True Stories

The astounding story of Tanya Kach made international headlines when she revealed she had been kept in captivity for 10 years by school security guard Thomas Hose, just a stone's throw from her home in Pennsylvania. This programme gains an insight into how a 14-year-old girl disappeared in 1996, only to resurface a decade later still living within the same community, and Tanya, now 31, talks about her ordeal. With contributions by friends and family, plus the police officers who worked on the missing persons investigation.

Over the last two years police have discovered 11 bodies on an isolated road on Long Island. Four of them were sex workers who'd advertised online. This film examines the story.

In October 2008, Alan Greenspan, the Chairman of the US Federal Reserve, admitted to Congress that he'd found a flaw in his economic model of how the world works. He'd placed too much faith in the self-correcting power of free markets. In a system based on the unsustainable lending necessary to fuel continued spending, the world found to its cost what happens when that credit bubble bursts. Drawing on interviews with leading world economists, The Flaw attempts to explain - in unprecedented depth - the underlying causes of the global financial crisis. Unless the root causes of the problem are addressed, the system may collapse again, and next time it may not be possible for governments to rescue it.

Nick Broomfield heads to Alaska to find the real Sarah Palin and meet the friends, family and colleagues that gave their heart, soul and belief to the charismatic ex-hockey mum. [S]

During the Soviet era, the people of Semipalatinsk in Kazakhstan were used as human guinea pigs in the testing of nuclear weapons. Today the residents believe they are living with the consequences: one in 20 children is born with defects. This True Stories film focuses on those whose lives have been shaped by this past, including a maternity doctor who enthusiastically pilots a 'genetic passport' scheme to stop women with bad genes from getting pregnant, and a local resident fighting for her right to have a child. There is no scientific consensus on how radiation affects human genetics, but this does not detract from the harrowing scenarios this community faces and its struggle to cope with the country's history. True Stories commissions and showcases the best international feature documentaries.

Award-winning director Gillian Anderson has been following the lives of Josie, Diana and Kerry since 1976, when they were teenagers in suburban Australia. Love, Lust and Lies documents how their lives have changed in the last 35 years, from new relationships starting and breaking up with partners, to becoming mothers and grandmothers. The women reveal their stories and secrets with remarkable honesty as the film demonstrates how fascinating and complex 'ordinary' life can be.

The Sound of Mumbai: A Musical tells the story of a slum school choir in Mumbai who performed a concert of songs from The Sound of Music with a full orchestra, before an audience of over 1,000 people. At the centre of the story is 11-year-old Ashish, whose wide smile and optimism defy his family's constricted slum shelter. He admits to lacking confidence as he copies out in his notebook 'I will not be self-conscious'. His natural charisma suggests that he could go far if given the right opportunity. Now he's tasked to perform a solo piece from The Sound of Music at Mumbai's National Centre for the Performing Arts, a venue that's normally inaccessible to the poor. He can't help but attach dreams to the event; he hopes to win the affections of an upper-class girl and inspire a patron to sponsor his education. With so many hopes riding on this single performance, the stakes are high for everyone. True Stories commissions and showcases the best feature documentaries from around the world.

Following on from his 2010 Dispatches: Children of Gaza, Bafta Award-winning filmmaker Jezza Neumann provides a second shocking portrait of children living in the aftermath of war. On 27 December 2008, the Israeli Defence Force unleashed Operation Cast Lead in Gaza: a 22-day campaign to destroy the ability of Hamas to launch rockets and mortars into Israel. Over 1300 Palestinians were killed, many of them children. Surrounded by rubble and increasingly isolated by the blockade that prevents them from rebuilding their homes and their lives, many of the surviving children's lives have been irreversibly damaged by war. War Child gives a voice to a handful of them. True Stories commissions and showcases the best feature documentaries from around the world.

Yuwali was 17 when her first contact with white men was filmed. In 1964, as part of a rocket-launching exercise, a native welfare patrol officer was checking that an area in Australia's Western Desert was not inhabited when he met Yuwali and 19 other Aboriginal women and children. They were from the Martu people, traditional nomadic herders. Confusingly, there were no men in their group, and the welfare officer could not speak their language. And they had to get out of the desert before the rockets were launched. The women and children were taken to Jigalong Mission. Yuwali is now 62 and still lives at Jigalong. This Sydney Film Festival award-winning True Stories film follows Yuwali as she returns to visit her homeland.

Doug Block's very personal film is about his only daughter Lucy. Block has spent much of his and Lucy's life filming their relationship and now, aged 17, she is just a year away from leaving home for college. Block had long mulled over incorporating the footage into a film about parenting but with Lucy's departure imminent, he realised the real subject was the emotionally charged period when children separate from their parents - and vice versa. The result is a funny, poignant account of learning to let go as Block braces himself for Lucy's departure and the looming empty nest.

This moving film follows Vanessa and Maurice Melton in their search for their fortunes. The African American couple, with five children, seek to escape the economic downturn by leaving their hometown of Anchorage, Alaska, and setting out in search of new horizons. With less than $300 and nothing but their car to live in, they embark on a road journey which eventually leads to Las Vegas, where plentiful jobs and cheap housing made it America's fastest growing city. But as boom turns to bust, the Meltons face infidelity, drugs problems and poverty, all of which threaten to overwhelm them. Filmed by Jason Massot over four years, Road to Las Vegas is a dysfunctional love story about new beginnings, past ghosts and the infinite promise of the American West.

Laura Fairrie's film records an historic moment in British politics through the microcosm of one east London constituency. Made over the course of a year, the film follows two very different political opponents as they battle towards the 2010 General Election. Long-standing Labour MP Margaret Hodge is a stalwart of the New Labour establishment. Running against her is Nick Griffin, the British National Party leader. Griffin is a controversial figure, with a conviction for inciting racial hatred, who nonetheless commands considerable support. As it chronicles the rise and fall of the far-right BNP, it gives a fascinating insight into the inner workings of the 'BNP family' and the working class disillusionment with the Labour party that fuelled the BNP campaign, offering an honest, moving and humorous portrait of a white working class community forced to face the changes brought by new immigrant populations.

DIrector Ricki Stern and co-director Anne Sundberg's film is an intimate portrait of American comedian Joan Rivers. Shot over a year when Rivers both staged an autobiographical play in London as well as appearing on America's Celebrity Apprentice, it also follows her gruelling schedule of one-night gigs. But the film also gets beneath the self-admittedly surgically altered skin of the comedian. She recalls how, when she left The Carson Show for her own on Fox, Johnny Carson never spoke to her again. She alse reveals how she felt when her husband Edgar, the show's manager, who had been stealing from her, committed suicide. Between the laughs emerges a portrait of a driven, successful woman - but one who cannot bear to be idle, because to be so would lead to unwanted self-examination.

John Maringouin and Molly Lynch's film follows Slovenia's Martin Strel, swimmer extraordinaire. At first glance, Strel, 55, looks the opposite of the Olympic ideal, with his portly belly and distinctly unhealthy lifestyle but as a long distance swimmer, he has conquered the lengths of the Danube, Mississippi and Yangtze rivers. This film follows his attempt to swim the length of the Amazon, the world's longest river, to raise awareness of the depletion of the rain forests. But, rather like Herzog's Fitzcarraldo, the complexities of the adventure begin to spiral into chaos, with Strel's son and publicist Borut and navigator Matthew Mohlke caught up in Strel's grandiose plans.

Kim Longinotto's critically acclaimed, Sundance-winning film follows the Bobbi Bears, a multiracial group of women based in Durban, South Africa who protect and shelter the child victims of sexual and physical abuse. Many of them have suffered such abuse themselves and they call themselves the rough aunties both because of their blue collar background and because of their tactics, making sure the perpetrators of the attacks are prosecuted in the face of bureaucratic indifference. But as well as following the women as they accompany police on night raids, it also follows their own personal stories, including the assault on one member and a tragic family loss to another. Their name comes from the toy bears they use to encourage their young victims to show the abuse they suffered, in the same way dolls are used in this country, by placing stickers to indicate where they were violated. Despite the tough subject matter, Rough Aunties is a positive, rewarding film.

Double Cannes-winner Emir Kusturica's films is a portrait of one of football's most extraordinary characters. Diego Maradona - reviled in England (the Hand of God), adored in Argentina, where he won the World Cup as a player and has (at the time of writing) managed his team to the last eight in South Africa. Kusturica enjoyed unlimited access to the man himself and traces his story from the humblest of beginnings to world domination, followed by his fall from grace through drug abuse and weight problems before rehabilitation and rebirth. The result is an astonishing, personal story that is cemented by the strong personal bond between Kusturica and Maradona.

Martin Taylor's revealing behind-the-scenes look at Australia's longest running and probably most politically incorrect beauty contest, Miss Nude Australia. Best Undressed is an offbeat portrait of suburban Australia that's somewhere between Strictly Come Dancing and Priscilla, Queen of the Desert; always entertaining, occasionally hilarious and sometimes a little tragic. It is an intimate insight into a group of young women and their families who share the same hopes and dreams as anyone and who are striving to be the very best at what they do but without any of the pretensions of more mainstream beauty pageants.

This is the story of a unique football team. In recent years, albinos have been murdered in Tanzania, some as young as six months old, while others have been attacked with machetes and their limbs cut off while alive. Their body parts are used by witchdoctors in potions and remedies, and are sold for thousands of dollars, since they are believed to bring wealth and success in business. Albino United tells the story of a Tanzanian football team made up of albinos, a group of young men with the ambition to prove to the country that they are able to take part in everyday society, and more importantly, play football. Recently accepted into the Tanzanian 3rd Division, their journey will take them to the heart of the dangerous albino killing zones, playing in front of crowds, getting to see the World Cup, and even meeting Didier Drogba. But above all, this is an opportunity to show to huge crowds that attitudes towards people with albinism must change and the killings must stop.

Andrew Thompson and Lucy Bailey's film in the True Stories strand tells of how one white farmer took on the Zimbabwe government and took Robert Mugabe himself to court. Mike Campbell ran a mango farm in Zimbabwe which was reallocated to a poor black family (in reality, the son of one of Mugabe's former ministers) under Mugabe's Land Reform Programme. But Campbell and his son-in-law Ben Freeth took their case to a tribunal of the Southern African Development Community, an international court in Namibia, arguing the eviction was based on racial discrimination, which is illegal in Zimbabwe. The case dragged on for over a year, during which Campbell and his family were intimidated by armed gangs, kidnapped and tortured to within an inch of their lives. This film is an intimate account of one family's bravery in the face of state brutality and whose fight for justice has implications for ordinary Zimbabweans who continue to suffer at the hands of Mugabe and his regime.

Erasing David is a 2009 dramatized documentary film from the United Kingdom. Stating that as of today the UK is "one of the three most intrusive surveillance states in the world, after China and Russia", director and performer David Bond tries to put the system to the test. After anonymously setting up private investigators Cerberus Investigations Limited to trace him, he tries to disappear.

In the light of the recent democratic elections in Afghanistan, the True Stories strand presents a season of programmes looking at the often unseen faces of war-torn Afghanistan. The Dancing Boys of Afghanistan reveals a dark side of Afghan culture which has up to now remained hidden. A tradition known as Bacha Bazi (literally `boy play'), which was banned by the Taliban, is spreading through the country and exploiting the desperation of many poverty stricken children. Young boys are lured from the streets with the promise of a new life as singers and dancers for former warlords and businessman. But as well as being trained, they are traded for sexual favours and subjected to abuse, rape and sometimes even murder. Afghan journalist Najibullah Quraishi gains extraordinary access to they boys and their masters and throws light on a subject that no-one wants to talk about, exposing how the authorities charged with stopping the practice are complicit in it themselves.

Former police officer Jesus Vissarion is the soul of Siberia. His 4,000 disciples follow a strict regime of no meat, no eggs, no milk, no fish, no alcohol, no smoking and very little money. Filmmaker George Carey touches down in the obscure Siberian outpost of Minusinsk, just in time to join in the fun and frolics at Vissarion's big festival, taking place in Sun City, the new Promised Land, roughly 200 miles north of Mongolia. George is approached by Vissarion's closest apostle, a former rock singer called Vadim Redkin, who says he can take him to meet the great man... A True Stories film.

Billy Corben's astonishing story, showing in the True Stories strand, tells of the sudden rush of cocaine into the then sleepy Miami in the 1970s and 1980s. Colombian drug lords and Cuban and American gangsters realised that America had developed a taste for the drug but the authorities were slow on reacting to the threat. There was profit for all with, initially, very little risk attached. The story is told through three key characters; Jon Roberts, who claims to have imported over $2-billion worth of cocaine, pilot Mickey Munday, who personally flew in some 10 tons and the chillingly attractive Jorge `Rivi' Ayala, enforcer and assassin for Colombian `grandmother' Griselda Blanco. With a score by Jan Hammer, this is the true story behind the films Scarface and Blow, when money and mobs ruled Miami.

This is not a film about what might happen, this is a film about what has happened. The collapse of the cod population saw the end of 40,000 jobs; the bluefin tuna is being hunted to extinction; it takes five kilos of anchovies to produce one fish farmed salmon. And while there are some positive signs, with Walmart and McDonalds both selling fish from sustainable sources, some outlets still sell endangered species. But the final chilling conclusion is that unless more radical steps are taken globally, including the reduction of overfishing, it will take just 50 years for the world's ocean's to be all fished out.

Corradino Durruti's film, showing in the True Stories strand, is a chilling insight into the 'Ndrangheta, the 'Cosa Nostra' of the Calabria region of Italy, told through the cat-and-mouse game in one small city between the local boss Toto Crea, the forces of law-and-order out to nail him and the corrupt officials who protect him. The 'Ndrangheta are just as fearsome and just as feared as their Sicilian brothers but being family based, rarely admitting non-blood members, are all the harder to infiltrate or divide. But in 2000, the people of the small city of Rizziconi had had enough and through a fierce anonymous letter writing campaign, managed to get the city council dissolved by the Italian president. In addition, the government appointed prosecutor Roberto Pennisi and Inspector Nico Morroni to look into the activities of the Crea family, an inquiry that was to take seven years before the truth was reached.

This moving yet humorous film in the True Stories strand from Mat Whitecross follows two refugee families from Burma over the course of a year that will change their lives completely. Forced from their homeland by the repressive military junta, they have lived in a Thai refugee camp for almost twenty years. A UN relocation scheme offers them the chance of a new life, but their new home, in the British city of Sheffield, will be different to everything they've ever known. With intimate access, Moving to Mars depicts their struggles with 21st century Britain.

Simon Chambers wants to find out if a large industrial complex run by the British mining company Vedanta in the Indian region of Orissa can help the local community flourish. But his attempts to hire local guides border on the ludicrous; they get lost, and then complain of leg pains to avoid taking him on tour. Even his chauffeur takes off. Then he realises why; although there there are hospitals, there are no doctors, wastewater has been leaking into the river and there are many other rumours from all sides. That's when Chamber realises that his guides are not incompetent - just fully aware they are risking quite a lot by accompanying an inquisitive foreigner...

Amanda Knox is currently serving 26 years in an Italian jail for the murder of her flatmate, Meredith Kercher. This True Stories documentary asks: who is the real Amanda Knox - and was she really capable of murder?

On 26 April 1986, reactor four at Chernobyl nuclear power station exploded, sending an enormous radioactive cloud over northern Ukraine and neighbouring Belarus. The danger was kept a secret from the rest of the world and the nearby population went about their business as usual. May Day celebrations began, children played and the residents of Pripyat marvelled at the spectacular fire raging at the reactor. But after three days, an area the size of England was contaminated with radioactive dust, creating a 'zone' of poisoned land. Based on Mario Petrucci's award-winning poem, this is the story of the people who dealt with the disaster at ground-level: the fire-fighters, soldiers, 'liquidators', and their families. The poetry is read by David Bickerstaff, Francine Brody, Juliet Stevenson, David Threlfall and Samuel West.

Graphic artist Johnny Hicklenton, who is battling against multiple sclerosis lives in an increasing state of immobility and frustration, escaping the confines of his front room through his artwork. The documentary follows the seven years of his life since he was diagnosed with MS, a moving expression of his thoughts and feelings as well as artistic interpretations of key moments in his fight against the disease.

Sarah Feltes's film looks at the untapped artistic resources of the human brain. Can transcranial magnetic stimulation unlock the hidden potential that is dormant in all our brains? When builder Tommy McHugh and chiropractor Jon Sarkin suffered massive brain traumas, they suddenly revealed a previously hidden talent: to create art that amazed critics and collectors.

Riding in on a wave of optimism and real belief in their mantra that things can only get better, the New Labour government proceeded to enact some of the most authoritarian legislation in recent history. With fast-paced satirical style, this Bafta-nominated film shows how, in just over a decade, some rights and freedoms that took centuries to build up have been rolled back or cut away through a personal journey into the decline of civil liberties. The 82-year-old holocaust survivor Walter Wolfgang was lifted bodily from a debate at the Labour Party conference for, as Tony Benn points out, 'rightfully' saying that Jack Straw is talking 'nonsense' about Iraq. We see a man who tries to protest against the treatment of Mr Wolfgang also set upon by security, and learn that he was later handled roughly - and that poor old Wolfgang was next detained by the police under the 2000 Terrorism Act. We meet Moulad Sihali, an Algerian refugee. He was cleared of all charges relating to a non-existent plot to manufacture the poison ricin, but has now been made a prisoner in his own home. He's been fitted with a tracking device, is only allowed outside at certain hours - and then only within a one mile radius of his house - and is forbidden to meet anyone who hasn't been vetted by the Home Office. The specific charge against him? There isn't one. We hear how Maya Evans, a vegan chef, and her friend the writer Milan Rai were arrested under the Serious Organised Crime and Police act for reading out the names of people who have died in Iraq and occasionally ringing a (very quiet) Buddhist bell. Occasionally the footage is very funny. Protestors are told that if they step off the grass verge they have been crowded onto they could be arrested for blocking a public highway. They are told this by a massed group of policemen who are actually blocking the road. There are recordings of the police intimidating grandmothers; protestors being strong-armed; 80-year-olds being dragged along on their backsides by police; Tony Blair staring on silently (in contravention of international law against complicity with torturers) as George W. Bush praises the facilities at Guantanamo Bay. The documentary even succeeds in arousing sympathy for a group of bankers - the Natwest Three. Thanks to a 2003 treaty they were extradited to the US - for a crime they allegedly committed in Britain but that British authorities declined to prosecute due to lack of evidence. In this case, the US authorities were allowed to take these men from their homes and support networks without presenting any new data to the British government.

In 2003, the African nation of Liberia was in turmoil; its president Charles Taylor was involved in a vicious civil war with war lords who wanted to take his place. Caught in the middle were innocent civilians who bore the brunt of the violence. One woman, Leymah Gbowee, had had enough and she and her fellow church members, soon to be joined by their female Muslim counterparts, began their protests. Their plan was simple; every day they would gather in the central market of the capital of Monrovia wearing T-shirts and carrying placards simply asking for peace. As their numbers swelled, Taylor reluctantly bowed to the pressure and peace talks were set up in Ghana. From their actions came Taylor's exile and the election in 2005 of Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, Africa's first woman head of state.

Jeremy Stanford takes a behind-the-scenes look at the first ever 'World's Most Beautiful Transsexual Pageant' in Las Vegas, meeting the six hopefuls who are attempting to realise their diva dreams. With the dramatic competition to win the crown (and a starring role in a sensational new Vegas revue) as a high-stakes backdrop, the film explores the personal stories behind the pageant. Provocative profiles and interviews document the always intriguing, sometimes moving and often humorous journeys of the contestants. United by common histories of hardship and persecution, their ultimate triumph is a moving celebration of the human spirit.

Jennifer Baichwal's electrifying film aims to discover both the spiritual and physical after effects on those hit by lightning. It's all well and good commenting that lightning doesn't strike the same spot twice, but tell that little upbeat factoid to someone who happened to be standing there the first time around. Roughly 45 people are struck every year, and this documentary delves into the deep metaphysical end to explore the life-changing ramifications of such an event. One such victim was James O'Reilly, a playwright who goes on to vividly describe the moment he was struck 30 years previously, and Paul Auster, a writer who managed to survive a strike that also killed his friend. Part weather documentary, part human interest story, part biology lesson and part X-File, Baichwal's film is a thorough, charged and stimulating investigation into the raw, untamed and life-changing power of nature unleashed. Electrifying stuff.

Venezuela has the biggest oil reserves in the world. But where do the profits go? Filmed in the style of a Latin American telenovela, True Stories: Red Oil asks if a multinational oil corporation can deliver President Chavez' socialist dream. Told through the eyes of Marienalla, a soap opera writer turned oil company executive, this revealing documentary explores the greed, power and passion behind Venezuela's State Oil corporation.

As Barack Obama takes office, More4 looks back to John F Kennedy and how acclaimed film-maker Robert Drew gained unprecedented access to his presidency. This intimate film takes a close look at Kennedy - from young campaigning Senator to a burdened President. "Now, more than ever it's important for us to look back at JFK and his legacy and learn what we can as we continue to create American history today," said Robert of his documentary. "I created A President To Remember from the realisation that young people today have never known what it's like to have a President who is celebrated both within the country and around the globe." Kennedy's decision to permit cameras to candidly record the action taking place within the White House and the inner sanctum of the Oval Office for the first time raised a storm of protest, but resulted in a journalistic breakthrough of historic proportions. The film travels in the company of Kennedy from his days as a young Senator campaigning for the Presidency; to his early days in the White House; through to his struggles grappling with major issues, from the Cuban Missile Crisis to the desegregation of the University of Alabama, vehemently opposed by Governor George Wallace, who physically barred the entry of the first two African-American students. At the close of the film, the shock and deeply-felt sorrow of Kennedy's assassination is captured in the faces of his compatriots. The result is an absorbing biopic of the much-loved leader, but in the true tradition of cinéma vérité, A President To Remember draws no conclusions from the events it bears witness to.

A documentary focusing on Africa, football, and notably Ghana's football star Michael Essien, as he takes time out with his training at Chelsea to play for his country in the African Cup of Nations. Director Paul Yule.

The Hunger Season tells the story of a young teacher called Justine and the children in his care as they struggle to survive in a year of drought and diminishing food handouts. Shot over a two-year period on location in the US, Europe and Southern Africa, the film explores the wider forces at work in an unfolding humanitarian crisis, bringing vividly alive the impact of actions taken by the Swazi government, United Nations agencies and Western donors on the fate of one small community. With a close eye cast on the system of food aid, crucial questions are asked about whether the international aid response is committing sufficient resources to end the cycle of hunger in the developing world.

To tie in with the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, More4's True Stories is exploring independent minds. More4's True Stories: An Independent Mind traces the lives and tales of eight very different people. Among them are the Moustache Brothers - a comedy troupe from Burma who're under house arrest because they're banned by the Burmese military regime. As such, the three-strong act performs illegally for tourists from their home in Mandalay. There's reggae singer Tiken Jah Fakoly, who in December 2007 was declared persona non grata in Senegal after criticizing the president. What ties the above two, and other stories, together, is that in each case there's a desire to exercise a freedom of expression and the right to have an opinion. It's an insightful look into eight very different world's, but world's that still make an impact because their stories are all-powerful.

One night at a bar, an old friend tells director Ari Folman about a recurring nightmare in which he is chased by 26 vicious dogs. Every night, the same number of beasts. The two men conclude that there's a connection to their Israeli army mission in the first Lebanon War of the early 80s. Ari is surprised that he can no longer remember a thing about that period of his life. Intrigued by this riddle, he decides to meet and interview old friends and comrades around the world. He needs to discover the truth about that time and about himself. As Ari delves deeper and deeper into the mystery, his memory begins to creep up in surreal images... Folman's animated film won a Golden Globe and was nominated for an Oscar.

In this futuristic feature-length drama, an extremist group releases anthrax into a community of Kurdish asylum seekers in Glasgow, with devastating effects

Chronicles the collapse of the white supremacist AWB party in aparthied South Africa through a portrait of its leader, Eugene Terre'Blanche, his driver JP and JP's wife Anita.