Comet: A Great British Air Disaster (2013)

Blériot, l'impossible traversée

A look back at an incredible challenge that combines human adventure and historic exploit. In 1909, Louis Blériot made the first flight across the English Channel, propelling aviation into the modern era. 110 years on, a team of enthusiasts attempt a mad-cap gamble, to fly a replica Blériot XI.

Inquiry: The Great British Housing Disaster

David Jones investigates how 1960s council housing came to be built so poorly that thousands later needed to be demolished.

One Six Right

An exhilarating documentary film that celebrates the unsung hero of aviation - the local airport - by tracing the life, history, and struggles of an airport icon: Southern California's Van Nuys Airport. Featuring thrilling aerial photography and a sweeping original score, the film dispels common misconceptions and opposes criticism of General Aviation airports.

Titanic: The Complete Story

The "unsinkable" Titanic was a dream come true: four city blocks long and a passenger list worth 250 million dollars. But on her maiden voyage in April 1912, that dream became a nightmare when the giant ship struck an iceberg and sunk in the cold North Atlantic. More than 1,500 lives were lost in one of the greatest disasters of the 20th century. Now, using newsreels, stills, diaries, and exclusive interviews with survivors, Titanic: The Complete Story recounts the sensational history of the premier liner. In Part I: Death of a Dream, the largest ship ever built is christened in Ireland before a cheering crowd of 100,000. Witness the disaster this trek becomes as numerous iceberg warnings go unheeded and the ship sinks in the icy North Atlantic. In Part II: The Legend Lives On, over-packed lifeboats edge away from the crippled liner as a futile SOS signals flare into the night--leaving 1,500 passengers to a watery grave.

Lindbergh

Charles Lindbergh lived a life of absolutes, never doubting his own abilities or the altitude of his own moral high ground. His extraordinary character brought him unparalleled accomplishment but also public humiliation and lonely isolation, as his faith in genetic determinism could barely conceal his narrow, naive, and racist social and political views.

Burning

Follows the deadly Australian bushfires of 2019-2020, known as ‘Black Summer’. Burning is an exploration of what happened as told from the perspective of victims of the fires, activists and scientists.

Kobe Shinbun no Nanokakan

Also known as the "Kobe earthquake," the massive earthquake struck the southern Hyogo prefecture on January 17, 1995 and resulted in more than 6,400 casualties. The drama will focus on the reporters working for the Kobe Shimbun, who were determined to keep the newspaper running without interruption, despite the damage suffered during the earthquake. The characters in the drama will all be based on real people, using their real names. Sakurai stars as the photo reporter Tomohiko Mitsuyama, who had joined Kobe Shimbun four years before the earthquake. The show will also have documentary segments such as interviews, including an appearance by Mitsuyama himself.

The White Diamond

This 2004 documentary by Werner Herzog diaries the struggle of a passionate English inventor to design and test a unique airship during its maiden flight above the jungle canopy.

Notre-Dame: Race Against the Inferno

On April 15, 2019 600 firefighters of the Paris Fire Brigade fought for over 7 hours to save the Notre Dame Cathedral from fire. In this stunning documentary, witness firefighters testimonies as they struggle to wage war. Looking to save the massive building from flames and save the relics inside, not only for Paris but for this structure that serves as a symbol of Paris for the world.

Living in the Age of Airplanes

A fresh perspective on a modern-day miracle that many of us take for granted: flying. Narrated by Harrison Ford and featuring an original score from Academy Award® winning composer James Horner, the film takes viewers to 18 countries across all seven continents to illuminate how airplanes have empowered a century of global connectedness our ancestors could never have imagined.

Concorde: A Supersonic Story

Concorde: A Supersonic Story follows the story of the most glamorous aeroplane ever built - told by the people whose lives she touched. We uncover rare footage telling the forgotten row between the French and British governments over the spelling of Concorde which threatened to derail the whole project.

Air Disasters

Air Disasters exposes some painful truths behind the world of flight, using actual footage of real incidents to look at why planes crash; in aerodynamic and technical terms and in the way the industry is run.

Flying Boat

A celebration of those still flying the last remaining Grumman Albatross, a seaplane from a long-lost era of adventure and romance.

Erebus: Operation Overdue

On 28 November 1979, an Air New Zealand jet with 257 passengers went missing during a sightseeing tour over Antarctica. Within hours 11 ordinary police officers were called to duty to face the formidable Mount Erebus. As the police recovered the victims, an investigation team tried to uncover the mystery of how a jet could fly into a mountain in broad daylight. Did the airline have a secret it wanted to bury? This film tells the story of four New Zealand police officers who went to Antarctica as part of the police operation to recover the victims of the crash. Set in the beautiful yet hostile environment of Antarctica, this is the emotional and compelling true story of an extraordinary police operation.

Grenfell: Uncovered

Survivors, witnesses, and experts tell the story of the tragic fire that engulfed a residential tower block in London — and the investigation that ensued.

Nightfighters: The True Story Of The 332nd Fighter Group--The Tuskegee Airmen

The story of the Tuskegee Airmen, a group of African American pilots who saw combat during the Second World War. The 332nd Fighter Group stands apart from any other air force fighter groups in the Second World War: all personnel, from pilots to ground crew to surgeons, were black. They confounded expectations and prejudices existing in America in the thirties and forties about the abilities of black Americans. They excelled as pilots and became a crack unit, showing great courage and skill and achieving where other fighter groups had failed. Despite this, they were segregated on the ground and in the air from the white flyers whose lives they protected. (Alexander Street)

Speed & Angels

Young Navy Officers, Jay and Meagan, have dreamt of becoming naval aviators flying the F-14 Tomcat since their childhoods. The film follows their two-and-a-half year journey as it takes them through dogfights in the Nevada desert, night landings on aircraft carriers in the Atlantic, and eventually to the biggest challenge young officers face: wartime deployments to Iraq.

Sinking the Lusitania: An American Tragedy

The sinking of the Lusitania and the impact it had in determining the fate of World War I is widely known. But few know the stories of the passengers and crew aboard the doomed luxury liner, or the German commander who ordered the deadly attack on May 7, 1915. Follow the final voyage of the massive ship, from her celebrated exit from New York's Pier 54 to her 18-minute plummet off the coast of Ireland. Through firsthand accounts, meet the men, women, and children who rode the "Greyhound of the Seas" into a war zone, and into history.

The Lion Has Wings

This early, influential propaganda film blends documentary and studio footage to show the valiant efforts of the Royal Air Force to defend the British people against the Nazis.

Trainwreck: The Astroworld Tragedy

Featuring exclusive interviews with survivors, paramedics and festival staff, this documentary examines the 2021 Astroworld tragedy and its aftermath.

The Shock Doctrine

An investigation of "disaster capitalism", based on Naomi Klein's proposition that neo-liberal capitalism feeds on natural disasters, war and terror to establish its dominance.

The Secret Spitfires

Spitfires were the nemesis of the Luftwaffe and the instrument which halted Hitler’s plans for invasion. After relentless bombing of the Spitfire factories in Southampton, the Germans were convinced they had halted the production of the Spitfires for good. But across the South of England, hidden in sheds, garages, back gardens, bedrooms, a bus depot, and even a hotel, a workforce of unskilled young girls, boys, women, elderly men, and a handful of engineers secretly built thousands of Spitfires to help win the war. Witnesses recount this never-before-told story of amazing achievement.

Trainwreck: Poop Cruise

An engine fire leaves 4,000 passengers stranded at sea without power and plumbing in this wild documentary about the infamous "poop cruise" of 2013.

The Battle of Chernobyl

On April 26, 1986, a 1,000 feet high flame rises into the sky of the Ukraine. The fourth reactor of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant just exploded. A battle begins in which 500,000 men are engaged throughout the Soviet Union to "liquidate" the radioactivity, build the "sarcophagus" of the damaged reactor and save the world from a second explosion that would have destroyed half of Europe. Become a reference film, this documentary combines testimonials and unseen footage, tells for the first time the Battle of Chernobyl.

Big Bang in Tunguska

At 7:14 am on 30 June 1908, the largest explosion recorded in human history to date reverberated throughout our planet. The force of the explosion was two thousand times that of the Hiroshima bomb. A woodland area the size of Luxembourg was eradicated in the Siberian taiga. This incident is recorded in history books as the Tunguska catastrophe. To this day, internationally renowned scientists of various disciplines argue about the causes of this disastrous explosion. The documentary discusses the latest and most controversial insights of these leading scientists. It identifies the reasons why Tunguska has evolved into a phenomenon and points out the curious results produced by this mythical event in culture and economy.

Twisters: The Real Story

In 1996, Universal Pictures released 'Twister', a film about tornado researchers. This documentary revisits the topic, exploring the motivations of those risking their lives to study dangerous weather. With never-before-seen footage and interviews, it delves into the lives of Storm Chasers.

'A Wing and a Prayer' - The Story of Knock Airport

"We're building an airport", Monsignor James Horan tells Jim Fahy of RTÉ News, in 1981. The bold story of a 'simple' country priest, with a dream to build a 7500ft runway for an international airport, on a "foggy, boggy hill" in and around Barnacahoge and Barnalyra, Co. Mayo. A feat few thought possible. It began as a one off news item, and develops into a charming documentary, written by Fahy and directed by Blackman over the years. The changing governments, all get caught up in the chaos, and almost nobody in power wanted it to go ahead. This controversial campaign to put Connacht on the map, faces setback after setback. But none great enough, to stop this "old man in a hurry" from getting his airport for the province, opened to the public by 1986.

The Balloonist

Meet Brian Boland—the beloved, eccentric hot air balloonist and artist from the rural Upper Valley of Vermont.

The Challenger Disaster: Lost Tapes

Challenger Disaster: Lost Tapes follows the story of the Space Shuttle Challenger and its crew, specifically Christa McAuliffe, the first civilian to be launched into space. The events of the days leading up to the disaster are detailed in this unique film, which uses no narration and no interviews. Instead the story is told solely with reports of journalists covering the story, extensive recordings from the NASA team, and interviews with McAuliffe and others who were part of this one-of-a-kind mission. Using rarely seen images and audio recordings, this show takes viewers behind the scenes of this compelling and historic story in a way never before seen.

F4F Wildcat

This 2-DVD set focused on the development and combat history of the Grumman F4F Wildcat and was created from holdings at the National Archives, the National Museum of Naval Aviation, the Naval Historical Center, and the Marine Corps Historical Center. The F4F Wildcat was the front-line carrier fighter in the first days of the Pacific war - flying off legendary ships like the Lexington, Saratoga, Hornet, Yorktown, and Enterprise - the Wildcat held the line as America built for victory.

The Johnstown Flood

On a stormy day in May of 1889, the South Fork Dam impounding Conemaugh Lake exploded, unleashing a 40-foot wall of water. The bustling industrial city of Johnstown, PA, in the valley below was reduced to a wasteland, killing more than 2,200. This heavily dramatized documentary reviews the factors that led to the dam's collapse, while dramatic reenactments and survivors' personal testimonies detail the horror.

Flying Machine

12 years ago, Rolf suffered a violent accident that caused him severe amnesia. During his long rehabilitation, Rolf had to rebuild his identity from scratch and, while doing so, he invented a flying machine that would give him the freedom of a bird. In a very intimate following of a four year period we discover Rolf´s way of perceiving the world and the contradictions of a character who suffers at discovering that he has fathered two girls and that he has to make up his mind either at becoming an adult or persuing his life long dream of the flying machine.

Downfall: The Case Against Boeing

Investigators reveal how Boeing’s alleged priority of profit over safety could have contributed to two catastrophic crashes within months of each other.

The DC-3 Story: The Plane That Changed the World

There was a time when the DC-3 was the world's most successful aircraft and an indispensable tool: its military version became a crucial factor in achieving peace in various wars and helped many people rise from the ashes during the inevitable humanitarian crises that follow every conflict. But now the Basler factory located in Oshkosh, near Chicago, in the United States, seems to have become a sinister airplane boneyard.

Accident Report

Accident Report Workplace Safety from 1982.

Diving Into the Unknown

After a terrible accident deep inside an underwater cave, the survivors are forced to risk their own lives to bring the bodies of their friends home.

Friends After 3.11

In March 2011, Japan was struck by a catastrophic earthquake, with the devastating tsunami that followed causing a meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear power station that sent ripples of discontent throughout the country. Director Iwai Shunji's Friends after 3.11 (2011) is a deeply personal documentary which uses the statements of some of his closest friends to express the views of a society in a state of political despondency.

Chernobyl: The Lost Tapes

Thirty-six years after the Chernobyl nuclear reactor exploded in Soviet Ukraine, newly uncovered archival footage and recorded interviews with those who were present paint an emotional and gripping portrait of the extent and gravity of the disaster and the lengths to which the Soviet government went to cover up the incident, including the soldiers sent in to “liquidate” the damage. Chernobyl: The Lost Tapes is the full, unvarnished true story of what happened in one of the least understood tragedies of the twentieth century.

Black Wings

For early aviators, conquering the forces of gravity was a daunting challenge. But black aviators had an additional challenge - conquering the forces of racism. Meet the men and women who took to the skies throughout the 20th century, proving to a segregated nation that skin color doesn't determine skill level. From biplanes to commercial jets, and from barnstormers to war fighters, meet the path-breaking pilots who opened the skies for all -- and contributed in countless ways to the development of aviation.

Fyre

He promised supermodels and yachts, but delivered tents and cheese sandwiches. How one man engineered a music festival disaster.