Welcome to Operation Reality’s documentary section. Here you will find all sorts of full length online streaming documentaries for your viewing pleasure. A broad range of subject categories is available and we will continue to do our best to continually add to the selection as our editors come across poignant and interesting new content. Feel free to contact us or drop us a comment if you have content you would like to see included. Please note portions of this section of the website still remain WIP. So remember to bookmark this page and check back often for updates. Also make sure to ...
National Geographic presents the first accurate non-stop voyage from Earth to the edge of the Universe using a single, unbroken shot through the use of spectacular CGI (Computer-Generated Imagery) technology. Building on images taken from the Hubble telescope, Journey to the Edge of the Universe explores the science and history behind the distant celestial bodies in the solar system. This spectacular, epic voyage across the cosmos, takes us from the Earth, past the Moon and our neighboring planets, out of our Solar System, to the nearest stars, nebulae and galaxies and beyond - right to the edge of the Universe ...
In the mid-80′s two young climbers attempted to reach the summit of Siula Grande in Peru; a feat that had previously been attempted but never achieved. With an extra man looking after base camp, Simon and Joe set off to scale the mount in one long push over several days. The peak is reached, however on the descent Joe falls and breaks his leg. Despite what it means, the two continue with Simon letting Joe out on a rope for 300 meters, then descending to join him and so on. However when Joe goes out over an overhang with no ...
Episode 1: Girlfriend for sale - Thailand Acclaimed documentary film-maker Monica Garnsey investigates the parts of the world where prostitution has become a mainstream career choice for young women. In Venezuela, where men travel over for the ‘real girlfriend experience’, and in parts of north-east Thailand, where it has replaced rice as the driver of the local economy and women sets their sights on marrying a rich westerner.
Uncover the story of the invention and history of photography. Uncover the story of the invention of photography and the way in which it became an integral part of the modern world, including the remarkable achievements of the pioneer photographers, the revolution that took place when George Eastman made photography available to the masses with the invention of the Kodak brand. “Being in the right place at the right time”, “the decisive moment”, “getting in close” – in the popular imagination this is photography at its best, a medium that makes us eyewitnesses to the moments when history is made.
Ep 1: The Elephant
This programme looks at how evolution has overcome the challenges of being as big as an elephant.
Elephants feed on plants with very little nutritional value for 18 hours a day, so evolution has given them vast intestines as well as huge teeth and jaw muscles – and an equally gigantic head. But this produces another problem: how to reach food on the ground.
The solution is the most versatile limb on the planet – the trunk. Capable of everything from picking up berries to ripping a tree from the ground, the trunk is a wonder of evolution. It’s a Just So Story for the Darwinian age.
In Alex Gibney’s dramatic documentary, the brilliant rise and demise of the Houston-based Enron is described in an eerily familiar way just as the chief participants in one of history’s most alarming corporate reprobates are about to go on trial.
Accused (and later convicted) of plundering the company’s assets in order to devalue its stock, Enron executives stole millions of dollars from employees and investors who were left responsible for their malcontent.
This documentary exposes how the people at the top strategically made off with ridiculous profits by participating in suspicious business practices that seemed like a simple slight-of-hand. This film particularly points fingers at Enron founder Ken Lay and the person who took over his CEO role, Jeff Skilling who flagrantly abused their power and then could not hide behind their arrogance.
Read the rest of Enron: The Smartest Guys In The Room »
Hong Kong is known as the City of Life – and Jackie Chan is the city’s favourite son. Jackie shows us around his hometown – from star ferries where he used to wind down from his gruelling martial arts training to the Hollywood road antique shops he prefers today. This martial arts guru and movie icon jumps naturally into the breakneck pace of life in Hong Kong. This whirlwind tour of the city’s skyscrapers, shops and temples will capture the imagination of hardcore Chan fans and simple travel junkies alike. He takes us from a Tai Chi class next to the harbour to a driving tour through the city’s Central district. Then it’s up the mountain to Victoria Peak and its ‘$2 million view’ – where Jackie balances precariously on the rail, with the sparkling city.
Read the rest of Jackie Chan’s Hong Kong »
Episode 1: Taking Control
Vladimir Putin, after eight years as president of Russia and four more as prime minister, is stubbornly holding onto power. He has announced his intention to return as president and declared his party the winner in parliamentary elections that are widely seen as fraudulent. In Moscow 100,000 protesters have taken to the streets in the largest demonstrations since Putin took office.
Putin began his career as a KGB spy but when he became president, he made himself a valued ally of the West. How did he do it? And what made Washington and London turn against him?
This four-part series is made by Norma Percy and the team at Brook Lapping with a track record for getting behind closed doors with multi-award-winning series like The Death of Yugoslavia, The Second Russian Revolution, and Iran and the West. For the first time Putin’s top colleagues – and the Western statesmen who eventually clashed with him – tell the inside story of one of the world’s most powerful men.
In this episode, George W Bush meets Putin in June 2001 and declares he looked him in the eye and ‘got a sense of his soul’. Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice recall their discomfort. But Rice, the only Bush adviser in the private talks, reveals that, three months before 9/11, Putin gave Bush a prophetic warning about Pakistan, Afghanistan and the Taliban. After 9/11, Putin describes how he convinced his shocked colleagues that Russia should align with the West. Sergei Ivanov, Russian’s defence minister, tells how the Taliban secretly offered to join forces with Russia against America.
Read the rest of Putin, Russia and the West »
The largest nuclear submarine ever built is Russian. Carrying 20 ballistic missiles inside its 179 meter long hull, the Typhoon-class ship has been designed as the weapon of last resort. It can lie in silence for months on the seabed, concealing its power to destroy any country in less than half an hour.
Until now however, only glimpses of the largest and deadliest killing machine on Earth have been available. In a striking 52′ film, “Mission Invisible” will take you onboard the pride of the Russian Northern Fleet : a Typhoon-class submarine.
Together with Alexander Bogachev and his 130 man crew, we will dive into the abyss of the cold, lonely ocean for a full -scale top secret military mission. For the very first time, we will witness the crew as they practice for emergencies of all types as well as an authentic fire alarm during the mission. “Mission Invisible” will also reveal covert stages of the crew’s mission : a thrilling torpedo attack, the pursuit by NATO, eluding the pursuer, and a full dress rehearsal for Armageddon: testing intercontinental ballistic missiles in the Barents Sea.
Throughout these dangerous tasks, we will discover the lives of the sailors, how they are evaluated, as well as the lives of the Typhoon’s officers, observing how the men cope, away from their wives and children. By delving into this most secret of worlds, we can begin to understand these men, their lives, and their submarine.
Read the rest of Mission Invisible »
From National Geographic Films, the people who brought you March of the Penguins, Arctic Tale is an epic adventure that explores the vast world of the Great North.
The film follows the walrus, Seela and the polar bear, Nanu, on their journey from birth to adolescence to maturity and parenthood in the frozen Arctic wilderness.
Once a perpetual winter wonderland of snow and ice, the walrus and the polar bear are losing their beautiful icebound world as it melts from underneath them. Narrated by Queen Latifah.
Read the rest of Arctic Tale »
In the mid-80′s two young climbers attempted to reach the summit of Siula Grande in Peru; a feat that had previously been attempted but never achieved. With an extra man looking after base camp, Simon and Joe set off to scale the mount in one long push over several days. The peak is reached, however on the descent Joe falls and breaks his leg. Despite what it means, the two continue with Simon letting Joe out on a rope for 300 meters, then descending to join him and so on. However when Joe goes out over an overhang with no way of climbing back up, Simon makes the decision to cut the rope. Joe falls into a crevice and Simon, assuming him dead, continues back down. Joe however survives the fall and was lucky to hit a ledge in the crevice. This is the story of how he got back down.
Read the rest of Touching The Void »
With one and a half million American children now homeless, reporter Hilary Andersson meets the school pupils who go hungry in the richest country on Earth. From those living in the storm drains under Las Vegas to the tent cities now springing up around the United States, Panorama finds out how the poor are surviving in America and asks whatever happened to Barack Obama’s vision for the country.
Kevin Richardson (born 1974) is an animal behaviorist and has done extensive research on native animals of Africa. He has been acknowledged into a pack of spotted hyenas and pride of lions. He works with hyenas and big cats such as cheetahs and leopards. He specializes with lions and runs the Kingdom of the White Lion facility in the Lion Park in Gauteng Province, South Africa. Known around the world as the “Lion Whisperer,” Richardson is also an author and film producer.
We apologize the idiot who uploaded these videos disabled YouTube embedding by default to make all our lives more difficult so instead we’ve linked you to our compiled playlists for each.
Read the rest of Kevin Richardson: Dangerous Companions – The Lion Ranger »
The Man Who Skied Down Everest is a documentary about Yuichiro Miura, a Japanese alpinist who skied down Mt. Everest in 1970. The film was produced by Canadian film maker Budge Crawley.
Miura skied 6,600 feet (2000 m) in 2 minutes and 20 seconds and fell 1320 feet down the steep Lhotse face from the Yellow Band just below the South Col. He used a large parachute to slow his descent. He came to a full stop just 250 ft. from the edge of the crevasse.
Eight died during the expedition’s ascent.
In 2003, at age 70, Yuichiro became the oldest person to reach the summit of Mount Everest. The record has since been broken, but not the man. However, on May 26 2008, Miura once again successfully summited Mt Everest at the age of 75.
Nathalie Emmanuel investigates how the internet is changing the sex lives of 16-24 year-olds across Britain.
Nathalie meets young people who rely on social networking sites, the latest mobile technology and webcams. For the first time she reveals figures from an academic study which shows how many people have taken their sex lives online, and exactly what they are doing.
As Atlantis completes its 135th and final mission, this definitive documentary charts the rise and fall of the most ambitious space programme ever undertaken: the space shuttle. For the three decades since its first launch in 1981, the shuttle has become an iconic symbol of America’s technological dominance and has rewritten the rules of space travel. It’s a reusable vehicle that could lift off like a rocket, carry people and cargo into Earth’s orbit, then land on a runway like a plane, and do it time after time. But two disasters, in 1986 and 2003, and the tragic loss of 14 astronauts shocked the World, and signalled the end of the programme and of an era. However, its legacy has been extraordinary.
