A week with Lakota

All across the USA people are rising up against fracking. They don’t believe the process is safe and think it causes wide-scale land contamination. Ever more extraction sites are being approved and developed with new plant being built in once idyllic landscapes. 

Award-winning director Aleksey Andronov makes movies about love, disappointment and philosophy. But he does it inside prison as he’s sentenced to 10 years. His actors, cameramen and crew are all fellow inmates. Hear his story only on RTDoc.

“Gender equality gives children a fantastic opportunity to be whoever they want to be.” This is the basic idea of the gender-free pedagogy taught in Sweden. Any reference to gender is eliminated from toys, books and even speech. Tanja Bergkvist, a Swedish blogger, shows how this process can reach absurdity.

Karina, who calls herself a living Barbie doll, enjoys a glamorous, carefree lifestyle. She believes she is envied and looked up to by most young women. And her whole life is coloured pink.

Egypt is a land where the concept of gender equality has barely taken root. It’s hard for women to make ends meet and even harder if they happen to be single parents. When Sisa’s husband died, leaving her alone to bring up and feed a young daughter, she came up with a novel solution; she became a man! For the next 43 years she pretended to be male.  Now in her 60s, she has no doubts about living that lie, saying it was a far better choice than taking another husband.

Pastor and pilgrim Gennady Mokhnenko visits Kenya to see his foster son as well as to help local communities to get clean water, access to medicine and education. He travels to the most remote and inaccessible parts of the country to talk to local people and volunteers who help them.

One man's personal journey through his own mortality is changing the way an entire city thinks and talks about death. 

Juno was a picture of success; he had been married for 29 years and had a PhD in biophysics, but never felt completely at ease. He took the bold decision to realign his gender. This new documentary, by RT America correspondent and director Alexey Brazhnikov, delves into transgender life in the US and explores how people face their problems, past, present and future.

For some people, the so-called ‘Tower of David’ is just an unfinished skyscraper. For others, it’s an asylum for robbers and murderers. About 800 families call this place home. RTD presents a film about people that live in this tower.

Single dads are both breadwinners and nurturers: they raise their children without their wives. Learn the reasons behind single fatherhood in Russia on RTDoc.

What happened to the exiles of the Arab Spring? Are fruits of the revolution thriving in their European haven?

In Russian prison colonies inmates often receive an education, sometimes specializing in a completely new profession. For a few, their talents manifest i n ways they would never have realized in the days before they wore prison clothing. 

Two decades since collapse of the Soviet Union many former republics are still in many ways parts of Russia. Uzbekistan and Tajikistan's economic situations are so troubled that their residents are forced to flock to Russia to earn some money. 

As Russian villages dwindle, one local postman is determined to deliver a bit of good to those who live far from the reaches of urban conveniences. Join RTDoc as we see how his selflessness has earned him the reputation of being the builder of a modern Noah’s Ark.

Time is running out for a tightly-knit community of less than 1,000 people on Tangier Island, Virginia, where crab fisherman and oystermen have made a living for generations amidst idyllic beaches and unique wildlife.

RT takes an exclusive look at North Korea, the world’s most closed-off country. Life here is isolated from the outside world and every aspect of existence is regulated by order of the "Great Leader", from the art you’re allowed to see, the books you can read, even to your hairstyle.

Minister Steve, founder of “Tent City” for the homeless, lost his battle with the authorities and the makeshift settlement was torn down. Now he's built a raft to sail the perilous waters of the Intracoastal Waterway and raise awareness of the problem of homelessness in America. Flying a 13-star Betsy Ross flag, and with conquistador statue for protection, RTD's Aleksey Brazhnikov joins him as he embarks on his odyssey.

Pastor and pilgrim Gennady Mokhnenko - a foster father of 32 former street boys, travels to Africa to sponsor a 33rd son, a boy from the streets of Kenya. He brings along three of his foster sons and a team of volunteers. They work in orphanages and hospitals, bring money to provide medications, food and clothes in their mission to help Kenyan street kids and orphans in their day-to-day struggles. RT’s camera crew follows them in Kenya to hear about their experiences in this troubled part of the world.

An homage to “women of a certain age”! Their beauty is much more than skin deep, enhanced by wisdom, life experience and achievements. A beauty pageant for women over 50 inspires RTD writer and director, Alyona Simikina, to document her own mother’s life.

Cossack troops return to France 200 years after the Napoleonic wars were over. They'll show traditional riding tricks, wield swords while on horseback and perform other spectacular stunts, but no bloodshed or wounded people this time, just fun and games.