S2004 E1 • Game Over: Kasparov and the Machine

Garry Kasparov is arguably the greatest chess player who has ever lived. In 1997 he played a chess match against IBM's computer Deep Blue. Kasparov lost the match. This film shows the match and the events surrounding it from Kasparov's perspective. It delves into the psychological aspects of the game, paranoia surrounding it and suspicions that have arisen around IBM's true tactics. It consists of interviews with Kasparov, his manager, chess experts, and members of the IBM Deep Blue team, as well as original footage of the match itself. I suppose the strength of a documentary lies in its ability to make you believe its central thesis. Despite the lack of a definitive whistleblower, Vikram Jayanti's conspiracy thriller about chess legend Garry Kasparov's match against IBM's Deep Blue supercomputer does suggest something very unusual going on behind closed doors at the software firm. If the computer did what it did unassisted, then this is a triumph for science, yet IBM weren't acting like victors. Why, having developed what could have been a working prototype for an artificial intelligence, did the firm refuse to share details of its operational systems, and - a real smoking gun, this - dismantle it immediately after the last match? If they had nothing to hide, they were going a funny way about it. Jayanti and Kasparov both point the finger at the same scenario - human intervention on the machine's side of the game. Jayanti digs up a fascinating parallel to this - the tale of 'The Turk', a creepy-looking chess-playing robot that beat Napoleon and did indeed have a human covertly guiding it. Excerpts from a fascinating silent film about The Turk are peppered throughout this film. Even if you're not convinced, the film still has plenty of supplemental pleasures, not least in a dissection of a chess match as charged and fascinating as 'When We Were Kings' (1997)'s explanation of the Rumble in the Jungle. It also functions as a Cliff Notes guide to Kasparov's r

Première diffusion : 17 août 2004

S2004 E2 • Congo: White King, Red Rubber, Black Death

This true, shocking, astonishing story of what the Belgians did in the Congo was forgotten for over 50 years. Congo: White King, Red Rubber, Black Death describes Leopold II, King of the Belgium's private colony of the Congo between 1885 and 1908 as a gulag labor camp of shocking brutality. Leopold posed as the protector of Africans fleeing Arab slave-traders but, in reality, he carved out an empire based on terror to harvest rubber. Families were held as hostages, starving to death if the men failed to produce enough wild rubber. Children's hands were chopped off as punishment for late deliveries. The Belgian government has denounced this documentary as a "tendentious diatribe" for depicting King Leopold II as the moral forebear of Adolf Hitler, responsible for the death of 10 million people in his rapacious exploitation of the Congo. Yet, it is agreed today that the first Human Rights movement was spurred by what happened in the Congo.

Première diffusion : 24 février 2004

S2004 E3 • The Importance of Being Elegant

Set to the soundtrack of Papa Wemba's extraordinary music, this outrageous, funny and eye-opening film depicts the underground world of a flamboyant African cult. Nick Fraser (Editor) Papa Wemba is a well-known Congolese singer. He is also a big cheese in Le Sape, the Société des Ambianceurs et Persons Élégants, which translated into English means a society of people who spend huge amounts of money on designer clothes with the motive of making themselves as conspicuously elegant as possible. The film is a splendid evocation of Papa Wemba's music, but it is also an unusual insight into what it means to be an immigrant in contemporary Europe. The sapeur have borrowed from our own culture, creating something rich and strange and wholly Congolese. Don't miss the scene where they try on fur coats.

Première diffusion : 14 août 2004

S2004 E96 • India: Final Solution

A look at the politics of hate. This award-winning Storyville film documents the changing face of right-wing politics in India through a study of the killing in 2002 of Muslims in Gujarat after an attack on a train left 58 Hindus dead.

Première diffusion : 14 novembre 2004

S2004 E100 • Conrad Black: The Last Press Baron

Première diffusion : 17 octobre 2004

S2004 E103 • My Louis Armstrong Years

Director Mohamed Kounda 's touching documentary, filmed over three years, captures the love-hate relationship between singer/trumpeter Chantz Powell - who does an uncanny imitation of Satchmo - and his formidable mother/manager Glinda, as Chantz tries to sell his talent to Europe and America.

Première diffusion : 14 mars 2004

S2004 E104 • Games in Athens

Storyville documentary in which Athenian director Amalia Zepos investigates the impact of the Olympic Games on her city. Will Greek politicians and businessmen exploit the event for their own ends?

Première diffusion : 10 août 2004

S2004 E106 • The Curse of Oil: 1/3 Rich and Poor

Storyville' s journey through oil-producing regions begins in Ecuador and Angola - where oil has been more a curse than a blessing.

Première diffusion : 13 septembre 2004

S2004 E107 • The Curse of Oil: 2/3 The Pipeline

Storyville' s journey through oil-producing regions follows a new pipeline through some of the most politically dangerous and geographically challenging places on Earth.

Première diffusion : 20 septembre 2004

S2004 E108 • The Curse of Oil: 3/3 The Wilderness

Storyville examines the wilderness areas being opened up to oil exploration. How far will we go to get it?

Première diffusion : 27 septembre 2004

S2004 E110 • Sophiatown

During the 1940s and 50s, Sophiatown in Johannesburg was an enclave of creativity amid the insanity of apartheid. Storyville pays tribute to a bygone era.

Première diffusion : 17 avril 2004

S2004 E111 • A Sunday in Hell

Battling through dirt and dustclouds - and finally across cobbled streets - cycling greats such as Merckx, De Vlaeminck, Martens and Moser took part in the 1976 Paris to Roubaix single-day race. Jorgen Leth caught the action.

Première diffusion : 8 février 2004

S2004 E112 • RFK

An assassin robbed Bobby Kennedy of his brother John and a role that gave meaning to his life. Then, just as he began to move beyond his brother's shadow. he too was killed. Storyville looks at the remarkable and tragic life of the third Kennedy son - who may well have been president had he not been murdered.

Première diffusion : 5 décembre 2004

S2004 E116 • Congo: White King, Red Rubber, Black Death

King Leopold II of Belgium's exploitation of Congo's resources and people in a quest for profit amounted to one of the most oppressive regimes Africa ever knew. Peter Bate 's film for Storyville chronicles a sorry colonial chapter.

Première diffusion : 24 février 2004