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If Quantum Leap has always been on your 'to-watch' list but you've never had the time, here are a few suggestions to get you started...

Maps to TV shows: Is there a popular show you’d really like to watch but you just don’t have time to wade through years of it all at once? Do you just want to know why that one character keeps turning up on Tumblr? Do the fans all tell you ‘season one is a bit iffy but stick with it, it gets great!’, leaving you with absolutely zero desire ever to watch the boring/silly/just plain weird season one? Then Maps To TV Shows is for you!

In these articles, we’ll outline routes through popular TV shows focusing on particular characters, story arcs or episode types. Are you really into the Klingon episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation? Do you...

AudioPlayer.setup("http://www.nerve.com/files/players/audio/player.swf", { width: 350 }); Five Albums You Should Be Listening To Right Now Great new records chosen by Adam Zacks, founder of the Sasquatch! Music Festival. Every week, titans of the mediasphere give Nerve their music recommendations. This week: Adam Zacks, Pacific Northwest concert promoter and the founder and producer of the Sasquatch! Music Festival, which celebrates its tenth anniversary this week.   1. Wheedle's Groove, Seattle's Finest in Funk & Soul 1965-75 Wheedle's Groove is a compilation of bands from a golden era of Seattle funk and soul, who, at the time, did not garner the acclaim they deserved outside of the Pacific Northwest. Thanks to the brilliant crate diggers at Light In The Attic Records, these artists are being discovered and appreciated by a whole new generation. There are many gems, but The Black on White [...]...

Black on White (Schwarz auf Weiss) exposes casual racism in Germany by showing the difficulties faced by Kwami, a Somali, when he tries to rent an apartment, buy a gold watch or stay at a campsite. The twist: Kwami is actually Günter Wallraff, Germany’s best-known investigative journalist, who blacked up and wore an Afro wig for this film. When I went to the screening at the Centre for Investigative Journalism at City University in London, I thought the film would be very predictable – but found it very disturbing. The everyday racism towards people of a different skin colour was much worse than I expected and ranged from casual disparaging remarks to outright aggression. It won’t come as a big surprise that Kwami does not get the apartment (the landlady says afterwards: “He was so black, like Heidi Klum’s guy, horrible!) and is not welcome at a German...

Investigative Film Week, London

If your idea of investigative journalism is uncovering the truth about Brangelina's break-up, perhaps it's time to re-evaluate with a visit to this fascinating week-long festival. Each of the six films showing is followed by a Q&A with the director, and leading the pack is Günter Wallraff, whose latest, Black On White, sees him donning blackface to expose racism in Germany. There's also Afghanistan: On The Dollar Trail, a dangerous study of where aid money really goes, and a film that will make you think twice the next time you pour a cuppa, Flip The Coin: The Bitter Taste of Tea, which probes the dichotomy between the corporations who provide tea for the west and the poverty-stricken people who pick it for them.

City University, EC1, Tue to 6 Feb, visit tcij.org

Andrea Hubert

Oil City Confidential, London & nationwide

Having done the Sex Pistols and the Clash,...

Cologne, Germany -- X Verleih, the distribution arm of Berlin boutique production house X Filme Creative Pool ("The White Ribbon," "The Countess") has launched a series of films under the label "Neue Heimat" (New Homeland) that look at the political and social condition in Germany.

The series kicks off Oct. 22 with documentary expose "Schwarz auf Weiss" (Black on White), from famed undercover journalist Gunter Wallraff. On Nov. 5, X Verleih will bow Christian Klandt's "Heimatfilm." The drama, based on real-life events, looks at youths in a small German town who, frustrated and bored, beat a homeless man to death.

The political consciousness of X Filme principals -- directors Tom Tykwer, Dani Levy and Wolfgang Becker -- was last on display in the omnibus production "Germany 09," which premiered at this year's Berlin International Film Festival.