Rai takes eight docs from NHK

Wildlife: Island Pioneers – Canada’s Sea Wolves

Italian pubcaster Rai has bought eight one-off documentaries from Japanese national broadcaster NHK, to be aired across its various channels.

Two will be shown on Rai’s Geo network: Bearman of Hokkaido (1×49’), which shows how a 94-year-old fisherman has developed an affinity with bears in a Hokkaido national park; and Wildlife: Island Pioneers – Canada’s Sea Wolves (1×50’), which examines how wolves in Canada are having to adapt their lifestyle to hunting on water as well as land.

Rai 5, meanwhile, will air The Lost Hokusai (1×49’), in which a team of experts try to restore a three metre-wide painting made by legendary artist Katsushika Hokusai.

Two NHK shows have been acquired for history channel Rai Storia: two-part Roots of Tokyo, which uses CGI to show how samurai built Japan’s capital; and The Iron Road, which explores the metal’s role in transforming human history.

Rai Scuola will showcase three science docs, the first being AI Robots: Friend or Foe? (1×50’), a documentary that asks if capitalism and artificial intelligence can co-exist.

The other two are Cosmic Front: Unraveling the Permian Extinction (1×52’) looks into the greatest extinction event in Earth’s history, which eradicated 90% of all terrestrial species; and Antarctica: The Frozen Time Capsule, an hour-long exploration into an Antarctic lakebed to discover the origin of Earth’s oxygen-rich atmosphere.