Al Jazeera World

Turkish artist Esref Armagan is one of the few blind commercial painters in the world.

Blind from birth, he learned to draw by touching and copying carved shapes. As he grew older, Armagan adapted techniques which allowed him to add perspective to his work.

A few critics suggested that his art was not his own, a claim refuted by those who witnessed him paint.

Today, Armagan’s artwork is in demand internationally. He also mentors young visually impaired children, demonstrating how they can achieve their artistic dreams.

The story of Mohamed "Med" Hondo, from his humble beginnings in Mauritania, to smuggling himself on board a ship to France, to finding recognition as a modern African cinema director and actor.

Hondo’s films challenged racism in Europe and historic colonialism in Africa. He also found great success dubbing the voices of famous Hollywood actors into French, including Eddie Murphy and Morgan Freeman.

French children recognise Hondo as the voice of Donkey in Shrek. But to a generation of cinema-goers, Hondo was a radical filmmaker who used his creativity as a tool to fight injustice, wherever he saw it.

Morgan and Perry are two young American students looking to expand their horizons through a college placement programme. They left the United States to spend time living with local families in Morocco.

Morgan is in Rabat, hoping to improve her Arabic and learn the local culture. Perry is in a remote mountain village 230km away, staying with a family and their small children.

For both of them, this immersion is a rich and lasting experience, in which they learn the language and culture of Morocco. For one, it becomes life-changing when she falls in love.

Racist slurs, satire, an ancient Islamic "advert" and World Cup football pride are the inspirations for these four song stories from the Arabian Gulf.

In Kuwait, the Haydoo song was born as an expression of pride in the face of unpleasant slurs in the 1981 World Cup; in Oman, a satirical song about a cat and mouse is really about the political situation in the 1970s; an old Qatari phrase, "shoomelah", meaning "rise to him", became the lyrics of the country’s main football anthem; and in Iraq, an ancient poem about the virtues of black veils became what is considered the oldest "advertisement" in Islamic history.

Away from politics and war, this musical mini-tour sheds light and offers insights into a region often poorly represented in the media.

Al Jazeera World:

- YouTube: https://aje.me/AJWplaylist

- Twitter: https://twitter.com/AlJazeeraWorld

- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AlJazeeraWorld

- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_aljazeeraworld/

- Website: https://www.aljazeera.com/program/al-jazeera-world/

#AlJazeeraWorld

The minibus service operates even when temperatures drop to minus 35 degrees Celsius (-31 degrees Fahrenheit). Despite the treacherous roads, regular passengers journey to the nearest town, Senkaya. This trip allows a tight-knit group of friends to banter, bond and discuss their challenging lives.

This remote bus service also reveals local environmental change. There has been a reduction in snowfall which used to help keep the soil fertile, but now the frozen-solid ground has become harder to farm, threatening livelihoods here.

In Turkey’s Senkaya Bus, we get an insight into communities, cultures and environmental change in eastern Turkey.

Soly, an Egyptian filmmaker, rescues Layaly, a stray dog in Cairo, with help from a group of animal welfare volunteers before travelling with her to a new home abroad.

However, just hours before the dog is due to face life-saving throat surgery, she escapes into the hills. Soly joins a 10-day search with support from local media and volunteers.

This tale of animal welfare and international rescue concludes in the snows of Canada, where the dog who cheated death embarks on her new life.

Ahmad Abumraighi is an artist with a dream.

He wants to create a striking artwork that connects the suffering of Black Americans, Native Americans and Palestinians.

However, the mural is just one part of his dream. He wants to display it in the open air in the very heart of the American capital, Washington, DC.

It is an ambitious project so Ahmad sets out on a road trip along the East Coast of the United States, seeking inspiration from other artists.

Correspondence between writers can sometimes reveal insights into their characters and ideas, beyond their published work.

In this film, two cross-cultural stories explore unusual connections through the exchange of letters.

The first is a little known link between the great Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy and the Grand Mufti of Egypt. Muhammad Abduh was the country’s spiritual leader and one of the most influential Muslim theologians of the early 20th century.

The second story is about the connection between the French surrealist writer André Breton and the Egyptian author, poet and critic Georges Henein. It is a tale of shared artistic vision across continents, but one which eventually led to a falling out between the two men.

“A land without a people, and a people without a land” is how the relationship between Palestine and the Jewish people was described by Christian writers in the 1800s. And the 20th-century history of the Middle East has largely been written through these eyes.

But this film from Al Jazeera Arabic looks at Palestine from a different angle. It hears from historians and witness accounts, and features archive documents that show Palestine as a thriving province of Greater Syria and the Ottoman Empire at the dawn of the 20th century.

The evidence suggests that its cities had a developing trade and commercial sector, growing infrastructure, and embryonic culture that would enable it to meet the challenges of the decades ahead.

However, the political ramifications of the Balfour Declaration, San Remo Conference and British Mandate set in motion a series of events that profoundly affected this vibrant, fledgeling society and led to the events of 1948 and beyond.

This film is the other side of the Palestinian story.

This award-winning documentary from Ivory Coast follows a group of young men who undergo an ancient coming-of-age ceremony in a remote West African forest.

Their spiritual tutor is struggling to preserve the tradition of the Generation Festival at a time when young local men are increasingly indifferent to these ancestral rituals.

Thanks to his efforts, ancient custom prevails and many young men in their early twenties take part in a gruelling three-week endurance test of physical and mental prowess.