Storyville
Season 18 Episode 10 - Brakeless: Why Trains Crash
Documentary exploring one of Japan's biggest train crashes in modern history, caused when a driver tried to catch up with a delay of just 80 seconds. It's a cautionary tale of what happens when punctuality, protocol and efficiency are taken to the extreme. On Monday April 25th 2005, a West Japan Railway commuter train crashed into an apartment building and killed 107 people. Just what pressures made the driver risk so much for such a minimal delay? Piecing together personal accounts of those affected by the train crash, with insights from experts and former train drivers, the film poses a question for a society that equates speed with progress. It offers a fascinating insight into the railway's role in Japan's post-war economic boom and the dangers of corner-cutting in the prolonged economic stagnation that followed. Through the lens of this catastrophic train crash, Brakeless considers the ultimate cost efficiency.
Episodes in Season 18
Mandela, The Myth and Me
85 min
Big Brother Watching Me: Citizen Ai Weiwei
85 min
The Big Melt - How Steel Made Us Hard
85 min
Mad Dog: Gaddafi's Secret World
85 min
K2: The Killer Summit
85 min
Cutie and the Boxer
85 min
Soccer Coach Zoran and his African Tigers
85 min
The Village that Fought Back: Five Broken Cameras
85 min
Muscle Shoals: The Greatest Recording Studio in the World
85 min
Brakeless: Why Trains Crash
85 min
Shooting Bigfoot: America's Monster Hunters
85 min
Which Way is the Front Line from Here? The Life and Time of Tim Hetherington
85 min
Searching for Sugar Man
85 min
The Legend of Billie Jean King - Battle of the Sexes
85 min
The Lance Armstrong Story - Stop at Nothing
85 min
Velorama
85 min
A Sunday In Hell
85 min
Web Junkies: China's Addicted Teens
85 min
The Himalayan Boy and the TV Set
85 min
Arms Dealer: The Notorious Mr Bout
85 min
The Gatekeepers
85 min
Particle Fever: The Hunt for the Higgs Boson
85 min
Russia's Toughest Prison: The Condemned
85 min
112 Weddings
85 min
Exposed: Magicians, Psychics and Frauds
85 min
Panto! Mayhem, Make Up and Magic
85 min
