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BBC series exploring cultures around the world.
1989
Olongapo City in the Philippines is bounded on one end by the US naval base on Subic Bay, and on the other by a line of massage parlours, bars, discos, pool-halls, and short-time hotels where 15,000 young and pretty Filipinas cater to the base's 'rest and recreation' needs. Rose is one of the bar-girls who dreams of marrying an American sailor. The dream comes true for over 1,000 Filipinas every year, but for many the way they earn their living has disastrous consequences. 1/10.
The Palio di Siena is the most dangerous horse race in the world. It is the culmination of the Sienese year, where ancient rivalries between districts come to a head. This film goes behind the scenes to show the lives of two enemy districts as they try to make their dream come true.
Once feared by explorers as fierce cannibals, the Mangbetu tribe inhabit the edge of the Zaire rainforest in the heart of Africa. Although they don't eat people any more, they still cling to their traditions of hallucinogenic rituals and retain a deep faith in magic and sorcery, despite the efforts of missionaries to change them.
In the rice village of Kurokawa, the contradictions of rural life in Japan are particularly evident. Tradition appears strong, but this close-knit community is living through a time of enormous change. Today, Gonjiro, the grandson of a prosperous farmer and master of the Noh theatre, keeps his house and land by dividing his time between farming, construction work and the Tokyo railway. His predicament is to find a balance between the practical and the ideal.
The pilgrimage to Kumbh Mela is the largest gathering of people in the world. Every 12 years, millions come to the holiest place in India - where two great rivers meet. Discover how and why it happens through the eyes of three people: one of Hinduism's five pontiffs, a rupee billionaire pilgrim, and the man who organises this mega-event.
For centuries, semi-nomadic Arabs have brought camels along the '40-day road' from central Sudan to the camel markets of Egypt. Follow one group as they make the arduous 800-mile trip across great stretches of desert, evading thieves and battling sandstorms to reach the Nile.
In a world where there are no hospitals or doctors, the medicine man or shaman cures the sick using purely supernatural powers. Jose is a master shaman of the Yaminahua tribe in the Peruvian Amazon. His young apprentice Curaka only came into contact with the outside world five years ago, when his group of Yaminahua were decimated by a flu epidemic. Does Curaka have the strength and determination to learn how to cure?
An intimate and moving portrait of a young Filipino couple trying to survive in the slums of Manila. Celso and Cora are sharply aware of the injustices they have to suffer, but there is no self pity as they describe the problems they face bringing up two young children on what little they make selling cigarettes outside hotels and discos. They provide a glimpse of a side of Manila tourists rarely see, navigating extreme poverty with dignity and humour. (TV edit of feature film)
Estonia is in the forefront of Soviet nationalist movements awakened by glasnost. As Estonian Jews celebrate their new freedom, they remain fearful and contemplate emigration. The film focuses on a four-generation family as they go about their daily lives and try to act as if the new freedoms in the Soviet Union are here to stay.
General Pinochet's violent military coup ended a long tradition of democracy in Chile. For the Santiago shanty town of La Victoria this has meant years of brutal repression, husbands slaughtered, and women taking the lead in organising the community. This is the story of one such brave woman, her fears for the future and her struggle to survive and bring up her son.
1990
The Mehinaku, one of several Indian groups living in the Xingu National Park, have evolved elaborate rituals to help them keep the peace. Wrestling matches and mock arrow duels help release tensions, while shared feasting ensures contented neighbours. How long can this idyllic way of life survive?
The story of millions of white people who have flooded into Amazonia over the last decades in search of fortune. For many, the reality turned out to be abject poverty and broken dreams.
Rock star Sting and his partner Trudie Styler and Anita Roddick (of The Body Shop) show how the West can help the Kayapo and Yanomami Indians and thus save the rainforests.
The Hamar people live in the remote southwest of Ethiopia, far from famine and war. Their women are proud, humorous, and outspoken. Birinda, Duka, and Hilanda live differently from us, yet share many of our concerns - teenage pregnancy, marriage, problems with men, and growing old.
Is it possible for Israelis and Palestinians to live in peace? Two Moroccan Israelis and two Palestinians have much in common; born as Arabic speakers in the Arab world, their histories and cultures overlap. But for now they are engaged in a bitter and dangerous conflict which is by no means a simple struggle for supremacy between Arabs and Jews.
The Hira Gasy is a family of troubadours, who travel the great plateau of Madagascar, earning a living at country fairs, second burials and ancestral spirit ceremonies. In brightly-coloured costumes they perform satirical plays about all aspects of Madagascan life. But their audience are not just human, they perform for the Ancestors too, for the troupe are both popular entertainers and musical intermediaries between the earthbound and the ancestral spirit world.
By the end of the century over half of the villages in rural Japan could be ghost towns. They all suffer from the same problem - an acute shortage of young women. Japanese girls just don't want to marry Japanese farmers any more. The lonely bachelor farmers are contracting international matchmakers like Sakae Shimada to help them find a bride. The programme follows two farmers from Japan and their marriage to two women from the Philippines.
Every year the work force of India's oldest steel plant beseeches their god of 'getting things done' to bless the ageing hydraulic press. So far it's been so good - but not for factory foreman Mr Sinha. Enduring 110 degrees of furnace heat he labours to support a family which prefers that he returns to the land and a meaningful life.
For thousands of years, the Lapp people have lived in harmony with the natural world. On 26 April 1986, radioactive rain fell on northern Sweden from Chernobyl. A single man-made catastrophe has threatened the Lapps' livelihood, but as levels of fall-out continue to rise, reindeer herders Lars-Jon and Lillemor are determined to maintain their way of life. (TV edit of film that won seven international awards)
1992
As civil war rages in the Balkans, in the Yugoslav province of Kosovo an Albanian farmer faces an agonising dilemma. Should he follow his ancient code of honour and take revenge on a neighbour who killed his son in a dispute over cattle? Or should he forgive the feud for the sake of Albanian unity against the Serbs who rule Kosovo?
The Abrahamses have returned to Berlin after 50 years in Russia. Stefan Brandt and his half-sister Irmgard Wittkuhn were separated by the Berlin Wall for 30 years. Together they now re-open the case against their father who was accused of spying. In a changing, disorienting Berlin, both families reach a new understanding of what it means to be German.
On the Isle of Mull, Macleans from around the world celebrate their clan gathering. All claim allegiance to Scotland, though few have Scottish accents. In Possilpark, Glaswegians care less about national traditions, but they blame Westminster for the lack of jobs and schools.
1998
Melbourne's most successful, legal, heterosexual prostitute is a pleasant-looking 32-year-old man with more than 1,200 female clients who each pay him 90GBP for an hour of sex. He also adores his wife and four children, but found that his furniture-making business could not support them. The man, his wife, and his clients are all interviewed.
For American teenagers, the prom night is the most important of their lives so far. But this documentary, which follows New York teenagers Nana, Danielle, and Michelle in the weeks leading up to the prom, shows how many of the expectations and traditions of this expensive rite of passage can cause their own problems.
Two brothers are at loggerheads with each other. One is a warrior-commander who worries that his tribe's new attachment to guns will bring death and destruction. The other is a young blood determined to trade his cattle for the gun that he believes will bring him wealth and status.
Gaish is an elegant Japanese playboy with lots of girlfriends who meet him at the Club Marilyn in the Shinjuku area of Tokyo. Gaish is a so-called "onnabe", one of a group of cross-dressing ladies who provide comfort for lonely women. The female clients know that onnabes are not supposed to enter into serious relationships, but that doesn't stop onnabes trying.
Tristan Da Cunha, Britain's smallest colony is 2,000 miles from the nearest land mass, and is forgotten by the outside world. Elaine left the island as a teenager but now she returns and provides an emotional and humorous insight into a community where almost everyone is a relative.
This documentary following the children's beauty-pageant circuit in the American South has been updated since first airing in 1996. Five-year-olds Asia and Brooke, rivals in the race to be crowned Supreme Queen at Atlanta's Southern Charm pageant, are just part of a lucrative business where children aged from four months to 17 years can win cash, cars, and holidays. The film updates the stories of Brooke and Asia to see how they have coped with this existence. (season end)
1997
High in the Bolivian Andes it is time for the annual Tinku festival. Last year eight people died during the traditional ritual fighting in the square at Machas. Village leader Florencio wants to preserve the event, but the priest and the mayor are threatening severe punishment if there is any violence this year.
Chief Nalubutau is preparing to die. As the "magician" of his people in the Trobriand Islands, Papua New Guinea, he has been custodian of their culture, but western influences are eroding his world. The day approaches when he will stand down, and he faces the prospect of his successor clearing traditions to make room for new technology.
Fox hunting - which conjures up quintessential images of traditional rural England for some, and an outdated and barbaric practice for others - is under threat. As the political battle over banning hunting rages, this programme shows graphic pictures of the digging out and shooting of foxes, and the disposal of retired hounds. But for hunt servant Simon Hall, it all reflects the unforgiving laws of nature they see around them.
1999
America's most powerful leaders are drawn from a network of secretive societies known as the "Greek system". A look at their selection procedures. 1/8.
The Buddhist monks of the Shaolin monastery have practiced kung fu for 1,500 years. For a look at the state of their martial art in contemporary China, we follow the progress of two paying students at the kung fu school run by Buddhist monk De Yang to witness the clash between the austerity of a Chinese monastery and modern market forces.
Aberash, then aged 14, was kidnapped on her way to school in a remote part of southern Ethiopia. Her abductor raped her - a common way for men in the region to claim their wives - but Aberash stole a gun, escaped, and shot her would-be husband dead in the ensuing chase. She was subsequently arrested and placed on trial. A newly formed group of women lawyers attempts to challenge the male-dominated culture in Ethiopia.
Every 1 July, around 200,000 inhabitants of Montreal, Canada, simultaneously move home for reasons even they find obscure. To explain the phenomenon, this film follows removal man Ericson Martin in his attempt to move 12 households in 24 hours.
For many young Dominicans professional baseball offers a chance to break away from poverty. Teenage brothers Isaias and Agustin Perex, and Melvin Frias, whose mother works in a tobacco field, are hoping their time at the LA Dodgers academy will mean a chance to make a better life for themselves and their families.
Venice's gondoliers have a reputation for approaching both their job and their female conquests with legendary passion. As the number of gondoliers punting through the city dwindles, Armando Nardin reflects on the glorious past and his turbulent life.
Newly crowned King Letsie III of Lesotho is under pressure to get married and produce an heir to the throne, but like many men in their thirties he is loath to make a commitment. In his turbulent first year as king, he tries to find a woman he both likes and who will make a good queen, and also faces political crisis and the prospect of invasion.
Calling themselves the Rock People of Palawan, the Taw Batu tribe escape the annual monsoon on their Philippine island by migrating to an extraordinary world of labyrinths and chasms in the mountains. Tulibak, the argumentative and fiercely traditional son of the former headman of the tribe, left two years ago with his family and headed for the lowlands. On his return, Tulibak is perturbed at the changes that have occurred in his absence.
1991
Kiran was castrated four months ago. His best friend Harish yearns to be a woman but has a wife and two children. Shardabai is the Empress of the Eunuchs. She preserves the courtly traditions of the eunuchs who once guarded the Maharaja's hareems. But today most eunuchs end up in the brothels of Bombay. Eunuchs are both man and woman in one body and granted the power to bless and curse. They have all survived the trauma of gender identity. This film shows how the 'third gender' still has an accepted place in India today.
Palestinian children in Gaza, armed with only stones and slogans, are fighting the Israeli military occupation. A staggering 20,000 children have been injured by live bullets, rubber bullets, and tear gas in the last three years. Over 50 children under 15 years of age have been killed by live ammunition. Palestinian and Israeli parents and children agree to speak out for a generation whose minds are deeply scarred by the violence of the Arab-Israeli conflict.
'When a girl gets married, she goes hunting' say the Hamar of southwest Ethiopia. No Hamar girl would want to remain unmarried, yet her wedding day is the saddest day of her life. Duka and Gardi are betrothed. Soon they must leave their families forever to marry men they've never met. Duka is secretly excited, but her young cousin Gardi dreads the day when she'll leave home to start a new life among strangers.
Divination, sacrifice, spirit possession, and witchcraft all play a part in the preparation for a carnival that has taken place in the northeastern city of Recife in Brazil since the 17th century. Dona Elda is Queen of the Marcatu nation of Porto Rico, and as she explains, Carnival is actually the festival of Exum, the West African trickster god, master of rebellion, chaos, and revelry. The film follows her to victory for the third successive year at Carnival and through the much tougher task ahead.
The real life story of two 'Mariachi' musicians who leave home in search of work. One joins the fight for the poor. The other is smuggled across the USA border through a network of low-life and masked wrestlers. His fate is sealed by the border patrol.
On 20 December 1990, Mardy Colliery was closed, ending over 200 years of coal mining in the Rhondda valley. But the 300 miners have more to adjust to than the loss of their jobs. Since the strike of 1984/85 when miners' wives played a major part, women have become the breadwinners.
Asia's largest and oldest traveling circus winds its way across rural India, bringing fun, fame and fortune. Every few months the circus disbands to allow the players to return to their villages. At home the players and trainers explain why they have chosen life under the Big Top.
The Wodaabe of the southern Sahara consider themselves 'the most beautiful people on earth'. Their slender and graceful young men, many of them seven feet tall, adorn themselves with beads, hats, and blue lipstick as part of a tribal celebration in which the young women choose the most beautiful man among them.
In the backstreets of old Islamic Cairo, marriage can be far from the ideal. Funny and resilient Wiza, a second wife deserted by her husband, is determined to find ideal marriage partners for her own children. When her son meets a potential bride, Wiza takes control.
1993
Now that they are old enough to get married, it is time for Florence and Azikiye to go through their Nigerian tribe's time-honoured Iria ceremony. Confined in the "fattening rooms", they will be extravagantly fed, excused all housework, and instructed on the mysterious arts of womanhood. But for one of the two, it all proves too much.
Under the brutal regime of Pol Pot, more than 90% of Cambodia's artists were killed. Ballet teacher Em Theay survived, and has returned to Phnom Penh to rebuild the ballet school and retrace her pupils.
Over the past ten years something strange has been happening on the midnight streets of many Mediterranean cities. Local prostitutes have been ousted by "travestis" - illegal Brazilian immigrants. They are neither men nor women, but both - men with implants and hormone treatments, breasts and male genitals.
Sultan Issa Maigari of Cameroon used to hold the power of life and death over his one million subjects. Now his authority is ebbing away. The government won't let him raise his own taxes, the peasants are rebelling, and the royal praise-singer (equivalent of the tabloid press) has betrayed him.
The marriage of a teenage girl to four brothers aged from 8 to 16 is not unusual among the Nyinba people. They live in a rugged and remote corner of the Nepalese Himalayas, and this form of marriage is essential to their survival. But on a personal level, it raises many problems - the age difference, sleeping arrangements, jealousy, paternity of the children. As preparations for the lavish wedding begin, the bride faces these harrowing prospects. As one of her aunts, who has five husbands, warns her: "You've got to satisfy them all - that's what causes our wrinkles."
At the Holy Family Golden Gloves Amateur Boxing Club in North Belfast, Catholic and Protestant boys train side by side, hoping for success and an escape from the troubled streets. But outside the club they live in a virtual apartheid, divided from their neighbours by flags, painted pavements, and an invisible boundary of fear.
There are only 150 Mehinacu left in the world. They live in one village in the middle of the Xingu Reserve in Central Brazil. Forty years ago they were first contacted by the 'Whiteman' in the guise of Leonardo Villas-Boas, the celebrated anthropologist who established the Indian Reserve for them and neighbouring tribes. Their culture has been protected but their psychological well-being is less clear.
Travellers stuck on a long-distance bus journey in India may well find themselves being entertained by peddlers and clowns. Afsar sells home-made cures and potions, but takes paracetamol for his own headaches. Shakeel offers soothing kohl for the eyes and sings Islamic songs. Hashmat is a magician, whose tricks display his dazzling sleight of hand. But behind his gaiety he hides a shameful secret. (a Film Sixteen/ZDF production for BBCtv)
Abdur Rahman is at the mercy of the river Bhramaputra. He depends on it for his livelihood, but once a year it threatens to kill him. Like tens of thousands of Bangladeshi fisherfolk, he lives on a narrow silt island which rises only inches above the water line. As the river swells and his silt island starts to flood, he struggles to keep his family fed and his makeshift home intact. (a Film Sixteen/ZDF production for BBCtv)
China has occupied Tibet for 40 years. While the Dalai Lama advocates the country's cause on the international stage, consulting people like John Cleese, a group of exiled radicals plead for rebellions within Tibet to free their homeland. This film follows the Dalai Lama on his global travels, and talks to refugee Lhasang Tsering who fears that the non-violent approach of the Dalai Lama may not succeed. And in Tibet today the reality of Chinese occupation is revealed.
Streaming availability information not available
1994
The Takarazuka Revue is a highly successful musical theatre troupe in which all the actors are women. If they want to get married, they have to resign. The compensation is stardom and they are envied by millions of women across Japan. On stage they conjure up an impossibly romantic and glamorous world far removed from the narrow confines of housewives' and office-girls' lives. (a Twentieth-Century Vixen production for BBCtv)
Bull-racing on the Indonesian islands of Sapudi and Madura is both a test of manhood and a statement of identity. We follow two young jockeys as they prepare for the annual tournament.
Founded by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1802, France's prestigious St Cyr military school brands Frenchness into the hearts and souls of young officers using theatrical rituals and initiations, most notably a re-enactment in full period costume of the Battle of Austerlitz and the Grand Soir in which third-year students ceremonially dress the second-years in the traditional uniform of plumed hat, gloves, and epaulettes. We follow one class over the year before their graduation.
A documentary about the extraordinary sexual traditions of the Sambia people of Papua New Guinea. Boys as young as 7 are taken away from their mothers and introduced to sexual practices by their (male) warrior elders. The film follows the Sambians' initiation ritual, a closely-guarded secret being conducted probably for the last time.
In the Yellow Earth district in northern China, where houses are caves cut into the cliff terraces, two women are about to become neighbors. One, a wife and mother, is being grievously punished for having too many children. The other has just arrived to celebrate her impending wedding. (a Cicada production for BBCtv)
Aboriginal stockman Harry Dixon taught white cattleman Grant Martin to hunt and shoot and to understand the land. New laws allow Dixon to claim a plot of land, but water is scarce, and Martin is unwilling to give his old teacher his due.
Ron Huhndorf and Willie Kosiyue are at loggerheads. They are neighbouring Yupitt Indians from an isolated river delta in south-western Alaska. Ron welcomes the discovery and exploitation of oil in his settlement, while Willie is determined to halt what he sees as the destruction of tribal life. Through the contrast between the two men, we see in dramatic form the dilemmas facing Native Americans.
Thirteen-year-old Uria goes to a Catholic boarding school on the remote Mentawai islands of Indonesia. Twice a year he returns to his home deep in the forest where his father is a sorcerer. When he arrives, Uria pits his new Christian faith and his literacy against his father's ritual invocation of the spirits.
It is three years since Duka left home to marry a man she had never met, and she now has two children. Her ambitious husband Sago's aspirations to become rich are thwarted by drought, rising prices, and the never-ending demands of his grasping relatives. Meanwhile Duka's cousin is preparing for his coming of age, which requires Duka be ritually beaten until her back bleeds. But a sudden death in the family puts the ceremony in jeopardy, and Sago must find a solution.
1996
In an unusual attempt to bring the country's single citizens together, Singapore's government has launched its very own dating agency. We follow two women and one man on their search for the perfect date.
Villagers in northern Transvaal, South Africa, have good reason to fear their neighbours. Here witchcraft is a common accusation, with some hounded out of their homes, others even being killed. African magic, potentially a benevolent force, is being used as an instrument of violence in a society now under severe economic and psychological stress. This is the story of one accused witch and his accusers.
While 100,000 Tongans prepare to celebrate their king's 75th birthday, the monarch is engaged in a race to shed some of his 33-stone bulk before the big day.
Junior beauty pageants - open to children aged between six months and 17 years - offer big prizes to families across the southern states of America. This behind-the-scenes look at the phenomenon examines the themes of lost childhood and naked ambition.
A family of Aka pygmies living deep in the Central African rainforest experiences their favourite time of year: caterpillar season. Millions of juicy, edible caterpillars fall from the mahogany trees. Away from the tall villagers to whom the Aka are virtual slaves, they express themselves through song, dance, and an astonishing teeth-sharpening ritual.
The local bride fair of the Ait Haddidu people in Morocco is a gathering to which women flock in search of a husband. Two women travel to the fair with different hopes. 27-year-old divorcee Fadma prepares by visiting a shrine and a sorcerer. Meanwhile 14-year-old Aisha has her eye on a boy who her father might not think suitable.
Every January the small US town of Quartzite, Arizona, plays host to a million of America's elderly who have rejected conventional notions of old age. Having sold their homes and deserted their families, they flock here to escape the cold, meet old friends, gamble their savings, and cross the Mexican border for cheap medical treatment. The temporary morgue deals with 200 bodies a day.
A devout Ethiopian couple endure blistering heat, bitter cold, and unforgiving terrain on a pilgrimage to the shrine of their saint and idol.
2000
Sex therapist Dr. Chen Kai claims that political upheavals in China over the past generation have resulted in a populace damaged emotionally and sexually. Clients at Dr. Chen's Shanghai sex clinic unburden themselves in frank fashion by talking about life behind the bedroom door. 1/9.
Deep below the city of Cheyenne, Wyoming, an elite group of 200 men and women are on alert - ready and willing to launch up to ten of America's 550 nuclear missiles. Follow recruit Rene Hernandez as he trains to be a "missileer".
Adam and Mark are 12-year-old boys born deaf and blind. With no understanding of language, how do their parents communicate with them? Gaela and Graham, two remarkable deafblind adults who became deaf after childhood, can describe their lives and thoughts. They take us into their extraordinary world, and we see how they are able to live adventurous and fulfilled lives despite their devastating disability. Scored by Evelyn Glennie, acclaimed percussionist who is herself profoundly deaf.
A documentary following four New York City taxi drivers over the course of six months. Philosophy-loving Kwame Fosu sees his recently arrived Ghanaian family acclimatise to the city's hostile winter, while trainees from Tajikistan and Bangladesh struggle to pass the exam that will enable them to work as licensed drivers. Meanwhile, an Indian driver is using his modest wage to fund a girls' school in his home village.
Kotey, a 45-year-old Ghanaian man, has recently collapsed and died in mysterious circumstances. Some of his relatives suspect he was poisoned, but superstition has just as important a role to play in the subsequent intrigue.
Min-Ah and Hee-Jung are two young South Korean women who have fallen madly in love with American soldiers based in Seoul. But cultural differences inevitably lead to friction. The couples have to learn to adjust. Part of this process is for the women to enroll at the USO Bride School in Seoul to learn how to become perfect all-American wives.
The Tadjibajev family are entertainers living together in a rickety old bus as they travel through the beautiful but barren landscape of the Uzbekistan to Moscow highway, eking out a living with nightly performances before frequently small audiences. In Russian with English subtitles.
Documentary exploring modern love and changing attitudes to sex, commitment, and friendship. The film looks at how the bond between two male friends is affected by their friendship with the filmmaker.
Four years ago at the age of 18 Mamehisa Toriguchi left home - supposedly to study architecture at university. Instead she entered the secretive world of the pleasure district to learn the arts of the geisha. The film follows Mamehisa as she prepares for the three-day graduation ceremony.