Go Filmography - Other TV

 A) The Art of War
    Year: 2009
    Watch: YouTube
    Comment: Shown on the US History Channel, The Art of War included references to Go. In the
       two-hour program (90 minutes without adverts) based on the writings of Sun Tzu, his strategies
       are likened to Go and Go equipment is shown, albeit with a very un-Go-like arrangement of 
       stones on the board. The show demonstrates Sun Tzu's principles in the war between the 
       ancient Chinese states of Wu and Chu, the Vietnam War, the landings at Normandy during World
       War II, and the Battle of Gettysburg in the Civil War. In each of these cases reference is made to 
       Go. One of the factors attributed to the American defeat in Vietnam was the observation that 
       General Westmoreland followed a Chess-like strategy, whereas, North Vietnam's General 
       Giap followed a Go-like strategy. In several instances a Go grid was superimposed on soldiers 
       marching off to fight. It's pretty obvious the creators do not play Go themselves - these grids 
       have Go stones scattered on them, some on top of each other like the kings in Checkers! But, 
       hey, they've got good things to say about Go, so who cares?

          

 B) The Shogun
    Year: 2008
    Comment: A BBC dramatised documentary about how Tokogawa Ieyasu become the Shogun, ruler 
       of all Japan. In the first scene, 15 minutes in, Ieyasu plays Go while planning his war strategy. 
       He fingers a white stone while musing and states that you should be in no hurry to remove an 
       opponent you can beat. In the second scene 23 minutes in his son and top general are playing 
       and he urges them to finish more quickly in order to go to battle.

             

 C) Victory at Sea
    Year: 1952
    Watch: YouTube
    Comment: In part 7 of the WW2 documentary, about 5 minutes in, Japanese sailors are relaxing in
       their ship listening to music. smoking and so on. Two are playing Shogi and whilst two seem to be 
       playing Go, but nearly all the stones are white. 

       The same footage is used in Pearl Harbor: Tora, Tora, Tora: The True Story of Pearl 
       Harbor at 31:38. Watch: YouTube.

       

 D) Look Around You
    Year: 2005
    Comment: In this BBC spoof-80s documentary series, in the opening sequence of the episode on 
       computers, (Series 2 Episode 5) film can been seen of a London games fair with British Go player 
       Nick Webber teaching Go.

       

 E) New Frontiers - Ancient Chinese Games - Part One: Go and Chinese Chess
    Year: 2009
    Source: YouTube
    Comment:  A 30 minute documentary aired on Chinese international station CCTV9 as part of a
       series looking at Chinese culture and focusing on Go and Chinese Chess. Many shots of the 
       games and of artworks, including a game shown in profile between two players dressed in black 
       and white. Interviews about the history of the game with a magazine editor and about computer 
       Go with the director of a research institute.   

             

 F) Know Your Enemy - Japan 
    Year: 1945
    Watch: Youtube
    Comment: A relic from the time of World War II, Frank Capra's 1945 propaganda film mentions Go. 
       The film speaks of the attempts to eradicate Western influence in Showa-era Japan and that 
       "Western card games were purged in favor of this. It's a game of super chess called Go. 
       Actually it is a game of military strategy." Men are seen playing on a thick table board 
       and their stones in wooden bowls, with other men watching, at 43:35 in.

       

 G) Die Sendung mit der Maus (Mouse TV)
    Year: 2002
    Source: Wikipedia
    Comment: In this German pedagogical program for young children the edition on 8th September
       2002 featured a presentation on Go.

 H) Blue Peter
    Year: 1999
    Comment: In this BBC pedagogical program for children, the edition on 4th October 1999
       mentioned Go and its origins in connection with a piece on games. This was connected with a 
       games exhibition in Croydon. 

       

 I) Andrew Marr's History of the World
    Year: 2012
    Comment: In the second part of this BBC documentary series, we see (at 41.45 minutes in) for
       about five seconds two modern day Chinese men playing Go in the street, with three other men 
       watching, as part of the section on Confucius. We even see a close up of a white Chinese-style 
       stone being played.

          

 J) Vice
    Year: 2017
    Producer: Bill Maher
    Comment: In this news documentary series shown on HBO, season 5 episode 11 (12th May) 
       features Go. Called "Engineering Immortality & Robot Revolution" it features, in the second part,
       AlphaGo, its match against Lee Sedol and an interview with Demis Hassabis of DeepMind.

       

 K) The Joy of AI
    Year: 2018
    Presenter: Jim Al-Kahlili
    Source: BBC web page 
    Comment: In this BBC documentary, shown on BBC 4 (4th September), one of the AI projects
       considered is AlphaGo. It visits DeepMind's HQ, interviews Demis Hassabis, and features
       the match against Lee Sedol, especially game 2 move 37.

          

 L) The Untold Story: Internment of Japanese-Americans in Hawaii
    Year: 2012
    Director: Ryan Kawamoto
    Source: IMDB  
    Watch: Youtube
    Comment: This hour-long documentary, with archive and dramatic reconstruction, features Go
        three times in the 15 minute short version, at 5:01, 6:35 and 8:22 minutes. The film focuses 
        mainly on the Honouliuli Camp on Oahu and Go features amongst things the internees did to
        pass the time (though in the reconstruction footage it looks more like Five-in-a-Row).

       

 M) The History of Home
    Year: 2020
    Comment: This documentary on the pay-to-view channel Curiosity Stream is narrated by Nick
        Offerman and mentions Go in a section about board and video games at 48:27 of part 2. 

 L) Beyond the Visible: Hilma af Klint
    Year: 2020
    Comment: In this pay-to-view documentary about this pioneer modern artist there is an interview
          with a German art historian, who has in the background of his room a Go  board and bowls.

 Other British TV programs are listed in the media section