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Taurus Mountains to Istanbul

   2017    Culture
In the Taurus Mountains Simon stays with descendants of the original Turks, nomads known as Yoruks, whose lifestyle is under threat from the modern world and an increasingly religious government. They're not the only minority at odds with the authorities in Turkey; Simon sees first-hand the devastating effects of fighting in the country's Kurdish region. In an area where the government has detained foreign journalists, Simon gathers unique footage in the aftermath of a crackdown on Kurdish militants - the wholesale destruction of the historic centre of one of Turkey's oldest cities.
Away from the conflict in the south, Simon heads towards the Black Sea coast. He meets a wildlife conservationist protecting Turkey's population of brown bears, and villagers who still communicate over long distances using an ancient bird language. In the country's capital he meets a victim of President Erdogan's authoritarian purge of people accused of complicity in the failed coup against him.
Finally Simon's journey comes full circle when he returns to Istanbul - home to the new craze of 'Ottomania', a celebration of the vast empire that preceded modern Turkey. Simon visits the set of one of the world's most popular TV dramas - even getting a speaking role - based in the court of an Ottoman sultan
Series: Turkey with Simon Reeve

Tesla: Master of Lightning

   2007    History
The story of Nikola Tesla, the great scientist, visionary, and inventor who gave the world alternating current electricity, as well as being the father of radio. The film tells the story of this man's astonishing genius, his visions and inventions. Tesla's own scientific and autobiographical writings, as well as archival photographs and re-enactments are used to tell the story. A native of Austro-Hungary, Tesla came to America in 1884. Working first with Edison, the two inventors fell out over Edison's insistence on using direct current. Tesla took his alternating current vision to Westinghouse. Tesla worked to unlock the secrets of energy and electricity. The film follows Tesla's exploits and eccentricities, which made him a darling of the press. Largely forgotten today in spite of the great debt the modern world owes him, the film pays tribute to this overlooked genius

The 80s with Dylan Jones

   2021    Art
Dylan Jones is in the driving seat for this authoritative four-part look back. No stone remains unturned, as he revisits the New Romantics, rap, modern dance music, hip-hop, indie jingle, synth-pop, house music and club culture. He makes the case that the 1980s was the most radical, innovative and creative decade in the history of pop because, unlike other decades, unleashed a myriad of new musical genres in just 10 years.
In the first part, Dylan Jones explores how in this decade the world-conquering genres of rap, hip-hop and modern dance music were launched, while guitar-driven indie flourished in a constellation of scenes spread out across the world. And a technological revolution was changing how music was made, filling the charts with a starburst of innovative records. Meanwhile, the launch of MTV turned pop into a visual medium, allowing artists as varied as U2 and Eurythmics to take charge of how they presented themselves. Featuring interviews with Nile Rodgers, Bananarama, Primal Scream's Bobby Gillespie, Mark Ronson, Trevor Horn and Soul II Soul's Jazzie B.
Series: The 80s: Greatest Music Decade

The Art of Persuasion

   2006    Culture
Dr Nigel Spivey shows how The political power of art was discovered by kings and emperors in the ancient world, It was these leaders who first used imagery to manipulate their subjects, And today our modern politicians are exploiting those same visual strategies, This is the story of how those ancient leaders created techniques of visual persuasion so powerful they've still got a hold on us today.
Series: How Art Made the World

The Awakening: 1975

   2020    Culture
The series is a thorough examination of the infamous UFO cult through the eyes of its former members and loved ones. What started in 1975 with the disappearance of 20 people from a small town in Oregon, ended in 1997 with the largest suicide on US soil and changed the face of modern new age religion forever.
In the first episode, Bonnie Nettles and Marshall Applewhite begin to recruit individuals interested in end-of-the-world Christianity, new age religion, and UFOs - but the disappearance of new members soon drives media attention and family concerns.
Series: Heavens Gate

The Bit Player

   2018    History
The film tells the story of an overlooked genius: Claude Shannon. In a blockbuster paper in 1948, Claude Shannon introduced the notion of a 'bit' and laid the foundation for the information age. His ideas ripple through nearly every aspect of modern life, influencing such diverse fields as communication, computing, cryptography, neuroscience, artificial intelligence, cosmology, linguistics, and genetics. But when interviewed in the 1980s, Shannon was more interested in showing off the gadgets he'd constructed -- juggling robots, a Rubik's Cube solving machine, a wearable computer to win at roulette, a unicycle without pedals, a flame-throwing trumpet -- than rehashing the past.
Mixing contemporary interviews, archival film, animation and dialogue drawn from interviews conducted with Shannon himself, The Bit Player tells the story of an overlooked genius who revolutionized the world, but never lost his childlike curiosity.