Documentary

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From BBC Sounds and CBC Podcasts. Syria. 2018. ISIS is on the brink of defeat. A toddler disappears in the chaos. In London, his grandad needs answers. Poonam Taneja investigates.

Documentary | 1 season

Bloodlines

Since Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine began, the team at The National has been closely monitoring the Russian president's speeches and propaganda. In this special documentary, CBC's Terence McKenna traces his threats, and examines the influence of his closest advisors to uncover what's behind Putin's endgame.

News | 44 min

Putin's Endgame with Terence McKenna

Sara and Jonas run into each other by coincidence when a subway train must be evacuated in the center of Oslo. Strong feelings arise between them, but Sara soon discovers that Jonas has a dark secret.

Drama | 1 season

Everything You Love (Alt du elsker)

A French man searches for a granddaughter he has never met, after his son is killed while carrying out an ISIS attack in Paris.

Documentary | 25 min

Finding Alaa

As the war in Eastern Ukraine takes a toll on families, a small group of strong-willed social workers work tirelessly in a special kind of orphanage to create a safe space for kids to live in.

Current Affairs | 87 min

A House Made of Splinters

The story of an American boy in Ukraine and a blind Kobzar (Ukrainian folk minstrel), whom fate brings together during the early 1930s, a dramatic period of industrialization, genocide, and slaughter.

War and military | 123 min

The Guide

The crew of Ukrainian NAVY minesweeper U311 "Cherkasy" is resisting seizure of the vessel by Russian army in Crimea in 2014.

War and military | 94 min

U311 Cherkasy

This documentary chronicles how the French president, surrounded by his staff of advisers and government officials, has dealt with the war in Ukraine.

News | 115 min

A President, Europe, and War

The U.S. and the Holocaust: Series tells the story of how the American people grappled with one of the greatest humanitarian crises of the twentieth century, and how this struggle tested the ideals of their democracy.

Documentary | 6 parts

The U.S. and the Holocaust

Leading Hollywood stars take deeply personal and emotional journeys to uncover what happened to their grandparents during major conflicts of the 20th Century.

Documentary | 2 seasons

My Grandparents' War

Abdulkader fled the war in Syria and crossed the Mediterranean. Now he’s pursuing his lifelong dream of becoming a ‘nez:’ a master perfumer.

Documentary | 29 min

L’essence des Souvenirs: Itinéraire d’un Apprenti Parfumeur

The remarkable story of Payam Akhavan, one of the world’s leading human rights lawyers and his fight for justice for the Rohingya.

Biography | 78 min

In Search of a Better World

The inside story of what led to Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine.

Documentary | 53 min

Putin's Road to War

This documentary charts the rise of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the comedian, actor, and entertainer who became the improbable wartime leader of Ukraine.

Documentary | 1 episode

Zelenskyy: The Man Who Took on Putin

A Canadian nurse in war-torn Iraq uncovers the secret behind a mysterious man and his beloved mint plant.

Documentary | 6 min

Me, Mahmoud and the Mint Plant

Britannia begins in 43AD as the Roman Army, determined and terrified in equal measure, returns to crush the Celtic heart of Britannia - a mysterious land ruled by wild warrior women and powerful druids who can channel the mysterious forces of the Underworld. Arch Celtic rivals Kerra (Kelly Reilly) and Antedia (Zoë Wanamaker) must face the Roman invasion led by the towering figure of Aulus Plautius (David Morrissey) as it cuts a swathe through the Celtic Resistance.

Action and Adventure | 3 seasons

Britannia

The Tudors tells the incredible tale of the young, powerful, seductive King Henry VIII, focusing on the tumultuous early years of his nearly 40-year reign.

Drama | 4 seasons

The Tudors

It's the most famous whisper in American history. President Bush learns of the 9/11 attacks while sitting in front of 16 schoolchildren. This is the untold story of those kids. Today they are in their mid-20s and offer a fascinating window into post 9/11 America.

Documentary | 78 min

9/11 Kids

A headstrong young girl in Afghanistan disguises herself as a boy in order to provide for her family.

Animation | 93 min

The Breadwinner

After five citizens of the Virgin Islands are convicted in the 1970s of a massacre at one of the island's fancy country clubs, their ostensible leader stages a skyjacking and escapes to Cuba.

Documentary | 75 min

The Skyjacker's Tale

Oskar Gröning goes on trial in Germany as prosecutors race against time to bring aging Nazi guards to justice.

The Accountant of Auschwitz

At a time when nuclear tensions once again run high, The Hole in Reservoir Hill revisits a decommissioned nuclear bunker buried deep beneath North Bay, Ontario - and introduces some of the people who know its secrets. Though trees and woodland now cover the scars on Reservoir Hill, the bunker’s legacy lives on. Digging just below the surface, we discover the psyche of a town and the hole left behind by its former concealed nucleus. Through a cast of local characters, we reveal the bunker’s lasting psychological imprint on those who were witness to its workings - and the unlikely renewed relevance to those who weren’t. For those who lived and worked in the facility, it’s a decaying source of nostalgia. To others, it’s a mystery, an enigmatic entity - a relic. Decades after closing, the bunker still captures the imagination of those who live nearby, both young and old. Juxtaposing Cold War culture with today’s spectre of nuclear warfare, the film is a reflection on the impacts and lessons of a lost time; a time we so brazenly thought to be ancient history...until now.

Documentary | 13 min

The Hole in Reservoir Hill

Home No More explores what it’s like living as a Muslim woman in Quebec City, one year after one of Canada’s worst terrorist attacks - the deadly shooting at the Islamic Cultural Centre of Quebec (CCIQ) on January 29, 2017. The attack claimed the lives of six worshippers and injured 19 others, forever altering the complex relationship between Quebec’s Muslim community and the predominantly white, Catholic population of the city. The attack was the culmination in a series of ongoing Islamophobic attacks on the CCIQ and against Muslims in the Quebec capital. In June 2016, a pig’s head was left outside the CCIQ mosque, with the words “bon appetit” attached to it. In 2017, the city announced that it would sell land to the Muslim community to build a cemetery; several days later, feces were thrown at the door of the mosque. Some Muslims, many of whom established themselves in the city decades ago, refuse to abandon their homes and their community. Others are making the difficult choice to leave the city they call home; to move to places where they will feel safer and more accepted. Home No More follows 3 Muslim women at this crossroads. Aminata is packing her bags and relocating to another city, hoping to escape the prevailing climate of Islamophobia in Quebec City and start a new life. Nour has decided to stay in Quebec and work on countering stereotypes about Muslims through her community outreach program. Salma no longer feels at home in Quebec. Her father is an important local leader in the Muslim community and their car was torched last summer, by a neighbour. Salma is contemplating leaving the city for a more diverse place, one where she will be welcome.

Documentary | 19 min

Home No More

THE BOOK OF NEGROES is a six-part miniseries that follows the harrowing journey of Aminata Diallo and her return home after being forced into slavery as a child.

The Book of Negroes

Dilveen is a Yazidi. Her people have lived in Northern Iraq since it was called Mesopotamia. For eleven year-old Dilveen, life was good on her family’s farm. She was a normal girl. She played soccer with her friends, went to school and helped her father sell his vegetables in town. When ISIS invaded the region in the summer of 2014, everything changed. Dilveen witnessed the execution of her father, and became one of thousands of Yazidi girls kidnapped and forced into sexual slavery. She was sold to a sixty-five year-old man, who planned to take her to Syria for marriage. Dilveen hatched a daring escape plan that allowed both her and another girl being held captive to flee. She was reunited with her family and now lives in Southern Ontario with her mother, aunts, and siblings. She has just started high school and is learning English. Her story is captured in this harrowing short documentary that juxtaposes haunting hand-drawn animated sequences of the past, with glimpses of Dilveen’s new life in Canada. Through her courage and strength, audiences will come to better understand the atrocities the Yazidi community continues to suffer through.

Biography | 12 min

Dilveen

Senior Correspondent Adrienne Arsenault reports from Manila on the horrors of President Rodrigo Duterte's war on drugs. She also speaks to a jailed Philippine Senator who is a vocal critic of the country's strongman president.

News | 47 min

The Fight for the Philippines

The contentious story of a midlife affair that shook the foundations of the ancient world comes to life in the Stratford Festival’s production of Antony & Cleopatra.

Drama | 1 episode

Antony & Cleopatra

Featuring animation, CBC archives, and storytelling, the Art of Leading is an entertaining and educational CBC TV special that features 2016's CBC IDEAS Massey lecturer, historian Margaret MacMillan, in a surprising and inventive animated format. From the threat of ISIS to the impact of climate change, we live in increasingly turbulent times. Leaders from around the world are trying to tackle these difficult issues - but are their tactics misguided? Have we been here before? The Art of Leading challenges present problems with solutions from the past, told through some of the most powerful figures in history. From politicians like Richard Nixon and Margaret Thatcher, Justin Trudeau and MacKenzie King, we explore the leaders who have risen and fallen based on their decisions - and apply their successes and failures to current day.

Documentary | 22 min

The Art of Leading

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