Cicadas v USA / 2021
#USA

Cicadas are the world’s loudest insects. When they’re around, they’re hard to ignore. But once every 17 years, their singing becomes as loud as 100 decibels - imagine standing just a few feet away from a lawn mower.

Periodical cicadas, known as Brood X, come out every 13 or 17 years. In 2021, billions of cicadas emerged in the eastern US. They had only a few weeks to find mates and reproduce.

Cicada fans, in the meantime, had fun, enjoyed chocolate-covered roast cicadas, made up songs and designed cicada-inspired artwork.

🌍 Join Documentary Planet for more!

Freeze divers / 2019
#Russia

Andrey Matveenko traded his accounting career in an office for records in freediving. After quitting his job, Andrey set multiple records by diving deeper than 100 metres. Then, having conquered warm seas, his friends dared Andrey to try it in cold water, under the ice.

Freediving is challenging in itself, as athletes plunge to great depths while holding their breath. Try doing that when the water is minus 2 degrees Celsius. Andrey took it to a different level and decided to break the world record of 71 metres.

🌍 Freeze Divers on rt.doc

Tough Love / 2016
#Vietnam

Phuc Tong from Vietnam made an unusual pact with God. He helps pregnant women in difficult situations and tries to talk them out of having an abortion. Then, if an expectant mother can’t take care of the child, Phuc Tong raises them as his own.

When he can’t save a baby, Phuc Tong gives aborted foetuses a proper burial, so they aren’t disposed of as trash. He built a cemetery for unborn children.

Vietnam has one of the highest abortion rates in Asia. Being pregnant out of wedlock carries a social stigma.

🌍 Join Documentary Planet for more!

Bad Blood / 2019
#UK

More than 4,000 with haemophilia in the UK contracted HIV or hepatitis C from contaminated blood products from the US in the 1970s and 1980s. Patients with a rare and severe disorder received the infected Factor VIII drug. It was later revealed it had been made using blood from high-risk paid donors, including prisoners and drug users.

July 28 marks World Hepatitis Day. Learn more about the contaminated blood scandal and why victims are still seeking justice decades later.

🌍 Join Documentary Planet for more!

Freed to Be Wild / 2020
#Russia

Birch forests in the Russian Far East are home to Amur tigers, the world’s largest tigers. They’re undisputed rulers of the wilderness, but their numbers are tiny. Up to 500 adult Amur tigers are left in the wild.

Pavel Fomenko, the head of WWF Russia’s rare species conservation branch, has been protecting tigers for 25 years. He was even attacked by a tiger once when it crashed through a chain-link fence. Despite the disfiguring scars he still bears on his face and shoulder, the conservationist remains undeterred

Celebrate International Tiger Day with the documentary, Freed to Be Wild! It shows three conservation enthusiasts from Russia who help save endangered species.

🌍 Join Documentary Planet for more!

Virus Whisperer / 2020
#USSR

Lev Zilber fought the plague epidemic in the USSR, discovered a tick-borne encephalitis vaccine, developed a cure for pellagra and put forward the theory of viral cancer. But instead of awards, Zilber was arrested and sent to labour camps as spy mania swept over the country at the time.

🌍 Join Documentary Planet for more!

No Fun in the Sun / 2018
#USA

Xerodermia pigmentosum (XP) sounds like a Harry Potter spell, but in reality, it’s a rare genetic disease. Patients with XP can’t stand sunlight and even some lightbulbs.

To go outside, they must be fully clothed, covering every part of the face and body. Avoiding the sun is difficult, but XP patients and their families don’t miss on experiences.

Camp Sundown is where children and grown-ups with XP can make friends and enjoy summer despite all precautions they need to take.

🌍 Join Documentary Planet for more!

Cold Turkey in Kyrgyzstan / 2014
#Kyrgyzstan

The Nazaraliev drug rehab centre in Kyrgyzstan has come up with an unconventional way to cure patients from heroin addiction.

Addicts get rid of their psychological dependence on drugs by choosing a stone they can confide in and carry it during a 250-kilometre trek through rough terrain. At the end of their journey, patients throw their stone in a large heap formed over the years. It’s called lithotherapy and it has helped more than 5,000 addicts according to the clinic.

For many addicts and their families, the Nazaraliev centre is their last hope.

🌍 Join Documentary Planet for more!

Stitched Up in Cambodia / 2016
#Cambodia

Cambodian garment workers toil round the clock and earn as much as a pair of jeans costs. Nike, Gap, Calvin Klein, and many other international brands manufacture clothes in countries with cheap labour. In the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh, there are over 1,000 garment factories where nearly a million workers make T-shirts and jeans.

Most of the employees are women. If they get pregnant, they’re fired. Women go to great lengths to hide their pregnancy so they can keep putting food on the table. Few of these females are aware, however, that laws guarantee them paid maternity leave.

🌍 Join Documentary Planet for more!

Daniela, Princess of Guca / 2016
#Serbia

Every year, thousands of revellers gather for five days in the small Serbian town of Guca to dance their feet off, immerse themselves in Balkan brass music and feel like characters in a Kusturica movie.

Brass bands come from all over Serbia to compete for the ‘Golden Trumpet’ trophy, as well as earn a little money and catch the attention of industry leaders. The Guca festival was first held in 1961 and has since grown into Serbia’s biggest musical event. Brass bands play an essential role in major social events, including births, weddings and funerals.

🌍 Join Documentary Planet for more!

Antarctica Terra Somniantes / 2020

It’s open to everybody and no country owns it. People and wildlife coexist here peacefully. What’s this wonderful place? It’s Antarctica, the world’s coldest and most pristine continent! Check out what daily life and party time looks like at the South Pole.

On this day 201 years ago, the Russian Antarctic Expedition returned to Kronshtadt after becoming the world's first to circumnavigate Antarctica. They were also first to sight Antarctica in 1820.

🌍 Join Documentary Planet for more

The Wizard of Agarkovo / 2020
#Russia

Aleksandr Biletsky has created his own fantasy world without leaving his home village. His resemblance to Harry Potter’s friend, Hagrid, isn't just physical – Aleksandr is a gamekeeper and feels most comfortable when he’s in the wild. The only things needed to complete the picture are a hippogriff and a giant spider for friends!

Russia’s Hagrid says he feels like he ‘fits’ in his village, Agarkovo. He and his wife live in a big wooden house, or ‘terem’, which also serves as a large workshop for artists and craftsmen.

🌍 Join Documentary Planet for more!

Atomic Message / 2015
#Japan

When an atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, teenage postal worker, Sumiteru Taniguchi, was ‘lucky’. He didn’t die on the spot, but received terrible injuries to his back and left arm.

Sumiteru is a hibakusha, which is Japanese for an A-bomb survivor. Burns covered his entire back, forcing him to lie on his stomach for nearly two years. Sumiteru devoted the rest of his life to the anti-nuclear movement, showing his scars as a symbol of the horrors of war.

More than 70,000 people died in Nagasaki and about 140,000 died in Hiroshima. On August 6 and 9, it will be 77 years since the US dropped atomic bombs on these Japanese cities. Hear chilling accounts from Sumiteru Taniguchi and other hibakusha.

🌍 Join Documentary Planet for more!

Chasing Che / 2017
#Bolivia

‘His bearded face resembled Jesus Christ’s!’ A woman from Vallegrande, Bolivia recalls the day she saw Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara’s body put on display in a laundry house. The Argentine-born revolutionary was killed one year after he began to create his guerrilla army in Bolivia.

In 1966, Che Guevara travelled to Bolivia incognito to incite a revolution. Despite early successes, he and his guerrilla force found themselves on the run from US-backed Bolivian troops. Guevara was wounded, caught, and eventually executed. He was buried in an unmarked grave.

The documentary pieces together the final days of this iconic figure.

🌍 Join Documentary Planet for more!

Work in peace under Twin Oaks / 2012
#USA

Communism exists in Twin Oaks, Virginia, where members of a small rural community live and work free of bosses and bills. Every ‘Oaker’ has to work 42 hours a week, which requires producing hammocks and tofu to sell, as well as doing household chores. In return, all their basic needs are covered, including food, clothes and housing. Nothing is owned and everything is shared, including sexual partners, as non-monogamous relationships are common in this community.

The eco-village has since inspired other communities since it was founded more than 50 years ago. Currently, around 90 adults and 15 children live in Twin Oaks, and there is a long waiting list for those wanting to join.

🌍 Join Documentary Planet for more!

Spoils of Destruction / 2018
#Indonesia

Palm oil can be found everywhere today: from soap and ice cream to biofuel. It’s very efficient and the least expensive vegetable oil in the world. However, palm oil has been a major driver of deforestation. Nearly 90 percent of palm oil trees are grown on a few islands in Indonesia and Malaysia. Cutting down forests to make room for palm tree plantations destroys the habitats for orangutans, rhinos and elephants.

Forest-based indigenous communities struggle too, but they rarely fight for their rights. One notable exception are the Dayak Iban people from Borneo, Indonesia. They take companies to court, protest and seize the heavy equipment to protect their lands.

August 9 marks International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples. Check out how these brave people stand up for their rights.

🌍 Join Documentary Planet for more!

Congo: Cycle of Life / 2017
#DRCongo

What do you do if you live at the foot of an active volcano and the threat of violence is constantly present? A few dozen of residents of Goma, in the Democratic Republic of Congo opt to take bike rides. The Goma Cycling Club gives its members an opportunity to escape the harsh daily realities of poverty and armed groups that tempt young men to work for them. With many of the members coming from poor families, the club provides them with at least one meal a day.

They train every day, and some are so good they go on to become national champions.

🌍 Join Documentary Planet for more!