The WORST episodes of Storyville
Every episode of Storyville ever, ranked from worst to best by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The worst episodes of Storyville!
Storyville has developed an enviable reputation since it was launched by the BBC in 1997 as a showcase for the best in international documentaries. Screening over 340 films, from some 70 different countries, the strand has garnered a staggering array of awards: five Oscars, 15 Griersons, three Peabodys and two International Emmys.
#1 - Out of Phoenix Bridge
Season 1999 - Episode 16 - Aired 12/21/1999
For Ah Feng, Jialing, Xiazi and Ziao, their years working as maids while sharing a room in a Beijing slum may be the freest of their lives. In their rural home of Phoenix Bridge, the young Chinese women were under their parents' control; on their return, they will belong to new husbands. Struggling against harassment, they remain intent on achieving their dream: a metropolitan life.
#2 - I Was a Slave Labourer
Season 1999 - Episode 5 - Aired 10/16/1999
For over five decades, German government and industry have resisted demands to pay compensation to the millions who worked as slave labourers under the Third Reich. This film follows retired businessman Rudy Kennedy - who survived slave labour as a teenager - as he tries to force German firms to acknowledge their links with Nazi atrocities.
#3 - An American Love Story (Part 1): Welcome to America
Season 1999 - Episode 6 - Aired 10/30/1999
Seven-part documentary from director Jennifer Fox shedding light on the state of race relations in the US by following two years in the lives of a mixed-race married couple and their two children in New York. In the first part, which acts as an introduction to the family, Cicily leaves home to go to college. [Note: This Storyville series is a condensed, 310-minute version of the PBS original, which was formed of ten 60-minute episodes.]
#4 - An American Love Story (Part 2): I've Fallen and I Can't Get Up
Season 1999 - Episode 7 - Aired 10/31/1999
Daughter Cicily travels to Nigeria to spend a term with a group of students.
#5 - An American Love Story (Part 3): It's Another New Year and I Ain't Gone
Season 1999 - Episode 8 - Aired 11/1/1999
The family celebrate Christmas, but Cicily contracts malaria.
#6 - An American Love Story (Part 4): Chaney and the Boy
Season 1999 - Episode 9 - Aired 11/2/1999
Chaney introduces her first boyfriend to Bill and Karen. Is she too young for romantic matters?
#7 - An American Love Story (Part 5): True Love
Season 1999 - Episode 10 - Aired 11/3/1999
The family faces a crisis when Karen is admitted into hospital for a hysterectomy.
#8 - An American Love Story (Part 6): It's My Job
Season 1999 - Episode 11 - Aired 11/4/1999
Bill struggles to overcome his drink problem, while daughter Cicily - now a graduate - begins her search for a job.
#9 - An American Love Story (Part 7): We Were Never Ozzie and Harriet
Season 1999 - Episode 12 - Aired 11/5/1999
In the conclusion to the series, Bill and Karen reflect on their courtship period during the 1960s.
#10 - Hitman Hart: Wrestling with Shadows
Season 1999 - Episode 13 - Aired 11/6/1999
Canadian grappler Bret "the Hitman" Hart became a huge attraction on US cable TV, his "tough but nice" persona securing him a $9m deal. But, when he refused to compromise his image for the sake of commercial interests, he faced the end of his career. Paul Jay's acclaimed film follows Hart for a year and explores the reality behind the theatre of wrestling.
#11 - A Cry from the Grave
Season 1999 - Episode 14 - Aired 11/27/1999
Under the eyes of the United Nations, troops of the Bosnian Serb army massacred over 7,000 men from the town of Srebrenica in the summer of 1995. Leslie Woodhead 's film is the result of a year-long investigation into the killing and the aftermath of Europe's worst massacre since the Second World War.
#12 - Grey Gardens
Season 1999 - Episode 15 - Aired 12/11/1999
Despite their aristocratic background - and the fact that they were aunt and cousin to Jackie Onassis - Edith Bouvier Beale and daughter Edie lived in anonymity in a decaying mansion on New York's Long Island. But, in 1976, when Albert and David Maysies's film appeared in US cinemas, it gave the pair the fame they longed for - and the public a glimpse into the interdependency and private language of their eccentric lives.
#13 - Photographer
Season 1999 - Episode 4 - Aired 9/4/1999
In 1987, 600 colour slides depicting scenes in a wartime Jewish ghetto in Poland were found in a Vienna bookshop. Polish director Dariusz Jabłoński's film uses these photographs - which were taken by the Nazi's chief accountant at the Lodz ghetto, a large and notorious work camp - to provide a chilling testimonial to one of the Second World War's darkest chapters.
#14 - The Last Cigarette
Season 2000 - Episode 1 - Aired 2/26/2000
A look at America's love-hate relationship with cigarettes over the course of the century.
#15 - My Best Fiend
Season 2000 - Episode 2 - Aired 3/18/2000
Biographical documentary directed by Werner Herzog, about his turbulent relationship with long-time collaborator Klaus Kinski. Herzog recalls the actor's brilliant yet troubled personality, and revisits Peru, where the pair first worked together on "Aguirre, Wrath of God".
#16 - Genocide, the Judgement
Season 2000 - Episode 3 - Aired 7/2/2000
Jean Paul Akayesu , once the respected mayor of his village in Rwanda, is brought in front of the UN International Criminal Tribunal. He faces a charge of genocide, perpetrated against his neighbours, and is convicted. This film tells the painful story that leads to his conviction, the first in an international court for genocide and crimes against humanity. Contains video footage that viewers may find upsetting.
#17 - One Day in September
Season 2000 - Episode 4 - Aired 9/5/2000
Oscar-winning documentary recounting the events of the Munich Olympics hostage crisis. On 5 September 1972, 12 Israeli athletes are taken hostage by Palestinian terrorists in Munich's Olympic village. As attempts at negotiation flounder, the authorities prepare to launch a rescue bid. But their efforts will lead to tragedy. Narrated by Michael Douglas.
#18 - Norman Mailer - Oh My America (Part 1): Farewell to the Fifties
Season 2000 - Episode 5 - Aired 10/11/2000
The first of a two-part programme in which writer Norman Mailer profiles life in America since the Second World War. Mailer fought for his country in the Second World War - an experience that inspired his novel "The Naked and the Dead" - but, disappointed by post-war America, he grew to despise the 1950s.
#19 - Norman Mailer - Oh My America (Part 2): Beyond the Revolution
Season 2000 - Episode 6 - Aired 10/12/2000
In this second and final episode, writer and social critic Norman Mailer describes the revolution in attitudes during the 1960s, the impact of the Vietnam war, and the Reagan and Clinton years.
#20 - Donald and Luba
Season 2000 - Episode 7 - Aired 12/22/2000
Film-maker Don Boyd's parents were an unlikely couple. His mother, the youngest of 12 children, was born into a poverty-stricken Ukrainian family in China. His father Donald grew up in the death throes of the British Empire, with all the trappings of colonial wealth. Their meeting in Shanghai heralded a strange and tumultuous relationship. Don Boyd charts the truth about his parents as he travels around the world following the course of their lives.
#21 - I Loved You
Season 2001 - Episode 1 - Aired 1/2/2001
Award-winning film-maker Viktor Kossakovsky examines the nature of human love in three stories which together look at his mentors, a shot-gun wedding outside Moscow, and the relationship of two St Petersburg kindergarten children.
#22 - Black and White in Colour
Season 2001 - Episode 2 - Aired 1/4/2001
Documentary focusing on Vera Bila, the most successful Romany singer in Europe. Born in Slovakia, she travels around Europe in search of places to perform, all the while awaiting her son's release from prison. The film also sheds light on the plight of Europe's neglected Romany communities.
#23 - The Sweetest Sound
Season 2001 - Episode 3 - Aired 1/14/2001
Film-maker Alan Berliner is tired of being mistaken for one of the many people who share his name. In this film, he goes in search of others who share his problem. After visiting same-name societies all over America, he attempts to come to terms with his alter egos when he holds a dinner party where invites are confined to people called Alan Berliner. There they explore the links that have resulted in them having the same name.
#24 - R.U.E.U?
Season 2001 - Episode 4 - Aired 3/15/2001
Nick Fraser travels to Brussels in an effort to understand the European Union.
#25 - Paradise Lost
Season 1997 - Episode 5 - Aired 12/13/1997
Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky's film probes doubts about the guilt of a trio of teenagers tried and convicted of the murder of three eight-year-old boys in Arkansas, Texas, in 1994.