
TUNAHAKI
2010 · 83m · Documentary
Tunahaki is the extraordinary story of nine gifted orphans who are acrobats. We follow their journey as an American volunteer takes them from Africa to study with Cirque du Soleil in Las Vegas. They end up touring the States and raising hundreds of thousands of dollars, more than enough to build a permanent home. But how have the kids' experiences in America affected them? And how will it change things back home in Tanzania? Tunahaki's heartfelt journey gives us something new to ponder as we reach across the world to help those less fortunate—is it always the right thing to do?
More Like This

The Lafayette Escadrille
2021
Filmed in the skies above France and the United States, The Lafayette Escadrille tells the story of the American volunteers who flew and fought for France in World War 1, becoming the founding squadron of American combat aviation.
More info →The children trapped in Bangladesh's brothel village
2016 · ★ 6
Daulatdia is an entire village in Bangladesh dedicated to prostitution. Every day, 1,600 trafficked, enslaved and abandoned women and girls sell themselves for £2 a time. In the midst of the trade live 300 children, many born in the village. Some will be groomed to be the future of the business like their mothers and grandmothers. With education programmes and support provided by Save The Children, a few may find their way out.
More info →
The Children of Leningradsky
2005 · ★ 7.5
Since the fall of the Iron Curtain an estimated four million children have found themselves living on the streets in the former countries of the Soviet Union. In the streets of Moscow alone there are over 30,000 surviving in this manner at the present time. The makers of the documentary film concentrated on a community of homeless children living hand to mouth in the Moscow train station Leningradsky. Eight-year-old Sasha, eleven-year-old Kristina, thirteen-year-old Misha and ten-year-old Andrej all dream of living in a communal home. They spend winter nights trying to stay warm by huddling together on hot water pipes and most of their days are spent begging. Andrej has found himself here because of disagreements with his family. Kristina was driven into this way of life by the hatred of her stepmother and twelve-year-old Roma by the regular beatings he received from his constantly drunk father. "When it is worst, we try to make money for food by prostitution," admits ...
More info →Cinema in Sudan: Conversations with Gadalla Gubara
2008
The film builds up a portrait of a great Sudanese film-maker, Gadalla Gubara. At eighty-seven, he is one of the pioneers of cinema in Africa. He has recently lost his sight but still continues to film life in Sudan as no one before him. Through his oeuvre, Gadalla reveals to us a Sudan both mysterious and misunderstood. Despite censorship and lack of financial support over sixty years, he has produced cinema that is independent and unique in a country where freedom of expression is a rare luxury.
More info →
Cirque du Soleil: Flow
2007 · ★ 8.5
Flow is a documentary-style tribute to the artists of ‘O’ and a poetic immersion into the depths of this timeless production. Flow features the artists of “O” expressing and exploring the intimacy we share with the four elements - fire, air, earth and water - while metaphorical musings of humanity’s presence on our blue planet are raised.
More info →
Apples and Oranges
2021 · ★ 8
Kibbutz volunteering began in an eclipse. The idealistic and rebellious 1960s generation was charmed by the old communist ideology as it came to life in the Israeli Kibbutz. The 1967 Six-Day War attracted a wave of support for Israel that the Kibbutz Movement saw as a miracle. When travel agencies started selling “Kibbutz Volunteering” packages, it was clear that volunteering also became a profitable business. The Kibbutz found itself facing unfamiliar phenomenon – drugs, alcohol and marriage with non-Jewish volunteers.
More info →
Rwanda: Do Scars Ever Fade?
2004
This 90-minute special presents the complex and riveting history of Rwanda, providing an in-depth look at the propaganda campaign that's crucial to understanding how genocide leaders got ordinary citizens to participate. In 1994, the small African country was awash in blood. An estimated 75 percent of the Tutsi minority was slaughtered, and in just 100 days, more than 800,000 were killed. And, at least 50,000 politically moderate Hutus also perished. We explore the 1994 genocide and post-genocide period, and grapple with the question: How does a country recover from its haunted past? Unfolding through firsthand experiences of Rwandans who lived through the genocide, we document stories of survivors, perpetrators, and government officials and sort through the difficulties of balancing justice with reconciliation.
More info →
Jane's Journey
2011 · ★ 6.6
It would be hard to name anyone who has had more of an impact in the realm of animal research and wildlife conservation than Jane Goodall, whose 45 year study of wild chimpanzees in Africa is legendary. In Jane's Journey, we travel with her across several continents, from her childhood home in England, to the Gombe National Park in Tanzania where she began her groundbreaking research and where she still returns every year to enjoy the company of the chimpanzees that made her famous. Featuring a wide range of interviews and spectacular footage from her own private collection, Jane's Journey is an inspiring portrait of the private person behind the world-famous icon.
More info →
The Real Eve
2002 · ★ 9
The made-for-cable documentary film The Real Eve is predicated on the theory that the human race can be traced to a common ancestor. The mitochondrial DNA of one prehistoric woman, who lived in Africa, has according to this theory been passed down from generation to generation over a span of 150,000 years, supplying the "chemical energy" to all humankind.
More info →
Africa, I Will Fleece You
1993 · ★ 6.1
This documentary of repressive political realities in Cameroon begins with the 1990 publication of an open letter to President Biya calling for a national conference - and the immediate arrest of the letter's author and publisher. The narration then examines the nation's colonial history, beginning with the first German missionary in 1901, the establishment of schools, French occupation following World War I, the paucity of books written by and published by Cameroonians, and the repression of the CPU, a leftist organization of the 1950s and 1960s. Cameroon and its people are the lark, its feathers plucked first by colonialism and then by native strongmen: 'Alouette, je te plumerai.'
More info →
Silverback
2024 · ★ 8.6
Feature-length documentary following award-winning wildlife cameraman Vianet Djenguet as he documents a gruelling but vital mission to ‘habituate’ a notoriously protective 450lb silverback, in a last-ditch effort to save the critically endangered eastern lowland gorillas from extinction.
More info →