Big Story

Big Story

Big Story is CGTN’s flagship investigative journalism program; a platform showcasing a selection of feature news-driven documentaries from around the world. Through unique documentary storytelling, the program explores global events, current affairs, and critical issues impacting people all across the globe through thought-provoking international stories conveyed with cinematic style.

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Big Story
  • White Space

    Two years after the deadly Charlottesville “Unite the Right” protests rattled the United States, the answers are still unclear: what did the protesters seek, what kind of society are they looking to create and how far will they go to achieve their goals?

    White Space explores the state of race in...

  • Iraq: War Continued

    It’s a conflict that’s defined a quarter century of global disorder. But how much of it needed to happen?

    In response to the 9-11 attacks, the United States – with the help of a Western coalition – rushed into war with Iraq to combat what it stated was the country’s growing cache of nuclear weap...

  • Drowning in Plastics Part 1

    It’s one of the biggest threats we’ve ever faced: trillions of pieces of plastic choking the very lifeblood of our earth, and every marine animal – from the smallest plankton to the largest mammals – being affected. With plastic being one of the most widely used materials all around the world, wh...

  • Drowning in Plastics Part 2

    It’s one of the biggest threats we’ve ever faced: trillions of pieces of plastic choking the very lifeblood of our earth, and every marine animal – from the smallest plankton to the largest mammals – being affected. With plastic being one of the most widely used materials all around the world, wh...

  • Fortress Europe

    At the height of Europe’s migrant crisis in 2015, more than one million people sought refuge on the continent. Many of them were fleeing war in Syria and Iraq, and most of them were welcomed, even as their numbers overwhelmed Europe’s outer reaches.

    Today, the winds have changed. Borders are clo...

  • The Landing Strip

    It’s one of the poorest countries in Latin America, and a hotbed for the international drug trade. With eight percent of the drugs that come into the United States passing through its borders, the mark left on Honduras is dark, and plagued with destruction. Here, traffickers control a trade so po...

  • The Lost Children of Tunisia

    The small coastal North African nation that was the birthplace of the Arab Spring is becoming the latest casualty in global terrorism. A longtime hotbed for ISIL recruitment, the U.N. estimates Tunisia has the highest per capita rate of foreign ISIL fighters of any nation in the world. But even a...

  • The New Silk Road Part 1

    At the turn of the century, China embarked on a development plan that saw the country’s economy explode to 60 times its original size in just 40 years. By focusing on infrastructure and mobility, China changed its destiny and is now looking to the Belt and Road Initiative to share these lessons w...

  • The New Silk Road Part 2: Into Africa

    "Into Africa" shows the impact the Belt and Road Initiative is having on the world’s second most populous continent. With an ongoing population boom, Africa sits at a crossroads between potential prosperity or further scarcity. The second installment of "The New Silk Road" looks at how Kenya is b...

  • The New Silk Road Part 3: Into Europe

    This installment takes a deep dive into what the Belt and Road Initiative means for Europe. "Into Europe" looks at how China is refurbishing existing infrastructure, and building cutting edge projects to further connect the Eurasian landmass.

  • Ocean's Cartels

    It’s one of the world’s most dangerous and illicit businesses, on an area covering 70 percent of our world’s surface.

    With grave economic and environmental consequences, illegal fishing is a trade that rakes oceans, depletes entire species and even enslaves humans, all for a fast profit.

    The FA...

  • Poor Europe

    In Europe, poverty is defined as having less than 60 percent of the average national income to live. In a continent made up of mostly wealthy nations, that definition still categorizes tens of millions of people as being poor. Among the most vulnerable are children, unemployed young adults and th...

  • Middle Class Kingdom

    Two young handbag designers and one fast-casual chef seek to take their goods to China’s middle class, and beyond. But in a business climate large enough to crush dreams or make them soar, these entrepreneurs struggle to find their niche. With fast-paced Shanghai as a backdrop, the pitfalls and r...

  • Unsustainable

    An Ecuadoran fisherman who works in narco-controlled seas. A Peruvian gold miner forced to destroy the very forest that gives him life. A Brazilian activist fighting to save a shrinking forest. Together, they tell the story of a South American paradigm, one that has workers fighting scarcity and ...

  • From Local to Global

    Forty years after opening its economy to the world, China has taken its resources far and wide. But with trade being a hot-button issue in a globalized world, the levers of influence continue to shift. Whether it’s through the eyes of Chinese investments in Detroit’s flailing car industry, or via...

  • The Road to Riches

    With the country’s goal of eliminating poverty by 2020, China’s under-served population is being given unprecedented opportunity for upward social mobility. Yet, with 43 million still living in poverty, great challenges still remain. And whether it’s for a young woman working in a tech start-up i...