Can You Dig This

Who is the bloody figure wielding a meat cleaver, seen racing through the alleys of British Columbia’s Chinatown? Whoever he is, he has terrified dozens of witnesses, who have never been the same afterwards. The brutal history of Cornwall Jail, Ottawa’s most notorious prison, lives on as ghostly apparitions of tortured inmates terrorize modern visitors. In its heyday it was home to vicious criminals, and sadistic guards. Hangings, whippings and torture were daily affairs and spirits from that era still linger on in the maze of cell blocks and corridors. Many male criminals were hanged at the Northwest Mounted Police outpost known as Fort Saskatchewan, but only one woman. Florence Lassandro was dubbed the Mob Princess, and her spirit is one of many seen on the grounds and in the preserved buildings of this historic site. Journey through several of the world’s most haunted prisons and experience real portals to hell on earth.

Gordon Welchman was one of the original elite codebreakers crucial to the allies defeating the Nazis in World War II. He is the forgotten genius of Bletchley Park. Filmed extensively at Bletchley Park, the centre for codebreaking operations during World War II, this documentary features the abandoned buildings where thousands of people worked tirelessly to crack the codes. Post-war, Welchman moved to the US to be at the centre of the computer revolution. Recently released top secret documents reveal that the case of Gordon Welchman reached the desk of the British prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, and then led to questions being asked in the House of Commons after Welchman’s untimely death. Welchman’s legacy continues to this day. Welchman’s pioneering work in the field of traffic analysis led directly to the modern secret surveillance state, and particularly the use of metadata – as revealed by whistleblower Edward Snowden.

The story of a young boxer on the road to his dream; a world title fight in his hometown of Leeds. On the way, we meet an extraordinary family, a father who trains his son and the most passionate fans in boxing. The film is set against the backdrop of one city; Leeds. Half aspirational professionals and students, half austerity ravaged estates, Leeds is a schizophrenic metaphor for England in 2016. Our boxer bridges the two because this is a city in need of a hero. Can he match and fulfil their hopes and dreams?

Sir David Attenborough investigates the discovery of a 200 million year old Ichthyosaur on the Jurassic Coast in southern England. Using state of the art technology and CGI David brings the story of the fossilised ichthyosaur out of the rock and shows us what this creature was really like as it lived during the Jurassic time period.

Hundreds of refugee children in Sweden, who have fled with their families from extreme trauma, have become afflicted with ‘uppgivenhetssyndrom,’ or Resignation Syndrome. Facing deportation, they withdraw from the world into a coma-like state, as if frozen, for months, or even years.

Albuquerque-born boxer Johnny Tapia’s life was a maelstrom of turmoil. The glory of his punishing ring prowess and handful of world titles across three weight classes forever jockeyed with personal demons: his mother’s kidnapping and murder when he was 8, drug addiction, mental illness and suicide attempts.

Disneynature’s Elephant follows African elephant Shani and her spirited son Jomo as their herd make an epic journey hundreds of miles across the vast Kalahari Desert. Led by their great matriarch, Gaia, the family faces brutal heat, dwindling resources and persistent predators, as they follow in their ancestors’ footsteps on a quest to reach a lush, green paradise.

As the world prepares to celebrate the 60th anniversary of West Side Story in 2017, dancer Bruno Tonioli and broadcaster Suzy Klein go in search of the true stories behind the inception of this classic show. For the first time on television, they hear first-hand from those involved in the show when it opened on Broadway in September 1957, including Sondheim himself, producer Hal Prince and original cast members from both show and movie, including Chita Rivera Carol Lawrence and Rita Moreno. With the BBC Symphony Orchestra and specially cast singers, we re-live some of the wonderful music and, in the company of Suzy and Bruno, we discover how West Side Story placed the 1950s phenomena of racial tension and teenage gangs centre stage to create a hit that changed musical theatre forever.

In 2018, a young bartender in the Bronx, a coal miner’s daughter in West Virginia, a grieving mother in Nevada and a registered nurse in Missouri join a movement of insurgent candidates challenging powerful incumbents in Congress. Without political experience or corporate money, these four women are attempting to do what many consider impossible – until one of them pulls off the most shocking political upset in recent American history.

Revealing St. Louis, Missouri’s atomic past as a uranium processing center for the atomic bomb and the governmental and corporate negligence that lead to the illegal dumping of Manhattan Project radioactive waste throughout North County neighborhoods.

3D printing is changing the world – from printing guns and human organs to dismantling the world’s industrial infrastructure by enabling home manufacturing. The 3D Printing revolution has begun. Who will make it?

Honing his craft as an indie filmmaker in Germany in the early 90s, Uwe Boll never could have imagined the life that lay before him. From working with Oscar-winning actors and making films with US$60million budgets to having actors publicly disparage him and online petitions demanding he stop making films, Boll continued to work; he has a filmography of 32 features, a career that has led to his new life as a successful high-end restauranteur. Already a cult legend, he will be remembered forever in the film world; for some, as a modern-day Ed Wood, who made films so bad, they’re good, while for others, a prolific filmmaker who came from a small town in Germany and never compromised his integrity while forging his own unique Hollywood trajectory.