Documentary AreaSimply the best Documentaries

What's your idea of the perfect birth? Do you want every medical intervention known to science or do you want to go it alone, without the help of a doctor or midwife? And what about after birth? Perhaps you'll hang on to your baby's placenta and carry it around with your newborn until it dries and drops off naturally? Or maybe you'll decide to eat it by whizzing it up into a smoothie? This film follows four pregnant women all making very different choices around their births, all determined to do it their way." 37-year-old Jo plans to deliver her baby completely alone on board her barge, without the assistance of any medical professional. By contrast, 34-year-old Anna is opting to sidestep the pains of labour and book in for a c-section at the Portland Hospital in London. Anna wants all the medication available and she doesn't want to feel a thing. There are plenty of unusual plans for after the birth too. In Devon, 33-year-old Lisa plans to lotus birth - she'll leave her baby's umbilical cord attached to its placenta and she'll keep it fresh by dusting it with salt, rose petals and lavender oil. 35-year-old Kati from Manchester is going to whizz her afterbirth into a smoothie and consume it over a number of days. She hopes it will help her stave off post-natal baby blues and bounce back as quickly as possible. Fending off bewildered looks and concerns from friends, family and medical professionals, each woman is going against convention to have the birth she wants. There are free and frank discussions between mums and daughters and decisions to go against medical advice. So does breaking with the norm and sticking to your guns pay off? And what really is the perfect birth?

On April 5, 1980 four college pals -Bill Berry, Peter Buck, Mike Mills and Michael Stipe- took the stage together for the first time to play at a friend's birthday party. The band they started that night stayed together for thirty years and changed the shape of rock music. R.E.M. By MTV tells R.E.M.'s story in their own words, through three decades of performances and interviews R.E.M gave to MTV channels in the USA and around the world". Featuring revealing, never-before-seen footage, R.E.M. By MTV tells the amazing story of a band that did it their own way, and changed how a generation of musicians after them did it, too.

The series explores the incredible universe inside each and every one of us. Through an examination of diverse personal stories from around the world, Human reveals how our everyday lives, our passions, and our goals are powered by the amazing systems that define our biology as a species.
The first episode goes on a journey with parents who are preparing for new life to see how our bodies create and sustain new life. Through their stories we learn about what is fundamentally shared and absolutely unique about the experience of birth.

Cannabis is the world's favourite drug, but also one of the least understood. Can cannabis cause schizophrenia? Is it addictive? Can it lead you on to harder drugs? Or is it simply a herb, an undervalued medicine? Addiction specialist Dr John Marsden discovers that modern science is finally beginning to find answers to these questions. John traces the cannabis plants' birthplace in Kazakhstan; finds the origins of our sensitivity to cannabis in the simple sea squirt; and finds out just what it does to our brains. He meets people who have been changed by this drug in drastically different ways - from those whose lives have been shattered to those who lives have been revived.

Over 133 years in the making, from humble beginnings manufacturing 'Hanufuda' cards came one of the world's most recognized videogame companies, from the birth of Mario and Luigi to Donkey Kong and Zelda... to beating its competition and presenting itself as a platform for quality games and strong values. This is the story of Nintendo.

Enjoy this wonderful documentary from Disney Nature about a family of brown bears living in the coastal mountain ranges of Alaska." A brown bear mother named Sky gives birth to two cubs named Amber and Scout in her den on a mountain slope. When April comes the bears will be ready to leave the den. As the bears leave the oncoming summer brings with it a threat of avalanches. Fortunately the bears are able to avoid disaster. Upon reaching the lush valley below, the cubs meet the other bears, some of which pose a threat to the cubs; among these bears are Magnus, a big healthy male, and Chinook, an older male. The family works together to survive the spring, with Sky keeping the cubs safe from Tikaani, a pesky grey wolf...