The Documentary Podcast

It has been 100 years since a young animator sold his first film series, called Alice Comedies, to a distributor. Without knowing, he was starting what became one of the world’s biggest media empires. The company took his family name: Disney. The studio has led and shaped the animation industry for generations, and it’s now in the very heart of global culture.

In this episode of The Cultural Frontline, we speak to animators responsible for some of Disney and Pixar’s most successful films. We also explore the creative, technological and cultural challenges Disney and the wider animation industry are facing today.

Veteran animator Floyd Norman has worked with Disney since the 1950s, on films like Sleeping Beauty and The Jungle Book. His colleague Tony Bancroft was the co-director of Mulan and the creator of one of the most beloved Disney characters, Pumbaa the warthog, in The Lion King. They talk about the milestones of Disney history.

Oscar-winning director Brenda Chapman reflects on the role of women on screen and in production, and talks about the inspiration for Merida, Brave’s anti-princess.

Plus, Rebecca Sugar, and Frank Abney discuss how the fight for LGBTQ+ rights and the Black Lives Matter movement are changing the animation industry.

Presenter: Brian Sibley

It’s more than 150 years since the end of the American Civil War. But the replacement of a monument dedicated to the Confederate Commander Robert E Lee with a statue of black icon Henrietta Lacks has proved an emotive issue in Roanoke, Virginia.

In a region steeped in the history and trauma of that war, the unveiling of a new memorial has shone a spotlight on the hidden histories of the United States. As Elizabeth Gabriel reports for Assignment, how we remember the past remains a divisive issue.

Produced by Ben Wyatt

(Image: Statue of Henrietta Lacks on Lacks Plaza, Roanoke. Credit: David Hungate and the Roanoke Times)

Mike Wooldridge and Tanzanian development worker Mary Ndaro report on the opportunities and challenges for Dar es Salaam, Tanzania's commercial centre, and one of Africa’s fastest growing cities. Some six million people currently call Dar es Salaam home, but the city’s population has grown by a whopping 40% in just a decade. By the 2030s it is projected to become a megacity with a population of more than 10 million. Getting around cities like Dar es Salaam can be not only stressful but expensive, negotiating roads clogged with cars and choked with fumes, but the city is now investing in transport infrastructure to keep people moving.

Stay Online is the first film about the full-scale war in Ukraine. Young producer Anton Skrypets tells Antonia Quirke about the dangers and challenges of this groundbreaking production, through a series of interviews and diary entries interspersed by the sound of air raid sirens and drone attacks. Directed by his sister Yeva Strielnikova, Stay Online is a rare thing: a war movie made entirely in a war zone.

The territory of Nagorno-Karabakh is at the centre of one of the world’s longest running disputes that goes back more than 100 years. The latest conflict involved a lightening military operation by Azerbaijan. It resulted in nearly 120,000 Armenians, virtually the entire population, leaving Nagorno-Karabakh and making a difficult journey across the border to Armenia Host Anna Foster hears from three women who took that single route.

Pope Francis has launched the biggest consultation in the history of the Catholic church. Since the process started three years ago, millions of Catholics worldwide have given their responses to the question: “What steps does the Spirit invite us to take in order to grow in our journeying together?” Caroline Wyatt brings three young Catholics together to discuss the future of their church. She also hears other voices from around the world, to explore just what Pope Francis’s revolution means to them.

Gabon is football crazy and it’s the dream of most young footballers to play internationally. But, in 2022 a long serving coach for youth national teams admitted to charges of raping, grooming, and exploiting young players. He faces up to 30 years in prison. For Assignment, BBC Africa Eye’s Khadidiatou Cissé travels to Gabon to investigate one of the biggest sexual abuse scandals in the history of football. She speaks with victims and eyewitnesses who reveal a shocking culture of sexual abuse and despair, with claims that many people knew, and many stayed silent. We follow a coach who, at personal risk, is determined to bring about change. Football’s world governing body, FIFA, is facing accusations of failing to take effective action over the scandal.

Presented by Khadidiatou Cissé

(Image: Child holding football boots. Credit: BBC)

What is the future for Africa's rapidly swelling cities? The stretch of nearly 1,000 km between Abidjan and Lagos, is by 2100 projected to be the largest zone of continuous, dense habitation on earth - and home to about half a billion people. In Ghana alone, the population which was around six million at the time of independence could exceed 50 million by 2050. There has been unprecedented migration into Accra and other cities from rural areas, straining the city’s ability to provide basic housing and services to people, and exacerbating existing inequalities. Presenter Mike Wooldridge and Ghanaian architect Ruth-Anne Richardson report on the opportunities and challenges this rapid urbanisation brings in West Africa.

The term “narwhal” derives from the old Nordic for “nár + hvalr”, meaning corpse + whale, which, for these animals, is quickly becoming prophetic. Climate change, with its accompanying increase in human marine activity, has led to the Arctic Ocean becoming noisier. As narwhal rely on sound to communicate and navigate their surroundings, this could result in the extinction of populations like East Greenland's narwhal by as soon as 2025. Mary-Ann Ochota investigates how this issue is at once political, cultural, and environmental and speaks to the scientists, traditional hunters, and activists, who are seeking a solution.

After its award winning premier in 2020, a new production of The Visitors by Indigenous playwright Jane Harrison sees us on the eve of colonisation. The first fleet sailed into Sydney Harbour on the 26 January 1788 bringing with them convicts, disease and violence. The play asks, what if we saw this moment from the Aboriginal perspective? What if they could decide whether or not to let the fleet land? As seven tribal elders watch the fleet arrive they must decide whether to stop them, or welcome them. Regina Botros follows the director Wesley Enoch, the writer Jane Harrison and the cast through the challenges of the play as it reflects, quite poignantly, the current political climate in Australia.