As an angel-faced baby stumbles excitedly around a humble home, his family laugh adoringly, "See how lively he is!" Throughout his short life, they have been giving Murad opium "so he calms down and rests", and to banish any pains. For this baby born into addiction, recovery seems almost impossible. Yet others with addiction forged in the crucible of poverty and war refuse to accept that there is no hope. "If there is a job...Why choose addiction?" says Ekhtyal, his once handsome face now lopsided thanks to a bullet gone astray.

From a pockmarked Kabul squat to the desiccated northern plains, the oblivion of opium has become the last resort. Mothers across the remote regions of Afghanistan know they shouldn't do it - but when her baby has a stomach-ache, Khoshan gives "her a puff to calm down her pain so she won't die." When challenged she sobs: "There wasn't...There wasn't a doctor."

Today, the Taliban seem to survive mainly on conviction: "We belong to God and fear no-one". From their mountain hideout, they ambush the daily American convoys, descending into joyous shouts of "Allah Akhbar", when a truck is hit. But a hit on target is rare. And the Americans' response is swift and deadly: a US gunship kills Commander Dawran's second-in command, and Refsdal is told to flee and to return in a month. Dawran escapes unharmed, but his two children are killed.

When the world's financial bubble blew, the solution was to lower interest rates and pump trillions of dollars into the sick banking system. "The solution is the problem, that's why we had a problem in the first place". For Economics Nobel laureate Vernon Smith, the Catch 22 is self-evident. But interest rates have been at rock bottom for years, and governments are running out of fuel to feed the economy. "The governments can save the banks, but who can save the governments?" Forecasts predict all countries' debt will reach 100% of GDP by next year. Greece and Iceland have already crumbled, who will be next?

"Where does your father rape you? Tell me what he's doing" - the voice of alternative therapist 'Matthew Meinck' emanates from a crackled tape-recording. Primary school teacher Britelle first went to Matthew "for someone to talk to". It was just a matter of months before he had convinced her that her whole family had raped her and that she was a paedophile herself. "We're all suggestible to some degree", says Professor Ian Hickie, "but when you're fragile, you can lose all touch with reality".

Have you Seen Drum Recently? 77 min (23 March 1988)

"When they came in they killed my father. My mother was holding a child. They grabbed and smashed the baby to death. They ripped off my mother's clothing...". The stories of survivors torment a young Iris Chang: images of bodies piled on top of each other, and a river running red...But when Iris wanted to find out more, she found nothing written on the massacre in English. "Why had it disappeared from the history books?"

"I used to paint naked in this room. It wasn't anything religious, it was just hot", quips Elise, with her characteristic wit and confidence. Elise saw energy and life in the neon lights of New York's sex district. And though it may not be everyone's pretty picture, Elise was never happier than in this cramped, converted airshaft, surrounded by vivid paintings of her life as a stripper and a prostitute. Soon she would find herself undesirable, half-mad, and plunged into homelessness: "Oh my God, I have nothing!".

"Most of my boys would drain the blood from an innocent child and drink it before going into battle". These words from ex-General Butt Naked, famed for stripping off before fighting enemies to the death, welcome us to Liberia. It's a country so ravaged by fourteen years of civil war, that death and destruction bursts out of a primary-colour landscape, and wide-eyed 12 year olds proudly hold a human heart up to the camera: "America's one and only foray into colonialism is keeping a very uneasy peace indeed".

"When I'm near a mobile phone, the burning goes through my entire body", "I have had cancer twice." Voices of anger emanate from a hyper-communicative concrete jungle. A city that rings with a million mobile phone calls, and which pulses with the invisible radioactive signals, which could be making you seriously ill. Whilst the industry will always be quick to dismiss the costs of the multi-billion dollar Telecom machine, leading scientists say more studies must be done: "This is the world's largest biological experiment ever".

"Whether we live or die, whether we make lots of money or lose it all. That's the game". Six feet under the street where Egypt meets the Gaza strip, three tunnel workers jokingly compare the conflict between Israel and Lebanon to a cartoon: "it's always Jerry who wins". Their laughter soon stops when Israel's bombs shake the earth. It's December 2008, and Israel's deadly air strikes - which will destroy almost all of the tunnels transporting supplies from Egypt to Palestine - have just begun.

In this sleepy Texan town there's always a flare on the horizon, funnelling out of the chimney of some vast, grey, oil refinery. And there's always a fear: "Go inside a building or vehicle. Close all windows and doors. Stay off the telephone and turn on the television for more information." This is shelter in place. Announced by loudspeaker, and part of the local poor, black community's routine: "all my kids have respiratory problems, but I can't afford to do better".

"The horror of his paintings is so beautifully presented, that it even loses its fright". Whether it's Ridley Scott's award-winning Alien; the artwork for Debbie Harry's solo album; or the obscenity lawsuit that was the cover for the Dead Kennedys' Frankenchrist, we have all at one time or another been exposed to the dark and wonderfully twisted world of Swiss artist, Hans Ruedi Giger. His paintings reveal a bio-mechanical universe, in which machine and man, sex and the devil are interconnected everywhere. Amongst his fans he counts a great many Satanists. But as this visual feast of a documentary reveals, he's also earned a place amongst the most prominent of modern artists.

In a colourful, bustling village in Mali, 62 anxious-eyed little girls wait to be excised just as their mothers, and grandmothers were before them. "You must not cry", the mothers tell their daughters, though "the pain is very deep". In the distance, the chanting of Malian anti-excision activists can be heard. But they're drowned out by screams as the women excisors perform this ancient Islamic tradition. "An unexcised girl is not accepted here. Men will never marry her."

"If I had found an old chest full of scores in the loft, that would've been a discovery", says Ondrej Macek, down-playing his momentous discovery. Almost as remarkable as the discovery itself was the five-year long labour of piecing together the work. For its première, Macek finally finds a breathtaking, perfectly-restored baroque theatre. And the hand-picked band of brilliant performers struggle to adapt to jerky set-pieces, a stage lit only by candle light, and the expectations of a lifetime to live up to. This beautifully filmed documentary captures the genius of Argippo, whilst also commenting on the poignant relationship between an artist and his interpreters.

"I came here to tell you that we have to leave this island", Faith tells the devastated members of the Atoll tribe. The idyllic island she left out of ambition is now sinking into the sea. And the boat that comes only once a year from the mainland of Papua New Guinea, is their only hope of survival: "I am not fit to go", cries Faith's older sister, "I am old." Suddenly the sky darkens, an eerie wind begins to blow: "a big one's coming", warns Faith.

A storm throws almighty waves over the island, water runs wildly through people's homes, and over their homesteads, sending them fleeing out of their houses screaming and crying. "This is their world and their world is being destroyed", says Scott, a scientist sent to examine the island. When the storm dies down, the Atoll People are propelled into action, but leaving the island is still something they find difficult to imagine.

"14 million people took a mortgage in the last 3 years. 7 million of them will lose their homes", says a frustrated TV presenter at the time of the crash. Tearful residents are evicted by reluctant police, banks and mortgage companies are closed down, and rows and rows of empty houses, offer a haunting portrait of a lending system built on hot air. Finally, newsreaders the world over reveal the disastrous effect on their own markets.

"In photography it's all in the moments", says Schadeberg, fondly looking at his photographs, "the strength of it is that you can go back, you can go back into the past and see what's changed." It's these words that drive Schadeberg back to South Africa, to the place where he captured young black men playing cards in Sophiatown at the height of its cool, and Nelson Mandela as the confident leader of the ANC, unknowing of the 27 years of prison which lay in store for him, and where he dared to photograph a black girl in a bikini.

"Kashmir is India's heart. Gulmarg is heaven". It's India's independence day and the tricolour is hoisted up in the heart of Kashmir. But the Indian national anthem plays out to empty streets and sullen silence. Because Kashmir's heavenly meadows were once a bloody battleground. Archive footage gives testament to the razing of whole settlements. And even 17 years after Kashmir's bitter fight for freedom from India, the bodies are still being hauled out of the forest: "Are they all Kashmiris?" says a gravedigger in Kupwara, "We've seen this so often our hearts have turned to stone".

Recommending and selling foreign books while dexterously evading the frantic pace of Mumbai’s traffic ensures that a Mobile Bookseller is probably the most dangerous paper-route in the world. Yet Wahid's character shines through the hustle and bustle; an admirer of Obama, Wahid: “wants to do good for everyone” and become a doctor for villagers normally given “fake medicines”. Says as much about modern India as man’s insatiable thirst for knowledge.

"We want to be the centre of attention all of the time", declares Sonya, sashaying her way through a crowd of adoring men at a wedding, grabbing wads of bills out of their open hands. Yet after the wedding, with her make-up taken off, Sonya's smile vanishes. The men in the market now heckle her, and mistake her for one of the eunuchs who work as prostitutes. "In fact, there has only been one real love in my life", she says, "but this cruel world won't let us be together."

"It may have a philosophy that's religious, but it's strictly business", says former scientologist Joe Reaiche. Joining at the age of 19, Joe advanced quickly through the mysterious levels of learning at the heart of Scientology. At each level he was asked for a fee, which would eventually amount to approximately 250 000 dollars. When Joe voiced his doubts about the church, he was expelled, and all communication with his wife and children cut off. "What we are seeing is a worldwide pattern of abuse and criminality", says Senator Nick Xenophon.

Drona is crazy about buses and knows the entire Amsterdam bus network by heart. “When I was 8 or 9 I got angry and thought: ‘What's the matter with him?”, says his brother Arjun. When Drona occasionally sticks his tongue out at strangers, it's just embarrassing. "Sometimes I wonder where he'll end up after high school”, worries Arjun. But Drona’s life is happy and full of colour. There’s no doubt in his mind that he’ll be a bus driver one day.

On this peaceful suburban street in The Hague, every door seems to open onto a crime scene. Keylow shows us a room with walls streaked with blood: "it must have been a deal gone wrong", he says, because for the CRIPS, recrimination is usually calculated and clean. "It costs a lot to eliminate someone", says Santos, slamming a cleaver into a chicken leg, "you need to know a farmer to do it well. If you don't feed a pig for a week, it'll eat anything, even the bones".

"I knew it was wrong and I knew I would have to pay for it": Anne's broken voice bounces off the walls of her remote home in Scotland as she talks about the murder, "I was terrified Pauline would take her life and it would be my fault". It's almost 60 years ago since Anne and her intensely close friend, Pauline, murdered Pauline's mother. And the guilt for what Anne did is everywhere apparent: in her ceaseless writing, in her defensive wit, even in this living room's comfortingly high walls: "I did something stupid that I regretted for the rest of my life... but I can't undo it", she says, almost without hope.

Ben Freeth reads a fairy tale to his children in front of a lit fireplace, his farm outside slumbering in the stillness of the night. Yet behind this peaceful family moment, fear is lurking. Ben is one of the few white farmers left in the area, and it's just a matter of time, before the gangs of unemployed black men come to lay claim to his 3000 acres as well. "They might come tonight", he says, listening intently to every noise that comes from the darkness outside, "No one can tell what may happen to us".

"Haahaahaahaa", pants prehistoric man, excitedly clubbing another man over the head. He's having fun, the man is his friend, and this is the elemental sound of laughter. A couple of million years later, we find Albert sitting in his dressing gown in a grey city apartment. It's a picture of stress and exhaustion broken only by the giggle of his baby daughter. "Who taught this baby to laugh?", Albert demands. He hasn't laughed in months and has all the symptoms of seriousness.

"Left home at the age of seven, one year later I'm carryin' an Ak-47." His electrifying music crackles with both pain and hope. For hip hop artist Emmanuel Jal, a former child soldier in Sudan's brutal civil war, these lyrics are hardly empty posturing. They are the bitter reality of a young man who was forged in the crucible of one of the world's most cruel wars, "voices on my brain of friends that were slain".

"They planted death in Lebanon. We're cleaning this death and we're not afraid of it". In a tranquil, sun-drenched orange grove in South Lebanon, a determined group of men and women painstakingly search for bombs. Even after months clearing one village inch by inch, a young boy found a bomblet in his garden and was killed. "I saw the boy earlier, playing", says one of the team with tears in his eyes, "you start to ask yourself, 'what if we had worked faster'".

"The 2010 World Cup will be held in South Africa!" - the announcement was received with deafening peals of applause. Promises were made that "the people would reap the rewards". And the publicity machine went into overdrive. "Fifa expects to make $25 billion out of the television rights alone." Advertising space was sold off to VISA, Budweiser, Telkom and countless others…and giant white elephants sprouted up all over South Africa. "A world full of greed, self-interest and self-promotion", had arrived.

This documentary is a well-researched presentation of the historical sites accompanied by an eclectic blend of visuals, including; present day footage of the sites, reconstructions of key events, art and animations encompassing the life of Buddha. This documentary also covers Buddha’s legacy and Buddhism in the world today.

"As it's your first trip to the capital Mr Smith, let's start with the basics". As office blocks that seem to touch the sky meet our eyes, we see that Mr Smith could be Mr Svensson, Monsieur Simon or anyone who’s ever stood in awe of this complex city. This is the world of the salary men, who live, eat and sometimes sleep in these glass towers. Within their reassuringly repetitive form, lies the self-sacrifice required of rice farming in days gone by. "Behind these windows loyal workers are working away", they say, reminding us that individuality, even in buildings, will not be tolerated here.

"Dolphins smile whilst they're dying too", says Flipper trainer Ric O'Barry. At the Sealanya sea show, a dolphin majestically arcs through the air. The crowd is enthralled, and a small boy squeals with delight: "dolphins can do such funny tricks!" But starvation is the only way to teach tricks to a dolphin. And once the crowd is gone, the dolphins' work begins. Chlorine-poisoning, pneumonia and other stress-related illnesses slowly claim their lives. And the trainers go back to the capture zone and buy look-alikes.

Somewhere amidst the tranquil forests of Finland, the sounds of ‘Baton Rogue Morgue’ electrify the air. “Every day it’s like this, dark and rainy”, sighs guitarist Domino in a rare break from practise. Yet the band finds inspiration and solidarity in their depressing environment: “we Finnish like that dark side of life”, grins singer Lee, “and the dark side of music”. The repressive winter and vast dramatic landscape gives way to the wild nights of drinking and music at Finland’s biggest metal festival…

In the small township of Alexandra in Johannesburg, children stream excitedly out of a classroom. It's lunchtime but Thabo, big for his age and known to be a bully, stays inside. "I go to school every day without any food or money for lunch", he sobs. So Thabo and his 'crew' steal money and the lunchboxes of those lucky enough to have one. Their parents are quick to punish their offspring, yet their teacher sees this as an issue in itself: "we have a real problem here", admits Patrick, the teacher, "because children see violence at home and they imitate it".

"There is no other feeling in the world like hunting a human being". As Vietnam's neon rice fields turned red, and the French countryside erupted in bombs, and snipers emerged from Iraq's desert dust, each soldier felt the adrenalin pulsing through their veins. And each felt the devastating come down: "I suddenly realise 'we just shot a bunch of unarmed protestors'", remembers Jimmy, "but then that little voice in your head goes off, which says 'well that's war'".

"This is how we live here… They wait in the bushes and watch us at night but there’s nowhere else for us to go..." After the De Beers were robbed and held hostage by 13 armed men, they turned their remote farm house into a gilded cage with double electric fences, panic alarms, satellite tracking and perimeter searchlights. She and her children live in daily fear. "How do you teach a child in South Africa not to be afraid?" asks Johannes, the town's retired pastor,"it has been so emphasised in our history".

"Where do you come from son-of-an-English infidel? Talk you son-of-a-whore!" - a group of Muslim Mujahideen taunt and jeer a chained Afghan Army soldier. The soviet troops may have secured the capital, the airfields and all of the major towns, but Kandahar, a biblical dust-ball of a city, remains with the Muslim rebels. "Kandahar has no mountains, we must fight in the open but we're not afraid", declares Mujahideen leader, Haji Abdul Latif, "we have proclaimed a Jihad on the infidels and we will fight until our last breath!"

“Have you heard about Dennis Ferguson?” asks one of the many reporters who’ve set up camp in Dennis Ferguson’s new neighbourhood. By the end of the first week the residents rally - “I don’t know where we can put him, but we don’t want him here!” they cry to deafening applause - and the New South Wales Government passes a law to evict him. “We should lock him up and throw away the key”, says a child protection campaigner, “He’s the Hannibal lector of our times”.

3 a.m. in Texas, in a basement club covered in graffiti, six b-boys compete against each other to an old-school hip-hop beat. “The cops won’t let them finish,” says one fan. So the breakers take it to the streets. “Are you on beat? Are you original? Are you executing clean?”, says founder of the competition, Romeo, “most of all I want to see the beat of the heart”. And with such passion involved, breakdancing is always one step away from brawling. “If you can hold yourself down in battle, you can hold yourself down in life”, warns Romeo.

Strapped for cash, Cory - aka Mr. Safety - started posting videos to advertise the second-hand furniture he was flogging on ebay. His popularity soon attracted sponsors. "Now. I make 15–20k a month. I should make 60k next month". For Cory, YouTube is the future of entertainment. And indeed, even world-famous stars like Katie Perry get carried away about their favourite online acts: "Fred and Daxflame, They're the best!"

Though it looks fun and easy, being a Youtube star is hard work: "When I'm not online, I edit the videos", says Russian-born entertainer OlgaKay, "YouTube's my life right now". Cooped up in her small flat, she works twelve hours a day filming, editing and promoting her new videos. "Every single person who goes on Youtube does it for attention. People lie when they say they do it just for fun".

Already a popular video blogger, or 'vlogger', Bohm3m3 discovered how powerful the platform could be when he used it to raise money for his move to LA. "Overnight I got $1400 worth of donations from my fans! Without it I'd still be a waiter in Alabama". But he soon found out about the darker side of his newly found celebrity. "I had a stalker. When I blocked her, her friend said she'd killed herself. I freaked out".

Instant feedback is part of what makes YouTube special, but this means a thick skin and a good dose of exhibitionism are must have qualities for vloggers. "You put yourself out there and it gets personal. They don't beat about the bush", says Mr. Safety, who wasn't afraid to propose to his girlfriend in one of his videos.

For some however, the exposure and pressure can prove too much. "I think being a waiter is probably going to be better for me, less responsibility", says Bohm3m3 after his viewings plummeted. But Mr Safety is here to stay: "The money's here, people just don't know how to get it yet". The traditional media may be notorious slaves to ratings, and online it's no different, it's all about viewer numbers and subscriptions. "It is a community and we're all friends but it feels good when you pass someone on the list". Witness the birth of a new Hollywood...

Two Afghans inexpertly claw at the sand of this ancient land. They're looting a tomb under an ancient shrine but the tunnels they walk through have already been ransacked by the Taliban. "The Taliban kept everyone away and worked for 40 days and nights", say the men. "Now it's all gone. They sent it to Paris, Germany... America". The locals say even if they get there first the Taliban will often raid local houses for finds. "It's simply yet another way of financing their war", says Alex Poels of the Federal Police in Brussells.

“You cannot keep growing while not looking at sustainability,” says the director of the Urban Planning Council. As this beautiful HD film explores, this is a social not an economic question. The challenge now facing the UAE is balancing futuristic development with the preservation of a culture rich with ancient traditions. “We want a city for the people; the city is a human city.”
To see the full film, click here: http://journeyman.booserver.com/store?p=3632

Radio Free Europe was established by the CIA at the beginning of the Cold War to transmit uncensored news to audiences behind the Iron Curtain. Broadcasting from West Germany, there was a department for every Eastern European country. The Romanian section was the most popular, since freedom of speech was brutally suppressed under dictator Nicolae Ceauşescu. “Someone was speaking the truth that they didn’t dare to utter”, explains presenter Neculai Munteanu. This is a love and hate story, woven around invisible waves. It involves three collective characters. First, the stars on the radio, stars with no face. Then the listeners. And lastly the sinister ‘Ether’ unit of the Securitate, the Romanian secret police.

Dr Abouleish’s wife oversees the packing process with a watchful eye. From organic vegetables to healing herbs and children’s clothing, business at Sekem is buzzing. But how could they turn a dry patch of desert land into a successful farm?

In the ancient temple city of Madurai in South India, two brightly-coloured figures giggle as they experiment with cross-dressing for the first time. Sixteen year old Palani and Karthik are wearing saris from their sister’s wardrobes. “I felt like a girl when I was seven years old”, says Karthik, “now I find there are many like me!” he cries, his eyes bright. “I don’t want to live a bad life”, says Palani, who’s had a first glimpse of the social exclusion that being an aravani means, “I worry about my future”.

As the sun rises, one of the most diverse countries in the world wakes up. Nicknamed the roof of Africa, the great highlands reach altitudes of 5000m and are home to many species of animals found nowhere else on earth. In these mountains the first Christian civilization started. Its rock-hewn churches puzzle scientists to this day.

“I was an only child, an illegitimate child, by a seaman named Pearlman...” says Poppa, preparing us for a life, which could be torn from the pages of an adventure novel. Poppa brought his children up "living in homes made out of garbage", and he was a man of extremes in all things.“Safety was a lesson Poppa was determined to teach us”, says Poppa's wife Betsy. And when Todd’s mother left him crawling around on the family’s makeshift raft, Poppa “picked up the baby and dropped him in the water”.

"That son of a bitch walked into our territory and had to die", says 16 year old Walter. He's from a part of El Salvador where kids live in cardboard box houses. Now serving time in the city's juvenile prison for murder, Walter speaks of the gang as a family, replacing the parents who died or were deported during the civil war. "When I killed him, I felt like a maniac but also great", Walter declares, "because I defended our gang. If I die? Fine", he says, unflinching. 'Death', like '18' is one of the favoured tattoos of the gang.

Whilst logging into his online banking one day Dmitri noticed that one of his accounts had disappeared. “I phoned the bank and they said I’d opted to hide it, but ‘don’t worry your $7,000 is safe” Dmitri remembers. “In fact there was $80,000 in the account!”. A cyber gang were half way through taking over Dmitri’s identity. In the following days his mobile phone and internet were disconnected and no one would believe he hadn’t made the changes himself. Online crime has got to such a level that a leading figure in online law enforcement believes that "at some stage there will be real debate on the benefit of the internet … should we switch it off?”.

"A nerd is just someone who rocks it; who embraces whatever the hell they're into. It's full capacity". Rapper Beefy dispenses wisdom whilst sitting fully-clothed in a javuzzi, cigar in hand. He and his Nerdcore brothers say they know nothing about "being in love with a stripper or rolling dirty or riding dirty - whichever one it is..". Like any great artist, they rap about what they know - comic books, astrophysics, and internet porn...

"We've been doing this for generations" Ratan says defensively, explaining that the Nats have existed for over 2000 years. On the colourful streets of Kolkata, his children negotiate chaotic traffic, perform with painted faces on street corners and rattle their trays for rupees. Ratan and his wife would like their children to be educated, but without any government support, they’ve become dependent on them for survival. "What do we get if we put them in school? We will die of starvation!" Radha cries.

"We knew by checking license plates that Monsanto or people hired by Monsanto, were watching us constantly", says Percy Schmeiser. When the court ruled in Monsanto's favour, Percy counter-sued Monsanto for environmental pollution, seed destruction and slander. With the crop he had worked on for 50 years officially 'owned' by Monsanto, Percy launched a nationwide campaign defending farmer's rights. Monsanto did everything they could to stand in his way. "Monsanto is big", came a voice down a telephone one night, "you can't win. We will get you. You will pay".

AJ is just 23-years-old but already a father to seven children, five from his partner’s previous relationships. They live on a sprawling council estate on the outskirts of Bristol: an area plagued by unemployment, drugs and anti-social behaviour, where fewer residents go to university than in any other area of the UK.

"Today it’s the sons of Hamas who are on the frontline. Victory or martyrdom, by God’s will..." cried Sheik Rayyan, from the Hamas leadership. Within hours he would be dead, struck down by an Israeli bomb. White phosphorous, illegal in use against civilians, was one of Israel’s responses. "White phosphorous burns through its victims' bodies" says the head of the Burn Unit at this overcrowded hospital. "Nowhere in the Gaza strip is safe for the civilian population". At the UN school, 35 sheltering refugees, mostly children, were killed. "Hamas, and its leaders, hidden underground, are completely responsible for the suffering of Gaza´s people", declares the Israeli Defence Forces spokesman. "This will not stop Hamas or change their principles" cry the Palestinian people "we are the ones who are destroyed".

‘The shapes of nature are overwhelmingly complicated and they defy description by the tools of Euclid’ Benoit says, remembering the geometry he was taught as a boy. Always a distinguished student, Benoit found he had a rare gift at high school. ‘When the teacher gave me a problem I would see two shapes intersecting’- Benoit remembers - ‘the answer was immediate’. By transforming equations into geometric problems, Benoit flew through exam after exam with no preparation. ‘I cheated’ Benoit says grinning ‘I could see what was happening instead of having to search for it’.

"Renewable energy is the energy form of the 21st century", cried Claude Turmes of the European Greens. His passionate speech won Europe over to the Green Revolution. Today, the Orang Rimba tribe in Indonesia watch terrified as the picturesque rainforest they live by is demolished to make way for palm oil plantations. "By cutting down the rainforest they are taking away our home, it will be the end of us", the chief of the tribe, Din, cries over the deafening sound of chainsaws. He is surrounded by palm oil plantations as far as the eye can see.

By looking at one vehicle – the Dodge Ram pickup – and tracing the origins of its components, a symbol of the world economy appears, and it is in your garage: incorporating as much as nine hundred parts from forty different countries!

Two year old Shukri is dying, and he’s not alone. One in three Somali children are malnourished. ‘I cannot move because of hunger’, says a mother. Claiming food for fictitious camps is too easy and goods that do make it to real camps are often stolen. ‘They bring the food here to prove it's been delivered, offload a small amount and take the rest back with them!’ The WFP’s tragic lack of control over the food chain is killing those it’s meant to save.

The difficulty of precisely defining terrorism has led to a piecemeal approach in dealing with it. We categorise a range of terrorist groups to emerge in recent decades, as well as a range of responses to terrorism. The film’s conclusion is that violence cannot be stemmed by more violence. But with many terrorists describing themselves as ‘freedom fighters’, will it ever end?

"I had one life before sputnik and another after", says Homer Hickam, author of Rocket Boys and a former NASA engineer. When the Russians launched a satellite into space, a young Homer and most of the town gathered in his garden to watch the small star glimmer in the sky. "I would not have been more impressed if it was God Himself in his chariot", Homer says. The sight inspired him and the smartest, most ostracized boys in his school to design a rocket. "My generation had read about these things, seen these things on the silver screen and we were ready for something marvellous to happen".

It’s 60 years since Israel seized Palestine and there’s celebration in the Jewish settlement of Pisgat Ze’ev. "We made a country from nothing!" they cry, drinking and singing and shooting fireworks into the sky. On the other side of the wall Muhammad’s refugee camp listen in sadness. "I hate this prison" Muhammad says, kicking the wall. The Israeli militia forced his father onto the small Shu’fat camp in 1967. "It’s not a refugee camp, it’s an Arab neighbourhood" say the Israelis. But Muhammad and his friends have no freedom, no money and no security in their lives. "We’re living in a ghetto" he says, spraying the word G-TOWN in giant letters across the wall.

For many outsiders the decline was due to Fortis’s ambitious take-over of the Dutch ABN-Amro bank. The general belief was that the Fortis management had lost all sense of reality and had actually overestimated the capacity of its own bank. Others believed the amount of sub-prime loans was the fatal trigger.

The beauty of roses is lost on Jane. Yet she makes the walk to work with her head held high, passing a sprawling queue of jobseekers who would gladly trade her place. "Hard work, thorns in my hand and chemicals. That's what a rose means to me", she says. Even her own beauty is a curse. Because only the beautiful can work at the flower farm and "sometimes the supervisor needs us to have sex with him". Those who resist or who lose their looks are fired.

Hello, this is Koch FM. From the ghetto to society, we bring you reality!’ George is invited to give an interview about HIV on the local radio station. ‘I have suffered much and I wouldn’t want others to go through the same.’ He is on a mission to educate his fellow citizens about HIV prevention and treatment. ‘The way I see it, HIV has given me a talent’.

"I've been practicing this craft since 1954" , says the canoe-maker "now my children have come to learn". He stands proudly on his canoe against the endlessly blue horizon, a postcard of Africa, with its promise of exploration and nature. But like Africa, the canoe-maker's relationship with the river runs deeper than the beautiful image. "A perfect balance between the height of the canoe and the river is essential" he carefully instructs his son. But water levels are lowering and"there’s no longer any fortune in this work, only respect and consideration" he sadly admits. Like the rest of the Niger's people, the canoe-maker views the river as a constant provider - a source of power, wealth, food and beauty. Looking at him now staring into the blue horizon, he seems to be watching the river die before his eyes.

‘Islamic religious discourse has stagnated in the last 200 years’ Amr Khaled cries to a captivated crowd ‘It has failed to respond to current issues in society’. He speaks for an hour, with no pauses and no notes and he leaves his audience of mostly young and female Muslims, in tears. ‘It’s mass hypnosis on a satellite television scale’ argues Wael Lofti.

We meet Ah Long in the shadows of a busy Guangzhou underpass. “Your son, Liu, he’s almost dead!” he cries to the family of an addict he’s found dying on the street. “This is the only way I can help!” By the film’s end, it is Ah Long who is asking for help. Sentenced with the death penalty for drug trafficking, he phones the filmmaker one last time. “I too wanted a family. That feeling would be so nice”, he sighs. He doesn’t see the point in regretting anything else - “when you’re living in the jungle, you’re not the one in control”.

‘You’re very lucky to be here’ Pekka enthuses, taking his eye from the camera for a rare second, ‘this kind of mirage only happens maybe 3 times a year’. Pekka has driven over a million kilometres and taken over 100 000 photographs of exactly the same spot. ‘When I first saw this’ he says ‘I felt like I had to yell- I knew that I’d got ‘the one’.’

"It's better to die on your feet than live on your knees!" Bhambatha's war cry summons his army of courageous young men. Increasingly pushed off their farms by white farmers, they must tear down forests, work the land and buy the results for a fortune. "The produce of our sweat is sold back to us in white stores!" one Zulu cries. Drums pound, fire lights up the sky and the thunder of Bhambatha’s 8000 warriors can be heard for miles around...

"When my show’s going well I feel invincible, like a higher being", says Flying Bob. For the last ten minutes he held an audience in the palm of his hand. But now the spell is broken, the audience begins to chatter and get on with their lives. "If I don’t make enough money to get home, I will stay and breed with the locals", jokes Dexter Tripp the trapeze artist. But his voice belies a powerlessness, which is both gift and curse of the trade.

"I want to make a movie. That's my goal, man. Like, what's one of the twists of fate in your life that you would have just never imagined?"

‘Every morning as I rise, I hear the gunshots firing’ says Leroy. His school is on the borderline between the two warring factions of Trench Town. ‘They just fire shots indiscriminately, these guys are killing for fun’ he tells us as we follow his walk to school. Brightly coloured shacks that look ready to collapse house over 25 000, army tanks and car bombs litter the dusty streets and Bob Marley’s face smiles out from a billboard, pock-marked with bullet holes.

A wedding reception in Ethiopia is a picture of joy and serenity. The bride and groom sing and dance surrounded by a sea of smiling white-clad friends and family. The scene might seem typical of the public face of marriage, but it conceals a much darker reality that blights the lives of many African wives. "When I asked for a divorce, he pulled out a gun and shot me", says one woman - her tragic story of abuse and narrow escape from death, could be the story of any one of the 50 women within this South African safe-house.

"I can't say I loved him because I didn't. I just liked him for what he had", says Asaandra. Like many poor young women in Africa, she sought out a relationship to survive. "He used to beat me up. He forced himself on me", she says. Thanks to a crackdown on abuse, her husband was arrested. But Asaandra was left with no way of supporting herself and her child. "The legal system is now changing to ensure it doesn't re-victimise women in this way", says a volunteer at the safe house. But many believe the psychological cause of domestic violence in Africa must first be addressed.

"I grew up in a family that didn't call it domestic violence", says Asaandra, "it was like a culture, a tradition where a man can chase a wife and kids". It was the abuse of her step-father that led her to leave home at 14. And a cycle of dependency was perpetuated. "My mom said: 'no don't tell people. This is natural to men', and I believed her". There was no counselling, no discussion whatsoever. Experts now believe that the psychological effects of apartheid, especially on the patriarch of a family, must be addressed if Africa is ever to fully overcome domestic abuse.

"Men would deal with the frustrations they had in the public sphere by taking them into the family sphere where they felt they had some sense of power", says the Centre for the Study of Violence Reconciliation. "That sense of humiliation is still there for many men as well as the self doubt". Safe houses are opening all over Africa, and thanks to pressure from organisations such as the Ethiopian Women's Lawyers Organisation, legal changes are slowly taking place. But it's the public awareness that this is creating, which may finally get people talking about what was once accepted as 'culture' in an aim to overcoming Africa's troubled past.

Sensitive to the complexities of societies in which male omnipotence has been secretly flourishing for generations, 'It's Time' is also a hopeful witness to a new optimism in the lives of African women.

Welcome to Pakistan’s North-West Frontier- remote, inaccessible and home to a revitalised and increasingly brutal Taliban. The nearby city of Peshawar is under constant terrorist attack. ‘If the government had changed their policy we would not have attacked Peshawar’ says Hakimullah Mehsud, the new face of the Taliban. He is clear that Pakistan will pay a heavy price for siding with the United States. ‘We have had to attack Peshawar…and every corner of Pakistan’ he declares.

‘New York is a great city - if you can stay on top of it.’ In the pitch black only the rustle of rats feet and dripping water can be heard as the nervous film crew begin their journey to find New York’s subway community. It’s a dangerous mission in a place without law. ‘Down here. You feel fears you never knew existed’. The film makers delve deeper and deeper, searching for signs of life. Torchlight illuminates fading graffiti, a discarded suitcase and the distant roar of rushing trains. Finally a dark figure reveals himself and we follow him to the mole community.

‘Israel is not a democracy. It’s a democracy for Jews as South Africa was a democracy for whites’. Akram is an American of Palestinian heritage. When he decided to settle down in Palestine with his family, he got caught in an absurd and painful dispute with Israel’s immigration authorities. ‘I was denied entry and had to spend two months in Egypt away from my family.’ After a bitter fight, he eventually obtained a temporary visa. But he’s been left in a precarious situation and could be deported at any time. ‘It’s a bureaucratic evil. The people are not evil but the system is.’

'In parliament the MPs shouted “take her and rape her”’ Afghani MP Malalai Joya recalls. ‘They have learned to wear a tie, how to talk about women’s rights, but that’s all’. In Kenya violence against women is rife. ‘If we see a man beating a woman we like it’, explains one farmer. ‘It knocks sense into her’. Despite its laws protecting women the USA has one of the highest levels of rape worldwide, yet in China economic growth has improved women's rights. Is the time ripe for a new wave of feminism? This moving film encompasses the beauty, strength and diversity - as well as the suffering - of women, with a soundtrack dominated by female vocals.

After World War II, a US Army study revealed that three quarters of combat soldiers given the chance to fire on the enemy failed to do so. Despite training, 'the average individual has such an inner resistance toward killing a fellow man that he will not take a life if it is possible not to.'

Ever since he was a child, Frank has been obsessed with Canada and the trappers’ lifestyle. When he eventually saw the breathtaking landscapes of the Yukon for the first time, he simply knew he had to come back. ‘I got here and it was just like in all my books. Everything I had dreamed about, just the way I had imagined it. It was exactly the same.’ He had found his very own Jack London paradise. ‘You have no idea here what the place looks like. When you actually get there and see that calm and that vastness – it’s fantastic’. In Germany, Frank first trained as a butcher, in the hope that he would gain a work permit for Canada. Over the years, he built a good career but even so, the urge to return to the forests and lakes of the Yukon was stronger. He left and never looked back. ‘It’s probably in the blood. You’ve either got it or you don’t’.

‘Treasures of the Fitzwilliam’ reveals the stories behind the museum’s most famous artefacts. A rare 13th Century Gothic manuscript that once belonged to the sister of Louis the IX of France, “you turn the pages and the gold shimmers; the pigments are as fresh as they ever were,” enthuses Stella Panayotova, the Keeper of Manuscripts. She sees the collections as “a real tribute to the scribes, the artists, the patrons” of the past whose combined efforts have made the stunning collections of the museum possible.

Neasa shows us a romantic bard, living secluded and still writing in Gaelic, affectionately known as 'the guru of the hills'. Sifting through old photographs Cathal finds one of his first year at school. "The poor boy", he laughs, kissing the photograph, "he didn't know what was going to happen to him".

When the car revolution was born, “They told us we were ‘pathfinders’, ‘trailblazers’, ‘explorers’ - venturing into the unknown”. Fifty years later, auto-makers continue to define who we are: Commuters, with friends and family spread far, casual drivers, who drive short distances for errands. “If our consumption rates continue to increase”, says former President Bill Clinton, “we’ll be out of oil in 35 to 40 years. Living like Mad Max is not such a distant dream”.

Andrew had never hit his wife but they both knew it was a just a matter of time. Roxanne lived in fear of “getting hurt emotionally, physically…of the kids being hurt emotionally beyond repair”. The relationship started well but after moving in together, Andrew started controlling Roxanne financially and emotionally. “It’s a power thing being in control of your partner, knowing everything they’ve done, making them account for why they did it”. When Roxanne became a mother, Andrew’s anger only grew worse. Depressed and lonely, Roxanne continually thought of leaving, but never did. “I thought, ‘No, but he can get better. He wants to get better. He doesn’t want to treat me like this.'”

‘When calling, the clients should always use the code words agreed and never state their own names or name of the legal entities.’ Heavily disguised, whistleblower, Heinrich Kieber, explains to a US Senate commission the complex ways banks keep money out of sight of international tax officials. ‘The LGT Group does not send any mail to customers from Liechtenstein.’

Uri was flying over the Suez Canal in 1973 when a missile whizzed past him: 'If I'd broken a fraction of a second later, I wouldn't be here today.' The archive footage this film uncovers is powerful, bringing to life the experiences we explore with Uri.

‘There is the bride, the book, the shoulders’ - nicknames for the women sitting together in the moonlight, their white voiles flying up against the city’s red walls. ‘When I want my husband I press him up against me’, gossips Khady. She speaks of her fifth husband and Cheichs giggles in embarrassment. ‘In our culture it’s forbidden to express intimate things’ Cheich says. She sees waiting for her husband as a sign of a woman’s strength. But Massouda is content to be single after two failed marriages. ‘Now that I’m divorced, my body is mine to do with what I please’.

‘You look anxious. You must be thinking of him, a woman asks Khady. ‘It’s been a month and a half since he’s been back’ Khady admits. She takes her mind off Mohammed by preparing for his home-coming. Henna patterns decorate her delicate fingers, whilst Massouda’s fingers etch equally intricate designs on the city walls. Women hoping to impress their husbands pay Massouda for this artwork that she puts her heart into, communicating the love that Cheichs would never speak of, in each one. ‘There’s a lot of decency in these paintings’ Massouda says proudly.

The paintings divert the womens’ minds from many things. Khady sometimes fears the man she loves so much will not return. ‘My third husband promised me he would come back’ she remembers, ‘he never did’. Whilst for Cheichs the threat of adultery is a woman’s daily weight. ‘If he stops giving me pleasure, there is no trust any more’. Massouda has a very different dependence on the paintings. They free her from the fraught experience of waiting for a man. ‘It’s thanks to them that I’'m independent. Even alone I can provide for my own needs’.

Cheichs disapproves of Massouda’s work but whilst her husband is away, she cherishes quiet dreams about becoming a successful businesswoman. ‘I dream about making a fortune’ she smiles in a rare moment of abandon…

Then one day, quite suddenly, the men have returned. ‘Take some tea and come closer’ Khady says playfully, trying to contain her excitement. ‘She’s not a woman’ Cheichs says of the childless Khady, ‘my husband has brought back enough and he has given me children- what more is there?’ With the men home, Massouda no longer has a market for her painting. ‘I’'m not the patient type, with men who are not serious’ she smiles with sadness in her eyes, ‘could you declare your love to a man’s face?’

The drums are pounding, the deer tow rattles. ‘There are the beautiful Indian women, strong Indian men and little tiny tot dancers.’ We are at a Native American pow-wow and the community is out in force, keeping alive traditions thousands of years old.

“Finally, I’ve got the big David and Goliath battle I’ve always been seeking. You know, I must have been goading them all along”, explains Emery. Comparing himself to legendary activists Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela, Emery states, "we need martyrs, we need heroes."

They knew that their country was violating every ideal it purported to stand for.…so they put their lives on the line and attempted to stop a war. From the raw energy of street demonstrations, to interviews with compelling personalities, this is a film about eight courageous Americans who risked their lives, liberty and reputations to avert the Iraq war.

“He smokes a lot, now he even smokes at night in his bed. One of these days he will burn, him and his bed!” laments Emilia, Hermino’s housekeeper, boss and surrogate. Hermino was adopted into shepherding. Although all too aware of the thrills available in the town, he is reluctant to leave the hills – duty-bound to the community that rescued him from an abusive family. Staff in one hand, stereo in the other, he is the epitome of a man caught between two worlds. Hermino spends his day out in the elements with the sheep. Glugging red wine and chain-smoking cigars, his face has become haggard but he still has an adolescent innocence, the result of his isolated life. “What do you want me to say? Girls don’t want to come here. Here’s a guy all by himself. The mountain, who wants this?”

Tomb 33 is on the West bank of the Nile, 500 km south of Cairo, near Ancient Thebes. The tomb’s size is awe-inspiring. Twenty-two chambers connected by long corridors, it spreads over three levels reaching down twenty meters, and is more imposing than most Pharaohs’ tombs. Yet Tomb 33 was not built not for a Pharaoh, or even a Royal family member. This was the tomb of Petamenophis, a scholar and priest. “There is a sort of Myth to Tomb 33”, excavator Claude Traunecker explains. “It is quite amazing because it does not look like any other tomb. We do not understand it.”

“I don’t understand what 35 years of war means. And for you guys - it’s the other way round. We should exchange experience,” says Polish director Jacek Szaranski. Jacek is holding a month long film course “Kabul – My City” for twelve talented students from Kabul’s Art School. The students are given cameras, some expert tuition and nothing more. The subjects of their films and the way they show Kabul is entirely up to them. Jacek explains, “I want to see this city through your eyes. I want to see the way you see the world.”

With less than 100 days to go until the 2008 Olympics, preparations in Beijing are well underway. The stunning "bird’s nest" stadium has been unveiled to international acclaim and China is seizing this opportunity to showcase its economic strength to the world. “It’s China’s stunning symbol of how far the country has developed in the past 30 years… This is the new China, a China to be proud of.”

Not everyone in China shares this sense of pride, but anyone attempting to disagree is immediately targeted by the government. Activists and writers who speak out and criticise the state are accused of subverting it. They are being jailed, kept under house arrest, harassed, abducted and beaten. Their daily movements, contacts, their phone calls and emails are watched.

Activist Hu Jia's open letter, "The Real China and the Olympics", denounced China's human rights record and was blocked on Chinese websites. Hu wrote that China held the world record for detaining writers and journalists even after its Games bid succeeded. For this he faces a prison sentence; his lawyers protest his innocence. “Hu Jia is innocent, he expresses opinions peacefully and we are hoping he will be freed.”

However, acquittal looks unlikely, as his lawyer explains. “We’ve never heard of a single person being acquitted of the charge of subverting state power - not in my 10 years of legal practice.” He’s right, Hu Jia is sentenced to three and a half years in prison.

In Beijing there are only a handful of lawyers willing to take on human rights cases, for fear of the brutal consequences. “They made me take off my clothes... they beat me with electric prods. It was terrible. They told me to sell my house, sell my car, to close down the law firm and get out of Beijing.” Often the tactics used by the government are “completely illegal”, but this makes no difference.

And it’s not just the activists themselves that are targeted; their families must also suffer the consequences. “Hu Jia’s wife has not committed any crime, but that doesn’t mean she’s free.” She’s watched around-the-clock. When reporter Liz Jackson goes to her home to interview her – legally and openly – she is turned away by police guards and given a “sham explanation.”

There is no sympathy for those who commit the crime of subversion. “What he did was worse than murder, he tarnished the national reputation.” A Chinese government insider is adament China is doing it the right way. “If you fabricate a story, or focus on one point and overlook the main point… or exaggerate, then this will have negative social impacts and you should be punished.”

The magnitude of the problem in Beijing is miniscule compared to that of Tibet, where international press has been banned completely. Information on what’s happening there can only be gathered through hearsay, and what little is known is incredibly worrying. “The most common state for Tibetans is a state of fear - daily life is full of fear.”

When China elected to host the Olympics it must have realised its repressive policies would come under scrutiny as never before. It seems it had resolved long before that this attention would not impact on its human rights policies in any way.

Dahina Sy-Le Guennan was one of Fourniret’s earliest victims, he won her trust, abducted her and then raped her. She was only 14, but clearly remembers him explaining, “he was a virgin when he got married, and that on his wedding day he found out his wife was not a virgin. And that since then he had been chasing the myth of virginity.” Dahina survived the ordeal, and would later testify against him. The obsession with virginity that she speaks of would prove the defining characteristic of Fourniret’s career.

“They shot one of my neighbours dead on the spot. Another I heard had his head cut off.” This woman has spent her whole life fleeing the Burmese Army; but since the Junta moved the capital out to rural Pynmana, close to the Karen homeland, life has become intolerable. “They destroyed our food stocks, our paddy fields. Worst, they killed my granddaughter after they had brutally raped her. I don’t have a reason to be happy anymore.”

“We've lost everything. It's all gone. It sucks. It's not right. It's just not right.” These are the distraught words of Dianne Davies. Unable to pay their first mortgage, she and her husband took out a second - but this only dragged them deeper. Her young family is now living in a neighbour’s garage, hoping that the sale of their home might raise enough capital to pay off their debts.

For individual synopses, clips, transcripts and stills of each of the episodes, or to buy a DVD copy, paste the links below into your browser.

“Have a good time”, says Claus, kissing his girlfriend, Lilith, goodbye. Although he tries hard to hide it, he doesn’t want her participating in Maggie’s sexual exploration workshop. And as she approaches the seminar, Lilith is having her own doubts. “A lot of feelings are coming up. Sadness and I’m nervous. There is a feeling that this is exactly what I need to do and still, there is fear, a lot of fear. And I can’t explain it.”

Everywhere Jean-René goes, a battered leather bag goes with him. “I’m terrified of losing it”, he confides. “It never leaves my side”. Inside the bag are hundreds of documents and photos. But its most valuable contents are a few minutes of blurry footage. A film Ruez spent years trying to hunt down.

Every night, 14 year old Said scrambles down a narrow shaft leading to a tunnel. He’ll spend the next eight hours digging without a break. It’s claustrophobic, difficult work. The heat in the tunnel is unbearable and the more they advance, the harder it becomes to breathe. At any moment, the tunnel could come crashing down, burying them alive. That’s not the only danger. “Sometime the Egyptians shoot gas into the tunnel that might kill us”, states Ramdan. “There are risks of electric shocks and the Israelis might bomb the entrance”. Since Hamas seized control of Gaza, the borders have been closed. The tunnels are the only way to import goods into the territory. “They’re a gold mine!” states Said. But to his disgust, most of the profits go to other people. “We do all the work, then they swindle us”, he complains. Once the tunnel is nearly ready, “other people will open it, do the trafficking and make more money than us”. The money he does make will enable Said to support his entire family. But everytime he goes into the tunnel, he knows: “You are digging your own grave”.

In Bogota grim, gritty reality hits hard. We meet Michel, a young Frenchman whose week long holiday in Colombia has been unexpectedly extended. Short of cash back home in France he came to Colombia, where he had heard a fortune could be made carrying cocaine through customs.

“This is the place to be”, boasts a Canadian businessman. He moved to Miami because; “the only way to have success in life is going where the action is”. Here, beauty, glamour and money are the keys that open wide every door. “Within five years, this place is going to be like New York”, states one resident. Spending every afternoon by the pool is all “part of the Miami lifestyle”.

“Have you ever seen a satellite dish?” we ask one young village girl, “almost” she replies. The village elder is just as evasive, “I haven’t seen anything with my own eyes. I wouldn’t lie. If I’d seen anything I would tell.” We politely avert our eyes from the wires disappearing across his garden.

Crouching behind rocks in the mountain passes between Iran and Afghanistan, Iranian guards prepare an ambush. As opium smugglers come into view, the guards open fire. One trafficker falls to the ground immediately, killed by their first shot. But the others fight back until police reinforcements arrive, wielding large machine guns.

Night time in the Aboriginal community of Maningrida. Gangs of “lost children” roam about unsupervised. “Nobody cares for them and they’ve got nothing”. Some don’t look older than eight or nine. “Parents are not taking control because some fathers are on drugs, alcohol, smoking ganja. These kids are learning violence and drug use from their parents”.

A piece of rope a quarter of a mile long stretches away down the ropewalk, drawing us in to the famed but now defunct Chatham Dockyard. It is filled with the voices of former Dockyard employees: ‘I went home that night and luckily my father was home on leave’, recalls Maurice Adcock. ‘He said, ‘Take the Ropemaking, they’ll always want rope. You’ve got a job there for life.’ Traditional ropemaking survived at Chatham, alongside the latest nuclear and electronic technologies.

“To be honest, it is no wonder there are so many suicide bombers. There is a lot of hatred”, confides Karwan, a young Iraqi Kurd and Swedish immigrant. Like other Muslim immigrants in the West, he is walking a confusing tightrope. Torn between loyalty to his religion and a distaste for some of its violent extremes he is searching for a voice of his own.

Encouraged by the cheers of the crowd, two men circle each other in the blistering heat. Suddenly one pounces. A few strong punches to the head sends his opponent reeling to the ground. Moving in for the kill, he stomps on his rival's chest before the referee intervenes. It's half way through the Musangwe fights and some contestants take it all too far.

“I love my plants as though they were my children”, states Isabel proudly. “I’m not going to hand my land over to anyone”. The inhabitants of the now luscious Tambogrande Valley worked for fifty years to transform barren desert land into a productive paradise. “Land like this is a treasure because it produces a lot. You can grow everything”, boasts Don Berru. ”

'When a cop or someone comes up to you, asking questions. This is your power: the camera. Keep filming all the time’. Pulling up on a busy shopping street the students see a 5250 van with dark windows, surrounded by a crowd. When the students arrive officers are manhandling an Israeli man into the van. From inside comes the voice of a young woman: ‘I’m a neurosurgeon from Ichilov, I have a passport, I have ID. I showed them.’

“This is Pete. He recently got a letter offering him a new credit card with a $3,000 limit and an interest rate of 18%. Which is odd, because Pete is a dog”.

"I'm trying to get together an attempt to go down the Blue Nile", explains explorer Hendri Coetzee. "Its going to be a tough one but I think we can do it". He's chosen the worst possible time to try. "Several months of excessive rain have caused the river to flood", explains team mate Jim West. "The water's gonna go faster, the currents will be stronger, it's not good news at all for us".

Work hard, party hard is the accepted mantra of our modern 24/7 lifestyle. For many of us, sleep is a low priority. Something to do when we feel like it rather than an activity to be treated with respect, like exercise and a good diet. “We live in a society that has this idea you’re accessible and alert and contactable 24 hours a day”, complains clinical psychologist Andrew Fuller. From shift workers and new parents to those just stressed, we’re all getting less sleep.

“What the Dore programme has achieved for Harry is a miracle”, raves mother Sally Gulson. The Gulson's experience is one of a number of anecdotal success stories offered up by the Dore Program - a self-styled breakthrough therapy for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. It justifies its high price tax with claims of an 80 – 90% succes rate.

The first thing that hits you about Pripyat, closest town to the Chernobyl nuclear plant, is the silence. The streets are abandoned. In the town’s half-finished amusement park, a giant Ferris wheel slowly rots. Wandering around empty houses, you get a sense of the panic which must have driven evacuations. There was no time to pick up a dropped doll or close an open window.

“If you’re a Sunni, they’ll catch you”, states one prisoner. “There are roundups every day”. In the crowded cells of Mosul’s police station, prisoners huddle together on the floor. They’re all Sunni Arabs. Many of these men have been here for months.

It was the most notorious of Argentina’s concentration camps. From the offices of ESMA, fleets of green unmarked Ford Falcons were dispatched to round up ‘undesirables’. In its basement dungeons, victims were raped, tortured and starved before finally being sent on ‘doorless flights’ and dumped in the ocean. It was here, amidst all this misery, that Victoria Donda was born.

“This is my mother, Brünhilde”, states Thomas, as the remains of a corpse in an advanced state of decay are scraped off the kitchen floor. “Or rather, this is what’s left of her. Left of her body, to be precise”. As Thomas and brother Erik soon discover, there are an awful lot of other things left of their mother. “With her usual mania for renovating and do-it-yourself”, their mother bricked off most of her flat from the reception room. The area walled off is piled to the ceiling with junk going back 70 years.

The Ashmolean is not just one of the worlds oldest museums, it's also one of the greatest, with collections of art and archaeology from all of the worlds' major cultures. This includes footage of the largest Minoan Greek art collection outside Greece and the greatest pre-dynastic Egyptian collection outside of Cairo.

Ghada’s garden reflects her ideas on womanhood, rarely lasting more than one season. Kenzo’s stand in bold opposition: perpetuating the age-old Japanese tradition of a garden as nature tamed. Xenia cultivates her garden as a means of freeing herself- a ‘question of recognising uncontrollable processes without trying to constrict them in a corset’. For Charles his garden is a commentary on chaos and creation. ‘As a critique of nature a garden is not just a retreat’ Charles declares ‘it’s an attack’. In the cultural history of the world, the garden has been the epitome of creation. A stunning exploration of art’s relationship with our ever changing world.

“In the springtime when the ice melted they filled me with timber. The logs danced about in my rapids”, remembers the river, “those were the days when I was still free, when I still had all my powers”.

Bethlehem, Christmas 2006. It’s meant to be the busiest time of the year for souvenir sellers like Adnan but his shop is deserted. “All the tourists spend their money in Jerusalem”, he complains. “Manager square is empty”. Since a massive concrete wall was built separating Bethlehem from Jerusalem, few tourists venture there. If the wall wasn’t intimidating enough, tour guides warn visitors that Bethlehem is dangerous. At the same time, Palestinians like Adnan; “cannot go to Jerusalem to sell our stuff because of the wall.”

For too long Africa has been ruled by dictators. Nelson Mandela showed the world that the big man can be beneficent and kind. His successor Thabo Mbeki argues that African leaders should stop presenting themselves as ‘little gods,’ and become accountable. In his country land reform is giving the dispossessed hope, but few other leaders on the continent are as progressive.

Egypt is leading the campaign to get back its plundered antiques. At the top of its demand list are the bust of Nefertiti, which presently resides in Berlin, and the Rosetta Stone, which is encased at the British Museum in London. Can and should Nefertiti and Co. finally return home?

Taiji, Northern Baghdad, is one of the worst places in the world to get a flat tyre. “We’re in the midst of the most dangerous spot ever and he chooses to stop the car”, fumes security contractor Jean-Pierre, despairing at the driver of the convoy he’s escorting. “The motherfucker has lost his mind”. Nearby another car burns while Jean-Pierre nervously clutches his gun.

Mohammad, 10, and his younger brother, Yassin, are arguing about what to be when they grow up. “I’m going to be a pilot”, declares Yassin. But when he hears that his big brother wants to be a fighter and “invent armaments”, he changes his mind. “I’m going to bomb the Jews and be a fighter too”.

In the remote village of Muita, Mozambican music heroes, Massukos, are holding a concert. They’re on a nationwide ‘Wash your Hands” tour, backed by water charity Estamos, to spread the word of peace, love and clean hands.

Surrounded by old men chanting prayers and children dressed in traditional robes, Shura looks completely out of place. She smoothes down her scarlet dress and looks around the room at her new family. A few months ago, Shura was signed up by a matchmaking agency in Ukraine. Now, she has just married into the Samaritan’s First Family.

"Nini stop talking!" the voice of an exasperated teacher cuts through a bustling classroom. "I will fight you", 8 year old Mario shouts across the room. Mario and Nini both struggle with reading and writing, find it hard to concentrate and are becoming cheeky. When Chloe teaches them separately, they’re excited to open up to the camera about their feelings. "Are we the stupidest kids in the school?" they ask giggling. But Chloe isn’t always there. "Why was I being good in the first place?" Mario asks in tears when he is banned from the school trip. "I’ll be bad I don’t care. I’m struggling and miss wants me to be perfect. Forget this".

Alice sobs into her mother’s arms. Returning to her former orphanage was meant to be the climax of her visit to China. The staff and orphans have showered her with attention, given her presents and taken her to a fancy restaurant. But surrounded by Chinese food she doesn’t like, Alice looks utterly miserable. “The orphans think we are spoiled, not tasting this fantastic food”, explains fellow adoptee, Nanna. “Think about it. Maybe they never, ever have food like this and we’re sitting here not eating”.

"People are strange. But in China, strange people stand out more", states musician Bian Yuan. With his unusual clothes and giant orange sunglasses, he certainly looks different. But it's his decision to drop out of normal life to be a rock star that really marks him out. "Most people can't understand what I'm doing", he explains.

“The next terrorist attack will come from right here”, predicts American Border Patrol (ABP) founder Glenn Spencer, gesturing at the US/Mexican border. With its official sounding name, unmanned satellite planes and heat seeking imaging systems, ABP seems like a government body. But by his own admission, many of this citizen militia’s actions “embarrass” the government. They’ve turned border control into a major political issue.

In the province of Razni, a group of Taliban fighters are preparing to launch an attack. “We don’t deal directly with Osama Bin Laden. We get our orders from Mullah Omar”, states one. Clutching RPGs and Kalashnikovs, they drive off to bomb a police station.

“Aging is a number. I don’t feel any older than when I was 21”, states 66-year-old Elaine Ross. Getting old doesn’t really bother her. She still enjoys weight lifting and riding her bike. But nursing her husband, Bob, through four years of cancer has forced her to confront one of the hardest thing about aging: losing loved ones. “I pretend that Bob isn’t sick and then I get hit with reality that everything isn’t really okay”, she confides. “I don’t want to think about waking up and with him not being here”.

“I have been thinking about the people that went through Solovki. 100 thousand people. And the 50 thousand that perished”, Vasil Ovseenko tells us. He is part of a pilgrimage that has come to the Solvki archipelago to try to lay the past to rest.

“Perhaps, like me, you have never given much thought to the increasing rates of neurological disorders”, states narrator, Cori Brackett. “But in 2002 I could no longer ignore them. I also became a statistic when I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.” Suffering from double vision, slurred speech and weak limbs, she was forced into a wheelchair as her condition deteriorated. Then she read an article linking aspartame to many health problems. “I had drunk six to ten cans of diet soda a day for twenty years. When I stopped, I got better.”

“They knocked me right over”, sobs Daphne distraught. “I haven’t got anybody”. A routine trip to the bathroom has gone awry and nothing will console her. But her husband, Jack, has vowed to look after her “to the end”. He brings her fresh muffins, wipes away her tears and hugs her tenderly. “You’re my lady and always have been”, he whispers.

“The fake drugs racket is one of the greatest atrocities of our times. It is mass murder”, states Dr Dora Akunyili, director of Nigeria’s food and drugs regulatory body. Thirty years ago, malaria was rarely more dangerous than a dose of the flu. “It was when the fake drugs racket broke out that people started dying like rats”, states Dr Akunyili. Even Prof Nick White, one of the world’s top malaria scientists admits: “fifty years ago, malaria was in retreat. Now, it is getting worse.”

“One of the things that occurred to me is that up until Nelson Mandela, Idi Amin was the most famous African in history”, states director Kevin Macdonald. “All the stories about his cannibalism, witchcraft and multiple partners. He represents all that’s worst and savage about the Dark Continent.”

As morning broke on 16 March 1988, crowds slowly emerged from cellars thinking last night’s bombardment was over. Whilst making breakfast; “we heard a large explosion, people fell on one another”. Rushing back into the dark underground they were unable to escape; “white smoke slowly came in”. “We started to cough, the children began to vomit, the animal’s stomachs were shaking.” They had been gassed, and this is Halabja.

It’s an apocalyptic vision of the future. The ‘Mad Max’ movies depict a world where petrol has become the most precious resource and society has broken down. In the real world today, there are sober warnings demand for oil could soon outstrip supply. “The world is absolutely unprepared”, claims energy consultant Robert Hirsch.

Within minutes of stopping at a red traffic light, Judy Maccioni was surrounded. Thieves forced their way into her BMW and threatened her at knifepoint. “Somebody leaned across me, undid my seatbelt and put their hand on the ignition. They said ‘Get the fuck out of the car’”, she recalls. Judy later learnt that her prize vehicle was broken into units and shipped to the Middle East.

“Try and think of what I am doing as just finishing early”, wrote Campbell Bolton, shortly before he jumped to his death. “It fills me with grief when I think what I’ve done to you.” No doubt he meant it. But absorbed in his own pain, he could not have comprehended the intensity and suffering he would inflict on others. “He didn’t have any idea of the grief”, states Campbell’s grandmother.

“We live alone, myself and the little one”, states Mli. He’s barely 14 but every morning, he lights the fire, cleans the house and prepares breakfast for his little brother before they both set off on the two hour walk to school. When their mother died several years ago, many people tried to get them to leave their home. “People would try and scare us. But we were not ready to leave mother where she was buried.”

“If you’re going to wage war, modern war, you have absolutely got to be ready to deal with the consequences of it”, states Sig Christenson from the San Antonio Express. “If you don’t tell the whole story, you’re doing a disservice to the people.”

“You carry out a deed that Allah loves and of which he approves,” read a letter carried by the 9/11 hijackers. “Smile death into the face, young warriors, for you shall enter paradise.”

“There it is – our house was there,” states a man pointing at an abandoned pot covered in weeds. It’s been nearly 20 years since Eng Yee Peng’s childhood home of Lim Chu Kang was destroyed to make way for a military training camp. Now, all that remains of the village are a few pieces of scaffolding surrounded by dense woodland.

“These are the most out of control, most violent human beings I’ve seen in my whole life and I’ve been around a long time”, despairs Dr Gordian Fulde, Head of the Emergency Unit at St Vincent’s hospital. “It makes heroin seem like the good old days.” His hospital has seen a five-fold increase in patients admitted with ice psychosis since 2000. They’ve had to build a special security cell to contain them.

In a hospital room in Diwaniyah, a new-born baby is struggling to breathe. She urgently needs oxygen but the hospital has no suitable equipment. Instead, staff have made a crude arrangement of suction pipes and are holding a tube to her nose. “This treatment is worse than primitive. It’s not even medicine”, despairs a doctor as the little girl dies.

Born in 1940, Cole, a devout Catholic, received his first camera from a generous white clergyman in very much the same manner that Hugh Masekela received his first trumpet with the aid of Trevor Huddleston. From that moment on it became his means of expression, and a way of life.

“When I saw the letter, I knew there wasn’t any other choice. It was something I would have to sign”, explains 26 year old Alon. His decision to sign a letter calling on pilots to take responsibility for their assignments caused an outcry in Israel. It cost him his job and most of his friends. But Alon remains unrepentant. “We are on the verge of an abyss. We are becoming blunt and we are becoming blind.”

“I grew up in a secular Pakistan”, states Sabiha. “My father told us about cabarets, bars and casinos and dancing. He did not anticipate the changes around the corner.” In cinefilm taken on her second birthday, it’s striking just how modern everyone looks. While the children play musical chairs, their parents lounge around the garden relaxed.

From a makeshift tent in the woods outside Paris, Edita - a transsexual prostitute from Ecuador - services her clients. “I’ve been deported five times”, she says cheerfully. “If you don’t have a settled life, you have to be prepared for anything.” Despite her precarious situation, Europe has become Edita’s new home. She’s determined never to return to Ecuador.

The 2002 North Ohio elections had all the makings of one of the strangest elections America had ever seen. Incumbent Congressman, Jim Traficant, defended his position from prison, where he was serving a seven year sentence for racketeering, bribery, tax evasion and abusing his position. “You’re looking at the first American in history to serve a constituency from a prison cell in America”, he boasts. Up against him is bullish Republican, Ann Womer Benjamin. And 27 year old Tim Ryan, who’s election campaign hinged on hanging around street corners waving signs.

The first body the bulldozer uncovered was impaled on the teeth of its shovel. Nearby a woman weeps, prostrate with grief, as her relatives’ bodies are dug up. It’s days after militant Christians murdered thousands of civilians and the streets of Sabra and Shatila are littered with corpses.

“Outsiders are artistic people who have some kind of handicap”, explains Arnulf Rainer. Hofer’s childhood was spent in tragic isolation where he found a creative outlet through his painting. His work is a prime example of L’Art Brut. This movement recognises art that arises spontaneously from an individual’s creative power rather than being shaped by cultural influences.

“Eunice had only been living on her own for 90 days. This was her first real job. And within 90 days, there’s a little kid who’s dead”, states Scott Miller, Eunice’s lawyer. “It’s tragic all round but hopefully I’m going to help Eunice avoid double tragedy which is getting convicted of murder.”

Three hooded youths stand by a brick wall at the dead of night. Spray can in hand, and almost finished with their work they shout to each other ‘Crazy night! Time to go home!’ But they have been spotted by the police. ‘Here they come!’ It is too late to run. Although only cautioned this time, if they are caught again the police warn them ‘you will face a court appearance mate!’

Tall, thin and strikingly beautiful, model Christie North always felt female. But when she was 15, she discovered she’d been born with male chromosomes. “There was no mention at school that there can be mix ups with your chromosomes”, she complains. “Many people have the same problem – more than you think.” As well as girls with XY chromosomes, one in 500 boys are born with a double XX as well as a Y. Most only find out about their condition when they try to father children and discover they’re infertile.

In a clear mountain stream, a young Lahu girl is playing. To her friends’ amusement, she slips and falls in the water. For these young girls, life couldn’t be more idyllic. But everything is about to change. Soon, the girls must leave their families for school in urban China.

“One topic dominates the news today – the bird flu pandemic sweeping the world. Already social order has broken down. There were riots at vaccination centres when stocks ran out. Gangs are roaming some inner cities as crime goes unchecked because the virus has cut police numbers by a third.” This news report may be fake but it’s based on America’s pandemic influenza strategic plan which envisions millions dead or hospitalised. After all, it’s happened before.

In the slums of India, a group of pretty women play together. As one brushes her hair, a friend jumps on her back and starts tickling her. Playing up to the camera, she playfully squeezes her friend’s breast and they collapse in giggles on the floor. At first sight, these pretty women seem like they have no cares in the world. It’s only when you look closer you notice these women are rather large.

“The Polish Christians in Jedwabne killed their Jewish neighbours,” states Judith Kubran unequivocally. “My father escaped to hide in the fields. He heard the awful screams and smelled the burning flesh of his family, friends and neighbours.” Mietek Olszewicz agrees. “It was the Poles.” He escaped after one of his friends warned him about the planned massacre. “He told me ‘listen, they’re going to burn all the Jews tomorrow. They’re preparing the gasoline.’”

A young woman steps fearlessly in front of an approaching tank. Its guns slowly focus on her and soldiers let rip a volley of bullets. She refuses to move. Twenty-four year old Caiomhe Butterly is trying to stop the Israeli army encroaching any further into Jenin. After a tense stand off, the tank reverses.

On July 11 every year, thousands of young nomad children gather for a 30 km horse race to celebrate their country’s independence. Like a third of the country’s population, these children have grown up in the saddle. They can ride almost before they can walk.

“Dear Tony Blair, I’m leaving for Iraq today to act as a human rights observer,” writes lawyer Jo Wilding. “I shall be gathering evidence on breaches of the Geneva convention and other humanitarian law for legal challenges being brought against the British government.” With war virtually certain, she was worried that, once again, Iraq’s civilians would be unfairly targeted. “This war will cause the Iraqi people untold suffering,” she laments.

“Come in girls – movies! Free movies!” jokes a beautiful young women, ushering her friends into the back of a car. A sense of camaraderie fills the air as they joke with the driver and sing him love songs. “Smile Sasha, O, mi amore!” But these are no ordinary women on their way out for a night on the town. They’re prostitutes, arrested in a mass round up and on their way to the police station to pay officers their daily bribes. “If we don’t give them their money, then we’ve had it!” giggles one in mock apprehension.

‘What’s wrong with the creature?’ asks a teacher in reference to Frankenstein’s monster. Santiago, a troubled but surprisingly eloquent and perceptive young rapper replies ‘His face is disfigured. He’s not what you’d call…a regular human being. He’s what we’d call a monster… you should never judge a book by its cover.’ Santiago is serving six months for robbing a woman with a cigarette lighter shaped like a gun;

Einstein spent the early part of his career struggling in obscurity. His parents wanted him to take over the family store but Albert had other plans. Even as a teenager, he had his sites set on studying physics. “If I cannot study what I am interested in, then life is not worth living!” he fumed. At 17, he left home for good to enter the Swiss institute of Technology.

Kevin Qhobosheane was just 16 when he first set out to Swaziland to train as an ANC guerrilla. In his native South Africa, police brutality towards blacks was ubiquitous, torture was rife and living conditions were abysmal. The shooting of Hector Pietersen in 1976 by Apartheid police, that sparked the Soweto uprising, was the last straw, firing him and thousands of others to take up arms. ‘I discovered for the first time that they are not that superior, that we have something in us that could make them run’ he recalls. As fellow guerrilla Sifiso Kunene points out: ‘It became clear the only language the Whites understood was the language of force’.

A young girl cowers in fear outside a brothel. Diana is so traumatised and crying so hard she can barely talk. She’s just been reunited with her family after being sold as a sex slave. Now, she’s terrified of their reaction. Inside the brothel, a Mafia don is negotiating with the pimps for Diana - and her friend Lina’s - release. The girls’ enslavement is finally coming to an end.

On the 6th of August each year, the girls who drove Hiroshima’s trams meet for a reunion at the Hiroshima Electric Railway Company. Some were as young as 14 or 15. The city was a crucial staging post for the Japanese military and the young schoolgirls eagerly took up the cause for victory. The work was fun, as boys hung off the trams and flirted with the young girls proudly driving up-front. The pain of what followed was so intense it took many years for some to remember.

If the Vatican were a firm, it would be the oldest business in the world with more than a million colleagues and branches in every village. It’s the world’s wealthiest organisation and at the centre of countless conspiracy theories. But Pope Benedict XVI gently rebuffs all the rumours. “It’s not true that we spend all our time rummaging around secret archives,” he laughs. “The Vatican administration is not substantially different to, or substantially more mysterious than, any other large political administration.”

“She sticks out like a sore thumb. My husband didn’t want that kind of flak so he banned her from coming to synagogue,” states fifteen year old Adina’s mother. Like many gay teenagers, one of Adina’s biggest struggles was gaining her parents’ acceptance. “Her father has a very prominent role in the Jewish community and he feels that if people find out that she’s a lesbian, it will have a major impact on him,” explains her mother. But for Adina, her father’s ban was another rejection. “He hasn’t even talked to me. For two months, it was just a total cold shoulder.”

“I met Charles when I was working as a nurse in Rwanda,” confides Lesley Bilinda. “We married in Rwanda and wanted to spend the rest of our lives there.” But their life together was shattered as genocide swept the country. In a hundred days of violence, around a million were killed. On the 21st April 1994, at the height of the Rwandan genocide, Charles Bilinda was abducted. He was never seen again.

Shelves at Ho Chi Min City hospital overflow with jars of deformed foetuses. Since the end of the Vietnam War, disturbingly high numbers of malformations and birth defects are still being recorded. Severe abnormalities are now being seen in the grandchildren of those exposed to Agent Orange. “When my son was born with a deformity, I didn’t make the connection,” describes Vietnamese veteran To Tien Huat. “But when I saw my grandson born with a similar deformity, I thought it could be linked to the war.”

‘No one here is getting paid, we all came here for motivations from the heart. We must stand for 20 minutes, two hours or more… no matter how long!’ Demonstrators have gathered outside the Parliament. Suddenly, a tent city springs up on the streets of Kiev. ‘Finally people are awake. Ukraine has risen from her knees!’ The snow and freezing temperatures are not enough to deter a fast growing number of people of all ages. Hundreds of thousands rally to support candidate Yuschenko. Eating, sleeping, staying warm are challenges but these supporters are resilient and determined. They are making a stand.

Across the world, multinationals like Monsanto are meeting with unexpected resistance to their genetically modified products. But are these concerns justified? Or are activists battling the forces of progress? Renowned filmmakers Bertram Verhaag and Gabriele Krober sets out on a global journey to explore the development of genetic technology. Spanning three continents and beautifully filmed, this high quality doc hears from the scientists, farmers and activists at the heart of the debate.

Good-looking Kate O’Connor had it all. ‘She was a real all-rounder’, recalls best friend Felicity Dwyer. ‘She was really good at school, very talented at art, great at sports, popular, and funny, really funny’. But six months into her university career, she started behaving oddly. At first her friends thought she was just moody, but soon her behaviour would lurch from well heeled and friendly to ‘screaming charlatan with language you wouldn't find in some of the worst streets in the world’.

It's a travel series constantly enriched by a culinary quest, the basis for every people’s way of life. We reveal how they sustain their culture and identity in the face of economic and environmental pressures and often travel to lesser known regions of the continent. With exquisite photography and local music, each episode shows how landscape, weather and traditions create a culture and cuisine related to the local way of life. Travel, food, culture, history and ecology are rolled into an entertaining and beautifully crafted half hour format making it a wonderful voyage for curious arm chair travellers and a feast for food lovers.