Imagine being in jail. Now imagine living in a foreign country. Scary? Raphael Rowe served 12 years in prison for a crime he was eventually acquitted. He takes you inside these jails. Rowe shows what living conditions are for the inmates, as well as the guards. You'll never look at prison the same. In the first episode, Raphael Rowe spends a week behind bars at Tacumbu prison in Paraguay, where inmates scrounge in the trash in order to pay their own way.
Follows Vice journalists Shane Smith, Ryan Duffy and Suroosh Alvi as they go to different parts of the world telling us surprising and shocking stories. In Afghanistan, the Taliban has ramped up its use of children in suicide bombing terrorist attacks. Ranging from teenagers to children as young as six years old, they are routinely manipulated and lied to as they are sent to blow up their targets. The Philippines are the most dangerous place in the world to run for office, as politicians are routinely killed by their rivals.
Syria Civil Defense (SCD), also known as the White Helmets, is a volunteer civil defense organization that operates in rebel-controlled Syria during the Syrian Civil War as a response to indiscriminate bombardment of civilian communities. This group of indomitable first responders risk their lives to rescue victims from the rubble.
'Flexing' is a dance style forged in far east Brooklyn, at the dead-end of a handful of subway lines. Flex dancers channel the grittiness and crime of East New York into choreographed violence with gun movements, simulated bone-breaking, and the mimicked ripping of hearts from opponent's chests. Through battles dancers gain respect, craft an artistic identity, and sometimes find a sanctuary from the poverty and violence that saturates their neighborhood. No other style of street-dance is this violent, scary, or beautifully theatrical. In this purely do-it-yourself scene, creativity and ambition bring a community together around frequent dance-battle showcases that have begun to attract an international audience and may catapult the best dancers into careers in theater or film. Following a group of dancers for over two years, Flex is Kings explores the hopes and realities of this under-acknowledged and totally unfunded group of urban artists
Spain is found at the crossroads between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic, between Europe and Africa, resulting in diverse landscapes, ancient cultures and magnificent wildlife. It's a hidden Spain missed by many tourists who fail to venture outside the resorts. Worlds within worlds, the medieval towns, to farming communities, desert, mountains and forests with some of the most dramatic and diverse wildlife of the continent.
We can survive for weeks without food, but only days without water: it is the essential element of life. Yet many millions of us live in parched deserts around the world. In the second episode of Human Planet, we discover how the eternal quest for water brings huge challenges - and ingenious solutions - in the driest places on Earth. Battling through a sand storm in Mali, Mamadou must get his cows to a remote lake but desert elephants have arrived first. Can he find a safe way through the elephant blockade? Alone for weeks on end, Tubu women and children navigate the endless dunes of the Sahara. How does young Shede know where to find the last oasis, three days walk across the sea of sand? At the height of the drought we witness a spectacular frenzy: two thousand men rushing into Antogo Lake to catch the fish trapped by the evaporating water. When the rain finally arrives in the desert it's a time for flowering and jubilation - and love. The Wodaabe men of Niger put on make-up for an intoxicating courtship dance and beauty contest.
In the first episode, Raphael Rowe spends a week behind bars at Tacumbu prison in Paraguay, where inmates scrounge in the trash in order to pay their own way.