Tag Archives: Oil

Inside Saudi Arabia (series)

Saudi Arabia is well known across the world for its wealth, strict faith and oppression, but while Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman has decreed that it wants to reform, the world is startled by the murder of journalist Khashoggi and other human rights violations.

We follow the developments from the inside, through the eyes of the inhabitants themselves. Are they just empty promises or is Saudi Arabia actually able to change?

 

Episode 1: In Search for Freedom 

We travel across Saudi Arabia and follow the reforms from within for a year. The country wants to diversify its economy by opening its borders to tourism.

In Jeddah, many young people hope for change, demanding greater equality between men and women, but the conservative opposition is enormous. One wrong word and they can be arrested. How far do they go in the fight for freedom?

 

Episode 2: Under the Control of the Royal Family

In the second episode, we enter the Saudi Arabian elite, where it becomes clear that the killing of Khashoggi does not impact their loyalty towards the royal family.

We are invited to Diriyah where religion and the House of Saud coincide, leading us to the mosque of Wahab, which is said to be a birthplace of extremist ideas.

 

Episode 3: The Power of the Holy Cities 

The two holy cities of Mecca and Medina give Saudi Arabia enormous religious power.

We follow the trail of the pilgrims, from the port of Jeddah to the Holy Kaäba. There is a call for a more moderate Islam, but do religious leaders really support this?

 

Episode 4: Travelling to Reality 

After the murder of Khashoggi, the question is what will happen with the reforms. Is the support for Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman crumbling?

We travel to the rarely covered conservative South, on the border with Yemen, where the population’s resistance to change is the fiercest.

Beyond Pollution

A thought provoking, in-depth look at the causes and effects of the most devastating man made environmental disaster America has ever experienced.

Beyond Pollution is a firsthand investigation into BP’s disastrous oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Traveling thousands of miles across the Gulf coast interviewing environmental experts, government officials, fisherman & distributors, scientists, drilling engineers, and key BP contractors, the film reveals, in depth the immediate and long term environmental, economic, and health impacts the tragedy is having on the local communities.

In the context of BP’s record on safety and the environment, the oil spill now seems sadly inevitable, so why weren’t measures put in place to avoid the disaster that will be felt for generations to come? How were they able to play down the consequences and avoid criminal responsibility, and how did their response further devestate those communities affected?

Beyond Pollution is an exhaustively researched and elegantly executed expose on an avoidable tragedy that began with an oil spill but had far-reaching, and unreported repercussions, uncovering what really happened, why, and who really benefited

Along Gaddafi’s Road

For the first time in 42 years, a camera enters Southern Libya in what was forbidden territory under the Gaddafi regime.

Shortly after Gaddafi’s demise, we accompany members of the disgraced Tabu tribe along the road to their impoverished desert territory near the Algeria-Niger-Chad borders 1000 Km from Tripoli.

Electricity has been on again for barely two months, mobile phones haven’t worked for seven. Fuel is scarce and queues are endlessly long. Two widespread weapons are in use: sat phones and Kalashnikovs.

Closely guarded by rebel escorts for security reasons, we follow the illegal immigrants route all the way to the Niger border. We discover how Gaddafi challenged Europe at the beginning of the revolution by sending and financing flows of migrants. Rebels, smugglers and victims of the old regime tell their stories.

The desert’s well-preserved secrets now finally come to light.