New True Stories commissions on Channel 4

19 April 2012

Channel 4 has announced three brand new True Stories documentaries that will air in the spring/summer 2012, ordered by Anna Miralis, Documentaries Commissioning Editor.

The special one-off films will be broadcast as part of Channel 4's True Stories strand, showcasing the best of feature-length documentaries, and include Afghan Army Girls, following the journey of three young women as they mentally and physically prepare for doing ‘a man's job' in the Afghan National Army; and Ohio Animal Massacre (w/t), which tells the extraordinary story of when scores of dangerous wild animals were let loose to roam the streets of a small US town, and The Great Pretender (w/t), documenting the astonishing lives of America's most notorious con man, eventually discovered and revealed as a murderer.

True Stories recently moved to Channel 4 and has since aired a number of successful documentaries including the highest ever rating True Stories, Gypsy Blood with 3m viewers and 17.4% share, America's Serial Killer, which rated at 1.8 million and got 9.5% share and My Social Network Stalker with 2 million viewers and a 10.9% share.

Miralis said: "With this raft of new commissions and the recent successes of films such as Gypsy Blood and My Social Network Stalker, I'm excited about continuing our commitment to bringing the best of original commissions and international feature-length documentaries to Channel 4."

 

Afghan Army Girls

Afghan Army Girls follows the journey of three incredible young women as they go through a gruelling recruitment process into the Afghan National Army. Each girl shares a different reason for signing up, from growing up in a broken country to living a life as a refugee. Yet they all share one thing in common - persecution and death threats for choosing a career which are usually described as a man's job.

In a rapidly changing country this film provides candid access to these women at a pivotal moment in Afghanistan's modern history and for the first time, young teenage Afghan girls are filmed away from the strict social confines they grew up with.

As they adapt into their new surroundings and way of life, the film portrays their hopes, fears and ambitions to succeed. Whilst wrestling with the cultural customs concerning their role as women in a new Afghanistan, they also deal with normal everyday issues that young girls worry about from fashion, diets and make-up to family values, sex and marriage.

Production Company: Raw Cut
Director: Lalage Snow
Executive Producer: Bill Rudgard and Steve Warr

 

Ohio Animal Massacre (w/t)

The Ohio Animal Massacre (w/t) is a compelling new film about the extraordinary event that shook a small American town in Ohio as it played host to the largest release of wild animals in US history. Zanesville hit the headlines and was at the centre of a media storm when 48 animals were shot and slaughtered in the middle of the street after residents were left fearing for their lives.

On Tuesday 18th October 2011, Terry Thompson, owner of the private Muskingum County Animal Farm threw open the cages of 50 wild animals putting the whole town in danger before committing suicide and pulling the trigger on himself.  The Sheriff's deputies were left with no choice but to slaughter the roaming animals which included 18 Bengal tigers, 17 lions, six black bears, a pair of grizzlies, three mountain lions, two wolves and a baboon - resulting in devastating consequences.

This remarkable film explores in detail how the dramatic series of events unfolded. Through gripping archive footage of the police hunt for the wild animals and exclusive access to the key people who were found themselves at the centre of the massacre, it will re-live the horror of the animal tragedy and discuss what could have motivated Thompson to commit such atrocious actions against his animals.

Production Company: Minnow Films
Director: Ben Chanan
Executive Producer: Morgan Matthews

 

The Great Pretender (w/t)

After four decades, America's most notorious con man has been caught - unravelling a shocking and extraordinary story of multiple identities and deception that stretches from a Bavarian village to California, where, in January 2012, he was charged with murder. With access to people that knew him at every step of his journey True Stories paints a portrait of the man who started life as Christian Gerhartsreiter, a poor country boy from a tiny mountain village in Upper Bavaria and who pursued the American dream for three years, ending up as Clark Rockefeller - banker, socialite and member of one of America's richest families, married to a successful business woman and living in a $2 million townhouse with a country estate in the grandest part of New Hampshire.

Over four decades Clark Rockefeller had created and lived five entirely separate identities: he was a relative of Earl Mountbatten and member of the British Royal family; the son of the British single-handed sailor Sir Frances Chichester; a Film Noir director, responsible for all the Hitchcock remakes; a Wall Street trader and flamboyant figure on the New York art scene; and finally, he was a Boston grandee, member of the finest East Coast Clubs, ex-husband to a Harvard MBA living in London and proud father. It was only when he tried to snatch his seven year old daughter from a social worker on the streets of Manhattan in 2008 that police began to unearth the truth.

With access to the FBI, former police detectives and key players close the case The Great Pretender (w/t) documents the many lives of one man, capable of astonishing deceit and manipulation. This is a gripping and revelatory account of the most complex con America has ever known.

Production Company: Blast! Films
Proucer/Director: Louise Osmond
Executive Producer: Edmund Coulthard