Take Light

Caught up in the tangled wires of Nigeria’s electricity

Although it has the largest reserve of gas in Africa, Nigeria cannot provide its population with electricity. Electricians, both legal and illegal, risk their lives on the power lines to earn enough to survive and provide for their families. When the lights go out, or customers can no longer pay their bills, the people have to take matters into their own hands. Take Light is an urgent doc that reveals a rarely-glimpsed side of Nigerian society.

Grit

A powerful insight into those affected by a major mud explosion in Indonesia

When Dian was six she narrowly escaped a tsunami of boiling mud that completely submerged 16 villages under a moonscape of grit, leaving 60,000 people displaced. Lapindo, an Indonesian drilling company, had unleashed a violent, unstoppable flow from the earth's depths, estimated to continue for another decade. Shot over six years, GRIT witnesses Dian's transformation in to a politically active teen, as she and her mother take on the perpetrators.

Of Fish and Foe

A surprising look at contemporary eco-activism on the Scottish Seas

The Pullars are one of the last families using traditional methods to fish for wild Atlantic salmon off the coast of Scotland. When these methods involve killing seals, the salmon’s natural predators, conflict erupts. Animal activist groups Sea Shepherd and Hunt Saboteurs oppose the Pullars at every turn, despite the legality of the fishermen’s actions and the consequences to their livelihood. Challenging preconceptions, this ambiguous doc puts modern environmentalism under the microscope.

What Comes Around

A testament to the power of community organisation

‘One big family’ is how Um Ghareeb describes her ‘al Gami’ya’ community in one of Cairo’s poorest districts. Driven by the women who rule the roost, all members regularly contribute a small amount of money into a pot. At weekly meetings, a collective decision is made as to how to share it. Reem Saleh spent six years following this colourful community, revealing their daily struggle for survival and touching solidarity in an inhospitable world.

Pani: Women, Drugs and Kathmandu

Living with addiction in Kathmandu

In Kathmandu, life for female opioid addicts is hard. Shunned by society and with limited access to rehabilitation services, many turn to sex work and petty crime to survive. Living in the shadows, they endure a cycle of abuse at the hands of clients, drug dealers and corrupt officials. This powerful and intimate doc offers unique access into the lives of eight brave women, charting their struggles to live on and recover against the odds.

Inside Facebook: Secrets of a Social Network

A fly on the wall inside Facebook's moderating HQ

Facebook has over two billion users, all producing and sharing content. Most of it is harmless, but some of it is not. How does Facebook regulate content encouraging child abuse, animal cruelty, self-harm and hate speech? This alarming documentary offers unique undercover access to Facebook’s moderating hub. It presents a disturbing picture of an organisation putting money before morality and for whom extreme content equals extreme profits.

The Insufferable Groo

The world's most prolific filmmaker you've never heard of

Stephen Groo is the world's most prolific filmmaker. In the past twenty years, he has made two hundred and five films, ranging from an elf/human love story to a low-budget remake of Tomb Raider. Yet Groo's obsession comes at a cost: he is yet to make a dime and his family barely has enough money to survive. But when, out of the blue, a major Hollywood star agrees to be in his latest film, Groo finally has his shot at fame and fortune.

God Children

Children with birth defects by nature; Gods by nurture

In rural villages of India, children born with birth defects are hailed as Hindu Gods, sent to earth with the power to heal or promise prosperity. Young Arshad is lucid and perceptive, but his identity is determined by all who come to pay their respects to him as their God. Likewise, Pranshu (‘Ganesh’) has only ever known how to live as a symbol of hope. Both boys ensure wealth for their families, but neither were given a choice.

The Bastard

A poignant tale of race, family legacies and the desire to belong

​Abandoned at birth by his Dutch father, Daniel Hoek was raised by his Ethiopian mother. Yearning for an absent father and teased for his pale skin, Daniel​'s resentment leads him to crime. While imprisoned on death row in Addis Ababa, he decides to reach out to his estranged European family. Yet while his siblings are excited to learn they have an African half-brother, Daniel’s father Joop Hoek remains unmoved by the contact. Daniel and Joop’s intertwining experiences reveal a racial and cultural divide ​than runs deep, yet they soon realise they have more in common than either would like to admit.