Documentaries

World's Untold Stories

Episode 66 - La Bestia (The Beast)
Jessica is a petite 21-year-old Salvadorean girl with big brown eyes and a crooked smile. When her mum got cancer and Mara gangsters started extorting her mechanic father for cash in San Salvador, she decided to head out in search of the American Dream. The day she left, her mum was too choked up to say goodbye. Jessica was too choked up to tell her two-year-old daughter she was leaving, so instead lied and said she was just popping out to the corner store. She crossed illegally through Guatemala and into southern Mexico, heading for a railhead and a ride on what generations of migrants ominously call "The Beast" or the "Train of Death." It's a cargo train where the poorest migrants ride for free, clinging on the top of wagons and exposed to the threat of robbery and death by bandits and organized crime gangs. A few hours into her trip, Jessica became dehydrated, disoriented and fell asleep. She fell off the train and onto the tracks. When she regained consciousness two days later she realized the “Train of Death had severed her right leg.

That was a year and three months ago. Olga Sanchez – who set up a hostel for migrants multilated by "The Beast" took Jessica in and organized for her to get a prosthetic leg. For Jessica there is no turning back – "there's nothing there for me. There's no work and my daughter is growing up and needs things." She has temporary work in a seafood restaurant and sends almost all her 200 dollars per month wages home. She hasn't given up on finally achieving the American Dream and crossing illegally into the United States…she's trying to save a little cash to make the trip.

When we met her, Jessica was about to head back to the railhead where she began her fateful trip last year. She said she wanted to see "The Beast" again, "out of curiosity," she said…it was her way of facing her demons. As we get there, hundreds of new migrants are waiting to jump on the cargo train in search of their brighter future. Jessica sits on the platform and a tear rolls down her cheek…"I'm not afraid of the train any more. It just makes me think, though, about the past and what happened."

As she waits, by coincidence, an old friend from her neighborhood of San Salvador shows up. He is on his way north and the two find time to catch up on old news. As the train prepares to pull out, Jessica decides she wants to ride a short way on the cargo train "out of curiosity." With her false leg, she hauls herself up onto a cargo wagon with hundreds of other migrants. But while those hundreds are embarking on a dangerous physical journey of hundreds of miles in the hope of crossing illegally into the U.S., Jessica is on a personal and emotional journey to confront the past, the loss of her limb and weigh up the true cost of the American Dream.

Episode 65 - The Scars of Racism
They make up Europe's biggest minority group, 12 million Roma, who are disparagingly called "gypsies." The Roma people migrated to Europe from India centuries ago, but they've never found a welcoming home there. Hitler's Nazi regime tried to wipe them out. Now their descendents are facing increasing violence in both Eastern and Western Europe. In the Czech Republic, Natalka, a bright-eyed girl, was severely burned just before her second birthday when far-right extremists threw Molotov cocktails into her home. We will follow Natalka’s story and examine how Europe's oldest minority have become its latest scapegoat.

Episode 64 - Christian Unplugged

This World's Untold Stories provides a rare look into the lives of what some would call extremist Christians -- a world that goes far beyond Sunday mass. We become absorbed in the lives of 3 people whose theology may be shocking. They are members of a growing movement that believes America has become morally bankrupt, Christianity has strayed too far from its roots, and government has taken over the church's role in people's lives. These believers think it's time to return to the basics, where everyone takes care of each other, and government has little place in their lives. Some of them even believe it is time to form an independent Christian nation. They are unplugged from civilization, existing as much as they can on the edge of society, living as they believe Christians did in the beginning.

Episode 63 - Man, Woman, Muxe
In many indigenous cultures, concepts of gender and sexuality are far more fluid than the constructs of male or female and gay or straight that we know today. CNN takes you to Juchitán, Mexico where what they consider a third gender not only exists but are integrated into society. They are called muxe. We take you through the life of a muxe and the evolution of the muxe image while exploring the consequences of being an open society.

Episode 62 - Secrets and Sin
Years of accusations, decades of abuse, and one unprecedented investigation.

In November 2009, Ireland's "Murphy Report" exposed the extent of one of the worst scandals ever to hit the Catholic Church. It found that the Archdiocese of Dublin covered up widespread sexual abuse of children. Instead of punishing the offenders, bishops protected pedophile priests by moving them from parish to parish, even sending some to the United States.

Hear from victims, investigators, and clergy about those who tried to conceal their secrets and sin.

Episode 61 - 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."

Episode 60 - Innocence for Sale
CNN travels to Cambodia to examine the disturbing reality of southeast Asia's child sex industry. Seen through the eyes of Aaron Cohen, author of "Slave Hunter: One Man's Global Quest to Free Victims of Human Trafficking", the program is witness to Cohen rescuing children as young as eight from prostitution. The World's Untold Stories team discovers that in many cases, the blame for their exploitation lies not solely with the pimps and madams. CNN goes undercover into the karaoke bars, where sex with a child costs the same as a round of drinks. The program highlights the destitution and deprivation that keeps the young girls in the brothels, and is there when Cohen pays his final respects to the teenage girl he'd rescued but couldn't save from the heartless grip of prostitution in the face of her family's poverty. The program will enlighten and possibly inspire a new conversation about the ingrained cultural challenges currently preventing aid workers and authorities from declaring battle in the struggle to free children from this form of modern-day slavery.

Episode 56 - 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.

Episode 55 - Fearless: The 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.