Carousel

For over 170 years, Crystal Palace Park has been home to monsters. When sculptor Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins unveiled the Crystal Palace Dinosaurs to the public in 1854, they were the first ever life-sized depictions of extinct animals. Whilst hugely inaccurate according to our modern understanding, they now represent an important milestone in the history of science. They're also one of South London's most beloved and charming attractions. Over the years, the sculptures have fallen into disrepair thanks to a lack of funding, perennial vandalism and the forces of nature. But a passionate group of local residents have banded together to keep the statues standing. With the help of a world-famous rockstar, can they stop our dinosaurs from going extinct?

In the racially turbulent UK of the early 70s, a group of black musicians came together in South London with a common love of rhythms and a message of peace. Cymande – with the dove as their symbol – combined jazz, funk, soul and Caribbean grooves to form a unique sound. Despite success in the USA they faced indifference in their native Britain, becoming disillusioned and disbanding. But the music lived on, as new generations of artists imbibed and reworked their pioneering sounds in fresh ways. From Soul II Soul to De La Soul, MC Solaar to The Fugees, the Dove had spread Cymande's message far and wide, prompting their return after forty years. This is their story.

A new look at the public and private life of one of the most important statesmen in the history of Europe: Winston Churchill (1874-1965), soldier, politician, writer, painter, leader of his country in the darkest hours, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, a myth, a giant of the 20th century.

In 1810, 20 year old Sara Baartman got on a boat from Cape Town to London, unaware that she would never see her home again, or that she would become the icon of racial inferiority and black female sexuality for the next 100 years. Four years later, she became the object of scientific research that formed the bedrock of European ideas about BFS. She died the next year, but even after her death, Sara remained an object of imperialist scientific investigation. In the name of Science, her sexual organs and brain were preserved and displayed in the Musee de l'Homme in Paris until as recently as 1985. Using historical drawings, cartoons, legal documents, and interviews with noted cultural historians and anthropologists, this documentary deconstructs the social, political, scientific, and philosophical assumptions that transformed one young woman into a representation of savage sexuality and racial inferiority.

Inaugurated in 1986 by François Mitterrand, a link between the Louvre and Pompidou, Orsay houses the largest collection of Impressionist art in the world. Project after project, the museum has been transformed to modernize and welcome more visitors, while preserving its historic character. Challenges taken up with each new project.

Saar is an HIV positive gay man living in London, where he found refuge from the religious kibbutz where he grew up in Israel. Ever since he was diagnosed with HIV, Saar has craved his family's love, while they struggle with fears and prejudices.

Bordeaux, France, 1828. Spanish painter Francisco de Goya y Lucientes dies in his French exile on April 16th and is buried in the local cemetery. Nobody, not even his only living son, Javier, claims his body. In 1888, after years of paperwork, the Spanish consul Pereyra finally obtains permission to exhume Goya's remains with the purpose to bury them in Spain. When the crypt is opened, the gravediggers make a discovery as macabre as it is stunning…

A colorful travelogue of London's most historic buildings and the residual damage still left from WWII.

Poetic documentary about the polar expedition of S. A. Andrée which Troell had previously dramatized in "Ingenjör Andrées luftfärd" (1982).

The sarcastic account of the assassination of five Spanish politicians between 1870 and 1973 is mixed with the narration of five short stories by Edgar Allan Poe illustrated by five skillful pencil artists. A documentary, a video essay, a collage, a provocative experiment where various pop culture figures and icons perform unexpected cameos. The macabre joke of a jester. Never more.

The prodigious genesis of a monument of world literature, too often reduced to its popular success, also recounts the tormented conversion of its author, Victor Hugo, to the ideal of social progress.

Chief curator of historic royal palaces Lucy Worsley provides an exclusive tour of London’s most extraordinary palaces: the Tower of London, Hampton Court, and Kensington Palace.

Was the legendary playwright William Shakespeare really the author of his acclaimed plays? Or was he just a straw man working for a secret society? Norwegian organist and researcher Petter Amundsen claims to have a solid theory on the subject. Shakespearean scholar Robert Crumpton decides to travel to Norway to meet him.

Documentary exploring the effect of mass immigration on the dwindling white community of the East End, from the perspective of those who remain and those who chose to leave.

'Cultural Preservation' is a short documentary film which discusses the importance of community and how the development of gentrification can become a threat to it. With this film, Hussain looks at Whitechapel Road market in East London, one of the most popular markets in London and uncovers the reason behind this popularity. Through interviews with the public, he learns about the problems the community face within itself and with the changes to the area.