Documentary

Thursday, 23 October 2008
6.05pm

Africa's big cats don't like water…but what is a cat to do when dinner is on the other side of a swamp?

Tuesday, 21 October 2008
8.30pm

Seed Hunter is a one-hour documentary, as part of the ABC's Future Makers series, about the hunt for seeds that may help save the world from its greatest ever crisis - a global food shortage brought about by human-induced climate change.

Tuesday, 14 October 2008
8.30pm

As part of the Future Makers series, ABC1 presents this revolutionary documentary touted as the follow-up film to Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth. Already making waves in environmental circles, The Burning Season is a story of contribution and hope; one that offers a solution to the frightening issue of global warming.

Thursday, 16 October 2008
6.05pm

Thursday, 09 October 2008
6.05pm

A startling look at the two most destructive animals in South Africa and how their habits are a story of life, death and cooperation.

The elephant, the Emperor Moth and the Mopane tree form the backbone of life on the African plains. This delicate ecological triangle determines the livelihood of all the other creatures in its system. The Mopane tree is under attack from rampaging elephants, but even more damaging is the Mopane worm, the caterpillar of the beautiful Emperor Moth. They gather in hoards and strip the trees of their leaves in minutes. But the worms are food for a host of animals - even humans - and the trees are home to a number of unpleasant creatures. What holds the delicate balance in check?

Tuesday, 07 October 2008
8.30pm

Risking Our Kids marks the beginning of ABC's new Future Makers series of documentaries.

Sunday, 05 October 2008
7.30pm

Amazing amateur colour footage of Tibet from four rare film collections brings to life the forbidden land the Dalai Lama grew up in before the Communist invasion.

The British Film Institute granted this film's producers exclusive access to revealing footage taken by intelligence officers of the Raj, a Chinese official and a Communist cameraman. Their forensic examination zooms in and around the frames to reveal some amazing aspects of the Dalai Lama's childhood. This stunning documentary also includes eyewitness accounts from old Tibetans, British and Chinese officers and the Dalai Lama himself, interwoven with film of the Tibetan exiles in north India today.

Thursday, 25 September 2008
6.05pm

Lions, supreme rulers of the African savannah, should have little to fear.

But while the world has been worrying about the decline of the elephant and the tiger, the plight of the lion has gone unnoticed. This is a species in peril.

Researchers recently made the shocking discovery there were only half the lions in Africa previously believed - as few as 16,000. There are a number of threats to their existence but are they ultimately their own worst enemy? How can they be saved?

Thursday, 25 September 2008
8.30pm

He's become the living Google.

The Real Rain Man screens for the first time on ABC1 - Thursday, September 25 at 8:30pm.

Whatever happened to the real Rain Man, the quiet genius Kim Peek, whose extraordinary life story inspired the character played by Dustin Hoffman?

Since the Oscar-winning movie Rain Man became a worldwide hit, the 'world's greatest savant' Kim Peek has wowed and thrilled over half a million people, demonstrating his phenomenal brain power in a unique roadshow that travels around the USA.

Brain-damaged at birth, everything Kim read he retained, and he learnt to do calculations at breathtaking speeds. When Hollywood scriptwriter Barry Morrow met him, he knew that his story had to be told - and the rest is history.

Tuesday, 09 September 2008
8.00pm

In the sprawling outer suburbs of Brisbane, a revolution is brewing. A sassy group of women from all walks of life have a dream: to resurrect the lost sport of full-contact roller derby in Australia. Led by their president Evil Doll, and despite none having experience in business, the roller girls have set up a roller derby league, one of 220 now dotted around the globe.

Born in the United States in the 1920s, full-contact roller derby took off around the world before fading into obscurity in the 1980s. Thirty years later it has sprung up again, driven by the passion of suburban women: nurses, artists, tattooists and driving instructors - wives and mothers by day, hell on wheels at night.

Thursday, 07 August
8.30pm

The head of Scotland Yard's Homicide Prevention Unit, Laura Richards builds a psychological portrait of history's most notorious murderer by going inside the mind of Jack the Ripper.

No one was ever charged with the brutal Whitechapel murders of 1888, which continue to fascinate the public. It was rumoured that the horrible mutilations of the victims' bodies were the work of a doctor. Others said the culprit was Queen Victoria's grandson.

Modern police have tools that the original crime investigators could not have dreamed about; DNA profiling, CCTV, fingerprinting even geo-profiling. Richards sifts details about the victims and decodes their injuries to bring her closer to the Ripper than anyone has ever been before.

Tuesday, 29 July
8.30pm

China is in the midst of an automotive revolution that has not been witnessed since the halcyon days of Henry Ford. Cars are now the ultimate symbol of status and prosperity in a country that is well on its way to becoming the biggest economy in the world.
But car culture is also bringing about volatile class divisions, the world's worst air pollution, and fierce global competition for limited resources. And it's only just begun.

China is already the second largest auto market in the world and will soon be the biggest - automakers from around the world are in a feeding frenzy for a piece of the action.

Schappelle Corby: The Hidden Truth part one was a must-see for viewers last night, attracting a very strong audience of 1.612 million viewers nationally for its two hour premiere. At its peak, there were 2.174 million Australians watching this fascinating fly-on-the-wall documentary, that followed the alleged drug runner and her family in the lead up to her court case in Bali.

The special was a timeslot winner across all markets for 25-54s, 35-64s, 18-49s, 16-39s and All People.

It was a strong night of news and current affairs on the Network, starting with National Nine News at 6pm. The bulletin attracted a national audience of 1.479 million viewers. In Sydney 446,000 people tuned in.

Tuesday, 15 July
8.30pm

Legendary Australian mountaineer Lincoln Hall remembers - in his own words - the story of his miraculous Mount Everest climb. Left for dead, he defied the odds and lived to tell the tale.

In 2006, the deadliest season on Mount Everest in a decade, Lincoln Hall fulfilled his lifelong ambition of climbing the famous mountain, but things started to go wrong on the way back down. He was to become the only person to be declared dead so high on Everest who then lived to tell the tale.

Suffering from cerebral oedema, a deadly condition common at extreme altitude where low atmospheric pressure causes the cavities in the brain to leak fluid causing the brain to swell, Lincoln lay on the mountain while sherpas restled bravely to bring him back down to base camp. Finally, they were forced to leave him for dead on a freezing cliff face.

The Nine Network will telecast an explosive two-part documentary revealing the factual and intimate detail of the arrest, trial and jailing of Schapelle Corby for drug trafficking in Bali.

Nine Chief Executive Officer David Gyngell announced today the outstanding documentary would air in two parts at 8.30pm this Sunday June 22, and on Tuesday, June 24.

Mr Gyngell said Schapelle Corby - The Hidden Truth was the definitive work on the Corby saga, the most publicised and debated event involving any Australian in recent memory.

"This is riveting, must-see television," he said.

"It's a fly-on-the-wall, warts-and-all account of what actually happened at every step of the Schapelle Corby story, caught on camera by award-winning independent documentary producer, Janine Hosking, over three and a half years of painstaking filming and research. The result is the most powerful, and emotional observational documentary I have ever seen.