During the same summer as Woodstock, over 300,000 people attended the Harlem Cultural Festival, celebrating African American music and culture, and promoting Black pride and unity. The footage from the festival sat in a basement, unseen for over 50 years, keeping this incredible event in America’s history lost—until now.

Robert Johnson was one of the most influential blues guitarists ever. Even before his early death, fans wondered if he’d made a pact with the Devil.

A meditation on the elemental bonds of family told through portraits of four Syrian families in the aftermath of war.

In a seasonal special, Gordon Buchanan meets the animals who live in nature’s winter wonderlands. He reveals their survival secrets, from the polar bear mother who gives her cubs the best possible start in life to the owl that finds food hidden beneath a blanket of snow, plus the plucky penguins that huddle together to keep warm. Gordon also unwraps the lives of our favourite Christmas characters – those wonderful reindeer and our very own robin redbreast!

Based on the book by a non-verbal autistic man, Naoki Higashida, filmmaker Jerry Rothwell examines the lives of five non-speaking, autistic youngsters.

Roman Polanski spends the weekend with World Champion F1 Driver Jackie Stewart as he tries to win the 1971 Monaco Grand Prix. This give us a rare ‘backstage’ view into the life of a F1 driver at the peak of his abilities.

Embrace follows body image activist Taryn Brumfitt’s crusade as she explores the global issue of body loathing, inspiring us to change the way we feel about ourselves and think about our bodies.

What if everything we’ve been told about saturated fat is fiction? And what if the “low fat, heart healthy” diet represents one of the most damaging public health recommendations in the history of our country? FAT FICTION is a feature length, documentary film that examines the history of the U.S. Dietary Guidelines and questions decades of dietary advice insisting that saturated fats are bad for us.

Discover the legacy of Action Park, a very real amusement park that used to exist that has something of a legendary story. Not only because the park was wild and far less structured than something like Disneyland, but because many people were seriously injured, and some even died. While it sounds made up, this place was very real.

The ostensibly simple story of a sympathetic veteran teacher giving Italian lessons to a weekly class of diverse immigrants is given infinitely more depth and complexity by the manner in which director Daniele Gaglianone renders his story. Blurring the lines between fact and fiction, truth and artifice, and between documentary and drama, Gaglianone has created a film within a film. You see the apparent artifice of Gaglianone’s crew using professionals, including the noted film actor Valerio Mastandrea as the teacher, interlinked with ‘real’ immigrant protagonists, studying the language to improve their chances of employment and of gaining a permanent residence permit. Thus in the course of the lessons there is simultaneously the painful and upsetting relation of the students’ personal stories but also humour, as they interact and share their humanity, bridging cultural differences, united in their striving to make a better life for themselves. (Source: LFF programme)

Atlantis is more visual art than nature film and a ‘must see’ for any Luc Besson fan. The film captures the feel of what it’s actually like to swim underwater better than any film I’ve ever seen, perfectly illustrating the form and texture of sea water. Beautiful. Highly recommended for anyone interested in visual arts or diving.

Experience an inside look at David Bowie’s incredible influence on music, art and culture via interviews with some of the people who knew him best.