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.

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 include 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.

Take Light

A look at the tangled wires of Nigeria’s electricity crisis

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.

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 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.

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 have 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.

Hebron Exposed: A Weapon of Life

The Palestinians using cameras to protect themselves against Israeli violence

In this episode of BBC Arabic’s Hebron Exposed, the narrative turns to the Palestinians on the front line of the occupation. The Palestinian Human Rights Defenders (PHRD) have begun to film incidents and educate children to do the same. Unable to trust the Israel Defence Forces (IDF), filming attacks, misconduct, and abuse leads to the clips being used as evidence in court. Though sharing videos online is a non-violent form of protection, the result is often a double edged sword, with clips receiving both support and abuse.

A Little Wisdom

An intimate insight into young monastic life in the heart of the Buddha’s birthplace

5-year old Hopakuli is lazy, cheeky and forever disobeying his elders. He is one of the young, orphaned monks living in the isolated Tibetan monastery of Lumbini, Nepal, the birthplace of the Buddha. As Hopakuli and his brother Chorten learn to endure the rigours of monastic life with their fellow orphans, they find escape in the power of their imaginations, the rough and tumble of their boyhood a constant challenge to the regimented religious environment they call home. Beautifully crafted, this stylish documentary is an intimate immersion in to the universal truths of youth.

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.