Storyville : Season 2016

Roll up, roll up for an unforgettable experience! This film tells the story of itinerant circus performers, cabaret acts and vaudeville and fairground attractions. Rarities and never-before-seen footage of fairgrounds, circus entertainment, freak shows, variety performances, music hall and seaside entertainment are chronicled from the 19th and 20th centuries. Featuring early shows that wowed the world and home movies of some of the greatest circus families.

Documentary about a bankrupt Jordanian entrepreneur and an unemployed Irish actress who hatch a plan to scam £2.5m off the British taxman by faking the production of a £20m movie. But they are found out, arrested and then bailed. While out on bail, they decide to prove their innocence by actually making a film. They hire a former nightclub bouncer, now a self-made micro-budget gangster film director. In 2011, Paul Knight makes their movie for under £100,000 with a cast of soap and gangster

After more than 20 years on death row, a convicted murderer petitions the court asking to be executed. But as he tells his story, it gradually becomes clear that nothing is quite what it seems. This film is a stylistically daring experiment in storytelling, in effect a one-man play constructed from a four-day interview. In a monologue that is part confessional and part performance, Nick, the sole protagonist, tells a tale with all the twists and turns of classic crime drama. But as the story

The Palio is the oldest horse race in the world, and turns the Italian city of Siena into a high-stakes battleground of strategy, intrigue and simmering machismo. In the eye of the storm stand the jockeys - adored if they succeed, despised if they fail. This film follows the legendary maestro Gigi Bruschelli, winner of 13 races and master of the intrigues that surround the Palio, and his former protégé Giovanni Atzeni, a handsome young contender driven by a fearless passion to become number

In 1971, the Shah of Iran, the self-proclaimed 'king of kings', celebrated 2,500 years of the Persian monarchy by throwing the greatest party in history. Money was no object - a lavish tent city, using 37km of silk, was erected in a specially created oasis. The world's top restaurant at the time, Maxim's, closed its doors for two weeks to cater the event, a five-course banquet served to over sixty of the world's kings, queens and presidents, and washed down with some of the rarest wines known to

The first feature-length documentary to explore the Black Panther party, its culture and political awakening for black people. Master documentarian Stanley Nelson weaves a treasure of rare archival footage with the voices of the people who were there - police, FBI informants, journalists, white supporters and detractors, and Black Panthers who remained loyal to the party and those who left it. An essential history, it is a vibrant chronicle of this pivotal movement that birthed a new

The Bolshoi is worshipped as Russia's national treasure by its many fans. But in 2013 the theatre hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons - Sergei Filin, director of the ballet company, nearly lost his eyesight when a masked man threw acid in his face. It triggered months of intrigue and scandal, with both performers and managers desperate to repair the damage. Now, for the first time, filmmakers have been granted uncensored access backstage to record an entire season. This film follows

Three men travel together across Europe. For two of them the journey involves a confrontation with the acts of their fathers, who were both senior Nazi officers. For the third, the eminent human rights lawyer and author Philippe Sands, it means visiting the place where much of his own Jewish family was destroyed by the fathers of the two men he has come to know. An emotional, psychological exploration of three men wrestling with their past, the present of Europe, and conflicting versions of the

An enjoyable look at the first globally-famous stunt performer, exploring the charisma and showmanship at the heart of Evel Knievel's improbable success. Knievel made a career out of ridiculous stunts and rose to fame with multiple television appearances of his daredevil stunts that captured the public's imagination throughout the late 1960s and 70s. With fantastic archive, the film takes the audience on a rollercoaster ride from his early motorcycle stunts, through to his attempt to be fired

Documentary following animal rights lawyer Steven Wise in his unprecedented challenge to break down the legal wall that separates animals from humans. Steve and his legal team are making history by filing the first lawsuits that seek to transform an animal from a thing with no rights to a person with legal protections. It is an intimate look at a lawsuit that could forever transform our legal system, and one man's lifelong quest to protect 'nonhuman' animals. Supported by affidavits from

Gripping first-hand account by a former Guantanamo detainee that chronicles the rise of modern jihad, its descent into terror and the reaction of the west. Moazzam Begg, a Birmingham-raised British Pakistani, has experienced a generation of conflict. He has been a witness to the escalation of global radicalisation for the past two decades, from the Bosnian conflict to wars in Afghanistan and Syria. The documentary captures his perspective on the escalation in tensions between the west and Islam

Paolo Macchiarini is one of world's most famous surgeons. He hopes to revolutionize medicine by creating a new type of synthetic organ - a vision that could save many lives. But the Italian surgeon has also been accused of using terminally ill patients as human guinea pigs as well as falsifying his science. Is he a genius - or is he behind one of medicine's biggest scandals? This series gains access to Macchiarini's closed world of organ transplants, animal experiments and stem-cell research.

The second episode of this gripping investigative series starts in the summer of 2012, with supersurgeon Macchiarini under pressure when problems start to arise. His pioneering transplant work seems at risk when he discovers faults with the new synthetic organs. Macchiarini still has faith in the procedure and plans new operations. This time it will no longer be fatally ill patients on whom he tries out his new methods, but patients whose condition is not life-threatening. Will Macchiarini

The final episode of this investigative series uncovers that something was seriously wrong. By 2014, four Karolinska doctors started to question Macchiarini's transplantation of plastic tracheas and raised the alarm at Karolinska University Hospital and Karolinska Institute. They suspected that Macchiarini had been lying in his scientific papers and that patients' lives were being put at risk by a technique which had not been properly tested or investigated beforehand. But still his employer,

Documentary which exposes the impact of Australia's offshore detention policies through the personal accounts of people seeking asylum and whistleblowers who tried to work within the system. Australia has successfully stopped hopeful asylum seekers and refugees from reaching its shores. Anyone picked up making the treacherous journey across the Indian Ocean is sent to Australian off-shore detention camps on the remote tropical islands of Manus and Nauru. Once there, men, women and children are

Documentary about American politician Anthony Weiner, renowned for scandals relating to sexting. Weiner resigned from Congress in 2011 after his sexting exploits were made public. He attempted a political comeback by running for mayor of New York City, but his ambitions were thwarted once more as he was foreced to admit to fresh allegations. The programme also traces the personal cost to Weiner, his family and campaign team and the unrelenting media scrutiny on him.

Documentary telling the story of how a young journalist came to be the first American to be executed by ISIS. On 22 November 2012, photojournalist James 'Jim' Foley was kidnapped in Syria. Two years later, the infamous video of his public execution introduced much of the world to ISIS. The film documents Jim's life through intimate interviews with his family, friends and fellow journalists - while former hostages reveal never-before-heard details of his captivity with a chilling intimacy that

This absorbing Storyville tells the inspirational story of a teenage girl pursuing her dreams against the odds. Sonita dreams of being a rap star performing for adoring fans, but as an 18-year-old illegal Afghan immigrant living in the poor suburbs of Tehran, opportunities are hard to come by. Undeterred, Sonita pursues her dream, and with her friend Ahmad finds a recording company prepared to risk an unauthorised rap song that includes an illegal female solo, only to have their plans thwarted

An incendiary, heartbreaking investigation into one of Australia's most notorious cults, and the scars its survivors still bear today. Anne Hamilton-Byrne was beautiful, charismatic, delusional and damaged. She was also incredibly dangerous. Convinced she was a living god, Hamilton-Byrne headed an apocalyptic sect dubbed The Family, which was prominent in Melbourne through the 60s and 70s. With her husband Bill, she acquired numerous children - some through adoption scams, some born to cult

Documentary which follows events at Israel's most notorious football club. Beitar Jerusalem FC is the most popular team in Israel and the only club in the Premier League never to sign an Arab player. Midway through a season the club's owner, Russian-Israeli oligarch Arcadi Gaydamak, brought in two Muslim players from Chechnya in a secretive transfer deal that triggered the most racist campaign in Israeli sport and sent the club spiralling out of control. The film follows the famous football club