The War You Don’t See

A powerful and timely investigation into the media’s role in war, tracing the history of embedded and independent reporting from the carnage of World War One to the destruction of Hiroshima, and from the invasion of Vietnam to the current war in Afghanistan and disaster in Iraq.

As weapons and propaganda become even more sophisticated, the nature of war is developing into an electronic battlefield in which journalists play a key role, and civilians are the victims. But who is the real enemy?

John Pilger says in the film: “We journalists… have to be brave enough to defy those who seek our collusion in selling their latest bloody adventure in someone else’s country… That means always challenging the official story, however patriotic that story may appear, however seductive and insidious it is.

For propaganda relies on us in the media to aim its deceptions not at a far away country but at you at home… In this age of endless imperial war, the lives of countless men, women and children depend on the truth or their blood is on us… Those whose job it is to keep the record straight ought to be the voice of people, not power.”

Watch the full documentary now (playlist – 1 hour, 35 minutes)

Is Seeing Believing?

Horizon explores the strange and wonderful world of illusions – and reveals the tricks they play on our senses and why they fool us.

We show how easy it is to trick your sense of taste by changing the colors of food and drink, explain how what you see can change what you hear, and see just how unreliable our sense of color can be.

But all this trickery has a serious purpose. It’s helping scientists to create a new understanding of how our senses work – not as individual senses, but connected together.

It holds the intriguing possibility that one sense could be mapped into another. This is what happened to Daniel Kish, who lost his sight as a child.

He is now able to create a vision of the world by clicking his tongue which allows him toecholocate like a bat.

And in a series of MRI scans, scientists are now looking to find out if Daniel’s brain may have actually rewired itself enabling him to use sound to create a visual image of the world.

Watch the full documentary now (playlist – 58 minutes)

The Big Silence

Abbot Christopher Jamison, a Benedictine monk, believes that he can teach five ordinary people the value of silent meditation, as practised by monks in monasteries, so they can make it part of their everyday lives.

He sets up a three-month experiment to test out whether the ancient Christian tradition of silence can become part of modern lives.

Christopher brings the five volunteers to his own monastery, Worth Abbey, before sending them to begin a daunting eight days in complete silence at a specialist retreat center.

Journey into the interior space that time in silence reveals. They encounter anger, frustration and rebellion, but finally find their way to both personal and spiritual revelation.

Will they make silent contemplation a part of their everyday lives? How much will their lives be changed by what they have discovered in their time in silence And will Abbot Christopher’s hope, that they will discover a new belief in God, be fulfilled?

Watch the full documentary now (playlist – 2 hours, 56 minutes)