Ghostly images of Colombia’s jungle landscapes are set to radio transmissions sent by family members to their kidnapped loved ones—heartrending messages of grief, support, and, against all odds, hope.
Social & External
1960s Chicago, a baby is kidnapped from a hospital. Fifteen months later, a toddler is abandoned. Could he be the same baby? In a tale of breathtaking twists and turns, two mysteries begin to unravel and dark family secrets are revealed.
In the Issyk-Kul region of Kyrgyzstan, tradition is king. Polo's still played with a freshly killed goat and the men still marry their women the old-fashioned way: by abducting them off the street and forcing them to be their wife. Bride kidnapping is a supposedly ancient custom that's made a major comeback since the fall of Communism and now accounts for nearly half of all marriages in some parts.
The story of Jaycee Lee Dugard, a girl who was kidnapped outside a school bus stop and found alive eighteen years later.
After the Kyrgyzstan Independence in 1991, the ancient practice of Ala-Kachuu ("grab and run") returned. Some women escape the men that kidnap them, but many remain married because of tradition and the fear of scandal.
A group of teenagers from Flint, Michigan filmed themselves kidnapping and terrorizing a new acquaintance, before taking her out to a woods and dumping her in a shallow grave. They then taunted their terrified and blindfolded victim asking if she had any last requests before they cut her throat. But was the kidnap real or just a game? Three days later the tape was in the hands of the police and the 5 teenager friends were in custody facing life imprisonment. This program talks to the people at the heart of this story - including two of the defendants - in an attempt to understand what really happened in the woods around Flint last year. It also screens the video of the 'abduction'. What is revealed is an extraordinary and disturbing record of a night when something went terribly, terribly wrong.
This documentary shows the enormous media impact that the abduction story has had over the years. It analyzes the media's handling of the story and shows how victims of abduction can find their way back to a normal life after their liberation...
A family falls prey to the manipulative charms of a neighbor, who abducts their adolescent daughter. Twice.
At the peak of her immense popularity in the 1920s, evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson was drawing larger crowds to her revivals than those of P.T. Barnum or Harry Houdini. This chapter of "American Experience" paints a vivid portrait of the controversial and charismatic religious figure. Credited with mainstreaming religion in American culture, Sister Aimee created one of the country's first Christian radio stations, among other accomplishments.
A documentary recounting the kidnappings of British Trade Commissioner James Cross and Quebec Vice-Premier & Minister of Labour Pierre Laporte by the FLQ on October 5, 1970 in Quebec.
A reputed Detroit drug kingpin who once staged his own kidnapping and assassination to disappear for several months, was killed.
Realizing the urban legend of their youth has actually come true, two filmmakers delve into the mystery surrounding five missing children and the real-life boogeyman linked to their disappearances.
After 52 years of armed conflict the FARC guerrillas are about to hand over their arms in exchange for political participation and social inclusion of the poor. Ernesto is one of them. The much celebrated Colombian peace agreement throws Ernesto and the polarised society around him into chaos in which everyone is afraid of the future and their own survival.
The disappearance of nursing student Holly Bobo remains a mystery for years. Even after a tight-knit group of four men are charged in her abduction and murder, no one knows for sure who killed her and why. Everything changes when one defendant turns a state’s witness. What he reveals on the stand is utterly shocking.
Elizabeth Smart's harrowing abduction at 14 from her family's Utah home unfolds through her own words and never-before-seen material in this documentary.
Documentary about the twin sister Jutta and Gisela Schmidt. In the late sixties the two women rebelled against middle class society as if they gave vent to a new kind of art. They became active in the underground communist party KPD and showed a heart-felt interest in the colour red, the aesthetics of the revolution. Soon, though, the twins quit their experiments in Germany. They left their husbands and went to Rome, where they met the fabulously wealthy Paul Getty III, and soon things got really out of hand.
Out of power politics, offended vanity and a desire for revenge, Hohenstaufen Emperor Henry VI and the King of France became accomplices in an unheard-of act: the hostage-taking of the English King Richard the Lionheart. It was the kidnapping of the century.
Documentary examining the mysterious disappearance of financial advisor Lynda Spence, who vanished without a trace in 2011 from her hometown of Glasgow. As the police launched their investigation, they began to uncover hidden multiple identities, links to suspected gangsters and property fraud which stretched from Glasgow to London. What followed was one of the longest murder trials in Scotland's history, but without a body, the case remained unsolved. Fast forward to April 2022 and police have reopened the search for Lynda, but will they finally find out what happened to her?
She was once as famous as Jackie O—and then she tried to take down a President. Martha Mitchell was the unlikeliest of whistleblowers: a Republican wife who was discredited by Nixon to keep her quiet. Until now.
At the age of 10, Natascha Kampusch was kidnapped and held captive for eight years by a deranged man. In 2006, she managed to escape, and the world discovered an astonishingly articulate and intelligent young woman. Not only did Peter Reichard film 14 hours of conversations with Kampusch, but he was also the very first filmmaker to obtain exclusive access to the house where she was imprisoned. This is the most complete, explicit and revealing documentary in which Kampusch has participated.
In June of 2002, Salt Lake City was the setting for a chilling kidnapping. An angelic young girl is stolen from her bedroom in the middle of the night. The most unlikely of victims in a seemingly motiveless crime. The abduction of Elizabeth Smart was so bizarre and unique that it transfixed America.
When their daughter is abducted by experienced kidnappers, the Jennings turn the tables on their seemingly fool-proof plan.
Jake Carter and another former Marine, Luke Trapper, join forces to rescue a young kidnapped girl from a gang of international criminals.
A gang of four professional criminals kidnaps a wealthy teenage girl from an airport in Paris in a meticulous plan to extort money from the girl's wealthy father. Holding her prisoner in an isolated beach house, the gang's scheme runs perfectly until their personal demons surface and lead to a series of betrayals.
Nikki's life is shattered when her daughter is kidnapped. Thrust into the criminal underworld while hunted by cops and military, she must fight to rescue her child.
A man takes over a TV station and holds a number of hostages as a political platform to awaken humanity, instead of money.
A nurse is forced to spring a wounded murder suspect from the hospital when the man’s brother kidnaps his pregnant wife and wants to make a trade.
When a rich man's son is kidnapped, he cooperates with the police at first but then tries a unique tactic against the criminals.
A rogue soldier turned outlaw is thrust into a relentless fight with a corrupt sheriff, his obedient deputies, and a dangerous drug cartel in order to protect his sister and her young daughter.
Shaun Russell takes her son and daughter on a weekend getaway to her late father's secluded, high-tech vacation home in the countryside. The family soon gets an unwelcome surprise when four men break into the house to find hidden money. After managing to escape, Shaun must now figure out a way to turn the tables on the desperate thieves and save her captive children.
When a mafia accountant is taken hostage on his beat, a police officer – wracked by guilt from a prior stint as a negotiator – must negotiate the standoff, even as his own family is held captive by the mob.
In 1994, a 13-year-old boy disappeared without a trace from his home in San Antonio, Texas. Three-and-a-half years later, he is found alive in a village in southern Spain with a horrifying story of kidnap and torture. His family is overjoyed to bring him home. But all is not quite as it seems.
Vice detective Bob Hightower finds his ex-wife murdered and daughter kidnapped by a cult. Frustrated by the botched official investigations, he quits the force and infiltrates the cult to hunt down the leader with the help of the cult’s only female victim escapee, Case Hardin.
An ex-military doctor finds herself in a deadly battle for survival when the Irish mafia seize control of the hospital at which she works. When her son is taken hostage, she is forced to rely upon her battle-hardened past and lethal skills after realizing there’s no one left to save the day but her.
An NYPD hostage negotiator teams up with a federal agent to rescue dozens of tourists held hostage during a 10-hour seige at the U.S. Federal Reserve.
When Juan Catalan is arrested for a murder he insists he didn't commit, he builds his case for innocence around unexpected raw footage.
An ex-mercenary known for finding missing children is hired by a mixed martial arts fighter whose daughter has been kidnapped.
To bring down a global human trafficking ring, an Interpol agent recruits the help of a brutal criminal with inside knowledge of the yakuza.
After his son is wrongly accused of kidnapping, a deacon who has just lost his wife takes matters into his own hands and fights a crooked police gang to clear him.
In 1993, Maureen’s six-year-old daughter Amina is snuck out of the country by her ex-husband, Karim. After years of unsuccessful attempts to find her, Maureen intersects with a professional retriever of internationally abducted children who promises to help her find Amina in exchange for her collaboration.