Five documentary series to watch this summer to understand the world around us
Why is junk food so successful? How did China's boom come about? Is plastic a miracle or a catastrophe? What about oil? Production analyses how the world has changed in recent years, explaining how some of the major social movements or scientific discoveries originated. With clear and simple language, this documentary series, which consists of ten chapters of about 20 minutes, explains through illustrations, computer graphics and archival images some of the events that have had the greatest impact in recent years.
"The greatest adventure you can embark on is to live the life of your dreams". This phrase - uttered by journalist Oprah Winfrey several years ago - has been put into practice by ABC News journalist Bob Woodruff and his son Mack Woodruff, the protagonists of this documentary series, which will make us think about the power of second chances. Journey to the Hidden' is a way to travel to some of the most amazing places on the planet without moving from home and to understand the reality of certain societies, such as Colombia, which has been a victim of conflict for more than 60 years. During their tour, in this first season, Woodruff and his son will travel through Colombia, Papua New Guinea, Ethiopia, Pakistan, Lebanon and Ukraine. "It's a unique opportunity to discover with Mack how he can surprise and inspire us anywhere on the planet despite his past," Woodruff said before the series premiered in Spain.
All ideas must be adapted to new realities. Is society facing the same challenges as it did 50 years ago? How has the world changed? In each of the chapters of this documentary series, Michael Sandel, winner of the Princess of Asturias Award for Social Sciences in 2018, talks to a group of young people from thousands of years ago to analyse the main threats and opportunities of our society. In this series Sandel and this group of young people reflect on issues such as democracy and populism, big data and privacy, migration, nationalism or the power of market forces. What do we do for ourselves and what do we do for the community? Is there only self interest or is there something bigger than ourselves, a public interest? In just five chapters, the American philosopher and this group of young people discuss some of the contemporary moral dilemmas in a mini documentary series that will help us understand the world from a different perspective.
The author of the book 'Voices of Chernobyl' said in an interview five years ago that "we humans are not so strong when horror crosses boundaries". The mini-series that triumphed on HBO last year has many parallels with what happened in 1986. This production dramatizes the events surrounding this nuclear accident and narrates them through the voices of its protagonists, that is, all those people who suffered the impact of this great catastrophe. According to official data, the explosion in Chernobyl's nuclear reactor 4, which occurred in April 1986, scattered up to 200 tons of material with a radioactivity of 50 million curies, equivalent to 500 atomic bombs like the one dropped on Hiroshima. This accident, as reflected in this series, changed the world and improved the safety of nuclear power plants, as well as their protocols on how to act in the face of such a disaster.
"Greed is a bottomless pit that exhausts a person in a never-ending effort to satisfy his needs, without ever getting there". With these words the German psychoanalyst Erich Fromm spoke of one of the main evils of the 21st century. Edwin H. Sutherland, sociologist and one of the most influential American criminologists of the 20th century, was the first to speak of "WhiteCollar Crime". These types of crimes are those that are carried out without directly spilling blood and usually include all events related to influence peddling, fraud, money, money laundering or the embezzlement of economic funds, among others. The documentary series 'Dirty Money' uncovers some of the most prominent corruption scandals in the business world. The executive producer and creator of this documentary found his inspiration after being affected by the fraud of the Volkswagen car company. This series shows how the ambition of many companies - translated into bank scandals or real estate deals - puts citizens in danger.