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.

Stroop: Journey into the Rhino Horn War

On the frontline of the war against rhino poaching

In South Africa, poachers kill three rhinos every day. Fuelled by the demand for rhino horn in Southeast Asia, where it’s widely believed to have medicinal powers, poaching could see South Africa’s rhino population disappear in just a decade. With exclusive access to the rangers on the front line in South Africa’s national parks and with extraordinary undercover footage showing how the horn is processed and packaged in Asia, Stroop presents a never-before-seen panorama of the international rhino poaching crisis.

Take Light

Caught up in 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.

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.

Keepers of the Magic

Seeing through the eyes of the world's best cinematographers

How do cinematographers capture the perfect shots? From natural light's limitations to the importance of director-cinematographer relationships, Keepers of the Magic foregrounds a unique discussion with a seamless amalgamation of cinema's most iconic sequences. Featuring interviews and analysis from the masterminds behind them, including Gordon Willis (The Godfather), Vittorio Storaro (Apocalypse Now) and Sam Mendes (American Beauty), this doc is as much a tribute to their work as a thoughtful and intelligent expose into cinema's world-class visionaries.

God Children

Documenting India's deified children born with birth defects

In rural villages of India, children born with a specific birth defect may be transformed overnight into a Hindu God, becoming an incarnation and a beacon of hope to the people around them. One boy never wished to be seen as a Hindu God, while the other only knows how to live as a symbol of hope to his village. Both were never given the choice.

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.

Hebron Exposed: A Weapon of Life

The Palestinians wielding cameras 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 Israeli 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.

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.