Leave it to dad

An estimated 290,000 Indian farmers have committed suicide in 20 years. Small farms used to be the country’s economic backbone but now, owners struggle to make even a meagre profit and drown in debt. For some, the pressure is too much. Many blame GMO cotton for the failing farms, having cornered the market and replaced organic crops; they have failed to live up to expectations.

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.

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. 

As a result of a mistake at a maternity hospital, two boys were raised in the wrong families and never knew why they looked so different from their parents and siblings. But one day the truth came out.

Where can Russians learn how to sell a hundred rubles for two hundred, or start a business from nothing? Join RT as we go on a tour of Moscow's Higher School of Economics.

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.

About a hundred people live in a specially organised ‘Tent City’ in New Jersey. All of them have different stories and different reasons for coming here. The film takes a look at how they manage to live their lives and what hopes and beliefs they have.

Saint Basil the Great rehabilitation centre gives juvenile offenders a chance to start a new life. A life without drug abuse, stealing or violence. But are the young people on the program ready to accept this help?

“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.

When people are released from jail they have nowhere to live, no jobs and no opportunities to start over, so they are in danger of ending up behind bars again. Having been in their shoes once, Yury Potapenko knows just how much they need another chance and gives them one.

They serve a prison sentence, but they committed no crime. They are born behind barbed wire and all they can hope for is their mothers' love. But love is not a regular guest in jail. Are they atoning their mothers' sins or standing on a path to new ones?

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. 

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.

Guns have historically been a distinct feature of American life, but school shootings that have become more frequent recently have raised a question whether the US government should ban people from keeping guns at home.

A stranger in his homeland and a stranger in his adopted country, a former Soviet soldier had to stay in Afghanistan for 29 years after being captured by the Mujahideen and made to fight on the side of his country's enemy. In this film, he finally comes back to his native land, but is he welcomed?

Kosovo, with NATO’s help, won independence from Serbia in 1999. In 2014 Serbia opened its borders with the young republic allowing tens of thousands of migrants to leave Kosovo for Europe. Disenchanted Kosovars hoped to escape poverty and unemployment  by seeking better lives abroad for themselves and their children. The massed departure has come to be known as “the Exodus”.

Prisoners of a psychiatric ward. They are criminal offenders suffering from mental disorders. Can art therapy relieve their troubled souls and minds? Artist Alexandr Semyonov gives them a chance to change and get better. 

These women are not ashamed of their appearance – on the contrary, they live happy lives and are proud of what they have achieved. They are called little ladies, but the life they lead is full of big accomplishments and great events. We meet two little ladies to hear their stories.

In the poverty-stricken former Soviet country of Tajikistan, the men have sought job opportunities abroad and the women are left in charge of agrarian communities where cattle provide almost everything and luxuries are few.

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.