True Stories

True Stories: The Trials Of Amanda Knox

10:00pm Tuesday, January 5 on M4

Last month in Italy, American student Amanda Knox and her boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito were found guilty of the brutal murder of Knox's flatmate, British student Meredith Kercher. Knox was sentenced to 26 years in prison. This film, exclusive to the True Stories strand, gained intimate access to the Knox family and their friends for almost two years, beginning just after her arrest in November 2007.

True Stories: Cat Dancers

Tuesday, December 29 on M4

The True Stories strand, which showcases the best international feature documentaries, presents Harris Fishman's fascinating documentary which features a mix of exotic animals and complex personal relationships.

True Stories: Encounters At The End Of The World

Tuesday, December 22 on M4

Werner Herzog's Oscar-nominated film finds the legendary director in Antarctica. At McMurdo Research station he meets the scientists, researchers and workers who inhabit a remote, almost magical world.

True Stories: The Last American Freak Show

Tuesday, December 15 on M4

Richard Butchins' extraordinary film is a road trip with a difference. He follows the journey of a self-described travelling Freak Show through America, with 'exhibits' such as The Lobster Girl, The Half Woman, Dame Demure and The Elephant Man. But what makes them stand out from the old carnival shows is that they perform by choice.

True Stories: The Solitary Life Of Cranes

Tuesday, December 8 on M4

Part city symphony and part visual poem, the award-winning The Solitary Life of Cranes explores the invisible life of London, its patterns and its hidden secrets, seen through the eyes of crane drivers working high above its streets.

True Stories: The Bridge

Tuesday, December 8 on M4

The True Stories strand, which showcases the best of both international and domestic feature documentaries, continues with the remarkable True Stories: The Bridge . The eponymous bridge is San Francisco's celebrated Golden Gate, which is the most photographed man-made structure in North America and the single most popular suicide site in the world.

True Stories: 21 Below

Tuesday, December 1 on M4

The True Stories strand, which showcases the best international feature documentaries, presents Samantha Buck's intimate portrait of a very ordinary American family living in Buffalo, New York undergoing the hardest of times. The film centres on Sharon, who, pregnant with her first child, returns to the family home. She does so to act as a mediator between her parents and her younger sister Karen, who is pregnant for the third time.

True Stories: What's Killing Darcus Howe?

Tuesday, November 24 on M4

The True Stories strand, which showcases the best international feature documentaries, presents What's Killing Darcus Howe? which follows an extraordinary six months in the life of this legendary and veteran firebrand as he attempts to raise awareness of prostate cancer, a disease which affects one in four black men. This is the first in a series of programmes through the week featuring Howe.

True Stories: Which Way Home

Tuesday, November 17 on M4

The True Stories strand, which showcases the best international feature documentaries, looks at illegal child immigration from Mexico into the USA. As the USA maintains a strict policy on immigration from Mexico, Which Way Home shows the personal side of immigration through the eyes of children who, with enormous courage and resourcefulness, face harrowing dangers as they endeavour to make it to America.

True Stories: Dancing With The Devil

Tuesday, November 10 on M4

Directed by Oscar-winning filmmaker Jon Blair, Dancing with the Devil is a shockingly intimate and visually stunning portrait of the drug-related gang war that dominates the slums of Rio de Janeiro. With unprecedented access to one of the world's most violent hotspots, Blair follows three very different men through the city's perilous backstreets - places no foreigner, or even ordinary Brazilians, dare go - to provide an unflinching look at one of the bloodiest urban conflicts in the world.

True Stories: Sweethearts Of The Prison Rodeo

Tuesday, November 3 on M4

Fascinating documentary that goes behind prison walls to follow convict cowgirls on their journey to the 2007 Oklahoma State Penitentiary Rodeo. Bradley Beesley's moving, compassionate film, fresh from the London Film Festival, follows the women from the Eddie Warriors Correctional Center as they compete in a closed-doors prison rodeo against inmates from nine all-male penitentiaries. Prisoners compete on wild broncs and bucking bulls, risking life-long injuries. Danny Liles, a 14-year veteran of the rodeo, mentors the women who include Jamie Brooks, serving 30 years for murder, and Brandy Witte, serving 20 years for firearm possession and drugs dealing. For them and their fellow inmates, the chance to battle livestock offers a brief respite from prison life as they become the heroes the public and guards applaud.

True Stories: Four Wives, One Man

Tuesday, October 27 on M4

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True Stories: The End Of The Line

Tuesday, October 20 on M4

The True Stories strand, which showcases the best international feature documentaries, presents Rupert Murray's acclaimed film looking at the consequences of unchecked, unregulated sea fishing across the globe. It is not a film about what might happen, it is a film about what has happened.

True Stories: Last Of The Honeybees

Tuesday, October 13 on M4

The True Stories strand, which showcases the best international feature documentaries, presents Jeremy Simmons' moving film about the plight of honeybees throughout the world but this time from a very human angle. Through the stories of three American beekeepers; Nicole Ulibarri from Montana, Eric Mills from Carolina and Matt Hutchens from Washington State, Simmons follows their efforts to make the epic journey with their hives to the biggest event on the beekeepers calendar - the pollination of the almond groves of California. But in common with many of the world's apiarists, the three are suffering from unexplained colony collapse disorder (CCD) which results in devastating consequences not just for the bees but for the beekeepers whose livelihoods are at stake.

True Stories: The Glass House

Tuesday, October 6 on M4

The True Stories strand, which showcases the best international feature documentaries, presents Hamid Rahmanian's film, a unique insight into Iran through the prism of a day centre for troubled women run by Marjaneh Halatin, a psychologist now based in London.