Documentary looking at the music and mythology of a golden era in Californian culture, and telling the story of how Los Angeles changed from a kooky backwater in the early 1960s to become the artistic and industrial hub of the American music industry by the end of the 1970s. The film explores how the socially-conscious folk rock of young hippies with acoustic guitars was transformed into the coked-out stadium excess of the late 1970s and the biggest selling album of all time.
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Comedian Rik Mayall died suddenly on 9 June 2014. Mayall’s blend of rocket-fuelled physical comedy, surrealism, subversive satire and pompous punk wit left a body of work that spanned four decades. Mayall’s characters include the Black Country’s investigative nerd Kevin Turvey, Felicity Kendal-adoring student and ‘People’s Poet’ Rik in The Young Ones, ruthless MP Alan B’Stard in The New Statesman, seedy loser Richie in Bottom and larger-than-life characters Robin Hood and flying ace Lord Flashheart from Blackadder. Narrated by Simon Callow, this programme salutes Rik Mayall and celebrates his part in the UK’s comedy history using rare and unseen archive footage. It also features contributions from people who knew or admired him, including Michael Palin, Simon Pegg, Lenny Henry, Ben Elton, Alexei Sayle, Christopher Ryan, Tim McInnerny, Jools Holland, Ruby Wax and Greg Davies.
The Inuit of Belcher Islands struggle to adapt as their environment changes.
A documentary about branding, advertising and product placement that is financed and made possible by brands, advertising and product placement.
This is the story of the most extraordinary and audacious experiment in the history of animal science. It was carried out by visionary 1960s neuroscientist John Lilly, who had a remarkable ambition; to communicate with dolphins by teaching them to speak English. The experiment was seized upon by NASA, who were embarking on the first serious search for extra-terrestrial intelligence beyond the Earth. When they detected a signal from ET, they would need to understand how to communicate with a species other than humans. Here, without leaving the planet, was the opportunity to practice such inter-species communication. But what started with ‘60s idealism would spiral into the darkness of the decade, and end in tragedy, with rumours and scandal about drug abuse and a sexual relationship between Peter and Margaret. Fifty years on, this film tells the real story of just what happened at the Dolphin House.
Dr James Fox takes a journey through six different landscapes across Britain, meeting artists whose work explores our relationship to the natural world. From Andy Goldsworthy’s beautiful stone sculptures to James Turrell’s extraordinary sky spaces, this is a film about art made out of nature itself. Featuring spectacular images of landscape and art, James travels from the furthest reaches of the Scottish coast and the farmlands of Cumbria to woods of north Wales. In each location he marvels at how artists’ interactions with the landscape have created a very different kind of modern art – and make us look again at the world around us.
Trashed – looks at the risks to the food chain and the environment through pollution of our air, land and sea by waste. The film reveals surprising truths about very immediate and potent dangers to our health. It is a global conversation from Iceland to Indonesia between the film star Jeremy Irons and scientists, politicians and ordinary individuals whose health and livelihoods have been fundamentally affected by waste pollution. Visually and emotionally the film is both horrific and beautiful: an interplay of human interest and political wake-up call. But it ends on a message of hope: showing how the risks to our survival can easily be averted through sustainable approaches that provide far more employment than the current ‘waste industry.’
A behind-the-scenes look at the true-crime story involving Joe Exotic’s murder-for-hire plot.
Shadows of Light combines the loud and soft tones of life. The centerpiece is an Austrian mountain pasture where the summer solstice is celebrated with international artists and where tradition and zeitgeist are not contradictory.
Feared as killers, sharks are the ocean’s most misunderstood creatures. This documentary tells their true story — and examines the dangers they face.
As Western forces withdraw, Afghanistan’s youngest female mayor braves mortal danger to lead a fight for education for the next generation of Afghans.
Behind-the-scenes documentary revealing what goes on inside the colourful, privileged, and sometimes stressful Christian Dior fashion house.
Generation Startup takes us to the front lines of entrepreneurship in America, capturing the struggles and triumphs of six recent college graduates who put everything on the line to build startups in Detroit. Shot over 17 months, it’s an honest, in-the-trenches look at what it takes to launch a startup. Directed by Academy Award winner Cynthia Wade and award-winning filmmaker Cheryl Miller Houser, the film celebrates risk-taking, urban revitalization, and diversity while delivering a vital call-to-action-with entrepreneurship at a record low, the country’s economic future is at stake.
