* Coming Home (2013)

In 1944, Stalin deported 218,000 Crimean Tatars to Central Asia - we tell the story of their struggle to return home. Using personal testimonies, this film tells the story of the Tatars' expulsion from their homeland and their long struggle to return. It was only in 1989, with the opening up of the Soviet Union, that they were able to come back in large numbers. Most, finding Russians living in their former homes, built shacks in which to live. Today, 300,000 Tatars live in Crimea - 5,000 of them still in shacks. Even those with houses suffer because they only have minority status. Despite this, 150,000 more are still hoping to return home. An Al Jazeera production.

* The Israeli Dervish (2013)

We follow one man as he becomes the only Israeli granted access to the inner sanctum of the whirling Dervish order. Miki Cohen is a 58-year-old college teacher who has 'discovered' the works of Jalal ad-Din Rumi, a 13th-century Muslim poet and Sufi mystic. Attracted by Rumi's writings and philosophy, Miki translates his works into Hebrew and practices whirling in worship. What makes Cohen's story so remarkable is that he is an Israeli. The son of holocaust survivors and a veteran of the 1973 Arab-Israeli war, Cohen found himself searching for answers to his spiritual identity.

* Pencils and Bullets (2013)

Having the chance to attend school, two Turkmen girls in Afghanistan reveal their hopes and fears for the future. Considerably improved access to education, especially for girls, is perhaps one of the most dramatic social changes in Afghanistan in the last 12 years. Since 2001, when the Taliban were toppled from power by US-backed Afghan forces, three million girls have returned to school. Women were previously banned from work and education under Taliban rule. But periodic attacks against female students, their teachers and their school buildings, continue. Produced by Al Jazeera.

* Algeria: Test of Power (2013)

The story of Algeria's past, present and future - from independence to the Arab Spring and beyond. Algeria was under French colonial rule for 132 years. From tears of joy at independence in 1962 to the tragic civil war of the 1990s and the anger that culminated in the Arab Spring, this series provides a unique insight into a country notoriously inaccessible to both journalists and filmmakers. Interviews with key players like Ben Bella, Ait Ahmed and President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, cover 50 years of tragic and powerful history from the Evian Accords of 1962 to the Arab Spring of 2011. This is the story of Algeria's past, present and future.

Part 1: Authoritarian Era
In 1962, Algeria proclaimed independence from France following eight years of war and over a century of colonial rule. The Algerian war of independence, and the negotiations that followed, spurred decades of political assassinations, coups, terrorist attacks and civil war. Hundreds of thousands of Europeans fled the country, but many Algerians who fought alongside the French during the war were left behind. Harkis, as they were called, faced torture and execution at the hands of fellow Algerians. Under the rule of its first elected president, Ahmed Ben Bella, Algeria adopted a socialist single-party political system. One year after independence, the country of nine million was poor, starving and war-torn.

Part 2: Era of Tempests
In October of 1988, the Algerian army opened fire on protesters, killing 500 civilians. This brutal attack sparked uprisings that in-turn prompted the government to abandon three decades of single-party socialism in favour of a multi-party system. Journalists and citizens celebrated their new-found freedom. Thirty years after independence, Algeria became the site of what many call the 'first Arab Spring' after Algerians demanded democracy and social and economic equality. Political freedom allowed Islamist movements to garner more support. The Islamic Salvation Front (FIS), which gathered momentum under the one-party system because of its grounding in religion rather than politics, had gained increasing support during the 1990 municipal election. Then, in 1991, it won almost half of the votes in the first round of the legislative election. Fearing a majority win for the FIS, the military stepped in and halted the democratic electoral process. It forced Chadli Bendjedid, then president, to abdicate and presented his resignation as voluntary. The second round of elections were cancelled and Mohamed Boudiaf, who had returned after a 27-year exile in Morocco, became Algeria's new leader as the chairman of the High Council of the State, a figurehead body for the ruling generals. Boudiaf tried to bring the parties together but quickly made enemies. And after his assassination in 1992, terrorist attacks increased and Algeria spiralled into a decade of civil war that claimed thousands of lives.

* The 9/11 Decade (2011)

Immediately after 9/11, the US announced that the gloves were coming off in the fight against al-Qaeda. In the first of three films on the aftermath of 9/11, we examine the highs and lows of the intelligence war. A PR stunt which killed thousands and launched a propaganda war that has, so far, lasted a decade. Since 9/11, how far has the US and al-Qaeda been prepared to go to win hearts and minds with elaborate media strategies? A look behind the headline news of airstrikes and suicide bombings at the post-9/11 war for hearts and minds.


The Image War
The US and al-Qaeda tried spin, threats, lies and censorship to win the propaganda war, but did anyone succeed?

The Intelligence War
We expose the secret war behind the 'war on terror'.

The Clash of Civilizations?
A look behind the headline news of airstrikes and suicide bombings at the post-9/11 war for hearts and minds.

* Al-Nakba (2013)

Series on the Palestinian 'catastrophe' of 1948 that led to dispossession and conflict that still endures. "The Nakba did not begin in 1948. Its origins lie over two centuries ago." So begins this four-part series on the 'nakba', meaning the 'catastrophe', about the history of the Palestinian exodus that led to the first Arab-Israeli war in 1948 and the establishment of the state of Israel. This sweeping history starts back in 1799 with Napoleon's attempted advance into Palestine to check British expansion and his appeal to the Jews of the world to reclaim their land in league with France.

The narrative moves through the 19th century and into the 20th century with the British Mandate in Palestine and comes right up to date in the 21st century and the ongoing 'nakba' on the ground. Arab, Israeli and Western intellectuals, historians and eye-witnesses provide the central narrative which is accompanied by archive material and documents, many only recently released for the first time.

* Winter of Discontent (2013)

Circassians are protesting at the holding of the 2014 Winter Olympic Games 150 years after being expelled from their land. An excited Russia gears up to host the 2014 Winter Olympics but outside the country, its chosen site is stirring powerful memories and strong emotions. For most Russians, the town of Sochi represents one of the country's finest ski resorts in an area of outstanding natural beauty. But for exiled Circassians, the same land harbours a devastating secret. It was the place their ancestors endured terrible atrocities in the late 1800's in a series of military campaigns by tsarist forces. Campaigners believe one million Circassians were driven out and 1.5 million killed in what they want the world to recognise as a genocide that lasted 100 years, or by other calculations 200 years. What is known and documented is that within a generation, only 10 percent of the Circassian population remained on the land. Sochi was the last territory conquered by the Russian Empire through force of arms. After massacring a population already weakened by starvation and war, the land was occupied. Winter of Discontent examines a protest 150 years in the making as Circassians object to the holding of the 2014 Winter Olympic games in the city of Sochi.

* The War in October (2013)

Forty years on, Al Jazeera examines three weeks of war from which both Arabs and Israelis claimed to emerge victorious. Egyptian President Anwar Sadat once called it the last war. But 40 years after Sadat uttered those words, the Arab-Israeli conflict has no end in sight. The story of the war that Egyptians call the October War and Israelis know as the Yom Kippur War has never been thoroughly explored. So what happened during those three weeks in October 1973? To this day, both sides - Arabs and Israelis - claim to be the victors. It was a war that brought the world to the brink of a nuclear confrontation between two global superpowers, the US and the Soviet Union. It also gave the world a fuel crisis and a new entry in the dictionary 'Shuttle Diplomacy', as Henry Kissinger, the US secretary of state, flew from country to country in an effort to broker a peace deal. Egypt's 2011 revolution and the toppling of the old regime has resulted in the discovery and opening of many previously undisclosed files related to the war in October. It has provided us with unprecedented access to participants in it and to the places where they fought. The War in October draws on rare film archive selected from many sources around the world, along with graphic illustrations, maps, and animated sequences to plot the movements of forces in the many battlefields of the conflict. The series features interviews with people who planned and fought in the three weeks of battles that took place on both the Egyptian and Syrian front, including characters from other countries that participated in the fighting - Iraqi, Jordanian, Moroccan and Palestinian. The interviewees include experts, diplomats, officials and members of the military from the US, the former Soviet Union and Europe.

Week 1: The Crossing
The first part of the series focuses on the build-up to the war and the role of an Egyptian double agent. It examines Egypt and Syria's lightning attack against an unprepared Israel as well as the Israeli response, the mobilisation of reserves and stabilisation of the Syrian thrust into the Golan Heights in a bloody tank battle in what became known as the 'Valley of Tears'. And it looks at the failure of an Israeli counterattack in the Sinai and the Egyptian consolidation of bridgeheads on the eastern bank of the Suez Canal.

Week 2: The Heat of Battle
The second part of The October War investigates the Israeli counterattack on both fronts, pushing Syrian and supporting Arab forces back across the ceasefire line, and taking control of territory deep inside Syria and almost within reach of Damascus. On the Suez front, Israeli forces under Ariel Sharon identify a gap in the Egyptian Canal defences, and after fierce fighting in The Battle of the Chinese Farm, they succeed in crossing the Canal to occupy positions in Egypt, behind the Egyptian front line. Meanwhile differences emerge in the Arabs' war aims, as Syria looks to conquest, while Egypt seeks only to jump-start peace talks.

Week 3: The Battle and Beyond
Stalemate at the battlefront brings the threat of involvement by the two global superpowers, the US and the Soviet Union. For a full 24 hours the world stands on the brink of nuclear confrontation. Kissinger brokers a UN monitored peace deal, but turns a blind eye to an Israeli land grab. Arab oil-producing nations turn the screw on Western supporters of Israel by cutting production. Finally a ceasefire is agreed which paves the way for the eventual return of Sinai to Egypt. But the Arab-Israeli conflict continues to this day.

* The NSA is Coming to Town (2013)

Protests, propaganda and the power struggle dominating Ukraine's airwaves. Plus, the slow TV phenomenon in Norway and the American Civil Liberties Union Santa parody song "The NSA is Coming to Town".

* Black France (2013)

Black France looks at the history of France's black community and their long struggle for recognition. In May 2013, France's National Assembly successfully voted on a bill to remove the words 'race' and 'racial' from the country's penal code.French President Francois Hollande ran on a platform promising to eliminate the word 'race' from France's constitution. But critics were quick to point out the disparity between constitutional reform and actual practice. Between one and five million French citizens claim African or Caribbean heritage. These numbers are, however, estimates, as population censuses do not recognise race. For over a century, black immigrants, though never officially identified as different, were treated as 'others'. Even today, of France's 577 members of parliament, only five are black. This three-part series tells the story of blacks in France - a long history of segregation, racism, protest, violence, culture and community building - from the turn of the 20th century until the present day.

Episode 1
Conflicting Identities Looks back on what it meant to be both black and French in the decades before France's African colonies achieved independence.

Episode 2
The Battle for Social Justice Reveals the ongoing struggles of immigrants from Africa and the Caribbean to achieve rights, form communities and have their contributions to French society recognised.

Episode 3
The Immigration Problem Focuses on the extreme racism and discrimination black immigrants faced during times of economic hardship and through political shifts in post-World War II France. Produced by Phares and Balises for Al Jazeera.