NOVA: Lethal Seas

Not only has she got pink extensions, painted on eyebrows, glitter stockings and superman hotpants, Starlady’s a youth worker in some of Australia’s most remote and challenging places. And she reckons that hairdressing can improve people’s lives. Like a real life Priscilla, Starlady takes us on a Queen of the Desert journey to Areyonga, an indigenous community in Central Australia, where she’ll work with a group of curious and cheeky young people.

WILD THINGS follows a new generation of environmental activists that are mobilising against forces more powerful than themselves and saying, enough. Armed only with mobiles phones, this growing army of eco warriors will do whatever it takes to save their futures from the ravages of climate change. From chaining themselves to coal trains, sitting high in the canopy of threatened rainforest or locking onto bulldozers, their non-violent tactics are designed to generate mass action with one finger tap. Against a backdrop of drought, fire and floods; we witness how today’s environmentalists are making a difference and explore connections with the past through the untold stories of previous campaigns. Surprisingly the methods of old still have currency when a groundswell of school students inspired by the actions of 16-year old Greta Thunberg say, ‘change is coming’ and call a national strike demanding action against global warming.

Follows the penguins of Phillip Island, and the team of rangers and scientists who monitor and protect them.

Every night around Australia, native possums scamper across city rooftops in an endless quest for food and shelter. Forced out of their bush habitats by encroaching development, these mischievous marsupials swarm into cities where their raucous noise and destructive appetites bring them few friends. They live in our roofs, pillage our fruit trees, plunder our flowers and pee on our paths. And when possums and people fight for real estate it’s war!

THE GREAT AUSTRALIAN FLY looks at how a national nuisance has shaped Australia and its people, confounding our scientists, influencing our lifestyle and defining the way we speak. But is its value misunderstood? The one-hour documentary explores how this much-maligned spoiler of the Australian summer is in fact a crime solver, healer, pollinator and street sweeper. We'd miss them if they were gone, yet we put huge amounts of energy into wiping them out. Is it time to call a truce? Directed by Tosca Looby and produced by Sally Ingleton, the amusing and intriguing film pays homage to a much-maligned invertebrate and the influence it has had on our world.

In early 2011, the Australian state of Queensland is hit by floods on a scale of biblical proportions. A freak inland tsunami smashes through towns and cities bringing widespread destruction and claiming lives. Then cyclones batter the coastline wreaking even further devastation. This is the story of Australia’s greatest flood, caught on camera by those who lived through it.

By 2010, forty per cent of the world's coral reefs may be dead. By 2030, half of the Great Barrier Reef may be gone. Muddy Waters journeys to the sugarcane plantations of north Queensland and into the underwater world of the Great Barrier Reef in an effort to discover what is putting one of the world's greatest natural treasures under threat.

For decades people in China modelled themselves on Chairman Mao who wore a simple worker’s outfit in blue or grey, known as the ‘Mao Suit’. MAO’S NEW SUIT charts the course of two Beijing fashion designers amidst the staging of their first collection in Shanghai’s annual Fashion Week.

Documentary on the revival of classical dancing in Cambodia, where nine out of ten classical dancers were killed during the Pol Pot regime in the 1970s. The program focuses on master teacher Em Theay and her star pupil Sok Chea, who recall their ordeals under Pol Pot and talk about their present efforts and their hopes for the future. In addition to views of Em Theay, Sok Chea, and others in classes, rehearsals and performances, the program includes historical background on Cambodian classical dancing and archival footage of dancers of the past.

Marine scientists across the world are racing to tackle the most urgent environmental challenge facing our planet today – ocean acidification. From the icy polar seas to the world’s most pristine coral reefs we track the latest scientific research. Heading the investigation is Dr Katharina Fabricius from the Australian Institute of Marine Science. She’s made a game-changing discovery. Nestled amongst Papua New Guinea’s stunning coral gardens is a unique reef – a window to the future of our oceans.