Storyville Season 29, Episode 17: Sanatorium

1

Your Fat Friend

A Storyville documentary following the rise of Aubrey Gordon, from anonymous blogger to best-selling author, whose aim is to promote a paradigm shift in the way we view fatness.

89 min

2

Black Box Diaries

A Storyville documentary that follows 25-year-old journalist Shiori Ito’s courageous investigation of her own sexual assault in 2015 and attempt to prosecute her high-profile offender.

96 min

3

26.2 to Life: Inside the San Quentin Prison Marathon

A Storyville documentary that tells a story of transformation and second chances as three men sentenced to life for murder undertake running a marathon around a crowded prison yard.

85 min

4

Gaucho Gaucho: Argentina’s Last Ranchers

A Storyville documentary that follows the lives of Argentina’s gauchos (cowboys and cowgirls), as they try to preserve their traditions in a fast-changing world.

74 min

5

The Battle for Laikipia

A Storyville documentary, shot over several years in one of Africa’s most famous conservation areas, that charts mounting tensions between the Samburu people and fourth-generation European settlers.

87 min

6

The Covid Queue at Pavilion 6

A humorous and humane snapshot of life in a Covid-19 vaccine centre. Five years after the world first locked down to limit the spread of the virus, this film serves as collective therapy for the post-Covid era. The documentary was filmed in Croatia, where at the time, the government was still chasing down supplies of hard-to-get-hold-of vaccines. The queues of people waiting for them stretch endlessly along streets, with a tapestry of personalities amongst them - from the stern ‘gatekeeper’ of the line to elderly women deliberating their vaccine preferences. This is a reminder of a unique moment in time - one shared by people across the globe.

68 min

7

Eternal Spring: The Heist of China’s Airwaves

In 2002, a group of Falun Gong practitioners in China came up with an audacious plan to hit back at the government’s crackdown on their faith. This film explores the aftermath of that brazen stunt.

79 min

8

White Man Walking

A Storyville documentary that traces the shocking, gruelling and emotional 1500-mile walk that white film-maker Rob Bliss embarked on in 2020, walking through America’s southern states, in the wake of George Floyd’s murder, wearing a Black Lives Matter T-shirt.

70 min

9

The Jackal Speaks

This Storyville documentary features the first public account from Carlos the Jackal, one of the 20th century's most notorious terrorists. Speaking from a French prison, he recounts his path from Venezuelan childhood to global infamy, reflecting on his actions and ideology with stark honesty.

90 min

10

Wedding Night

A Storyville documentary in which ultra-orthodox Jewish couples speak bravely about their feelings during matchmaking, the engagement period, the wedding ceremony, their first night alone together and the morning after.

71 min

11

The Contestant

The incredible true story of a man who lived for 15 months trapped inside a small room, naked, starving and alone... completely unaware that his life was being broadcast on national TV to over 17 million viewers a week.

87 min

12

The Wolves Always Come at Night

A beautiful film, shot in Mongolia, telling the moving story of a young couple left devastated by a sandstorm which kills their entire flock of sheep. They are forced to move to the city and leave behind the land and rural lives they treasure.

89 min

13

The Srebrenica Tape

A young woman returns to Srebrenica, the town of her birth, to find out more about her father, who was one of the 8,000 Bosnian Muslims massacred there during the Bosnian War.

88 min

14

Holding Liat

A Storyville documentary following the family of Liat Beinin Atzili, kidnapped from Israel on 7 October 2023, as they try to secure her release.

88 min

15

The Librarians

A Storyville documentary that explores how librarians across the US are risking their safety to defend free speech as book bans and censorship threaten democracy from within.

88 min

16

Mr Nobody Against Putin

A Storyville documentary that follows a Russian schoolteacher as he risks everything to expose rising militarism in his classroom.

88 min

17

Sanatorium

Storyville documentary. A bittersweet and surreal summer unfolds inside a crumbling Soviet-era wellness resort in Odesa, where guests seek healing, love and distraction.

85 min

18

Welded Together

A Storyville documentary about a young welder, forced to confront a traumatic past when she has to care for her half-sister. A powerful story of love, survival and second chances.

94 min