I Did Not Ask for This! looks at Tsakani Motshweni’s tough and extremely courageous journey towards healing after being sexually abused in juvenile prison, and his determination to fight to end the scourge of sexual violence in places of detention.
Tsakani Motshweni
as himself
This film from Bill Moyers is the first documentary to focus exclusively on people formerly detained in New York City’s notorious Rikers Island Jail. They tell their compelling stories direct to the camera, revealing the violent arc of the Rikers experience – from the trauma of entry to extortion and control by inmates, to oppressive corrections officers, violence and solitary confinement.
A film about a woman who doesn’t exist. Moroccan Hind was raped and consequently denied an official identity – she has no other choice but to work as a prostitute and traditional wedding dancer, but despite the odds of her situation, refuses to give up her dream of dignity, motherhood and love. This is a story of modern day outlaws, children of prostitutes, abandoned child brides and those who have had to escape to the fringes of patriarchal Moroccan society. Through the eyes of one young woman we see a life of constant struggle, but also a life free of the society’s norms and boundaries. The woman in the centre of the film, Hind, is both vulnerable and courageous as she tries to regain her life, her children and her mere right to live as an equal human being in the 21st century.
An exploration of the interconnected experiences of queerness and illness, this film navigates personal and collective journeys through medical spaces, sexual violence, and survival, displays the profound impact on body and identity.
Streamed exclusively on her Instagram stories, film maker Janne Elens takes us on a short and intimate journey to her family's abandoned house to reflect on her past and communicate with her deceased grandmother's spirit.
The untold story of a Jewish baby who was born in the death camp before the liberation and survived. An extraordinary journey of the second and third generation, breaking the cycle of trauma to free themselves from Auschwitz - forever.
Women’s voices rise to deliver testimonies of victims of sexual violence. By reconstructing a story with these fragments of experience, a societal portrait is painted throughout the documentary. Like a mosaic, the pieces stick together to build a unique story that could belong to any human.
The story behind the Uganda-based YouTube dance sensations who have endured devastating personal loss from famine and war, and use the power of dance and song to overcome hardship.
The film tells the stories of five people with special abilities who treat and heal their patients in an unconventional way. These charismatic healers from Germany, Austria and Switzerland are the subjects of this documentary which sets out to show how their old-school, arcane methods can serve as an addition to conventional, academic medicine.
A personal, scientific, mystical exploration of Amazonian curanderismo, focus on Ayahuasca and Master Plants, their healing and visionary properties and risks, along with the Shipibo people and their songs.
Two girls in their early 20s explore topics of femininity, girlhood, and normalized violence perpetrated on women.
A musician's growth beyond a cult.
The modern criminal justice system is hindered by the fact that countless rape kits remain untested in police evidence storage facilities across the United States. Only eight states currently have laws requiring mandatory testing of rape kits.
After many years of life marked by PTSD, men and women veterans of the wars in Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq travel to the Peruvian Amazon to participate in shamanic ceremonies to heal their traumas.
September 2016: Stacey Dooley embeds herself on the frontline with the extraordinary all-female Yazidi battalion, who are fuelled to take revenge against the so-called Islamic State. As the battle to take Mosul from ISIS advances in Northern Iraq, in this extraordinary film for BBC Three, Stacey finds these young women's lives have been transformed by a desire to avenge their loved ones who were murdered by Isis.
