Documentary AreaSimply the best Documentaries

Against the backdrop of Cold War tensions and a global race for supremacy, this riveting film unveils a deeply unsettling chapter in space history. It reveals how the triumph of the 1969 Moon landing was made possible through the morally contentious recruitment of former Nazi scientists—most notably Wernher von Braun—who had engineered Germany’s V‑2 rockets during World War II through Operation Paperclip. As America navigated the ethical maze of enlisting men with dark pasts, these scientists became pivotal in crafting the mighty Saturn V rocket and ushering in the age of space exploration. This documentary invites viewers to confront the unspoken complexity behind progress: the collision of ambition, conscience, and the weight of history.

In this series, we will explore how we can survive Mars. Our species will need to evolve how we eat, drink, and build our homes. In the first episode, humans seem to be on the cusp of reaching Mars, but how did we get to this point? Our journey to our neighboring planet traces a path connecting Nikola Tesla, Nazi weapons of war, a Cold War space race, and a string of blockbuster discoveries made by some of NASA’s most talented robots.

Space Race is a docu-drama chronicling the major events and characters in the American/Soviet space race. It focusses on Sergei Korolev, the Soviets' chief rocket designer, and Wernher von Braun, his American counterpart. The series was a joint effort between British, German, American and Russian production teams." In the first episode, 1944-1949, we see Wernher von Braun's work on the V-2 for the Nazis during the last years of the Second World War, his surrender to American troops and his move to the USA. We see Sergei Korolev's release from the Gulag, and how he is set to work on Soviet rockets, first attempting to copy the V-2, then building a more efficient rocket of his own.