Best Documentary

Documentary by Pierre Brouwers Media 9 Production - Follow us on social media : Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/BestDocumentaryTV

They are the spearhead of the French armed forces. In the forefront of every battle, they carry out the most dangerous and difficult missions. They call them the “Knights of the Sky”. They are the fighter pilots of the French Naval Air Force. From Kosovo to Afghanistan, they risk their lives in the service of peace. These men, who are endowed with physical and mental abilities beyond the normal, have to come through extremely arduous tests to obtain the legendary title of “fighter pilot” and enter the tightly closed circle of aircraft carrier pilots. The selection process is merciless; only the best stand a chance. Training, education, but also combat missions in Afghanistan and on board aircraft carriers… we follow the Navy pilots on all their adventures. - Follow us on social media : Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/BestDocumentaryTV

Five times bigger than France, third largest country in Africa, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is, foremost, one of the world’s richest countries in raw materials. There’s cobalt, mainly used in mobile phones and the aeronautics industry, copper, zinc, gold and diamonds in astounding quantities. Our cameras focused on Katanga, a province in the south of the DRC, which has three quarters of the country’s wealth. We accompany Eugene, owner of a truck, laden to the top with goods, that must travel from Lubumbashi, the country’s economic capital, to his native city of Bukama, 400 miles to the north. The journey from Lubumbashi to Bukama takes four days. At the wheel is « the prince of the highway », answering to the name of Domingo, aided by three escorts: Elephant, Bijou and Maroquin. They cling onto the outside of the truck and are the driver’s eyes and ears throughout the journey. We accompanied them for the whole of the trip, a nightmare along almost totally unusable roads, an African remake of the « Wages of Fear » set against a background of organized looting of the country’s wealth by three principal countries: China, India and the USA. - Follow us on social media : Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/BestDocumentaryTV

Albeiro Vargas is today 26 years old but, for the old people he assists for fifteen years, he remains “the little angel of Colombia”. His story is the story of a little boy who once decided to devote his life to the oldest and to the destitute. Albeiro was still a kid of hardly 9 years, born of the shanty towns, when he started to help the old people of his district. At the time, we had filmed him in the poor districts of Bucaramanga, a small city in the north of Colombia. Following the broadcast of this documentary, in 1991, Albéiro had been contacted by thousands of people and several associations which made a point of supporting his work. Fifteen years later, we find “the little angel of Colombia”. Today, he is a young family man and also a businessman which succeeded in offering to his protégées a roof, a board and even the medical care they need. Each day, faithful to his ideals of youth and to his vocation, he exerts to make live the establishment which he made build for the happiness of his dear old. This documentary tells the story of Albeiro, of his devotion and work, which is also the story of his protégées. - Follow us on social media : Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/BestDocumentaryTV

Life on the colourful island of Java is dominated by the temperamental Kawah Ijeb volcano, the source of life, and often death, on the island. Porters scale a drop of over 2000 metres to get to the centre of the volcano, where they gather sulphur. They load as much as 80kilos onto their backs before a painful trek back up the volcano. They cover their mouths with scarves to try and protect themselves against the deeply toxic fumes which burn the lungs and eyes. They are paid according to the weight of the sulphur they manage to bring. Two 80 kilo deliveries make for a back breaking 11 hour day and a salary of 8 euros. We meet the people who live and work from the volcano, who endure such harsh conditions in order to feed their families and send their children to school, so that they might have a better life in the future. - Follow us on social media : Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/BestDocumentaryTV

In Nepal, five hours from Katmandou, thousands of people, irrespective of wich caste they belong to, goes each day on a pilgrimage, on foot or on cart. There, in the middle of the forest, they come to meditate and pray in front of a 16 year old boy. 24 hours a day, this young man sits in the hollow of a tree, in full meditation. He does not move, he does not eat, he does not drink. He remains sitted quiet, breathes very little, very gently and does not need anything. For the believers, he is the reincarnation of Buddha! Miracle or not? We followed the traces of this man that all Nepali already call Little Bouddha. - Follow us on social media : Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/BestDocumentaryTV

Interdiction to seize the bank accounts, to penetrate their residences, to open the luggage, to worry any member of the personnel of an embassy and even of his family. The diplomatic immunity was established by the Convention of Vienna, in 1961, to protect the diplomats from threats, bad manners of the authorities of the host country, etc. With practice, it became a quite practical umbrella for certain diplomats in delicacy with the law. We inquired into these cases of diplomats out-the law. Because some victims rebel against the diplomatic immunity. Associations try to obtain that diplomats can be judged as anyone else. - Follow us on social media : Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/BestDocumentaryTV

On October 8th the Belgians elect their local councils. This election should yet again signal the rise of the Vlamms Belang, an extreme right-wing Flemish party that, over 20 years, has become the biggest party in Flanders, the northern part of Belgium where they don’t speak French, but Dutch. Condemned for racism, kept out of power by a coalition of all other Belgian parties, attacked or boycotted by the media, confronted with the highly menacing past of its leaders, implicated in various bloody racist incidents, the Vlaams Belang has nevertheless become the most successful extreme right-wing in Europe. An investigation into a party that has succeeded in moving from provocation to communication and now attracts a quarter of the Flemish, despite, or because of, a program that openly advocates the expulsion of immigrants and the fragmentation of Belgium. - Follow us on social media : Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/BestDocumentaryTV

In Turkey, where the majority of the inhabitants are of Islamic religion, the restaurants of Istanbul remain open all the night, the discotheques are never empty and entier districts live at the rhythm of boisterous evenings. - Follow us on social media : Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/BestDocumentaryTV

Private firms that offer their services to major industrial groups to promote their interests among politicians.Highly organized pressure groups that manage to change laws or get amendments passed.We take you into the highly secretive world of the lobby. How do they operate? How are they organized? What are their real powers of influence?In France, this profession is not recognized. And yet you meet them in the corridors of the Assemblée Nationale, you find them in the offices of elected representatives and you even come across them at the highest levels of state.From the simple information report submitted to a politician, to the writing of legislation, to the boundaries of corruption: an investigation into the unseen power of pressure groups. - Follow us on social media : Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/BestDocumentaryTV

Newport Beach in California. As every Sunday morning, Pierre-André Senizergues comes to skateboard along the edge of the beach. His casual look conceals one of the most brilliant entrepreneurs in California. His business is worth 200 million dollars. Pierre-André Senizergues is now CEO of the Etnies brand, the teens’ cult skateboard shoe. Last year 10 million pairs were sold around the world. Yet when he arrived here, 20 years ago, he didn’t have a penny in his pocket. His story is one of a kid from the Paris suburbs who discovers skateboarding at 13 and becomes several-time French champion. At 21 he quits his job as engineer to head out for California, skateboarding’s Promised Land. After an injury, he stops competing and decides to launch a brand of shoe for skateboarders. Today, Pierre-André Senizergues employs 10,000 people across the world. His shoes, designed in Los Angeles, are made in China and sold in 70 countries. After skateboarding, Pierre-André decided to take up surfing. To do that he began by buying a house: the villa of his dreams, in Malibu. It cost him 10 million dollars. And, as nothing seems impossible to this eternal adolescent, his next challenge is a big one: to build a giant skate park in the heart of Paris. - Follow us on social media : Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/BestDocumentaryTV

North America is linked North to South by a mythic road: the Pan-American. However, in the middle of this road, there is a long gap of some hundred kilometres, between Panama and Colombia. This is Darien. Darien is a swamp, an impenetrable jungle of 12,000km2. And yet men and merchandise have been crossing this zone for thousands of years. Today they often do it illegally by rivers or pathways. The film’s directors followed Gina, a colourful businesswoman, who stocks her business, 3 days from Panama City in the jungle, with whatever means she can. She brings up tons of goods, first by truck then by canoe. They call her the “Queen of the Tuira River”. Indians, farmers, gold diggers, adventurers: they all meet in Darien. In the Choco region, in Colombia, having a truck or even a mule is of no use. The only means of transport is men. Only the paseros, or smugglers, can carry on their backs and barefoot, the tons of goods and of the most fragile kind from one side of the mountain to the other. Finally, the filmmakers have crossed this green hell undercover with illegals from Somalia, Sudan and Eritrea. Without bearings, the illegals put their lives into the hands of smugglers with few scruples... Follow us on social media : Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/BestDocumentaryTV

For 8 years, they have been the guardian angels of the children of Manila. Father Thomas and priest Matthieu dedicated their lives to the protection and salvation of the 10.000 street kids of Manille. They created the foundation Tulay Ng Kabataan,"A bridge for the children". Thus, they created tens of schools where children get the basic tools to try to come through. A drop in the ocean in a country where 73% of the inhabitants live under the poverty line. - Follow us on social media : Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/BestDocumentaryTV

During a hospital stay, Guillaume Depardieu contracted an incurable nosocomial infection. At just 32 years old, it was a descent into hell: living with a paralyzed leg, prostrate with pain and medicine. Enduring permanent pain, he took the difficult decision to have his leg amputated in June 2003. Today he has accepted to tell his story in front of Céline HUE’s camera to leave a testimony of the facts for his daughter and to denounce what he considers a medical scandal. - Follow us on social media : Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/BestDocumentaryTV

“I’ve never had a worse journey in my life,” says the old man sitting in the rear of the jeep, clinging tightly onto the fittings of the SUV. “What with rock falls, landslides, crashed trucks, snowfall on the high ground… that road is a real nightmare!” The Karnali Highway, in the North West of Nepal is the most dangerous road in the country. It’s 250 kilometres long and links the town of Surkhet, in the valley, to Jumla, altitude 3,000 metres. It sometimes takes five days to make the trip. Hewn out of the rock on the flank of the mountain set in an outstanding natural background, this road, opened barely two years ago, is finally allowing the population of this, the poorest region of Nepal to open up to the rest of the country, to move about and, above all, to bring in supplies of every type. Drivers of trucks, jeeps and even tractors, travellers, shopkeepers who go down to the valley for supplies, public transport, columns of people on foot walking for several days to get to their village… for them the road, despite everything, is the safest and fastest way of getting around this mountainous region. For several weeks, we accompanied all those who, willingly or otherwise, take this “impossible highway”. - Follow us on social media : Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/BestDocumentaryTV

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Every summer Deauville attracts a crowd of tourists, businessmen and stars. However, contrary to appearances, Deauville conceals more that it reveals. A world away from Saint-Tropez, which is all excess, glitter and exterior signs of wealth, Deauville is identified by discreet chic and a certain sense of French-style elegance. We witnessed the events that mark the season’s calendar, like the yearling sales, the races, where the grand families of Europe, America or the Middle East clash vicariously via their horses; the grand charity ball, or the American film festival, which extends the summer season and hosts major stars. But we also went beyond the obligatory dates of the summer. Because, in Deauville, it all happens behind the doors of luxury manors, in the bars of the grand hotels, at the prestigious balls where the women compete in elegance. For 90 minutes, our camera, guided by these lovers of the Auge area, opens the doors of private residences, goes into the greatest kitchens, the luxury suites, the boudoirs where the women prepare themselves, the private golf courses… in brief, to all the haunts of those men and women who so jealously guard their vacations in Deauville. Philippe de Nicolay, director of the Rothschild banks and son of the baron, and his wife, Pia de Brantes, agreed to open the doors of Deauville estate to us. - Follow us on social media : Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/BestDocumentaryTV

Hidden deep in the mangrove swamps of the Niger Delta lie hundreds of illegal refineries, “cooking spots”. It’s the stronghold of hostage takers and armed groups. For some ten years these men have been spreading terror in the region. Few cameras have been able to penetrate the closed worlds of these oil thieves. For one month?with the assistance of one of their number?we managed to film the everyday existence of the traffickers. On the one side, Nigeria. An extremely unstable region with economic and political stakes on a global scale. It’s the biggest oil producer in Africa and one of the ten biggest producers in the world. 95% of its revenues derive from this “black gold” On the other side, Western countries, major consumers of fuel, for whom oil is indispensible. Between the two, the inhabitants of the Niger Delta, cast aside from this manna and the enormous profits generated by the “black gold”. Driven by a sense of dispossession, they engage in increasing armed action to deviate a part of the oil production. Nicknamed “Bonny Light”, it’s one of the purest crude oils in the world. It is so pure, they say, that you could run an engine with it without any refining… exactly as it is extracted. However, the robbers of the Delta still have to refine it. They put the “crude” into drums that have been cut in half, heat it and sprinkle it with chemical products. It’s a dangerous operation. It can explode at any moment. So that their clothing doesn’t catch fire and turn them into human torches, the traffickers work naked, in a choking atmosphere, without the slightest protection. They have no other choice. To survive, they must take risks. Once refined, the fuel is put into buckets before being transferred into cans. It is then refined by traditional methods and distributed on the parallel markets of neighbouring countries. This “black gold” road passes via Cameroon, Benin, Togo and Ghana. However, in the Delta, oil is above all a plague. The water is filthy. The earth, fields and forests are polluted. Here, oil is a curse. All the villagers live below the poverty line. In the village of Okrika there is no drinking water or electricity. So, in order to survive, most of the farmers have a strange occupation. They fish for sand. Such is the case of Daniel, 55, who in order to feed his family tirelessly scours the beds of rivers for sand. It’s an unthinkable job, harsh and exhausting, for this new Nigerian slave. Every day, and sometimes at night too, and totally naked, he dives to depths of 5 metres to fill his buckets with sand. When his boat is full, he has to deliver it far away, at the mouth of the river. Once his boat has been unloaded, he must start his labours all over again. Once the oil has been stolen and refined, it has to be delivered. Neighbouring Benin is a major consumer. In the south of the country, along the border, oil trafficking is a real industry that supplies 70% of national consumption. Every day, 25 year-old Antoine risks his life to transport stolen oil on his motorbike. A real “bomb on wheels”, he carries more than 700 litres of oil on each trip, with the sole protection of the Voodoo gods! - Follow us on social media : Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/BestDocumentaryTV

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00:00 Papua New Guinea is one of the world's last frontiers of adventure. In a country that still remains isolated from the rest of the world, roads are practically non-existent. 02:02 The trucks carrying goods are threatened not only by bandits, but also by the Highland Highway, a road destroyed by traffic and weather. 06:40 Drivers use betel, a drug that keeps them on the road. 08:20 Potholes on the road damage the vehicles using it. 13:46 Bandits block vehicles to extort money from drivers. 17:05 Gérald Philippe, a Frenchman, has set up a number of businesses on the highway, including a brand of goods transport that delivers throughout the region. 21:00 In one of the highway's villages, the arrival of drinking water is celebrated. 23:00 For some mountain villages, airplanes are the only accessible means of transport. 27:40 Back on the highway, the road comes to an abrupt halt in the middle of the jungle. 32:08 To get back up into the mountains, locals climb into buses and pickups. 36:52 Drivers are often stranded by damaged roads. 39:18 Tribal warfare is a traditional issue in Papua. 41:40 For drivers, the road is a constant source of injuries. 46:04 Even in remote valleys, everyone comes down from the mountains for Christmas mass. Officially, there are only 700 kilometres of paved roads. The capital itself, Port Moresby, is cut off from the rest of the territory and is not served by any road system. It is accessible only by plane. This explains the importance of the Highland Highway: this road is one of the few in the country. It’s the biggest and, most importantly, the only one that provides a link between the towns and villages of the mountains with the coast. For the inhabitants of the highlands it is also the only supply route. However, this road is extremely difficult. It runs through the wildest and most dangerous regions in the country. It very soon gives way to increasingly deep potholes and a road surface that is either breaking up or has completely subsided. Landslips, mud slides, accidents… there are many dangers on the Highway. Truck drivers are also often targeted by armed gangs who hold travelers for ransom. Kevin has been making this trip for ten years. At the wheel of his imposing American truck he makes three trips a week to supply the town of Kundiawa. His boss? A French ex-pat, who’s been in Papua Asia for more than 20 years. This adventurer has made a new life in the heart of the mountains of Papua Asia. He owns several trucks and most of the shops in town. He has become a respected person in the highlands. They even call him “the lord”! And what lies under the ground in Papua Asia has whetted the appetites of major international mining companies. There’s an abundance of gold, gas and oil here, but most exploitations are in the deepest part of the tropical jungle. They have an enormous need for equipment. A number of experienced drivers regularly risk their lives in these forgotten regions. Such is Billy’s case. His mission: drive two giant plant machines to the Moro oil well. A testing journey deep in a hostile forest. Beyond the Highway: the jungle and the mountains! Most villages can only be reached by plane. Every year pilots lose their lives in the highlands. The weather is unpredictable and the airstrips barely usable. Most of the time they are slippery strips of mud. Antony, a young New Zealander, has been doing this job for a year now. It’s a high-risk occupation, but it’s also his passion. On the rare tracks in the country, the only means of public transport remain some old, beaten-up pick-up trucks. Their drivers pay absolutely no attention to safety standards. With his vehicle laden with passengers and supplies, Paul makes daily trips to the villages on Mount Wilhelm?the highest peak in Papua Asia?from the valley. Here, brakes and suspension get a severe testing! The least error means a certain plunge to the bottom of a ravine… It’s here, on the roof of Papua Asia, that Father Matthew lives. He’s a Papuan priest and he’s a unique character. On this Christmas Day he celebrates a huge mass before setting off on forgotten trails that only he dares to take. His destination? Villages far from anywhere where he must spread the good word. - Follow us on social media : Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/BestDocumentaryTV

This is the story of a tiny little girl who is in danger of dying. It’s also the story of a father and a mother, Rémi and Catherine, who will do everything to save her. Capucine is sixteen months old and suffers from cirrhosis, a fatal congenital disease that affects one child in every fifteen thousand in France. The only solution: a kidney transplant. The waiting list is long, organ donors are rare and Capucine needs the transplant very quickly. Catherine is going to donate a lobe of her liver to her baby, a little bit of her” as Rémi says.Because they wish to draw attention to the dramatic lack of organ donors in France, Catherine and Rémi agreed to be filmed over several months. This report is the story of a mother and a father who love their little girl for life, for love!” - Follow us on social media : Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/BestDocumentaryTV

October 26, 2006, president Bush signs the bill ordering the construction of a 700 miles (1100 kilometers) wall between the United States of America and Mexico. Because the border is like a sieve: 3000 kilometers to be supervised and an irregular fence, often even non-existent. And, each year, they are hundreds of thousands to face all the dangers to try the passage from Mexico. In 2005, the Border Patrol, the American border guards, arrested more than one million of them. Since 2005, voluntary militia were created to contribute to the monitoring of the border. Among them, there are many women. This handful patriotic and ultra-nationalists Americans call themselves Minutemen, in reference to the independence war militia which were to answer the call to the weapons in one minute.These disappointed of George Bush are persuaded that America is in danger and that latino invasion should be stopped. They are the new face of a reactionary and paranoiac America. Portrait. - Follow us on social media : Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/BestDocumentaryTV

5,000 euros to hire a womb in India, the equivalent of 10 years’ salary. 3,000 euros to buy a kidney in the Philippines, the price of a house for a poor family. These are the sorts of adverts that have boosted medical tourism. The customers are Western patients for whom the practice is unobtainable because it is either illegal or too expensive. In America, for instance, a surrogate mother costs three times more than in Asia. Who are the tour operators reigning over this trade? Even more spectacular… with a click on the Internet a couple unable to have children are able to buy eggs or sperm. On one side are the poor ready to sell their bodies for spare parts in order to survive, on the other, patients ready to spend a fortune to buy themselves better health. - Follow us on social media : Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/BestDocumentaryTV

Hollywood, its limousines, its walkway of stars and … and its cemetery of stars! Hollywood Forever is a rather special place where a grave, all in marble and in the Roman style, can cost 150,000 dollars, 10 times the cost of a traditional grave in the United States.The most impressive grave in the cemetery, the mausoleum of oil magnate William Clark is estimated at one million dollars. That’s very expensive, but it’s the price you pay to enter a cemetery of legend.Set in the heart of Los Angeles, this 50-acre cemetery is home to the graves of some of Hollywood’s historic directors: Cecil B. De Mille or John Huston. There’s also the luscious Jayne Mansfield and even French singer Joe Dassin.The place has been here for 100 years. A cemetery that couldn’t have been more traditional until the arrival of Jay Beaulieu, a man who turned it into an astonishing business.Jay and his associate offer to make a video retracing the lives of their customers using photos and contributions recorded during their lifetime.20,000 customers have already bought this moment of eternity. Prices vary from 2,000 to 8,000 dollars. These video biographies make up the major part of the cemetery’s turnover. They have already made Jay 12 million dollars. - Follow us on social media : Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/BestDocumentaryTV