What's on DocPlay in March

It's another bumper-packed month for DocPlay.

Here are the titles being added to the documentary service this March.

3 March 

Notturno

From the director of Golden Bear winner Fire at Sea comes an achingly poetic, humane meditation on life in the shadow of war and the Islamic State. In Syria, Iraq, Kurdistan and Lebanon, life goes on. Years, sometimes decades, of terror have brutalised these lands – but that’s not the story that Gianfranco Rosi is interested in telling. The Oscar-nominated documentarian spent three years filming, mostly solo, in the region, his aim being to tell the stories beyond the conflict. Acting as cinematographer as well as director, writer, producer and sound technician, he captures stunning imagery of the everyday in the aftermath of war, following people “living along the border that separates life from hell”. A fascinating picture of human resilience and healing.

7 March

Walt Disney

In 1966, the year he died from lung cancer, Walt Disney was everywhere. No one before or since has held such a commanding place in American life. Yet as familiar as his work was to young and old alike, Disney himself was something of an enigma. For many, he was exactly what he appeared on television to be. To others, he was a controlling studio chief with a titanic temper, a demanding taskmaster whose wrath even extended to his long-suffering business partner and older brother Roy. His life and legacy are unravelled in this intimate biography.

7 March

Hemingway

Hemingway, a new documentary film by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick, examines the visionary work and the turbulent life of Ernest Hemingway, one of the greatest and most influential writers the world has ever produced. Interweaving his eventful biography — a life lived at the ultimately treacherous nexus of art, fame, and celebrity — with carefully selected excerpts from his iconic short stories, novels, and non-fiction, the series reveals the brilliant, ambitious, charismatic, and complicated man behind the myth, and the art he created. Narrated by long-time collaborator Peter Coyote, and featuring an all-star cast of actors bringing Hemingway  vividly to life. The filmmakers were granted unusually open access to the treasure trove of Hemingway’s manuscripts, correspondence, scrapbooks and photographs exploring the painstaking process through which Hemingway created some of the most important works of fiction, 

14 March

What Went Wrong - Season 2

From the producers of the first series of “What Went Wrong, Countdown to Catastrophe”, a second series, with similar recent and historic events that changed the lives of thousands of people forever. The thread that connects all the stories is human failure: none of these catastrophes was inevitable. What Went Wrong is explained from an engineering perspective, using animations and first hand accounts. The drama of the events is delivered through witnesses and survivors who vividly bring the catastrophe to the viewer of today placing engineering into its human context.

1. The Ramstein Tragedy

2. Viareggio Derailment Disaster

3. Flight MH17

4. The Blaze in the Mont Blanc Tunnel

5. Duisburg Love Parade Disaster

6. The Explosion Disaster in Beirut

28 March

Terrorism Close Calls

A true crime story that uncovers facts behind the world’s deadliest terror plots – that have failed. The war on terror is always and everywhere. We tell the story of the attacks that have been thwarted or less fatal than planned. With exclusive access to leading counter-terrorism experts and elite agents, we give insight to the investigation that stopped the terror threats. In each episode a planned terrorist attack is documented, which should claim many lives but was prevented by intelligence surveillance, wiretapping, infiltration, covert investigations and sometimes a little luck.

Episodes:

1. THE NY CITY SUBWAY PLOT

2. THE STUDENT BOMB MAKER

3. CARGO BOMB PLOT

4. THE AMBASSADOR, THE CAR SALESMAN, & THE MEXICAN CARTEL

5. “OPERATION OVERT”: SEVEN PLANES – SEVEN BOMBS

6. MARTIN LUTHER KING DAY PLOT

7. THE SAUERLAND CELL

8. THE ISRAELI HONEY TRAP

9. AUSTRALIAN ANZAC DAY PLOT

10. GERMAN JIHAD & THE EURO PLOT