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For thousands of years, what we now think of as Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) was the only medicine; now, traditional cures are being treated with a fresh respect. For BBC TWO, scientist Professor Kathy Sykes from Bristol University Kathy Sykes investigates why science is starting to respond to these centuries-old remedies....

Narrated by Oscar winning actor Morgan Freeman, 'Breaking the Taboo' is produced by Sam Branson's indie Sundog Pictures and Brazilian co-production partner Spray Filmes and was directed by Cosmo Feilding Mellen and Fernando Grostein Andrade. Featuring interviews with several current or former presidents from around the world, such as Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter, the film follows The Global Commission on Drug Policy on a mission to break the political taboo over the United States led War on Drugs and expose what it calls the biggest failure of global policy in the last 40 years.

With the help of a hammer-wielding scientist, Jennifer Aniston and a general anaesthetic, Professor Marcus du Sautoy goes in search of answers to one of science's greatest mysteries: how do we know who we are? While the thoughts that make us feel as though we know ourselves are easy to experience, they are notoriously difficult to explain. So, in order to find out where they come from, Marcus subjects himself to a series of probing experiments. He learns at what age our self-awareness emerges and whether other species share this trait. Next, he has his mind scrambled by a cutting-edge experiment in anaesthesia. Having survived that ordeal, Marcus is given an out-of-body experience in a bid to locate his true self. And in Hollywood, he learns how celebrities are helping scientists understand the microscopic activities of our brain. Finally, he takes part in a mind-reading experiment that both helps explain and radically alters his understanding of who he is.

The Black Death was one of the most devastating pandemics in human history, peaking in Europe between 1348 and 1350. Of several competing theories, the dominant explanation for the Black Death is the plague theory, which attributes the outbreak to the bacterium Yersinia pestis. Thought to have started in China, it travelled along the Silk Road and reached the Crimea by 1346. From there, probably carried by Oriental rat fleas living on the black rats that were regular passengers on merchant ships, it spread throughout the Mediterranean and Europe. The Black Death is estimated to have killed 30--60 percent of Europe's population,[1] reducing the world's population from an estimated 450 million to between 350 and 375 million in the 14th century. The aftermath of the plague created a series of religious, social and economic upheavals, which had profound effects on the course of European history. It took 150 years for Europe's population to recover. The plague returned at various times, killing more people, until it left Europe in the 19th century.

America is the only country in the industrialized world which does not provide universal health care. Initiatives providing free medical care and social services to the homeless and uninsured population in the United States are very few but are making a remarkable difference in their communities. In Los Angeles' West Side, teams of health workers bring critical medical services to people who are often averse to seeking treatment: a day filled with unexpected events in the life of a successfully but small initiative that combines free medical care and social services to the homeless and insured and that is making a big difference in their community.

Documentary filmmaker Stephen Kroschel asks whether the long-suppressed form of cancer treatment known as Gerson Therapy could truly be as effective as some cancer survivors claim in this film that offers a wide array of testimonies from medical specialists, health experts, and patients. More than seventy five years after being proven to cure degenerative disease, Gerson Therapy is still virtually unknown to the masses - but why? In order to seek out an answer to this question, Kroschel travels across both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, across the United States, and through Japan, Holland, and Mexico to speak with a wide variety of scientists, nutritionists, surgeons, and patients who have witnessed the powerful effects of Gerson Therapy firsthand.

The Truth - Marijuana Documentary

Documentary made about the Irish Giant, Charles Byrne.

Documentary following the journey of two injured soldiers: 19-year-old Ranger Andy Allen who, in July 2008, had his right leg blown off and his eyes badly burnt by an improvised explosive device; and 24-year-old Lance Corporal Tom Neathway, who lost three limbs after moving a booby-trapped sandbag. Unconscious and watched by their families they fight for their lives, but surviving their injuries is just the beginning.

Dr. Jack Kessler's life took a most unexpected twist in January 2001, when a tragic accident befell his family. At around the same time that Dr. Kessler received an appointment to chair Northwestern University's Department of Neurology and Clinical Neurological Sciences in Evanston, Illinois, Kessler's daughter Allison - then 15 years old - embarked on a ski trip, suffered a debilitating fall from a ski jump, and emerged paralyzed from the waist down. On an ironic note, just when the horizon appeared darkest for the family, Allison's paralysis inspired Kessler to shift the focus of his job research from the use of embryonic stem cells to cure diabetes, to the use of embryonic stem cells to cure spinal cord injuries. Unfortunately, this occurred at almost exactly the same time that President George W. Bush vetoed a bill enabling special funding for stem cell research. As helmed by Maria Finitzo of Kartemquin Films (the company that produced the 1994 Hoop Dreams), the documentary Terra Incognita explores the complex ethos and heated debate surrounding stem cell research - issues that render it one of the most sensitive hot-button political issues of the early 21st century - by filtering the subject through the specific case of Allison Kessler, and thus examining the subject on an intensely personal, deeply human level.