Tent City USA

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.

It all started with a trolleybus that served as a meal station for homeless people. Now, a small trailer park has grown around it. It’s a place that welcomes anyone who has nowhere else to go, offering them the chance to get back on the right track.

As a transsexual, Yury Ovodov or "Julia" believes that he is actually a woman, and his decision to act the part has alienated his family and stunted his career prospects. However, he claims that he wouldn't be able to live with himself as a male. RTd follows a person trapped between two identities as he seeks acceptance, both from his community and from himself.

Together’ is not a charity fund, an organisation or a programme. It’s a remarkable community of people who usually don’t even know each other. They have different occupations, education and hobbies, but there’s one thing they share in common. As they say themselves, ‘We care’. 

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.

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. 

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.

Every August the Pine Ridge annual powwow is held to celebrate the culture and traditions of the Lakota people, but it looks like a feast in a time of plague, as most of them have lost all hope of getting through the dire straits. 

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.

At the age of 15, Oleg and Polina have to get used to the adult responsibilities of parenthood. To help them adapt to their new life, Yulia steps in, a foster mother who has brought up 7 children and now hopes to make a difference for these young people and their baby daughter. She soon learns though that old habits die hard, and working through what they learned at the orphanage is a challenge.

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.

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”.

When the local men prove to be too unreliable in a small Russian village, it's up to the women to take control, doing everything from administrating the community to running one of the local dairy farms. 

Don’t mess with Texas. RT travels to the Republic of Texas and meets Texans who are proud of their heritage, embrace self-reliance and are ready to live by what they preach, even if it strays from the norms of mainstream American society.

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.

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.

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

“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.

Never has homelessness in America's biggest city been more of a problem, and yet more than ever, the homeless are being treated like criminals. Hear from New Yorkers who have no place to call home.