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Subjects
Films by Subject
History
66 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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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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This powerful documentary provides the historical context for the establishment of the 60's civil rights movement. Includes rare clips of Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Fred Hampton and other activists. 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 investigative film shows in detail the roles played by 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 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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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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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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Sixty years ago the Final Solution was attempted in Denmark. The plan was averted over 95 percent of the country's Jewish population survived the war. How and why Jews escaped the Nazis' blueprint for their extermination is the subject of this compelling new documentary film. 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. Today, the number of countries with atomic weapon arsenals is on the increase and the likelihood that terrorist groups could get their hands on this deadly technology is greater than ever. 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. Only 2,500 survived. 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 1941-45. 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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After ruling Cuba for almost fifty years, Castro has stepped down. From his childhood in rural Cuba through his fight in the Sierra Maestra to winning the revolution and transforming the country, 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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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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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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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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This investigative film shows in detail the roles played by the international banking clique, including American banks, in collaborating with the Nazis during World War II. more »
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This film is 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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Minniejean Brown Trickey was sixteen years old when she was one of the nine Black American teenagers who defied death threats, demonstrations and the Arkansas National Guard to integrate an all white high school. Since then, she led a life of passionate social activism and been an inspiration to many. 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 they are among several millions diagnosed by the Vietnamese as victims of Agent Orange. In this film, we meet several who are plaintiffs in a class action suit against 32 US chemical companies. Attorneys, activists, scientists, and a military historian take us to a new battlefield. more »
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Dense with the informed commentary of notable scholars, this documentary in effect traces the history of civilization through the phenomenon of the library. 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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Gutenberg's development of the printing press, one of the most important machines ever invented, ignited a cultural revolution. Stephen Fry, writer and actor, travels to the birthplace of the 15th Century machine and commissions a modern day craftsman to build a working replica that demonstrates the brilliance of Gutenberg's invention. more »
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This film tells, for the first time, the story of the Jewish communities of North Africa (delete 4 countries here) during World War II. Extensive archival footage brings the history of this period to life. Part I: Libya, Part II: Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco. 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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The legacy of the genocide in Nanjing echoes in the emotional life of a family today. more »
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Entirely composed of historical footage, including some 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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Originalists believe the U.S. Constitution should be interpreted in the way the Founding Fathers understood it in 1789 -- an era when only white men were allowed to vote and slavery was legal. Others believe the Constitution was crafted in broad, open-ended language and that its meaning evolves over time. This film argues that the far right is using originalism as a cover 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, thirteen-year-old Mary Phagan. The case was a key factor in launching the Ant-Defamation League. 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 sixties. 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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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 by shooting of one and a half million Ukrainian Jews. 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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Variety calls this film "a major contribution to Americana on celluloid." It tells the story of Madame C.J. Walker, the daughter of slaves who became America's first self-made millionairess. more »
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In this film both the anti-Communists and the victims of the notorious McCarthy witchhunts, between 1945 and the early 50's, talk candidly about the era of anti-Communist hysteria and blacklists. 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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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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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 occured on July 4, 1946 in Kielce, Poland is chillingly retold by the Polish people who were there. Some express horror but others seem indifferent. A miniature Shoah in its power to move audiences. more »
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During the 20's and 30's The Bryn Mawr Summer School for Women Workers was a daring social experiment that effected social change through the education of blue collar women and union organizers. We meet some graduates who attest to the power of education to improve lives. 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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