BBC announces 2023 winter slate of Storyville films

The BBC’s award-winning strand showcasing the very best in international documentaries today announced a new slate of films to be shown in early 2023 on BBC Four and iPlayer.

This follows the news that Emma Hindley has been appointed as Lead Commissioning Editor, Storyville.

(24 Jan, 10pm, BBC Four and iPlayer)

Three minutes of footage is all that remains of the Jewish community of Nasielsk, Poland, filmed in 1938 by photographer David Kurtz.  With narration from Helena Bonham Carter, Three Minutes: A Lengthening unravels the stories hidden in the celluloid with insight from the filmmaker’s grandson and a boy who appears in the faded footage – one of few survivors of the village decimated in the Holocaust.

Directed by Bianca Stiger

Written by Bianca Stiger and Glenn Kurtz

Narrated by Helena Bonham-Carter

Co-produced by Steve McQueen

The footage was filmed by David Kurtz and made available courtesy of the Steven Spielberg Film and Video Archive, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum 

Commissioning Editor for BBC Storyville, Lucie Kon

(31 Jan, 10pm, BBC Four and iPlayer)

In the 1950’s and 1960’s, deep in the American countryside at the foot of the Catskill mountains was Casa Susanna, a small wooden house with a barn behind it, holiday home to the first clandestine network of cross-dressers.  Diane and Kate are now 80 years old.  At the time, they were men, enjoying weekend visits to the house with their wives and friends.  In Casa Susanna, they tell this forgotten chapter of the early days of trans-identity.

Directed by Sebastian Lifshitz

Produced by Muriel Meynard

Commissioning Editor for BBC Storyville, Lucie Kon

Agat Films in Association with BBC Storyville

As a child, Israeli filmmaker, Michal Weits remembers her great-grandfather as an almost mythical figure.  Described by his children as the “ultimate Zionist,” Yosef Weits was a prominent member of the pre-state Jewish community in Palestine, tasked with purchasing land for a Jewish homeland.  He set up and ran a hugely successful fundraising effort, the Blue Box campaign and was widely celebrated the man who “turned the desert green” - the ‘Father’ of Israel’s forests.  But in his diaries, Michal’s great-grandfather reveals a darker side to himself, one that suggests that whilst he may have helped to establish the Jewish State, he also orchestrated the expropriation of Palestinian land, preventing Arabs who had fled or were forced to leave during Israel’s 1948 War of Independence from ever returning.  

Directed by Michal Weits

Produced by Assaf Amir, Ina Fichman, Eric Goossens, Frederik Nicolai, Uri Smoly, Daron Djerassi

Edited by Erez Laufer and Commissioning Editor for BBC Storyville, Emma Hindley

Norma Productions, Intuitive Pictures, Offf-World, yesDocu

An investigation into the powerful and terrifying spyware Pegasus, sold to governments around the world by the Israeli company NSO Group and used on journalists, activists, the wife and fiancée of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi and others.

Directed by Anne Poiret and Arthur Bouvart

Produced by Laurent Richard, Sandrine Rigaud,Eamonn Matthews, Dan Edge

Commissioning Editor for BBC Storyville, Emma Hindley

Forbidden Films for BBC Storyville

It’s been dangerous for ordinary Russians to speak up against Vladimir Putin’s regime for years, but new censorship laws introduced after the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 have made the danger even greater.  Despite the huge risks, two Russian filmmakers have been filming the impact of the war inside their country.  Whilst many thousands have fled, those that stayed have had to choose - to oppose, support or stay silent about Russia’s War in Ukraine. 

Commissioning Editors for BBC Storyville, Emma Hindley and Lucie Kon

BBC Storyville presents a BBC Eye Investigation with Ronachan Films

Sex on Screen explores the process of creating sex scenes in Hollywood, the toll these scenes take on those involved in filming them, and the impact on women and girls in the real world.  The film features candid interviews with actors and creators, including Jane Fonda, Rosanna Arquette, Joey Soloway, Angela Robinson, Karyn Kusama, Rose McGowan, Alexandra Billings, Emily Meade, and David Simon and highlights the voices of women who have spoken out against abusive behaviour on their sets and were punished for it.

Directed by Kirsty Guevara-Flanagan

Produced by Helen Hood Scheer

Edited by Liz Kaar, Anne Alvergue

Featuring (In Order of Appearance)

Diana Elizabeth Torres, Rose McGowan, Sarah Tither-Kaplan, Jane Fonda, Michelle Krusiec, DeWanda Wise, Mishel Prada, Alexandra Billings, Joey Soloway, Rosanna Arquette, Angela Robinson, Karyn Kusama, Linda Williams, Lauren “Lolo” Spencer, Stacy Rukeyser, David Simon, Mick LaSalle, Stephane Dunn, Emily Meade, Amanda Blumenthal, Patti Felker, Jessica Yu, Zoe Hay, Laura Grady, Sarah Scott, Sheryl Lee, Guinevere Turner, Gloria Hendry, Shelley Michelle, Linda Teglovic, Marli Renfro, Sevan Najarian, Tanya Saracho, Alicia Rodis, Jim Frohna.

Commissioning Editor for BBC Storyville, Lucie Kon