Deadliest Roads - Pakistan- In the Valley of the Immortals - Free Documentary

Leningrad Siege Reflections / 2013
#Russia

For 872 days, Leningrad was cut off from the outside world. Nazi forces encircled the city, launching the deadliest and longest blockade in history. Within the first few weeks, food supplies were depleted, leading to extreme famine. Glue, cellulose, shoe soles - anything consumable was used as food. About 1.1 million people died during the siege, most of them starved to death.

Lidia Sudina and Dmitry Buchkin witnessed air raids, bombardment, and starvation as children. Hear their recollection of the ordeal in our documentary, Leningrad Siege Reflections.

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Portaitissa of Donetsk / 2022
#Donbass #Ukraine #notonyourtv

“This is the Northern Gates of Donetsk. Portaitissa! The front line begins just behind the runway. Perhaps that’s why most devastation meant for the city was taken by the convent.”

The Convent of the Iveron Icon of the Mother of God in Donetsk was hit during the battle for Donetsk airport. Hegumene of the Convent and her aide found themselves caught up in the hostilities. As the convent was practically on the front line, the women became eyewitnesses to the attack on Donetsk airport. They endured firing and shelling, yet they say it was the best time for them. Why?

Watch the film Portaitissa of Donetsk to find the answers.

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More than a third of all Tanzanian women are married before the age of 18. Many of them are forced into wedlock as young as 11 with much older men. In exchange, the family of the bride receives cows which are valued more than daughters. The country’s court imposed strict penalties on underage weddings. Local authorities and activists often break up weddings to prevent child marriages. Nevertheless, many parents continue to follow the ancient tradition. Will anything stop them?

Bride Trade / 2017
#Tanzania

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Sterilised / 2017
#Peru

Some 270,000 Peruvian women were sterilised against their will between 1996 and 2000 as part of President Alberto Fujimori’s birth control programme. The initiative was meant to reduce poverty and cut birth rates among the poor. While it was supposed to be consensual, women involved in the programme say otherwise. Most victims were poor, rural, and indigenous. Many suffered complications, and some died.

Decades later, victims seek justice through a class action suit against the former president. Fujimori, 83, is currently serving a 25-year sentence for crimes against humanity during his presidency.

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Square Metre of Hell / 2020
#HongKong

Hong Kong is famous for its dense skyline dominated by luxurious skyscrapers. And it’s not just the city’s high rises that soar above the clouds - rents are exorbitant. So much so that the poorest residents have no choice other than squeezing into tiny apartments known as cage houses.

They are cages - sleeping compartments in a shared room separated from neighbours by wire mesh. Cage homes cost around $300 per month - still beyond the means of many low-income Hongkongers. Watch Square Metre of Hell for more about the housing crisis in Hong Kong.

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Mama Uganda / 2020
#Uganda

Mariam Nabatanzi from Uganda was married off at the age of 12. The following year she gave birth to twins. By the age of 39, Mariam had five more sets of twins, four sets of triplets and five sets of quadruplets. She gave birth to 44 babies, and only 38 of them survived.

The fertile mother asked a doctor for birth control, but he told her she couldn’t stop giving birth as it could cause health problems. So after her much older husband abandoned the family, she stopped having children.

Mariam blames her country’s customs, where child marriages and teen pregnancies are common. In 2020, the fertility rate in Uganda was among the highest in the world, with 4.7 children per woman.

May 15 celebrates the International Day of Families that highlights the issues central to the welfare of families, such as health and gender equality. Did you know that only 57% of married women make their own decisions about contraceptive use?

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Congo's Hell for Girls / 2022
#Congo

“The first time I was raped, I was 13 years old. There were three of them. I was scarred for life. I withdrew into myself,” confesses Falomi, a Congolese feminist artist. She attracts attention to the ongoing rape and sexual harassment problem through her performances. Her traumatic experience is familiar to many women in Congo – they have to face abusive behaviour on the streets and at home daily. Harassment is not recognised as violence, and rape is often blamed on the victim.

In Congo, there are no shelters for victims of sexual abuse, nor are there protective social institutions. Police also can’t help much. Society turns to magic rituals, which should make girls look less feminine. Witches and healers practice diverse methods to reduce the growth of breasts.
The sorcery should lower aggressive male attention. But does it?

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Dark net dope deals / 2022
#Internet

Veronika was 16 when police arrested her for drug possession. Just one bag of dope was enough to get seven years in prison. After that, her mother didn’t live to see her outside.

Teenagers enter the drug business for easy money — online trade platforms on the DarkNet promise $1,500 a day for drop men. They hide drugs in stashes all over the city and send coordinates to clients. This market makes $3.6 billion a year in Russia.

Police successfully hunt down dope labs and drop men, but the internet war is yet to be won. Watch how crime and technology intertwine in Dark Net Dope Deals.

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We are different / 2021
#Germany #India #Russia

“When I first went to school, the other kids saw me and ran away. They didn’t go back to school for two days, and no one would speak to me”. Lalit has lived his life covered with excessive hair. He had a hard time at school when he was bullied. Other children were scared and tried to steer clear of him. Lalit is the only one in his family who looks like it. His disorder is sometimes called the Werewolf syndrome. It is extremely rare, with about 60 cases in the world.

A human being has about 25,000 genes, and when one of them is mutated or damaged, it can be reflected in how a person looks. How do Lalit and other people who have genetic mutations handle their looks? Watch our film We are different to learn their unique stories

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Romany Romance / 2012
#Russia

“I’m 12; my wife is 15. There are never kisses at weddings. It is against the law. But, we’ll start talking to each other in a month or so,” says Yasha, a young Gypsy groom.

Kalderash Gypsies live in settlements apart from their Russian neighbours. Although they speak Russian and Kalderash, they uphold traditions to keep their unique identity alive. Their future job, home, and life partner are determined for them at an early age. Adults arrange the marriage. The family dynamic of the newly-wed couple is very unusual. While Cassandra, the wife, must put aside her dreams of becoming a nurse to do chores for her mother-in-law, her husband, Yasha, learns about computers and the rules of football in an attempt to break the ice with local Russian boys.

Watch our film Romany Romance, and you will find out more fascinating details about their life.

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Don’t sell me, mama / 2022
#Afghanistan

“I’m little. Please, don’t sell me,” young Noqra Gul pleads with her parents. This may sound shocking, but selling girls is becoming common in Afghanistan. It’s the only way for a family to survive. Afghanistan today is considered to have the worst humanitarian crisis in the world. According to various estimates, about two million families in the country are economic migrants.

This is why many parents in Afghanistan are forced to consider selling their daughters to survive. The average price ranges from $1,500 to $ 2000, but this is a lot for people who are deep in debts and earn an occasional dollar a day. So is there any way out?

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VolunTears / 2022
#Donbass #Maruipol

Seven-year-old Dima lost his parents in Mariupol. They covered him with their bodies during one of the artillery strikes. He barely survived, was found by Russian soldiers and moved to a social centre in the Donetsk People’s Republic. His first words after weeks of silence were: “It is quiet here. In Mariupol, they fire really hard”.

There are 17 children in the centre. Some of them were rescued from the frontlines of the Donetsk region and Mariupol by volunteers. The new documentary follows one of those volunteer groups that deliver humanitarian aid every ten days to ‘hot areas’ and evacuates families stuck in basements during shelling. Find out what stories they are told.

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The Shegué, the Sorcerer and Ché Guevara / 2016
#Congo

According to the UN, about 30,000 underage children in DR Congo are homeless. The so-called Shegué hail from dysfunctional families. The kids are accused of being ‘sorcerers’ and get kicked out of their homes. But does it really have to do with sorcery, or is it just a convenient excuse to get rid of unwanted children?

The Head of the children’s shelter in Kinshasa, called Ché Guevara, doesn’t believe in demonic possession. Instead, he does his best to protect the children from the anarchy of the streets. He is convinced the growing number of homeless kids in the country is a ticking time bomb. How do these abandoned kids survive? This is what The Shegué, the Sorcerer and Ché Guevara is about.

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Ukraine: Heading East / 2022
#Donbass #Ukraine #notonyourtv

“You came too late. We are glad. We are exhausted.” “When were we supposed to come?”. “About 15-20 years ago.”

This is a conversation between a Russian soldier and a Donbass refugee. The Ukrainian government forces have helped their people for eight years because of differences in language, history and views. As a result, Donbass residents fled southeast Ukraine. Some of the refugees used relief corridors; others waited out for the Russian soldiers to come and help them out, and the rest chose to risk their lives and look for the exit on their own.

All of them found shelter in Russia. Russian volunteers, psychologists, and priests help the fugitives settle, out the children in school, and recover from 8 years of constant danger. Find out more about how people adjust to everyday life.

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H2Woe / 2016
#India

Water is increasingly becoming a commodity as precious as gold, especially in India. The country of 1.38 billion people - nearly a fifth of the world’s population - has only four percent of the world’s water resources. In regions like Punjab, the search for water is life and death.

People rely on water deliveries from other areas and dig ponds to collect rainwater. Others go as far as to take second wives so they can bring more water.

So what is it like to live a life dictated by a drastic water shortage?

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Volhynia. No statute of limitations / 2022
#Poland #Ukraine

‘They are not just killing; they chop heads with axes, nail people to the trees, ripping tongues, stabbing eyes, cutting babies from the womb.’ In 1943, Stanislav Srokowskiy was six. He doesnt remember much about the Volhynia massacre, but his grandparents witnessed the hostilities with their own eyes.

The Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists and Ukrainian Insurgent Army killed over 100,000 Polish peasants during the Massacres.

In 2013, the Polish parliament classified the events as genocide. At the time, the Ukrainian Rada branded the Polish resolution as anti-Ukrainian, as the Ukrainian nationalists have openly praised Stepan Bandera, head of OUN, and massacre perpetrator Roman Shukhevich. They claim the Volhynia events were no more than territorial disputes ampng local peasants.

Is history being rewritten?

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Substitutes / 2018
#Japan

Senji Nakajima is 62, and he’s in love with a silicone doll! Saori is a life-sized doll with incredibly lifelike features. Senji treats her as a human, taking his silicone doll on dates and engaging in one-sided conversations.

Their romance isn’t unique - the demand for silicone love dolls is growing in Japan. Watch the documentary 'Substitutes' to discover the world of silicone love and companionship.

Did you know the Japanese believe dolls have souls like humans, and they can’t be just thrown out in the garbage? That’s why temples and shrines hold special funeral ceremonies for unwanted dolls.

We wonder if there’s a ritual for a former silicone doll… 🤔

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