Documentaries

World's Untold Stories

Growing Life

At the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine, Dr. Anthony Atala's lab is the largest in the world "manufacturing" body parts.  We're not talking about prosthetics here, and not robotics - this is growing new, living organs - and they are yours – made up of identical tissue found in the rest of your body. Growing a finger from the ground up: layering cartilage, bone, then muscle.  A beating, engineered heart valve that's learning how to pump blood before it's implanted.  It's regenerative medicine and the goal is to help the tens of thousands of people worldwide waiting for organ transplants.   In Pittsburgh, Dr. Steven Badylak has discovered a compound that tricks the body into repairing itself, much like the body knows how to do when it's in the womb. The U.S. military has invested $250 million in regenerative research aimed at helped soldiers with severe battle injuries, regrowing muscle and skin for burn injuries, as well as transplant technology for lost limbs.  Jon Mann reports in the next "World's Untold Stories."

Mirador

World’s Untold Stories takes you on another remarkable journey, this time deep into the jungles of Guatemala. 50 kilometers from where the last road ends, near the Mexican border, we find the ruins of the incredible Mayan city of El Mirador. At its height, the ancient city was home to a vast population and one of the largest pyramids in the world.
 
Travel with CNN as we become the first to show you the summit face of the great La Danta pyramid, explore the inside of a Mayan temple, and record the amazing discovery of a giant piece of civic art that may rewrite the history of the Mayan civilization.

Fearless: Teh Margaret Moth Story

“Fearless” is the story of a pioneer in the television news industry--Margaret Moth was the first female camerawoman from New Zealand.  Always clad in black, Margaret's bravery for bringing the most dangerous stories to life in pictures is legendary. From Sarajevo to Darfur, her pictures told the stories that changed the history of our planet. One fateful day in 1992, Margaret became the story when a sniper’s bullet in Sarajevo shattered the lower part of her face and almost ended her life.  “Fearless: The Margaret Moth Story” takes the viewer on her selfless journey back to the career she loves, back to the areas frought with danger.  This unique story is a remarkable account of the force of the human spirit.

Wedlocked: One Girl’s Fight for Her Childhood

Nujood Ali was just ten years old when her father married her off to a man three times her age. But rather than just sit back and accept her fate, Nujood stood up and said “no.” Helped by a human rights lawyer, she convinced a judge to annul her marriage.

Child marriage is common in Yemen, as it is in many other parts of the world. To reject the marriage is to run the risk of bringing dishonor to the family. Nujood's act was truly courageous.

CNN was the first international broadcaster to interview Nujood and tell her story. But we certainly weren't the last. Her amazing tale was picked up around the world and led to an appearance at a glitzy A-list gala in New York, a guest slot on on a top-rated German chat show, and a book of her life that's been translated into twenty languages.

Earlier this year CNN went back to Yemen. We wanted to find out how Nujood had been doing in the nine months since her divorce. We did not find a story with a happy ending. Instead, we found Nujood angry and frustrated. The media exposure she's undergone has failed to bring her family the riches they had hoped for. Distrust and disillusionment hold sway in the family home. And Nujood has started skipping school again.

Nujood eventually agreed to speak to us again but only after much persuasion. "I hoped there was someone to help us, " she says, "but we didn't find anyone." 

There are still people around Nujood who are trying to help her. However, it's clear the blaze of publicity surrounding her has been a mixed blessing. It's provided an example that other child brides might hope to emulate, but for Nujood herself it's been a source of increased tension. What she wants now is a chance to live out the childhood she fought so desperately to keep.

Inside Iraq: Living with the Enemy

Iraq is a country traumatized by its recent history; its people witness to atrocities, torture, bombings. For years the victims were little more than statistics to the outside world, the dead merely a grim measure of Iraq's descent into sectarian war. The country has since retreated from the brink, but as the tide of violence has receded, it's left a trail of families ripped apart by grief and demanding revenge. Killers are left at large, often living in the same neighborhoods as their victims' families. Now, Arwa Damon goes behind the headlines to put names to the nameless, turn the statistics into stories, and ask "could it happen again?"

Killing Fields: Long Road to Justice
In a groundbreaking new documentary, CNN's Dan Rivers goes on the hunt for Ta Chan, the chief interrogator of the Khmer Rouge's notorious S-21 prison camp. For the program, CNN obtained exclusive and previously unseen footage of Ta Chan giving a tour of another Khmer Rouge jungle prison. CNN's Rivers also details corruption allegations at the Phnom Penh trial of Khmer Rouge leaders, reporting on prosecution and defense fears that the trial will be tainted by the allegations. As S-21 commandant Comrade Duch and four Khmer Rouge colleagues currently face justice in the UN-backed trial, Ta Chan continues to live in a remote Cambodian village. While he has not been charged with any crime, survivors say Ta Chan played a key role at S-21. The documentary chronicles in painful detail how torture was part of S-21's daily regime, resulting in up to 14,000 deaths. Among the programs extraordinary moments, a survivor of S-21 sees himself on film shot the day he was rescued. At the time, Norng Champhal was a young child, whose mother was among those executed. 35 years later, he breaks down in tears as he sees the images and recounts the horror of the death camp, describing how he survived by hiding in a pile of discarded clothes.

One Woman’s War

When Malika El Aroud was arrested for suspected terrorist offenses before Christmas last year Belgian police claimed they had detained no less than an "al Qaeda living legend". As the wife of the al Qaeda operative who assassinated Northern Alliance leader, Ahmed Shah Massoud in a suicide bombing just before 9/11, her words are said to carry substantial weight in terror circles.

In this edition of the World's Untold Stories, CNN, which obtained an exclusive interview with the woman counterterror forces simply call "Malika," tells the extraordinary story of how she once used to party in Brussels' nightclubs, fell in love with a militant extremist, then found herself living with Osama bin Laden's inner circle in Afghanistan.

Eloquent, passionate, and persuasive she is now accused of being one of al Qaeda's most prominent online propogandists. Authorities say she may have inspired an entire cadre of radicalized Muslim men across Europe to take up arms. Their number may include her new husband, who is believed to have joined forces with al Qaeda in the tribal areas of Pakistan. CNN's documentary will shed extraordinary new insight on the continuing global security threat posed by Bin Laden’s global Jihad.