Watchers 10 Part 1: DNA

Hunt for the Oldest DNA

Three million years ago, camels roamed through Greenland’s endless forests and our ancestors lived in the trees. It all came to an end with the Ice Ages. What died and what survived, as natural selection shaped the evolutionary tree during this epochal shift from hot to cold? Until now, scientists have known less about the natural world before the Ice Age than they did about the age of dinosaurs, which ended 64 million years ago. A new discovery is set to reveal this lost world, species by species. Led by Danish gene-hunter Eske Willerslev, a team of scientists for the first time in history is sequencing DNA from before the Ice Age. The picture that emerges is of a hot planet, when forests blanketed the Arctic and carbon levels matched those in our atmosphere today. Is this a portrait of our own climate future?

Homicide Hunter: The Man with No Face

Joe Kenda's investigation into the brutal rape and murder of 24 year old wife and mother Mary Lynn Vialpando goes cold until DNA technology leads cold-case detectives to the most unlikely of killers 30 years later.

My DNA Mystery

A DNA detective digs into the past to find a young woman's real father.

Devil in the Ozarks

A brazen sexual assault shocks a small town, but goes unsolved for 20 years, until a nearby murder produces a suspect with matching DNA.

El negocio del ADN

An Unreal Dream: The Michael Morton Story

In 1986 Michael Morton’s wife Christine is brutally murdered in front of their only child, and Michael is convicted of the crime. Locked away in Texas prisons for a quarter century, he has years to ponder questions of justice and innocence, truth and fate. Though he is virtually invisible to society, a team of dedicated attorneys spends years fighting for the right to test DNA evidence found at the murder scene. Their discoveries ultimately reveal that the price of a wrongful conviction goes well beyond one man’s loss of freedom.

Filling in the Blanks

Where do I come from? For some, the question has a simple answer -- for others, the truth can be much more complicated. With the rise in popularity of at-home DNA tests, it's now easier than ever for people to uncover their family history and, sometimes, things their parents wish would stay buried. Interested in learning more about his family heritage, director Jon Baime took an at-home DNA test and uncovered a family secret that has been hidden for half a century. Featuring in-depth interviews with Jon's siblings as well as a treasure trove of family photos and films spanning 70 years, FILLING IN THE BLANKS takes audiences on a journey as Jon explores the meaning behind his discovery and expands on what it means to be family.

Columbus DNA: His True Origin

One of the most important and exciting historical research of all time, the study of the DNA of the navigator Christopher Columbus, finally answers two fundamental questions: where do his bones rest? What is his true origin?

Le mystère de l'homme de Denisova

Metamorphosis

A geneticists working on a drug to stop ageing tries it upon himself with horrendous consequences.

Judge Dredd

In a dystopian future where Judges maintain law and order by acting as judge, jury, and executioner, Dredd fights to prove his innocence after being falsely accused of murder.

Antibodies

When a notorious German serial killer is captured after committing some of the most heinous acts against humanity ever imaginable, a farmer and police officer from a sleepy rural community on the outskirts of Berlin is drawn into the case as he searches for the answers to a murder that has shaken his tight-knit community.

Women in the Mirror

Three women who share memories of the Hiroshima disaster try to uncover the hidden family ties that may or may not bind them together.

Cocorico 2

DNA tests before Alice and François's wedding reveal their fathers - an aristocrat and car dealer - aren't as French as they thought.

Scorpius Gigantus

Geneticist seeks to make a name for herself by saving the planet from disease by using eons-old antibodies, harvested from enlarged six legged creatures. The creatures don't like being big and escape. Send for help.

Sons And Daughters

We are in Argentina in 1977, a woman gives birth to twins. With the complicity of the midwife he manages to hide the child, second child. The first, a boy, is taken into custody by the regime's guards. The scene moves to the Milan of today. The young Rosa contacts Javier and tries to convince him that they are twin brothers, separated at birth. Thus, the two begin a journey to rediscover their origins and their past. A bitter reality is ready to overwhelm them ...

Toilet

A 30-something Gundam fan and engineer is forced to live with his recluse brother Maury and younger sister Lisa to take care of their Japanese grandmother after their mother's funeral.

The Third Wish

A simple organic fruit farmer Rong Guang (Wu Kang-Ren) is raising his son Feng (Chen Yu-Cheng) alone in a small rural community, although with poor harvests and little money, their lifestyle is meagre. Elsewhere Feng’s mother Yi Ying (Alice Tzeng), now a successful businesswoman is being pressured by her husband Chung Hao (Tang Guo-Zhong) to have children something she strongly resists. Ying reveals that she already has a son, feng, and that he may be Chung Hao’s after all, so they begin proceedings to take feng back for themselves which Rong Guang refuses to let happen. Chung Hao demands a DNA test but before this can happen, Rong Guang collapses and is taken to hospital, forcing him to make some drastic decisions for Feng’s welfare.

A Father's Love

A taxi driver, already struggling to support his wife and children, finds an abandoned baby in the back of his cab.

Decoding Annie Parker

The lives of a breast-cancer patient and a researcher who is trying to prove a genetic link to cancer intersect in a groundbreaking study.