct.
Episode 18 : Web Junkies: China's Addicted Teens
September. 15,2014
Documentary which follows three Chinese teenagers inside a Beijing rehabilitation centre for internet addicts.
China is one of the first countries in the world to label overuse of the internet a clinical condition. To combat what authorities deem the greatest social crisis for youth today, the Chinese government has created treatment facilities to detox and cure teenagers of their online addictions.
With extraordinary access, the film shows how the teens are lured to the centre against their will by anxious parents and must endure the military boot camp conditions combined with intensely emotional counselling sessions. It documents how the boys begin to share with the health professional and their parents the reasons why they feel more connected to virtual life than their families.
A thoughtful examination of a society in flux and a technology-addled generation on the precipice of an unknown future.
Episode 17 : A Sunday In Hell
July. 10,2014
Jorgen Leth's film focuses on the 1976 Paris-Roubaix single day bike race over the cobbled farm tracks of northern France, normally reserved for cattle. Leth covers the race with twenty cameras and a helicopter and captures the drama as some of the sport's greats, including Merckx, De Vlaeminck, Maertens and Moser, battle it out through the dirt and dust clouds.
Episode 16 : Velorama
July. 06,2014
Documentary looking at a century of cycling. Commissioned to mark the arrival of the 2014 Tour de France in Yorkshire, the film makes full use of stunning British Film Institute footage to transport the audience on a journey from the invention of the modern bike, through the rise of recreational cycling, to gruelling competitive races. Award-winning director Daisy Asquith artfully combines the richly-diverse archive with a hypnotic soundtrack from cult composer Bill Nelson in a joyful, absorbing watch for both cycling and archive fans.
Episode 15 : The Lance Armstrong Story - Stop at Nothing
July. 06,2014
Documentary telling the intimate but explosive story about the man behind the greatest fraud in recent sporting history, a portrait of a man who stopped at nothing in pursuit of money, fame and success.
It reveals how Lance Armstrong duped the world with his story of a miraculous recovery from cancer to become a sporting icon and a beacon of hope for cancer sufferers around the world. The film maps how Armstrong's cheating and bullying became more extreme and how a few brave souls fought back, until eventually their voices were heard.
Director Alex Holmes tracks down some of his former friends and team members who reveal how his cheating was the centre of a grand conspiracy in which Armstrong and his backers sought to steal the Tour de France. Friends and fellow riders were brought into a dirty pact that no-one could betray. But the former friends whose lives he destroyed would prove to be his nemesis, and help uncover one of the dirtiest scandals in sports history.
Episode 14 : The Legend of Billie Jean King - Battle of the Sexes
June. 22,2014
Storyville tells the riveting story of what happened when, in 1973, tennis star Billie Jean King agreed to face former world champion and self-proclaimed male chauvinist pig Bobby Riggs. It was a tennis match that gripped the world, a culmination of the struggle for equal rights that King and other female tennis players had been demanding for years.
Through scintillating match footage, archive and interviews with key tennis players and pundits, the film tells the interrelated stories of the birth of women's professional tennis and the growth of the women's liberation movement from the 60s. The forcefully contrasting characters of the focused King and buffoonish Riggs make for a highly entertaining watch and climactic ending.
A defining moment in the history of tennis and society at large.
Episode 13 : Searching for Sugar Man
May. 30,2014
Oscar-winning documentary which tells the remarkable story of the American rock icon who never was. With a great soundtrack, moving interviews and a breathtaking twist, this is the ultimate film about the resonating power of music.
In the late 60s, Detroit-based singer Sixto Rodriguez was momentarily hailed as the finest recording artist of his generation. But when his album bombed, he disappeared into oblivion amid rumours of a gruesome onstage suicide. The film tells the astonishing story of how a bootleg recording found its way into apartheid South Africa and became a phenomenon. Two South African fans turned detectives to find out what really happened to their hero. Their investigation led them to a story more extraordinary than any of the existing myths about the artist known as Rodriguez. This is a film about hope, inspiration and the realisation of deferred dreams.
The film is directed by Malik Bendjelloul who sadly died in May 2014.
Episode 12 : Which Way is the Front Line from Here? The Life and Time of Tim Hetherington
March. 31,2014
Moving and deeply personal documentary about Tim Hetherington, the award-winning British war photographer and film-maker killed in 2011 during the Libyan civil war. Director Sebastian Junger gracefully weaves together footage of Hetherington at work and emotional interviews with his family and colleagues to capture his collaborator and friend's compassion and intense curiosity about the human spirit.
A tribute to this remarkable, talented young man, Which Way is the Frontline from Here? also addresses fundamental questions about the very nature of conflict.
Episode 11 : Shooting Bigfoot: America's Monster Hunters
March. 24,2014
Documentary looking into into the religiously obsessive, competitive and bitterly divided cult of Bigfoot hunting, as filmmaker Morgan Matthews accompanies three American Bigfoot search parties trying to capture proof of the elusive ape-like creature.
As truth and fact tip into malarkey, night-time hunts devolve into farcical displays of voodoo and comic stretches of the human imagination. What starts as a humorous look at perception gone off the rails, descends into a dark mystery as things get out of control during a close encounter in the woods.
Episode 10 : Brakeless: Why Trains Crash
March. 19,2014
Documentary exploring one of Japan's biggest train crashes in modern history, caused when a driver tried to catch up with a delay of just 80 seconds. It's a cautionary tale of what happens when punctuality, protocol and efficiency are taken to the extreme. On Monday April 25th 2005, a West Japan Railway commuter train crashed into an apartment building and killed 107 people. Just what pressures made the driver risk so much for such a minimal delay? Piecing together personal accounts of those affected by the train crash, with insights from experts and former train drivers, the film poses a question for a society that equates speed with progress. It offers a fascinating insight into the railway's role in Japan's post-war economic boom and the dangers of corner-cutting in the prolonged economic stagnation that followed. Through the lens of this catastrophic train crash, Brakeless considers the ultimate cost efficiency.
Episode 9 : Muscle Shoals: The Greatest Recording Studio in the World
March. 07,2014
Located alongside the Tennessee River, Muscle Shoals in Alabama is the unlikely breeding ground for some of America's most creative and defiant music. Under the spiritual influence of the 'Singing River', as Native Americans called it, the music of Muscle Shoals has helped create some of the most important and resonant songs of all time.
At its heart is Rick Hall, who founded FAME Studios. Overcoming poverty and tragedy, Hall brought black and white together in Alabama's cauldron of racial hostility to create music for the generations. Greg Allman, Bono, Clarence Carter, Mick Jagger, Etta James, Alicia Keys, Keith Richards, Percy Sledge and others bear witness to Muscle Shoals's magnetism, mystery and why it remains influential today.
Episode 8 : The Village that Fought Back: Five Broken Cameras
March. 03,2014
Oscar-nominated film compiled from the video diary of a Palestinian farmer who documents unrest in his West Bank village. Emad Burnat starts filming with his first camera following the birth of his fourth son. At the same time in his village of Bil'in, a separation barrier is being built and the villagers begin to resist this decision.
Over several years Burnat films this non-violent struggle against the Israeli army - which is led by two of his best friends - literally from his own point of view. Soon, these events begin to impact his own life. Bulldozers knocking down olive trees, the loss of life and night raids scare his family. His friends, brothers and even himself are either shot or arrested. One camera after another used to document these events is shot or smashed.
Burnat collaborates with Israeli director Guy Davidi to produce this powerful and moving documentary of resistance life on a frontline.
Episode 7 : Soccer Coach Zoran and his African Tigers
February. 27,2014
A gripping story of triumph and failure, set in the world's youngest country.
South Sudan became an independent state in 2011, following almost 50 years of civil war. This documentary follows veteran Serbian coach Zoran Djordjevic as he seeks to forge South Sudan's first national football team. What follows is a fascinating and original portrait of the birth of a nation.
Although still steeped in traumatic memories, the new nation is seeking to make a mark on the international soccer stage under the dynamic and hugely ambitious new coach. The film follows the team over its first year, from the hunt for new players to buying a sheep to be its mascot and the side's first international games. Zoran's aggressive style soon leads to conflict with the chair of the soccer federation. As the euphoria of independence subsides, the team finds itself hit by bitter infighting, malaria and a financial crisis that threatens the state itself.
Episode 6 : Cutie and the Boxer
February. 17,2014
Oscar-nominated documentary which explores love, sacrifice and the creative spirit through the 40-year chaotic marriage of two Japanese artists in New York, by following the rivalries that emerge as the couple prepare for a joint exhibition. Surviving decades of hardship, thwarted aspirations and the husband's chronic alcoholism, they are a study in artistic symbiosis.
Now 80 years old and finally sober, renowned 'boxing' painter Ushio still treats his wife Noriko as his assistant. Noriko, emerging from her husband's shadow, creates intimate drawings entitled 'Cutie' that tell the story of her challenging past with Ushio.
The film moves fluidly between past and present, combining observational filming, archival footage and animated sequences of Noriko's drawings. A moving portrait of a couple wrestling with the eternal challenges of marriage, against a background of lives dedicated to art.
Episode 5 : K2: The Killer Summit
February. 05,2014
In August 2008, 25 climbers from several international expeditions converged on high camp of K2, the final stop before the summit of the most dangerous mountain on earth. Just 48 hours later, 11 had been killed or simply vanished, making it the deadliest day in mountaineering history.
In a century of assaults on K2, only about 300 people have ever seen the view from the planet's second highest peak. More than a quarter of those who made it didn't live long enough to share the glory.
At the heart of this documentary lies a mystery about one extraordinary Irishman, Ger McDonnell. At the very limit of his physical resources, he faced a heartbreaking dilemma. Through recreations, archive and home movie footage, and interviews with survivors and families, the film creates a forensic, vivid version of events that is emotive, engrossing and, at times, deeply shocking.
Episode 4 : Mad Dog: Gaddafi's Secret World
February. 03,2014
Colonel Gaddafi was called 'mad dog' by Ronald Reagan. His income from oil was a billion dollars a week. He washed his hands in deer's blood. No other dictator had such sex appeal and no other so cannily combined oil and the implied threat of terror to turn western powers into cowed appeasers.
Filmed in Cuba, the Pacific, Brazil, the US, South Africa, Libya and Australia, the cast of this documentary consists of palace insiders and those who gave shape to Gaddafi's dark dreams. They include a fugitive from the FBI who helped kill his enemies worldwide; the widow of the Libyan foreign minister whose body Gaddafi kept in a freezer; and a female bodyguard who adored him until she saw teenagers executed.
Gaddafi was a dictator like no other; their stories are stranger than fiction.
Episode 3 : The Big Melt - How Steel Made Us Hard
January. 26,2014
A film by Martin Wallace and Jarvis Cocker, The Big Melt combines 100 years of footage from the BFI National Archive with a score recorded live at the Crucible Theatre on the opening night of Sheffield Doc/Fest in June 2013 to tell the story of steel, the story of the men in the steelworks and the story of Sheffield.
Taking us on musical journey into the soul of a nation, it brings to life the ghosts of our past, taking us into the belly of the furnaces and showing how our national character has been stamped from the mighty presses of our industrial heritage.
Featuring leading Sheffield musicians including Jarvis Cocker and Pulp band members, the City of Sheffield Brass Band, Richard Hawley and his band members, the Forgemasters, a string quartet and a youth choir, the live soundtrack has been edited by Cocker to create a phenomenal music score - a new kind of Sheffield heavy metal, with pictures.
Episode 2 : Big Brother Watching Me: Citizen Ai Weiwei
January. 20,2014
Storyville follows artist Ai Weiwei, China's most notorious artist. In recent years his provocative work has brought him global recognition - and a prision sentence from the Communist authorities.
The documentary follows Ai Weiwei in the tense year following his release from his three month confinement in 2011. It documents his ongoing legal battles while on parole, and the pressure exerted by the authorities, who monitor his every move.
At home and in his studio, the artist reflects on his experiences in prison, the political climate and wonders how far he should take his activism - after all, he now has a young son to worry about. The troubles with his enemies provide inspiration for making new works of art, an outlet for him to vent his frustration.
This absorbing documentary captures the life of a dissident artist, one recovering from the pyschological impact of his time in prison.
Episode 1 : Mandela, The Myth and Me
January. 13,2014
Documentary made by a young South African filmmaker before Nelson Mandela's death which raises important questions about the iconic leader's legacy.
Khalo Matabane spent two years making the film, interviewing those who knew and loved Mandela, and also those who criticised him. Global thinkers, politicians and artists including the Dalai Lama, Henry Kissinger and Ariel Dorfman talk about the effect of his policies and his decision making. Their thoughts are weighed equally with ordinary South Africans like Charity Kondile, who refuses to forgive her son's apartheid operative murderer.
Through these interviews, completed in the last months of Mandela's life, Matabane interrogates for himself the meaning of freedom, reconciliation and forgiveness. By doing so he challenges Mandela's enduring impact in today's world of conflict and inequality.
Thought-provoking and reflective, Mandela, the Myth and Me is a moving film which frames Mandela from a fresh, deeply personal perspective.
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