Deep in the Colombian jungle, a group of men clusters in a carefully guarded camp, stirring a noxious brew of chemicals. They're not manufacturing cocaine, but rather building a fiberglass "narcosub," a submersible boat which can hold a crew of three, tons of cocaine and enough food for the sea-faring journey. If the crew members are lucky--not caught by the Coast Guard, or if they don't sink--they will receive a few thousand dollars for their weeks' long journey transporting contraband worth millions of dollars, at which point the sub will be scuttled, the crew returning to Colombia.
And throughout this, Vice TV cameras are rolling, as Vice producer Santiago Stelley interviews the narco-sub crews and law enforcement, exposing how expendable human beings and the environment are when hundreds of millions of tax-free dollars are at stake.
There are no holds barred for the revolutionary, bold, irreverent Vice TV, aka VBS.tv. The media website, which grew out of Vice Magazine, explores the strange, the controversial and the timely in exciting often edgy long and short form documentaries, covering stories that mainstream media just can't or won't do: An interview with Hezbollah's self-proclaimed mayor of Beirut; a week-long, well-documented stay in North Korea complete with karaoke and the Mass Games; a trip to the Ohio "body farm," where students of forensic medicine and crime scene analysis learn the many ways bodies decompose; a cruise to "garbage island," an atoll of plastic trash the size of Texas afloat in the Pacific Ocean; robots, skateboarders, sex, heavy metal, politics, organized and dis-organized crime, ethno-botanicals--all things wild, weird and wonderful about our world are explored by Vice TV.
Along with its website VBS.tv, Vice programs can bee seen on MTV2--VBS is co-production with MTV Networks--and lately producers and directors have been guests on Firedoglake.com's Movie Night to discuss their documentaries. On Monday September 14, from 5pm-6:30pm west coast at firedoglake.com, Vice TV's director of content Santiago Stelley will be the guest in live online chat about his adventures in Colombia uncovering the "Narcosubs," story.