It’s April 19th, 1995, the 220th anniversary of the start of the American War of Independence, and two years since the violent end of the Waco, Texas siege. In Oklahoma City, a disaffected army veteran named Timothy McVeigh leaves a truck outside the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. Inside the truck is a bomb. At 9am, McVeigh lights the two minute fuse. When the bomb explodes, it kills 168 people and wounds 680 more.  In An American Bombing: The Road to April 19th, Marc Levin retraces...

Climate change, terrorism, social inequality and poverty, wars between nations, and injustice. Things do not look too good for the world today, and there seems to be little to no hope for the future. A Brief History of the Future, a new docu-series on PBS, challenges this pessimistic outlook. Directed by Andrew Morgan and presented by Ari Wallach, the series visits people from all over the world who are doing something – no matter how big or small – to make the world a better place, not just...

Why would US military veterans take up arms against the country they swore to protect? This is the question at the heart of Against All Enemies, a new documentary by Charlie Sadoff. In it, Charlie explores the role disaffected veterans played in the January 6th attack on the US Capitol.  In order to better understand what happened on that day, he looks at the history of civil unrest involving veterans, from groups such as the Ku Klux Klan through to modern day extremist organisations like...

God Save Texas is a three-part docu-series inspired by Lawrence Wright’s book of the same name. In each episode, an acclaimed filmmaker explores the past, present, and future of the Lone Star State.  Episode One is directed by Richard Linklater, Episode Three by Iliana Sosa. Episode Two is directed by Alex Stapleton, and she joins Matthew Sherwood to discuss what it was like returning to her hometown of Houston to explore the effect of Texas’ oil and gas industry on her family and local...

Between 2001-19, head coach Bill Belichick created one of the most successful dynasties ever seen in American football. Under his leadership, the New England Patriots won a record equalling six Super Bowl titles. Guided by quarterback Tom Brady, the team also set a host of other NFL records, including most wins over a ten year period, longest regular season/play-off winning streak, and most consecutive divisional titles. But this era of nearly unprecedented success did not come without a...

On November 13th 1974, Ronald DeFeo shot his family dead in Amityville, New York. Not long after he was convicted of the killings, the Lutz family moved into the DeFeos’ former home. They did not stay long. After just 28 days, they fled, claiming to have been driven out by paranormal activity. The Lutz family’s experience formed the basis of The Amityville Horror. Released in 1979, it went on to spawn a seemingly endless number of sequels, prequels, and derivatives: over 40 to date. In his...

The 1980s were a time of allegation and scandal in America. From the 1980 October Surprise, 1985-87 Iran-Contra Affair, and 1986-91 BCCI scandal, the decade seemed only to be going downhill. And in the midst of it all, the US Justice Department was accused of stealing PROMIS, a piece of software that could be used to create a programme that would allow the US government to spy on whomever used it. Danny Casolaro was a writer, poet, and investigative journalist. At the start of the 1990s, he...

Tatiana Suarez was born into poverty, endured a “tumultuous [and] traumatic childhood”, and at school chose to compete in a sport – wrestling – that led to her being relentlessly bullied. She overcame every obstacle that life and people put in front of her and became a champion. And not just once, but multiple times. Finally, the greatest prize of all, Olympic glory, lay within her grasp. And then, she broke her neck. And as that was being treated, doctors discovered that Tatiana had...

Who is Mark Zuckerberg? That is the question at the heart of Nick Green’s new Sky documentary, Zuckerberg: King of the Metaverse.  We all know how Zuckerberg took Facebook from being a website accessible to just a few American college students in 2004 to one that is used by over a billion people worldwide in 2024. Along the way, he has acquired Instagram and WhatsApp making him one of the most wide reaching and influential men in the world today. But what are his thoughts? His views? What...

On the night of March 23rd 2015, Denise Huskins and Aaron Quinn were drugged and bound by a mystery assailant who had broken into their home. Denise was then kidnapped. When Aaron called the police the next day, they believed he had murdered her. Two days later, however, Denise – who had been sexually assaulted by her kidnapper - was freed. Now the police believed no crime had been committed at all, and that Aaron and Denise were hoaxers. The psychological thriller Gone Girl had been released...

Lady Bird Johnson is best known today as the wife of Lyndon Baines Johnson, 36th President of the USA between 1963-69. However, there was much more to her life than simply the role of ‘First Lady’. In this episode of Factual America, Matthew Sherwood takes a deep dive into Lady Bird Johnson’s life with Dawn Porter, director of new documentary film, The Lady Bird Diaries.  It’s 1963. Liz Carpenter, Lady Bird’s Press Secretary, suggests that she records her ‘thoughts and experiences’ on a...

On January 28th 2017, a mosque in Victoria, Texas was burnt to the ground by an arsonist. In the aftermath, Victorians stood side-by-side with their Muslim neighbours. In A Town Called Victoria, Li Lu – who grew up in nearby Sugar Land, Texas – explores what happened next: to the town, its Islamic community, and to the arsonist, who was soon apprehended. Li joins Matthew Sherwood to discuss her series, its themes, which include white supremacy, patriotism and mental illness, as well as the...

Racism is a blight upon the United States of America, and has been all through the country’s history.  In Stamped from the Beginning, a documentary film featuring and based on the book of the same name by Dr. Ibram X Kendi, director Roger Ross Williams explores the history of racist ideas in the US. Using an innovative array of methods, including VFX, animation, and music, he explores how the Trans-Atlantic slave trade gave birth to racist ideas, and how racist myths regarding black...

In 1983 America was overwhelmed by a disaster, the likes of which it had never seen before. Hysteria led to riots; mayhem became the norm. And the reason? Chubby, potato faced toys: the Cabbage Patch Kids. In this episode of Factual America, Matthew Sherwood meets Dan Goodman, co-executive producer of Billion Dollar Babies, a documentary about the rise and rise of the awkward looking but homely and utterly desirable Cabbage Patch Kids.  They discuss the origin of the Cabbage Patch Kids’...

In 1999, Rose Tajiri, a second-generation Japanese-American, was diagnosed with dementia. She was 76. Over the following years, as her condition worsened, her daughter, filmmaker Rea Tajiri, became her caregiver.  In Wisdom Gone Wild Rea documents the journey that she and her mother took together, a journey that sees them navigate both the now of life with dementia and the past as Rose recalls memories from her early years, including the time she spent in an internment camp during the Second...

Carlos is a documentary that takes the viewer from legendary guitarist Carlos Santana’s beginnings in Mexico to concerts across the world in a musical career that has lasted over fifty years. It goes off-stage as well, exploring his spiritual journey and life with his family, from mother and father, to siblings, and children. In this episode of Factual America, Matthew Sherwood meets Carlos’ director, Rudy Valdez, to discuss Santana’s storied life. Their conversation reveals Carlos as an...

To call Sylvester Stallone a film star is only the beginning of any conversation about him. Movies such as Rocky and Rambo have made him an American icon. But even that barely scrapes the surface of who he really is.  In Sly, a new documentary film available to watch now on Netflix, director Thom Zimny takes a deep dive into Sylvester Stallone’s story. He starts with the actor we all know before introducing us to the man behind the persona: Stallone the writer, director, and even, painter....

In The Enfield Poltergeist, Jerry Rothwell uses over 250 hours of audio recordings made by paranormal investigator Maurice Grosse to revisit the case of 284 Green Street in Enfield, North London. There, for a period of eighteen months starting in August 1977, the Hodgson family witnessed furniture move of its own accord, objects get thrown across rooms, and heard disembodied voices speak. Or did they? Some investigators were convinced, others were not. In The Enfield Poltergeist, Jerry...

Welcome to the first episode of the fifth season of Factual America! Joining host Matthew Sherwood is Yon Motskin, the director of Encounters, a new Netflix docu-series about four UFO/alien encounters from around the world. Encounters tells a story that is both epic and intimate in its range. It not only explores what occurred when a diverse range of witnesses – including school children, hoteliers, law enforcement officials, and rescue workers – came face-to-face with the seemingly...

Wayne Shorter has long been considered one of the greatest modern composers and musicians of American music. His career reads like a Who’s Who of the genre, starting with Art Blakey and The Jazz Messengers, then the Miles Davis Quintet, followed by solo fame and the founding of fusion super group Weather Report. His collaborations extend beyond jazz greats such as Herbie Hancock and Ron Carter to include Carlos Santana, Joni Mitchel, Milton Nascimento and Steely Dan, just to name a few.  In...

John McEnroe’s volcanic temper on the tennis court is legendary. But there was always more to him than just the explosive outbursts.  In McEnroe, a documentary now available to watch on Sky Documentaries and streaming service NOW, John McEnroe takes a night time journey through his home town of New York, reflecting on, discussing, and interrogating his life on and off the court. Joining Matthew Sherwood is the film’s director Barney Douglas. He shares how McEnroe has changed from his...

For 200 years, the people of central Appalachia in the US have lived off the industry of coal. Now, though, times are changing, and the coal industry is dying. One day, it will become no more than a memory.  Director Elaine McMillion Sheldon describes King Coal as “part documentary, part fable”, and the film aims to not only tell the story of Appalachia and its coal, but also to preserve Appalachians’ memory of it.  And that is not all. Through Lanie and Gabby, two young Appalachian girls,...

Humanity is the master of the world. But how did we achieve this? And what do our actions say about us as a people? These are the questions at the heart of Human Footprint, a new PBS docu-series directed by Nate Dappen and Neil Losin. They join Matthew Sherwood to discuss the programme, which they describe as ‘a science show that explores human history and culture’.  Human Footprint starts with an exploration of invasive species. Nate and Neil discuss our response to this problem, which we...

What does it mean to belong to a cult-like religious order? How does it affect one’s family? What happens when that membership is lost? These are three of the questions at the heart of Q, Jude Chehab’s first feature documentary.  Jude’s subject is her mother, Hiba, who for forty years belonged to an all-women Islamic group called Al-Qubaysiat. That ended, however, when the group’s all-powerful leader, the Anisa, ostracised her.  Central to the story of Q is love: of family, truth, and of...