Trans-Sport / 2021
#USA

Transgender women participating in female competitions are creating a backlash in the sports community. Opponents oppose their inclusion, claiming that trans athletes might have physiological advantages. Most recently, the international swimming federation barred transgender women from competing at the elite level. Only swimmers who transitioned before age 12 are allowed.

Advocates on both sides of the issue speak out in the documentary, Trans-Sport. Share your thoughts in the comments!


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😳 Abortion is now banned in at least seven states following the US Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the constitutional right to an abortion.

So are you pro-choice or pro-life? Hear from both sides of the debate in the documentary on DocuHub. 📺

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Sanctions: Boomerang Effect / 2022
#Russia #USA #Europe

“It sucks. We’re suffering the price for something happening in another country.” Sanctions were imposed on Russia, but Europe and America felt the adverse effects just as much. Why did it happen?

Countless sanctions imposed on Russia create a significant shift in the world economy. Leading economists, political scientists and scholars express their views as the documentary pieces together a thorough analysis of the current political and economic situation. It looks at the boomerang effect sanctions have and where this policy the West is pursuing will lead.

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Spitsbergen / 2014
#Norway

Norway has recently blocked 20 tonnes of goods from being delivered to the permanent Russian settlement on Spitsbergen. It’s the largest and the only inhabited island of the Svalbard archipelago in northern Norway.

Some 400 Russians live in the Barentsburg settlement. They are primarily employees of the state mining company Arktikugol (Arctic Coal). Norway’s restrictions resulted in food and medical supplies stuck at the border.

Life in the Arctic circle has already been challenging. Check out the documentary, and see what it’s like to live for months without sun, surrounded by polar bears.

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Eden for the Homeless / 2022
#USA

Rows of tiny, colourfully painted houses make Eden Village look like an exemplary community. It's a home for the long-term homeless. Residents of Eden Village have to follow a strict no-drug, no-crime policy. Locals hang on to their community because it's their first permanent home for a long time. Eden Village provides homes for the homeless with disabilities.

Over half a million Americans sleep rough, and millions more are one paycheck away from becoming homeless. Unfortunately, there are only 31 houses available in the Eden Village, and there's a long waiting list.

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Holocaust. The Questions I Never Asked / 2022

'When the Germans forced people out of their homes, some resisted at first. They couldn’t take in what was happening. And they would be killed right on the thresholds of their homes. That’s when I saw it. I was very scared of the dead. Very!' confesses Frida Reizman, one of the remaining ghetto survivors reporter Paula Slier met on her family quest.

Paula travelled to Belarus to learn about her relatives who had died during the Holocaust. She also talked to people who had gone through the Minsk ghetto and knew better than anyone what Nazism is capable of and why it can’t be revived.

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Mexican Boom Town / 2018
#Mexico

The city of Tultepec in Mexico might be the world’s most explosive city. Three quarters of Tultepec's population work in the fireworks business, and sometimes their pyrotechnics activities cause deadly accidents. However, locals shrug their shoulders and say that it’s the lot of a fireworks maker.

They throw an extravagantly wild, week-long fireworks festival every year. Its highlight is the ‘pamplonada’, or a parade of colourful bull effigies rigged with fireworks. Participants prepare everything themselves - they build bull-shaped floats, paint them and load them with hand-made fireworks. Then they set them on fire to watch sparks fly in every direction as they celebrate the passion and peril of their craft.

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Child Prodigies: The Price of Success / 2022
#Russia

Alisa Teplyakova may have been the most talked-about child in Russia. At the age of 9, she became the youngest student of psychology at the Moscow State University.

Alisa had been homeschooled by her parents, who came up with what they call a ‘revolutionary’ teaching method for their seven children. Alisa’s father, Evgeniy, claims Alisa has already read all the textbooks and he’s convinced that his daughter could finish the course in just two years.

However, their story provoked heated debate in the media, some called it a ‘dangerous’ experience and many psychologists say that too much pressure can be harmful to children. Her younger brother, Heimdall, passed the final school exams at the age of 8.

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Kenya Sexploited / 2022
#Kenya

Coastal Kenya is a popular destination for sex tourists from around the world who come in search of love. European women, known as ‘sugar mamas’, approach local boys for sex. Older girlfriends provide them with money and presents.

Finding a white woman is often the fastest way to get out of poverty for many families. Some even encourage their children to skip school and look for tourists who can care for family needs. Some of the prostitute boys are as young as ten when they start providing sexual favours to tourists.

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Children of the Front / 2016
#CentralAfricanRepublic

In the Central African Republic, thousands of children have joined violent militias – either by force, or by choice. Since 2013, the country has been locked in civil war, with several disparate groups fighting each other.

Some kids have joined the Christian Anti-balaka group and wear elaborate amulets to protect them against guns. Others fight for Seleka Muslim rebels with AK-47s.

As part of a UNICEF-led effort to free child soldiers over the years, thousands of underage soldiers have left the groups. However, children traumatised by war have to go through a rehabilitation process before going home.

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Roboboy / 2017
#Bolivia

Esteban Quispe Churata is a self-taught inventor from Bolivia. He creates robots from scrap, including a real-life Wall-E from Pixar’s animated film. Esteban collects electrical wires, metal sheets and other e-waste from a local rubbish dump. In his native Patacamaya, Esteban’s talent turned him into a local celebrity.
Now Esteban studies robotics and hopes to raise awareness about the importance of recycling.

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Future: In the Crosshairs / 2020

It took hundreds of thousands of years for the world population to reach the 1 billion mark. Then, in just 200 years, it grew to seven billion. With the global population expected to grow, overpopulation is becoming a concern. So are climate change, pandemics and other disaster scenarios of the near future.

Today marks World Population Day. Check out this documentary to learn if the world can change to avoid a catastrophe.

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Knockout Girls / 2016
#Pakistan

In Pakistan’s conservative society, girls are expected to prepare for married life, learn how to cook and raise children. So they definitely aren’t supposed to box! But in the first boxing club for girls in the capital Karachi, they pull no punches.

For Pakistani girls, boxing is more than a sport. It gives them freedom, empowerment and confidence to stand up for themselves. Unfortunately, Pakistan ranks among the most dangerous countries for women regarding domestic violence.

Visit this unique place and meet the girls who defy expectations in the profoundly patriarchal state.

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Find My General / 2020
#Russia #France

Napoleon’s lost friend, General Gudin, finally come home to rest, after having gone missing for over 200 years in Russia, on this day in 2021.

Charles Gudin de la Sablonniere was Napoleon Bonaparte’s school friend and an acclaimed revolutionary general. He broke the Emperor’s heart when he was killed at the beginning of the calamitous 1812 Russia campaign. Gudin’s grave was then lost until, incredibly, a Franco-Russian team of archeologists found it in Smolensk, Western Russia, in the summer of 2019.

Who was this special Napoleonic General and who found his remains in Russia - in the documentary, Find My General!

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Dr Donbass: Living on the edge / 2022
#Donbass #Ukraine

‘Did you see the guy with his guts spilling out? The wounded one who was carried in just now? The intelligence guys were on their way to perform a mission. But, unfortunately, the enemy opened up mortar fire, and the guy was unlucky,’ says a Russian serviceman about his comrade.

A piece of shrapnel ripped open his stomach. But he’ll be OK. The doctors here fight for life every day. They removed the damaged tissues, and the patient will be evacuated for further medical treatment and rehabilitation later. So this story will have a happy ending.

This is just one of the cases Donbass doctors see on the job as they have to attend to service members and civilians injured by the Ukrainian Armed Forces. They have to work practically on the frontline, in destroyed buildings, and with limited resources. Yet, they find the strength to carry on. Watch Dr Donbass: Living on the Edge to learn more about them.

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Ready, Steady, Goat! / 2015
#Kyrgyzstan

Kok Boru is more popular than football in Kyrgyzstan. This ancient sport played by nomads is similar to polo, except teams play with a decapitated goat instead of a ball. Teams of ten men on horseback compete for control of its body and score by placing it in the opponents’ goal - a large concrete kazan, or pot.

Kok Boru is quite a sight that draws large crowds. This traditional sport is undergoing a revival and can be seen in Central Asian countries. In Afghanistan, it’s called Buzkashi. Some say it gets too violent and brutal. But you decide for yourself.

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