Documentary AreaSimply the best Documentaries

As dozens of top surfers from across the world arrive in Nazaré to train and prepare for a major big-wave competition, Garret McNamara continues to struggle with his physical injuries and mental preparedness. He knows he is not ready to surf in the competition but seeing the other surfers makes him consider competing anyway. Garrett also has misgivings about the state of safety plans at the competition, and tries to convince the organizers to beef up their plans.

The once-quiet suburbs of Sweden's major cities are the epicenter of a vicious turf war between rival gangs competing for the drug trade. The fierce competition has resulted in a series of tit-for-tat killings with almost daily shootings and bombings. More than 45 people have been shot dead so far this year. Paraic O'Brien steps onto the frontline of Sweden's deadly gang war, as the country becomes one of the most lethal for gun crime in the whole of Europe.
From the front line of its lethal drug wars, a look at how Sweden has become one of Europe's deadliest hot spots for gun crime, with shootings often committed by children.

Beef and brine. This 'Best Of' episode of the Mind of a Chef explores the wet and dry side of our culinary world. Magnus Nilsson dry-ages a steak in kidney fat as long as he possibly can, April Bloomfield hallucinates while at a butcher shop, Ed Lee makes a ribeye with eel puree, and more.

With the Doomsday Clock the closest it's ever been to midnight, Jane Corbin investigates the proliferation of nuclear weapons across the globe. She visits Los Alamos, home to the United States’ nuclear weapons development facility and the historic home of Oppenheimer’s Manhattan Project.
In Scotland, she reveals the strategy behind Britain’s nuclear deterrent, and speaks to campaigners in Suffolk fighting against US weapons they fear will be based on UK soil. Jane also discovers how many of the global agreements and safeguards that have constrained the spread of nuclear weapons since the 1970s are breaking down.
This is a story told by the scientists, investigators and diplomats who set the clock and have fought to ensure that the ultimate deterrent has not been used in over 70 years.

The last episode explores Mescaline, the psychoactive molecule in San Pedro and peyote cacti, a sacred medicine that Native Americans have had to fight for the right to use. At the Indigenous practices there's always an elder, someone who knows the territory very well, who's presiding. There's usually a group, a community is involved, There's always an intention, a purpose to what you're doing, and you're treating it as sacred, in order to achieve altered states of consciousness, which contribute to worship in various ways, or celebration or healing.
But maybe all this is not so new to Western culture after all. In the old Greek histories of Eleusis, people who were initiated there got the drink, the kykeon, and then they had the illumination. The precise recipe is a mystery, but we know that the kykeon was a psychoactive brew that was used at the Eleusinian mysteries, a sacred annual ritual of enlightenment practiced by some of the world's greatest minds including Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. So why did this ritual come to an end more than 1,000 years ago? Was the possibility of illumination or achieving a higher consciousness considered threatening to the powers that be? Have the drug wars been merely an extension of that fear?
Psychedelics has a major part in how we can heal as a community, how we can heal as a city, and how we can heal as a country. The current renaissance of psychedelics could not come at a better time as the world confronts a crisis in mental health. But psychedelics have much to offer. The psychedelic experience changes the mind in ways that will help scientists better understand how it works. All these altered states allow us to probe what is the greatest mystery in all of nature. The emergence from mere matter of something as miraculous as consciousness. But an even bigger question is whether psychedelics might help us address the environmental crisis of how we think about our place in nature. One of the greatest gifts of psychedelics is how they reanimate the natural world, allowing us to perceive the subject, the spirit of all species, not just our own. And to feel a deeper sense of interconnectedness with nature.

In the first episode, Sir David Attenborough reveals the unexpected wildlife riches of the British Isles, showcasing the dramatic and spectacular habitats that rival any across the globe. This journey uncovers the diversity of life in the UK's unique landscapes, from the intricate world of bumblebees to the swift lives of kingfishers. The episode captures extraordinary scenes of nature, including killer whales preying on seals, golden eagles in the Scottish mountains, the cunning tactics of woodland plants, and the perilous life of puffins evading gulls. It highlights Britain's geological diversity as a cornerstone of its natural wealth, contributing to an array of habitats and supporting a wide range of life.
Britain's importance extends to being a haven for migratory birds, with our seas feeding 65% of the world's gannets and supporting the largest colony of northern gannets on Scotland's Bass Rock. The west coast of Scotland offers sanctuary to barnacle geese due to its abundant food and mild climate, though they remain vigilant against hunting sea eagles. Despite these natural treasures, Britain faces challenges as one of the most nature-depleted countries globally. Sir David Attenborough emphasizes the need to conserve and restore these wild isles for the enjoyment and benefit of future generations.