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Subjects
Films by Subject
History
108 film(s) found
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This is a multi-award winning documentary about Japan's World War II biological weapons facility as seen from two points of view. The first half gives the perspective of the Chinese and describes the horrors, while the second half, using the same footage, gives the Japanese revisionist perspective. more »
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This documentary on Schindler, the wartime rescuer of 1200 Jews, grapples with the moral ambiguity of a flawed hero. more »
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Agent Yellow is a powerful indictment of the U.S. government’s systematic prejudice against Chinese-American scientists. The film focuses on the mistreatment of Chinese scientists who contributed significantly to American military research. more »
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All Me shares the turbulent life story and artwork of painter Wilfred Rembert, whose autobiographical works illustrate the alternately jubilant and painful life in the segregated South during the 1960s and 70s. more »
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This powerful documentary provides the historical context for the establishment of the '60s Civil Rights Movement, and includes rare clips of Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Fred Hampton, and other activists. more »
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This admiring portrait of indefatigable social activist Abe Osheroff weaves through twentieth century American history, bringing alive historical issues for a new audience. more »
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The Artist Was a Woman uncovers the works of several gifted female artists while exploring why their talent was so often overlooked. more »
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This is the colorful story of Mustafa Kemal, later known as Ataturk, the charismatic leader of Turkey after the first World War, who secularized the country to bring it into the modern world. more »
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The artists, rebels, and bohemians who came to New York's Greenwich Village over many decades changed the face of American culture through their art and politics. This film portrays the important political and social movements that began in the Village: the first interracial jazz club, the earliest Socialist newspapers from before World War I, the Stonewall Rebellion which sparked the Gay Liberation movement and many others. more »
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This film investigates the roles of the international banking clique, including American banks, in collaborating with the Nazis during World War II. more »
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The Warsaw Uprising was the largest and bloodiest military operation undertaken by any resistance movement in World War II. From August 1 - October 2, 1944 the Nazis were challenged by an underground army of irregular volunteers - the vast majority barely adult. The allies did not come to their aid and 80% of Warsaw was destroyed. With unique testimony from Polish, British, and German participants. more »
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This documentary examines the painful legacy of Korean sex slaves under World War II Japanese colonial rule. It honors a few brave survivors who came forward to break the silence. more »
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A portrait of photographer Dennis Stock whose classic photographs of Hollywood stars and jazz musicians captured the American social scene in the late 20th century. more »
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A violent chapter of American history is brought alive in this film about the race riots which began on July 1, 1917, when racial tension exploded. Although thirty-nine people died, President Wilson refused to permit a federal inquiry. more »
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When waiter Booker Wright spoke out in a 1965 documentary about his experiences as a black man in the Mississippi Delta, it cost him his job, his livelihood, and possibly his life. Forty-five years later, the filmmaker's son returns to the South with Wright's granddaughter to learn more about him and the film's impact on his life. more »
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While the history of slavery in the US is widely known, few people realize that Brazil was the largest participant in the slave trade. This well-researched BBC production charts Brazil's history using original texts, letters, accounts, and decrees. more »
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This engaging film vividly evokes the rich past of the dance craze of the early 30's known variously as the Jitterbug, the Lindy Hop and Swing dancing. more »
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This is the first documentary to tell the complete story of the Flying Tigers, a volunteer group of American pilots who fought with the Chinese against Japan even before Pearl Harbor. more »
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In 1940, General DeGaulle escaped to London determined to save France after its surrender to Germany. Archival films together with commentary by journalists and colleagues bring the career of this remarkable leader alive. more »
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Cheating the Stillness: The World of Julia Peterkin chronicles the life of a remarkable woman and author who rebelled against expectations of Southern women in the early twentieth century. more »
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During two days in September 1957 several courageous students and their parents desegregated the Nashville school system. more »
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The first film to reveal the horrific impact of the McCarthy era on the Chinese-American community. more »
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Criminal Injustice: Death and Politics at Attica brings the deadly 1971 Attica prison rebellion to life with startling new eyewitness testimonies and documents that call into question historic records of the event. more »
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During World War II, Nazi forces attempted—and largely failed—to impose their Final Solution across Denmark, as more than 95 percent of the country's Jewish population survived the war. The Danish Solution details how so many Jews managed to escape the Nazi blueprint for their extermination. more »
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Seen through the eyes of the women she influenced, including Kate Millet and Marge Piercy, this is an in depth look at one of the leaders in the international women's movement more »
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When the US exploded two nuclear bombs over Japan in 1945, it was perhaps the largest demonstration of power in the history of civilization. But the bombs were just the starting point of a desperate arms race between the US and the Soviet Union. more »
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This documentary focuses on the anti-war movement within the armed forces. It highlights the intersection of the civil rights and anti-war movements, and the ethics of whether to follow orders which one feels are immoral. more »
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A startling film which examines in detail how the French authorities arrested and interned more than 74,000 Jews before sending them to Auschwitz, which only 2,500 survived. more »
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Electoral Dysfunction, an acclaimed feature-length documentary, uses humor and wit to take an irreverent—but nonpartisan—look at voting in America. more »
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This spectacular film brings to light the priceless treasures of China's imperial art collection, relating them to the political climate of their time. It also describes how the collection survived both war and revolution in the 1930-40's. more »
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This film tells the harrowing story of the Japanese occupation of Singapore from 1941 to 1945. England's decision to give up Malaya for the defense of Europe in World War II was ultimately the end of the British Empire. more »
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This film documents the work of Dr. P. Gregory Warden and his team as they search the hilltops of Poggio Colia, Italy, for any clues into the mysterious Etruscan civilization. more »
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After ruling Cuba for almost 50 years, Castro stepped down. This film presents a unique account of his life and times, taken largely from private letters, correspondence, speeches, and interviews. more »
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In this profoundly touching, intergenerational documentary, a charismatic Holocaust survivor inspires her family to connect to relatives they could never meet. Focusing on her brother Kalman, Anna recounts tales of a mischievous boy who tried to escape the Warsaw ghetto with her. more »
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This is the story of African American women who migrated from the rural South during the first three decades of the 20th century and worked as domestic workers to support their families. We meet women of spirit and humor who tell how they survived difficult times more »
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In this film, the surviving members of the National Negro Labor Council, formed in 1951, recall their first convention and their notable goals. The Council was a forerunner of the civil rights movement. more »
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A riveting history of colonialism and its legacy after Patrice Lumumba and then General Mobutu took control more »
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This Academy Award-nominee is a must for all courses dealing with the Vietnam War and its divisive effect on the American people. Its focus is Neil Davis, a news cameraman whose famous combat footage was shown all over the world. more »
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Biofuel advocate Josh Tickell explores the origins of America's dependence on fossil fuel and detailing the cross-country road trip that he took in his biodiesel-converted van, campaigning for more sustainable, environmentally friendly fuel. more »
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A portrait of what it’s like to be an "illegal alien." Geronimo came to the U.S. not knowing a word of English, went to school by night, and sent money home to his family in Mexico. When he returns home for a visit, one sees how hopeless life is for those who have remained in his village. more »
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This documentary explores the Greensboro Massacre of 1979 and its aftermath. Members of the Communist Workers Party massed for a “Death to the Klan” rally when a caravan of Ku Klux Klan and American Nazis arrived. The Klansmen opened fire. A quarter of a century later a truth and reconcilliation committee explores the tragedy. more »
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Hansel Mieth is the compelling tale of a pioneering woman photojournalist who created some of the most indelible images of mid-20th century America. more »
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Hopkins was invited by Roosevelt to head the Works Progress Administration (WPA) during the Great Depression and within four weeks, he had put four million people to work. This film shows how his unshakable belief in public service was vital to his country. more »
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An intrepid woman who reported on events in China during the turbulent 30's and gained the friendship of Mao's inner circle. more »
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This psychological dual biography exposes the chilling parallels -- and the glaring differences -- of these two dictators. Includes exceptional footage from film archives in Russia, Germany, Eastern Europe, Great Britain and the U.S. more »
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This film, based on newsreel footage and interviews with contemporaries, traces the story of Ho Chi Minh's life, the Vietnamese leader who against seemingly insurmountable odds humiliated two of the world's strongest armies, the American and the French. more »
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During World War II, a unit of second generation Japanese immigrants was fighting bravely on the European front. Their regiment became the most highly decorated in American history. However, at home, their families were being interned. more »
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By examining the early history of the area, the film shows how blacks influenced British Columbia to join the Confederation of Canada instead of becoming part of the United State more »
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This engrossing series chronicles the black experience in Canada from their arrival as slaves in the 17th century to their current achievements. more »
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Few people know that slavery existed in Canada as it did in the United States. Using illustrations, maps, archival documents and photographs, it shows how slaves were kept and sold in Canada until 1863, thirty-two years before the U.S. Emancipation Proclamation. more »
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The Duvall family are descendents of fugitive slaves who fled New Orleans by way of the Underground Railway in the 1860's. There were, at that time, already 25,000 free black people in Canada. more »
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A monument to the suffering of the Chinese at the hands of the Japanese during World War II. Includes the newly discovered film footage of the massacre shot by John McGee, an American missionary who was living in Nanjing. more »
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Using archival footage never before seen in the West, this epic film traces the history of the past hundred years on the Indian subcontinent with all of its religious, ethnic and political turbulence. more »
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This film is the record of these meetings of the Geneva Initiative that succeeded in bringing Israelis and Palestinians to the negotiating table in order to discussion a peaceful solution to their conflict. more »
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Minniejean Brown Trickey was 16 years old when she become one of the Little Rock Nine. Since then, she led a life of passionate social activism and been an inspiration to many. more »
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This enlightening portrait joins African American social activist Julian Bond as he traces his roots back to slavery, and recalls his role as a leader and organizer during the Civil Rights Movement. more »
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This film documents a war where neither side was victorious, a struggle that came very close to thermonuclear war, and that still resonates in the geopolitical machinations between East and West more »
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Thirty years after the end of the Vietnam War, children in Saigon's Tu Du Hospital are among several millions diagnosed by the Vietnamese as victims of Agent Orange. more »
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Few people know that in 18th century France, a black man became not only an internationally recognized composer, but also a director of France¹s leading orchestras. His remarkable life story is recounted in this film, which shows how he overcame the adversities of class, race and society to distinguish himself as a violinist, composer and conductor. His musical compositions inspired Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven. more »
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From ancient China, India, Islam, and the Graeco Roman world, we see how the library radiated knowledge and spiritual values, and facilitated the cross fertilization of ideas from one culture to another. more »
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This film celebrates the long and rich tradition of Latin culture in a multicultural community in Florida which was founded on the cigar industry. more »
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In the 1940s, an Asian American couple rose from the Chinatown nightclub circuit to the Ed Sullivan Show, watched by millions of Americans. This film details the couple's story and their struggles in an era of racism. more »
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The German army’s 1940 invasion of the Grand-Duchy of Luxembourg marked the beginning of a long ordeal for the nation’s people. For more than four years, Nazis occupied the country, eager to destroy its independence and integrate the Grand-Duchy into the Reich. more »
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The crime of lynching is long-gone practice, as shown by events in Jasper, Texas, in 1998, where an African American was dragged to his death behind a truck. more »
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This film details the enormous contribution to culture, politics, industry, and even human psychology made by Johann Gutenberg's fifteenth century achievement—the printing press. Writer and actor Stephen Fry energetically explores the story of the machine and of the man who created it. more »
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Between 1958 and 1962, China experienced tragedy on an epic scale when the “Great Leap Forward” – an economic campaign conceived by Mao Zedong led to a catastrophic famine resulting in the death of up to fifty-five million people. more »
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This carefully researched film celebrates the life and legacy of Peter Cooper, the remarkable 19th century inventor, industrialist and philanthropist. When business success brought wealth, Cooper used it to foster social justice. more »
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From 1942 to 1944, nearly twenty-five thousand Jewish men, women, and children were deported from Belgium to Auschwitz. Fewer than fifteen hundred survived. This film raises and systematically answers the question: How did just a handful of Nazis, with the help—voluntary or unwitting—of the Belgian authorities, bring about their destruction? more »
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The legacy of the genocide in Nanjing echoes in the emotional life of a family today. more »
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This award-winning film describes the 1937 Nanking Massacre committed by the Japanese army in China’s former capital city. more »
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This film shares the story of the life and works of Doris Humphrey, a seminal figure in modern dance who forever changed the way dancers move, the conception of choreography, and audiences’ experience of dance. more »
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Composed of historical footage, including newly discovered archival films, Nuremberg brings to life the challenge of administering justice when crimes are on such a scale as those of the Nazis. more »
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A first hand account of how the Gypsies suffered during the Holocaust. more »
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This film focuses on the small village of New Paltz, N.Y. where the 26-year-old mayor Jason West stunned his neighbors and the nation by performing 25 same-sex marriages in defiance of state law. The film probes the debate on same-sex marriage as it relates to the Constitution and the family. more »
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Original intent is the judicial philosophy stating the US Constitution should be interpreted in the way the Founding Fathers understood it in 1789, rather than a flexible legal document meant to evolve with society. This film argues that the far right is using originalism to advance a radically conservative political agenda. more »
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This dramatized documentary drawn verbatim from testimony examines the painful story of the only known Jew to be lynched in America. Originally from New York, Leo Frank was the manager of a pencil factory in Atlanta in 1913, when he was falsely accused and convicted in the rape and murder of a worker. more »
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Whitney Young was one of the most celebrated—and controversial—leaders in the Civil Rights Era. As head of the National Urban League, he was an influential liaison between those in power and those striving for change. more »
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More than forty years ago three civil rights workers were savagely slain in Neshoba County. That heinous crime was a watershed in the struggle for equality for African-Americans. Return to Mississippi retells the story of the murders and the trial that ensued events upon which the feature film Mississippi Burning was based. more »
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Tea played an important role in the British Empire's expansion as it sought to dominate trade throughout the world. A Scottish botanist successfully stole the secret of growing tea from China. more »
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A biography of the dynamic but quiet African American woman whose refusal to give up her seat on a bus led to dramatic changes in the 60s. more »
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Save and Burn puts the institution of the library within a startling political context. Although generally considered preservers of culture, libraries are subject to the ideologies and violence of their time and place. The film addresses the commercialization of libraries, the irresponsible closing of libraries, and their cultural debt to the Orient. more »
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Searching for Wallenberg tells the legendary story of Raoul Wallenberg, who as a Swedish diplomat in Budapest in 1944, saved tens of thousands of Jews from Nazi deportations and certain death. He accomplished this through intimidation, manipulation and sheer courage. more »
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In this important historical film, the grim details of the slave trade are made real for a modern audience. more »
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Father Patrick Desbois, a French Catholic priest, was haunted by his grandfather's stories about the extermination carried out by the Einsatzgruppen firing squads in the Ukraine between 1941 and 1944. He relentlessly searches for the truth about the murder of one and a half million Ukrainian Jews. more »
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Sholem Aleichem: Laughing in the Darkness is a riveting portrait of writer Sholem Aleichem, whose stories became the basis of the Broadway musical Fiddler on the Roof. more »
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A searing report on the attempt in the former Soviet Union to develop "weapons grade" smallpox, which is still a threat. more »
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In the 1940s, the uranium for the Manhattan Project was secretly supplied from a mine in the Canadian Arctic. Mined by indigenous people, there was little attention given to the fact that many in the community later sickened and died from various cancers. more »
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A richly illustrated account of the 15th Century voyages that opened European trade with Africa and Asia.(in 2 parts) more »
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How realistic is it for the U.S. to develop the much talked about "missile shield"? This film recapitulates the search of a defense system beginning with the Cold War until today. more »
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Stealing the Fire follows an unbroken chain of events and personalities connecting Hitler's atomic bomb program and today's nuclear weapons black market. more »
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Recounts the stories of Czech women who endured years of imprisonment during the Communist era because of their beliefs. more »
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The Twin Towers have attained mythic status in the 21st century. The effect of their destruction and the tragic loss of life is engraved on the American consciousness. Here is a fascinating history of the buildings that set the character of lower Manhattan and symbolized not only the power of New York City but American culture and financial dominance. more »
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This film shares the story of Madame C.J. Walker, the daughter of slaves who became America's first self-made millionairess. more »
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Anti-communists and victims of the notorious McCarthy witch hunts talk candidly about the era of anti-communist hysteria. more »
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Using old photographs and interviews, this film tells the remarkable tale of the courageous Asian women who left their families and all that was familiar to settle in the New World and marry men they had never met. The men had come to build the transcontinental railroad. The film is a testimony to the strength, resourcefulness and dignity of these women. more »
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A film about a surprising friendship which emerged between an embittered Ku Klux Klan leader and an outspoken black woman activist. more »
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This is the amazing true story of a nineteenth century Canadian girl who ran away from home disguised as a travelling Bible salesman. Still disguised as a man, she served in the American Civil War in the Union Army as a dispatch carrier, nurse and spy. more »
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In 1965, as the Vietnam War intensified and Hanoi faced the threat of massive US bombing, students and teachers from the National Conservatory of Music were forced to flee the city for the relative safety of a small village in the countryside. With the help of villagers, they built an entire campus underground, creating a maze of hidden tunnels, connecting an auditorium and classrooms. Here, as the war raged around them, they lived, studied and played music for five years. more »
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Olga Samaroff, born Lucy Hickenlooper, had to battle anti-American sentiments and Old World prejudices against women to forge her remarkable career as a concert pianist in the early years of twentieth century. more »
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Recently declassified tapes from the Kennedy White House reveal how close we were to nuclear war with the Soviet Union in 1962. Kennedy's advisers warned him against "appeasement", but the President's restraint saved the country from disaster. more »
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Barely one year after Conrad Hilton opened his new luxury hotel in Havana, Fidel Castro overtook the building for use as his revolution’s headquarters. more »
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Where Birds Don’t Sing chronicles the horrifying stories of two concentration camps in the Third Reich, Ravensbruck and Sachsenhausen, and ends with a moving reunion of the survivors. more »
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The turbulent life of Anna Larina, wife of Nikolai Bukharin, is entwined with 20th century Russian history. more »
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Willa Beatrice Brown was the first African American woman in the U.S. to be a licensed pilot. Her
efforts were responsible for Congress' forming the renowned Tuskegee Airmen squadron, leading to the integration of the U.S. military service in 1948. more »
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The terrible anti-Semitic massacre that occurred on July 4, 1946 in Kielce, Poland is chillingly retold by the Polish people who were there. Some express horror but others seem indifferent. more »
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This film relates the remarkable story of Wojtek, the soldier bear, one of the most beguiling wartime animal personalities who became a legendary mascot during World War II. more »
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]The Women of Summer is the emotionally riveting and previously untold story of the seventeen hundred blue collar women who participated in a controversial and inspired educational experiment known as The Bryn Mawr Summer School for Women Workers from 1921 to 1938. more »
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This film tells the remarkable story of the villagers of one district of North Vietnam who found themselves on the frontlines of an increasingly brutal war. They survived by digging a series of tunnels and moving their entire community underground. more »
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