Olongapo City in the Philippines is bounded on one end by the US naval base on Subic Bay, and on the other by a line of massage parlours, bars, discos, pool-halls, and short-time hotels where 15,000 y…

The Palio di Siena is the most dangerous horse race in the world. It is the culmination of the Sienese year, where ancient rivalries between districts come to a head. This film goes behind the scenes …

Once feared by explorers as fierce cannibals, the Mangbetu tribe inhabit the edge of the Zaire rainforest in the heart of Africa. Although they don't eat people any more, they still cling to their tra…

In the rice village of Kurokawa, the contradictions of rural life in Japan are particularly evident. Tradition appears strong, but this close-knit community is living through a time of enormous change…

The pilgrimage to Kumbh Mela is the largest gathering of people in the world. Every 12 years, millions come to the holiest place in India - where two great rivers meet. Discover how and why it happens…

For centuries, semi-nomadic Arabs have brought camels along the '40-day road' from central Sudan to the camel markets of Egypt. Follow one group as they make the arduous 800-mile trip across great str…

In a world where there are no hospitals or doctors, the medicine man or shaman cures the sick using purely supernatural powers. Jose is a master shaman of the Yaminahua tribe in the Peruvian Amazon. H…

An intimate and moving portrait of a young Filipino couple trying to survive in the slums of Manila. Celso and Cora are sharply aware of the injustices they have to suffer, but there is no self pity a…

Estonia is in the forefront of Soviet nationalist movements awakened by glasnost. As Estonian Jews celebrate their new freedom, they remain fearful and contemplate emigration. The film focuses on a fo…

General Pinochet's violent military coup ended a long tradition of democracy in Chile. For the Santiago shanty town of La Victoria this has meant years of brutal repression, husbands slaughtered, and …

The Mehinaku, one of several Indian groups living in the Xingu National Park, have evolved elaborate rituals to help them keep the peace. Wrestling matches and mock arrow duels help release tensions, …

The story of millions of white people who have flooded into Amazonia over the last decades in search of fortune. For many, the reality turned out to be abject poverty and broken dreams.

Rock star Sting and his partner Trudie Styler and Anita Roddick (of The Body Shop) show how the West can help the Kayapo and Yanomami Indians and thus save the rainforests.

The Hamar people live in the remote southwest of Ethiopia, far from famine and war. Their women are proud, humorous, and outspoken. Birinda, Duka, and Hilanda live differently from us, yet share many …

Is it possible for Israelis and Palestinians to live in peace? Two Moroccan Israelis and two Palestinians have much in common; born as Arabic speakers in the Arab world, their histories and cultures o…

The Hira Gasy is a family of troubadours, who travel the great plateau of Madagascar, earning a living at country fairs, second burials and ancestral spirit ceremonies. In brightly-coloured costumes t…

By the end of the century over half of the villages in rural Japan could be ghost towns. They all suffer from the same problem - an acute shortage of young women. Japanese girls just don't want to mar…

Every year the work force of India's oldest steel plant beseeches their god of 'getting things done' to bless the ageing hydraulic press. So far it's been so good - but not for factory foreman Mr Sinh…

For thousands of years, the Lapp people have lived in harmony with the natural world. On 26 April 1986, radioactive rain fell on northern Sweden from Chernobyl. A single man-made catastrophe has threa…

Kiran was castrated four months ago. His best friend Harish yearns to be a woman but has a wife and two children. Shardabai is the Empress of the Eunuchs. She preserves the courtly traditions of the e…

Palestinian children in Gaza, armed with only stones and slogans, are fighting the Israeli military occupation. A staggering 20,000 children have been injured by live bullets, rubber bullets, and tear…

'When a girl gets married, she goes hunting' say the Hamar of southwest Ethiopia. No Hamar girl would want to remain unmarried, yet her wedding day is the saddest day of her life. Duka and Gardi are b…

Divination, sacrifice, spirit possession, and witchcraft all play a part in the preparation for a carnival that has taken place in the northeastern city of Recife in Brazil since the 17th century. Don…

The real life story of two 'Mariachi' musicians who leave home in search of work. One joins the fight for the poor. The other is smuggled across the USA border through a network of low-life and masked…

On 20 December 1990, Mardy Colliery was closed, ending over 200 years of coal mining in the Rhondda valley. But the 300 miners have more to adjust to than the loss of their jobs. Since the strike of 1…

Asia's largest and oldest traveling circus winds its way across rural India, bringing fun, fame and fortune. Every few months the circus disbands to allow the players to return to their villages. At h…

The Wodaabe of the southern Sahara consider themselves 'the most beautiful people on earth'. Their slender and graceful young men, many of them seven feet tall, adorn themselves with beads, hats, and …

In the backstreets of old Islamic Cairo, marriage can be far from the ideal. Funny and resilient Wiza, a second wife deserted by her husband, is determined to find ideal marriage partners for her own …

As civil war rages in the Balkans, in the Yugoslav province of Kosovo an Albanian farmer faces an agonising dilemma. Should he follow his ancient code of honour and take revenge on a neighbour who kil…

The Abrahamses have returned to Berlin after 50 years in Russia. Stefan Brandt and his half-sister Irmgard Wittkuhn were separated by the Berlin Wall for 30 years. Together they now re-open the case a…

On the Isle of Mull, Macleans from around the world celebrate their clan gathering. All claim allegiance to Scotland, though few have Scottish accents. In Possilpark, Glaswegians care less about natio…

Now that they are old enough to get married, it is time for Florence and Azikiye to go through their Nigerian tribe's time-honoured Iria ceremony. Confined in the "fattening rooms", they will be extra…

Under the brutal regime of Pol Pot, more than 90% of Cambodia's artists were killed. Ballet teacher Em Theay survived, and has returned to Phnom Penh to rebuild the ballet school and retrace her pupil…

Over the past ten years something strange has been happening on the midnight streets of many Mediterranean cities. Local prostitutes have been ousted by "travestis" - illegal Brazilian immigrants. The…

Sultan Issa Maigari of Cameroon used to hold the power of life and death over his one million subjects. Now his authority is ebbing away. The government won't let him raise his own taxes, the peasants…

The marriage of a teenage girl to four brothers aged from 8 to 16 is not unusual among the Nyinba people. They live in a rugged and remote corner of the Nepalese Himalayas, and this form of marriage i…

At the Holy Family Golden Gloves Amateur Boxing Club in North Belfast, Catholic and Protestant boys train side by side, hoping for success and an escape from the troubled streets. But outside the club…

There are only 150 Mehinacu left in the world. They live in one village in the middle of the Xingu Reserve in Central Brazil. Forty years ago they were first contacted by the 'Whiteman' in the guise o…

Travellers stuck on a long-distance bus journey in India may well find themselves being entertained by peddlers and clowns. Afsar sells home-made cures and potions, but takes paracetamol for his own h…

Abdur Rahman is at the mercy of the river Bhramaputra. He depends on it for his livelihood, but once a year it threatens to kill him. Like tens of thousands of Bangladeshi fisherfolk, he lives on a na…

China has occupied Tibet for 40 years. While the Dalai Lama advocates the country's cause on the international stage, consulting people like John Cleese, a group of exiled radicals plead for rebellion…

The Takarazuka Revue is a highly successful musical theatre troupe in which all the actors are women. If they want to get married, they have to resign. The compensation is stardom and they are envied …

Bull-racing on the Indonesian islands of Sapudi and Madura is both a test of manhood and a statement of identity. We follow two young jockeys as they prepare for the annual tournament.

Founded by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1802, France's prestigious St Cyr military school brands Frenchness into the hearts and souls of young officers using theatrical rituals and initiations, most notably …

A documentary about the extraordinary sexual traditions of the Sambia people of Papua New Guinea. Boys as young as 7 are taken away from their mothers and introduced to sexual practices by their (male…

In the Yellow Earth district in northern China, where houses are caves cut into the cliff terraces, two women are about to become neighbors. One, a wife and mother, is being grievously punished for ha…

Aboriginal stockman Harry Dixon taught white cattleman Grant Martin to hunt and shoot and to understand the land. New laws allow Dixon to claim a plot of land, but water is scarce, and Martin is unwil…

Ron Huhndorf and Willie Kosiyue are at loggerheads. They are neighbouring Yupitt Indians from an isolated river delta in south-western Alaska. Ron welcomes the discovery and exploitation of oil in his…

Thirteen-year-old Uria goes to a Catholic boarding school on the remote Mentawai islands of Indonesia. Twice a year he returns to his home deep in the forest where his father is a sorcerer. When he ar…

It is three years since Duka left home to marry a man she had never met, and she now has two children. Her ambitious husband Sago's aspirations to become rich are thwarted by drought, rising prices, a…

In an unusual attempt to bring the country's single citizens together, Singapore's government has launched its very own dating agency. We follow two women and one man on their search for the perfect d…

Villagers in northern Transvaal, South Africa, have good reason to fear their neighbours. Here witchcraft is a common accusation, with some hounded out of their homes, others even being killed. Africa…

While 100,000 Tongans prepare to celebrate their king's 75th birthday, the monarch is engaged in a race to shed some of his 33-stone bulk before the big day.

Junior beauty pageants - open to children aged between six months and 17 years - offer big prizes to families across the southern states of America. This behind-the-scenes look at the phenomenon exami…

A family of Aka pygmies living deep in the Central African rainforest experiences their favourite time of year: caterpillar season. Millions of juicy, edible caterpillars fall from the mahogany trees.…

The local bride fair of the Ait Haddidu people in Morocco is a gathering to which women flock in search of a husband. Two women travel to the fair with different hopes. 27-year-old divorcee Fadma prep…

Every January the small US town of Quartzite, Arizona, plays host to a million of America's elderly who have rejected conventional notions of old age. Having sold their homes and deserted their famili…

A devout Ethiopian couple endure blistering heat, bitter cold, and unforgiving terrain on a pilgrimage to the shrine of their saint and idol.

High in the Bolivian Andes it is time for the annual Tinku festival. Last year eight people died during the traditional ritual fighting in the square at Machas. Village leader Florencio wants to prese…

Chief Nalubutau is preparing to die. As the "magician" of his people in the Trobriand Islands, Papua New Guinea, he has been custodian of their culture, but western influences are eroding his world. T…

Fox hunting - which conjures up quintessential images of traditional rural England for some, and an outdated and barbaric practice for others - is under threat. As the political battle over banning hu…

Melbourne's most successful, legal, heterosexual prostitute is a pleasant-looking 32-year-old man with more than 1,200 female clients who each pay him 90GBP for an hour of sex. He also adores his wife…

For American teenagers, the prom night is the most important of their lives so far. But this documentary, which follows New York teenagers Nana, Danielle, and Michelle in the weeks leading up to the p…

Two brothers are at loggerheads with each other. One is a warrior-commander who worries that his tribe's new attachment to guns will bring death and destruction. The other is a young blood determined …

Gaish is an elegant Japanese playboy with lots of girlfriends who meet him at the Club Marilyn in the Shinjuku area of Tokyo. Gaish is a so-called "onnabe", one of a group of cross-dressing ladies who…

Tristan Da Cunha, Britain's smallest colony is 2,000 miles from the nearest land mass, and is forgotten by the outside world. Elaine left the island as a teenager but now she returns and provides an e…

This documentary following the children's beauty-pageant circuit in the American South has been updated since first airing in 1996. Five-year-olds Asia and Brooke, rivals in the race to be crowned Sup…

America's most powerful leaders are drawn from a network of secretive societies known as the "Greek system". A look at their selection procedures. 1/8.

The Buddhist monks of the Shaolin monastery have practiced kung fu for 1,500 years. For a look at the state of their martial art in contemporary China, we follow the progress of two paying students at…

Aberash, then aged 14, was kidnapped on her way to school in a remote part of southern Ethiopia. Her abductor raped her - a common way for men in the region to claim their wives - but Aberash stole a …

Every 1 July, around 200,000 inhabitants of Montreal, Canada, simultaneously move home for reasons even they find obscure. To explain the phenomenon, this film follows removal man Ericson Martin in hi…

For many young Dominicans professional baseball offers a chance to break away from poverty. Teenage brothers Isaias and Agustin Perex, and Melvin Frias, whose mother works in a tobacco field, are hopi…

Venice's gondoliers have a reputation for approaching both their job and their female conquests with legendary passion. As the number of gondoliers punting through the city dwindles, Armando Nardin re…

Newly crowned King Letsie III of Lesotho is under pressure to get married and produce an heir to the throne, but like many men in their thirties he is loath to make a commitment. In his turbulent firs…

Calling themselves the Rock People of Palawan, the Taw Batu tribe escape the annual monsoon on their Philippine island by migrating to an extraordinary world of labyrinths and chasms in the mountains.…

Sex therapist Dr. Chen Kai claims that political upheavals in China over the past generation have resulted in a populace damaged emotionally and sexually. Clients at Dr. Chen's Shanghai sex clinic unb…

Deep below the city of Cheyenne, Wyoming, an elite group of 200 men and women are on alert - ready and willing to launch up to ten of America's 550 nuclear missiles. Follow recruit Rene Hernandez as h…

Adam and Mark are 12-year-old boys born deaf and blind. With no understanding of language, how do their parents communicate with them? Gaela and Graham, two remarkable deafblind adults who became deaf…

A documentary following four New York City taxi drivers over the course of six months. Philosophy-loving Kwame Fosu sees his recently arrived Ghanaian family acclimatise to the city's hostile winter, …

Kotey, a 45-year-old Ghanaian man, has recently collapsed and died in mysterious circumstances. Some of his relatives suspect he was poisoned, but superstition has just as important a role to play in …

Min-Ah and Hee-Jung are two young South Korean women who have fallen madly in love with American soldiers based in Seoul. But cultural differences inevitably lead to friction. The couples have to lear…

The Tadjibajev family are entertainers living together in a rickety old bus as they travel through the beautiful but barren landscape of the Uzbekistan to Moscow highway, eking out a living with night…

Documentary exploring modern love and changing attitudes to sex, commitment, and friendship. The film looks at how the bond between two male friends is affected by their friendship with the filmmaker.

Four years ago at the age of 18 Mamehisa Toriguchi left home - supposedly to study architecture at university. Instead she entered the secretive world of the pleasure district to learn the arts of the…