Storyville Season 24, Episode 11: Welcome to Chechnya: The Gay Purge

1

Jonestown: Terror in the Jungle (1)

Why did Jim Jones, a charismatic American preacher and leader of the People's Temple, compel his members in 1978 to commit 'revolutionary suicide' in northern Guyana?

85 min

2

Jonestown: Terror in the Jungle (2)

The Jonestown project quickly begins to implode. Jones's excessive drug use, irrational behaviour and the isolation of his followers raises the alarm back home.

85 min

3

The Gene Revolution: Changing Human Nature

The biggest tech revolution of the 21st century isn't digital, it's biological. A breakthrough called CRISPR has given us unprecedented control over the basic building blocks of life. It opens the door to curing diseases, reshaping the biosphere and designing our own children. This Storyville documentary is a provocative exploration of CRISPR's far-reaching implications, through the eyes of the scientists who discovered it, the families it’s affecting and the bio-engineers who are testing its limits. How will this new power change our relationship with nature? What will it mean for human evolution? To begin to answer these questions, we must look back billions of years and peer into an uncertain future.

85 min

4

Advocate: A Lawyer without Borders

Jewish lawyer Lea Tsemel is a controversial figure in Israel. For the last 50 years, she has fearlessly defended Palestinians prosecuted in Israeli courts for resisting the occupation both violently and non-violently. Taking on tough cases, including charges of terrorism, the odds are stacked sharply against her. To many Israelis, Lea defends the indefensible, but for Palestinians she is more than a lawyer, she is an advocate. This documentary follows Tsemel’s caseload, including the high-profile trial of 13-year-old Ahmed - her youngest client to date - charged with the attempted murder of two Israelis for his involvement in a stabbing attack. Ahmed, whose 15-year-old cousin led the attack but was killed by police on the scene, now depends on Lea to prove he had no intent to kill, in order to save him from a lengthy sentence in an adult prison.

85 min

5

Fishing for Love: How to Catch a Thai Bride

A Storyville documentary that reveals the complex and surprising truth behind the relationships of four Thai-Danish married couples in a small fishing community in Denmark.

85 min

6

The Rise and Fall of a Porn Superstar

When 23-year-old Israeli Jonathan Agassi arrived with a bang on the gay porn scene in the late 2000s, his rise to fame was stratospheric, revolutionising the industry. After a traumatic childhood growing up gay in the suburbs of Tel Aviv, the man behind the performer claims that porn saved his life, but at a cost. The Rise and Fall of a Porn Superstar charts Agassi’s journey from prolific adult superstar to male escort, battling many demons. Filmed over seven years, this unflinching, emotional and at times funny and shocking film explores the deeper and more devastating reasons for Agassi's self-destructive behaviour with sensitivity and compassion. The film also provides a rare and intimate insight into an industry that prioritises hedonism and fantasy above all, but at its core, this rollercoaster tale is a rare portrait of a damaged family and its lasting impact on those who are part of it.

85 min

7

The Accused: Damned or Devoted?

In Pakistan, the blasphemy law prescribes a compulsory death sentence for disrespecting Prophet Muhammad and life imprisonment for desecrating the Qur’an. This Storyville documentary follows the stories and fates of four people accused of blasphemy. The most famous of them is Asia Bibi, a Christian woman who claims she was falsely accused by her Muslim co-workers after a disagreement. As the elections in Pakistan loom, the country is split between those who feel the law is being misused and want to change it, and those who believe it must be preserved at any cost. Its greatest advocate, cleric Khadim Hussain Rizvi, goes on a mission to do just this. As his campaign heats up, he gathers millions of supporters, sympathetic to his goal, and silences anyone attempting to change the law by condemning them to death.

85 min

8

College Behind Bars (1)

A two-part Storyville documentary that tells the inspiring story of a group of men and women in the USA struggling to earn college degrees while in prison for serious crimes. The Bard Prison Initiative is one of the most rigorous and effective prison education programmes in the United States. Shot over four years in maximum and medium security prisons in New York State, the films tackles a pressing issue - the failure to provide meaningful rehabilitation for over two million Americans living behind bars. Through the stories of the students and their families, we discover many dropped out of high school before being incarcerated and never imagined they would go to college. During four years of study, however, they become accomplished scholars, beat the Harvard debating team, reckon with their pasts and discover how truly transformative education can be.

85 min

9

College Behind Bars (2)

The debate team faces West Point and Harvard. Seniors complete their 100-paged thesis projects. Giovannie is sent to the Special Housing Unit and might not finish his project. Students at Taconic and Eastern receive their degrees at graduation.

85 min

10

Scandalous! The Tabloid that Changed America

Documentary examining how the National Enquirer became the most infamous tabloid in America by churning out obscene stories that blur the lines between truth and fiction

85 min

11

Welcome to Chechnya: The Gay Purge

A Storyville documentary that lays bare Chechnya's deadly war against its gay citizens and which reveals the bravery of those running rescue missions to protect the republic's LGBTQ community.

85 min

12

The Underdog and the Battle for Kenya

A Storyvile documentary that looks at the tough reality of running for politics in a country riven by corruption and tribal factionalism through the story of Boniface 'Softie' Mwangi.

85 min

13

United Skates

Documentary exploring the campaign to save the US's last standing roller rinks from closure against a backdrop of growing racial tension. The film reveals the story of underground subculture that has grown up around these venues and given rise to some of the world's greatest musical talent - but has itself remained virtually unknown to the mainstream.

85 min

14

The Two Escobars

At a time when drug money fuelled the sport known in the underworld as "Narco-soccer", the fates of Andres Escobar, the inspirational captain of Colombia's Nacional, and Pablo Escobar, the notorious leader of the Medellin cartel, were permanently linked. When Andres was murdered 10 days after scoring an own goal against the USA in the first round of the 1994 World Cup, it cost the country more than a shot at the title.

85 min

15

The Mole: Infiltrating North Korea (1)

A real-life undercover thriller about two ordinary men who embark on an outrageously dangerous ten-year mission to penetrate the world's most secretive and brutal dictatorship: North Korea.

85 min

16

The Mole: Infiltrating North Korea (2)

A real-life undercover thriller about two ordinary men who embark on an outrageously dangerous ten-year mission to penetrate the world's most secretive and brutal dictatorship: North Korea.

85 min

17

Pepe the Frog: Feels Good Man

Pepe the Frog started life in 2005 as a cute cartoon character in Boy’s Club, an American indie comic on Myspace. Today, he is known as an international hate symbol after being hijacked by the alt-right. Pepe the Frog: Feels Good Man follows Pepe’s creator, artist Matt Furie, as he fights to bring back his lovable comic-book character from the dark forces who stole him. As the internet exploded, memes of the benign and chill frog-dude started sweeping the internet with lightning speed. Once his image found its way into controversial online community 4chan – the anonymous, anything-goes forum rife with misogyny and racism - there was no turning back. Pepe re-emerged from the darkest corner of the internet decorated with swastikas and spewing racist slurs. He was even caught up in Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.

85 min

18

The Night Notre-Dame Burned

A Storyville documentary that tells the dramatic story of the devastating fire at Notre-Dame Cathedral on 15 April 2019. Blow by blow, it follows the team of brave firefighters - from the men and women on the frontline to the brigade chief - as they face the epic responsibility of saving one of the city's most emblematic and much–loved symbols from burning to the ground. As well as on-the-ground helmet cam and drone footage of the unfolding, dramatic events, the film-makers – the Naudet Brothers – who famously recorded the collapse of the Twin Towers on 9/11 in New York – were themselves at the scene to record a moment in history in their own capital city.

85 min

19

The Hijacker Who Vanished: The Mystery of DB Cooper

A mysterious fugitive, a hijacked airplane and a daring mid-air escape. This is the extraordinary, real-life tale of one of the greatest unsolved heists in American history and a case that has taunted the FBI for decades. This documentary brings the stories of the four possible suspects to life through candid testimony, archive footage and stylised drama. Each account is gripping and highly plausible. But who is telling the truth, who is lying and, ultimately, who is DB Cooper?

85 min

20

Locked In: Breaking the Silence

An intimate, personal and surprisingly life-affirming story with a rare illness, Guillain-Barré syndrome, at its heart. Director Xavier Alford is finally confronting an illness he has been hiding from family, close friends and even himself. Locked In: Breaking the Silence follows him trying to make sense of the mysterious illness that has taken over his life in the only way he knows how - by making a film about it. What is it like to get a diagnosis of an incredibly rare condition that turns your whole world upside down? No-one can tell you why or how you got it, not even doctors. No-one knows how to beat it and there is no cure. In a time when much of the world is experiencing lockdown, Locked In offers, with unflinching positivity, a fresh perspective on coping mechanisms and the recovery from virus-related diseases.

85 min

21

Red Penguins: Murder, Money and Ice Hockey

A tale of capitalism and opportunism run amok - complete with gangsters, strippers and live bears serving beer on a hockey rink in Moscow. Shortly after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Pittsburgh Penguins and the famed Red Army hockey team formed a joint venture that showed that anything was possible in the new Russia. Eccentric marketing whiz Steve Warshaw is sent to Russia and tasked with transforming the team into the greatest show in Moscow. He takes the viewer on a bizarre journey, highlighting a pivotal moment in US-Russia relations in a lawless era when oligarchs made their fortunes and multiple murders went unsolved.

85 min

22

Price of Gold

The world could not keep its eyes off two athletes at the 1994 Winter Games – Nancy Kerrigan and Tonya Harding. Just weeks before the Olympics in 1994, at the US Figure Skating Championships, Kerrigan was injured by an unknown assailant. Harding's ex-husband had plotted the attack with his misfit friends to eliminate Kerrigan from the competition. The Price of Gold takes a fresh look at the scandal that elevated the popularity of professional figure skating, with Harding still facing questions over what she knew and when she knew it.

85 min