GIMS DVD/Videotape Collection by Genre: History

An intimate look at life in the White House through eight administrations as remembered by a mother and daughter who, between them, served as White House maids for 52 years.

"The story of Easy Company of the US Army 101st Airborne division and their mission in WWII Europe from Operation Overlord through V-J Day." www.imdb.com

In one of his own favorite roles, Vincent Price portrays legendary swindler James Addison Reavis, who, in 1880, concocted an elaborate and dangerous hoax to ascend to the title of "Baron of Arizona" and inherit all the land in the state.

"The drama of a poor family in the bloodiest war in the History of Brazil: the war of Canudos." www.imdb.com

Re-creates the 1905 mutiny on the battleship "Prince Potemkin." It focuses on a mutiny by the battleship's crew and the subsequent massacre of civilians, reflecting the spirit of the times. The new restoration contains all the material that was cut by the German censors in 1926 and 1928.

"The Russian Civil War and emigration is shown through the eyes of the defeated Tsarist Generals - Vrangel, Khludov, Charnota, as well as intellectuals and aristocracy." www.imdb.com

"Behind The Wall documents what life was like on both sides of The Berlin Wall through the eyes of ordinary citizens from East and West Germany" www.imdb.com

"Story shows the genesis of the career and the rise of Esther the most beloved actress of most popular theater in Havana at the turn of the 19th century." (www.imdb.com)

After Paul D. finds his old slave friend Sethe in Ohio and moves in with her and her daughter Denver, a strange girl comes along by the name of "Beloved". Sethe & Denver take her in and then strange things start to happen.

1942, the German wehrmacht is trying to capture the Baku oilfields at the Black Sea. Their biggest obstacle are the Kaukasian Mountains and a few Russians soldiers to stop them.

Through interviews with participants and archival footage, presents a history of Berkeley, California in the 1960s.

A document about the first international conference on Africa, which established its division amongst the European powers and created Congo as a personal possession of the Belgian king. Includes reenactments.

A Civil War spectacular. Portrays life in the South during and after the Civil War as revealed in a story depicting the war itself, the conflict between the defeated Southerners and emancipated renegade Negroes, the despoiling of the South during the carpetbagger period, and the revival of the Southern white man's honor through the efforts of the Ku Klux Klan.

"Follows street-smart Ivy League students who are outcasts at their elite university, band together, and adventure to Cuba--whose population is 60% Black. Their journey reveals enthralling scenes of Cuban life, and candidate encounters with AfroCuban youth. As they film their experience, the travelers discover connections between Cuban and American perspectives on human rights, race, and revolution"--Container.

Re-creates the American siege of the Somalian city of Mogadishu in October 1993, when a 45-minute mission turned into a 16-hour ordeal of bloody urban warfare. Helicopter-borne U.S. Rangers were assigned to capture key lieutenants of Somali warlord Muhammad Farrah Aidid, but when two Black Hawk choppers were felled by rocket-propelled grenades, the U.S. soldiers were forced to fend for themselves in the battle-torn streets of Mogadishu, attacked from all sides by armed Aidid supporters.

A young Jesuit priest seeks to convert the Indian tribes in Canada while also trying to survive the harsh winter.

The teenage life and adventures of young José, who lives in a shanty-town on Martinique in the mid-1930s, comprises the body of this film. José lives with his grandmother and is well aware of the French colonial presence. He gets into mischief, learns valuable lessons on living from an old former slave, drinks too much one time, and even sets fire to one of the run-down shanties. Regardless of his pranks, José never neglects his education.

Recreation of the events of "Bloody Sunday", Jan. 30, 1972, when British troops fired on unarmed protesters in Derry, Northern Ireland. By the end of the day, 13 civilians were dead and 14 more wounded in the tumult and tragedy of Northern Ireland's darkest day.

Revisits the night presidential-hopeful Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated at the Ambassador Hotel in June 1968. Tells the stories of a variety of people present on tgat fateful night, ranging from Kennedy's campaign staff and volunteers to the hotel owner, employees such as kitchen staff, and various guests.

A universal story of loss, courage and triumph, this recounts the extraordinary journey of Aminata Diallo, an indomitable African woman who survives in a world in which everything seems to be against her. Kidnapped by slave traders in West Africa then sold into slavery in South Carolina, Aminata navigates her way through the American Revolution in New York, the isolated refuge of Nova Scotia, and the treacherous jungles of Sierra Leone, before finally securing her freedom in England.

In Birmingham in December 1955, Rosa Parks is arrested when she refuses to vacate her bus seat for a white man. Black citizens mount a boycott of the bus system in protest, giving birth to the modern civil rights movement and bringing to fame the young minister Martin Luther King, Jr.

Three Australian lieutenants are court martialed for executing prisoners as a way of deflecting attention from war crimes committed by their superior officers. Based on a play and true story.

A lyrical film filled with beauty and warmth, it is also an indelible account of a man dedicated to family and fatherland, cruelly destroyed by political paranoia.

This story tells the personal adventures of a Roman girl, Cabiria, and her two benefactors in the third century B.C. during the Second Punic War. Includes scenes of the eruption of Mt. Etna, sea battles, and Hannibal crossing the Alps. Opens with a brief written description of the Italian genre of historical spectacular films and a history of the film Cabiria.

Based on the life of Carlota Joaquina, consort of João VI of Portugal, especially her life during the period when the Portuguese court was removed to Brazil.

This program, filmed in 1995, brings together Joseph Heller, Art Buchwald, Bill Mauldin, Catch-22 director Mike Nichols, Alan "Yossarian" Arkin, members of Heller's own wartime bomber squadron, and others to unravel the novel's characters and the attitudes and institutions they represent.

A breathtaking new documentary from the incomparable Werner Herzog, follows an exclusive expedition into the nearly inaccessible Chauvet Cave in France, home to the most ancient visual art known to have been created by man. An unforgettable cinematic experience that provides an unique glimpse of pristine artwork dating back to human hands over 30,000 years ago, almost twice as old as any previous discovery.

In 1956, Ernesto 'Che' Guevara and a band of Castro-led Cuban exiles mobilize an army to topple the regime of dictator Fulgencio Batista.

"The Chinatown Files is the first video documentary to explore the legacy of McCarthyism on the Chinese American community. For the first time, seven men and women speak out on how they and their friends were investigated and persecuted by government agents during the McCarthy witch-hunts of the fifties. At the height of the hysteria, thousands of Chinese immigrants and American citizens of Chinese descent were investigated because of their ethnicity and alleged risk to national security. As China remains an enigma to many Americans, the prejudice and jingoism that traumatized the lives of Chinese Americas for decades has rarely been examined."--www.chinatownfiles.org.

A small group of French students are studying Mao, trying to find out their position in the world and how to change the world to a Maoistic community using terrorism.

Levi, an intellectual exiled by the Fascist government during World War II to a mountain village in southern Italy, discovers the resilience and dignity of people who live close to the land.

Embark on a unique journey through the bleakest chapter of German history as Michael Kloft traces the story of the Third Reich. Learn about the politics, war years, and crimes of the Nazis from unpublished footage and three famous historians: Sir Ian Kershaw, Brigitte Hamann, and Goetz Aly.

Traces the history of Islamic Spain. Tells how in Southern Spain the Muslims, Christians and Jews lived together and thrived, and the seeds of the Renaissance were sown, but within a few centuries the fragile union of these people dissipated and the time of tolerance was lost forever.

This series explores our changing world: the new rules of the game, the winners and losers in the clash between government and the marketplace, the great debate over the impact of globalization, and the powerful forces shaping our economy and the future of society.

Exploration of the various conquest narratives surrounding the American continents.

Exploration of the various conquest narratives surrounding the American continents.

On January 20, 1942, 15 German officials attended a conference at Wannsee - on the outskirts of Berlin. The meeting comprised of mid-ranking SS commanders and a variety of government ministers. The meeting was organized by SS Major Adolf Eichmann under the direction of Chief of Security Reinhard Heydrich. It was a polite conference, but under this thin veneer of manners lay an evil intent. By the end of the meeting, the fate of six million lives would be decided and the shape of the world would be altered forever.

"A television adaptation of Michael Frayn's celebrated and award-winning stage play about the meeting between physicists Niels Bohr and Werner Heisenberg in 1941 Copenhagen." www.imdb.com

"The Counterfeiters is the true story of the largest counterfeiting operation in history, set up by the Nazis in 1936. Salomon "Sally" Sorowitsch is the king of counterfeiters. He lives a mischievous life of cards, booze, and women in Berlin during the Nazi-era." www.imdb.com

Using CGI-enhanced visuals and dramatic reenactments, The History Channel brings the key battles of the Crusades to life. See rare locations, including a vast chain of Crusader castles and get a feel of what day-to-day life was like.

The true story of the friendship between black South African activist Stephen Biko and white newspaper editor Donald Woods, who was instrumental in bringing Biko's anti-apartheid message to the international community.

The degradation of a great family, set against the historical background of the "Night of the long knives" and the rise of Nazism.

"A father and his filmmaker son explore the previously untold Holocaust story of 1,000 Viennese Jews stranded on the frozen Danube River in 1941 awaiting rescue by Ruth Klieger, a senior agent of the newly created Mossad." www.imdb.com

Combines footage and photographs from American, British and German archives with the voices of the people who participated in the planning and execution of the invasion of Europe at Normandy, June 6, 1944, to create an unforgettable portrait of "Operation Overlord."

Boccaccio's classic tales of passion brought to the screen with all their lusty fervor intact. Among the stories are a young man's exploits with a gang of robbers, a flock of randy nuns who sin with a strapping gardener, and a pupil of the painter Giotto working on a massive fresco.

" A memorial concert reawakens the story of an artistic uprising in the Nazi concentration camp, Terezin, where a chorus of 150 inmates confronts the Nazis face-to-face - and sings to them what they dare not say." www.imdb.com

Follow-up to the TV trilogy "Heimat", this time for cinemas, set again in the fictional village Schabbach in the Hunsrück region of Rhineland-Palatinate.

History 2nd World War Vichy French Propaganda Cinema

King Edward II enfuriates his queen and imperils his throne by bringing his lover Gaveston to court.

In May 1860, the Sicilians rebelled against and defeated the troops of the King of Naples leading to the unification of Italy. This is a dramatization of the events surrounding the battle of Calatafimi.

Explores the intersection of the private and public life of Elizabeth I in the latter half of her reign, offering a personal look at her allies, her enemies, and her suitors as she struggles to survive in a male-dominated world.

"Ying Zheng, the King of Qin, has one driving ambition: to unify China's seven kingdoms into one magnificent empire. Impressed by her lover's convictions, Lady Zhao helps Ying Zheng concoct an assassination plot that would justify the conquest of Qin's most powerful enemy"--Container.

A young English boy struggles to survive under the Japanese occupation of Shanghai during World War II.

Based on the true story of WWII Russian hero Vassili Zaitsev whose fame thrust him into a personal war with the Nazis best sharpshooter, Major Erwin Konig.

Following World War II, a Russian doctor and his French wife take their son back to the Soviet Union to live, but find it is an oppressive nightmare.

"The Jews of Poland (invaded by Germany in 1939) are depicted as filthy, evil, corrupt, and intent on world domination. Street scenes are shown prejudicially, along with clips from Jewish cinema of the day and photos of Jewish celebrities, while the narrator "explains" the Jewish problem. The climax and resolution of the film is Hitler's 1939 announcement that the Jewish race will meet its "annihilation" (Vernichtung)." www.imdb.com

"As a director and his crew shoot a controversial film about Christopher Columbus in Cochabamba, Bolivia, local people rise up against plans to privatize the water supply." www.imdb.com

During the Carter administration, Iranian students seized the American embassy in Tehran--and 53 American hostages--to begin a standoff that lasted until Ronald Reagan's inauguration 444 days later. What factors prompted that act of terrorism? This ABC News program ... examines the consequences of an American foreign policy shaped more by a desire to protect an oil-dependent standard of living and oppose communist expansion than to promote democracy.

This film dramatizes part of the Israeli independence moment, dealing with various factions involved in the internecine struggle between the moderate Haganah and the radical terrorist Irgun Zvai Leumi. Interspersed throughout are segments showing the migration of European Jews to the new land, paying special attention to the ragged survivors of Nazi death camps on board the vessel Exodus, blockaded in a Cyprus harbor by British warships. The film also depicts the struggle of the Jews in Palestine to gain partition, then profiles the main characters after the partition, fighting to continue as the nation of Israel.

Narrated by Gene Wilder, this documentary brings the Chicago World's Fair to life. Experience the world of 1893 through a cinematic visit to Chicago's Columbian Exposition where viewers are immersed in one of the world's biggest extravaganzas.

After poisoning the Emperor of the Roman Empire Marcus Aurelius, his supposed son Commodus falls into dissipation and allows Rome to be ravaged by pestilence and the Barbarians.

Story of the friendship between a bohemian, boisterous Sir John Falstaff and the young Prince of Wales in medieval England. Dramatizes the betrayal of that friendship and Falstaff's disillusionment when the Prince becomes King of England.

New Orleans Times Picayune columnist Lolis Eric Elie bought a historic house in Tremé in the 1990s when the area was struggling to recover from the crack epidemic. Rather than flee the blighted inner city, Elie begins renovating his dilapidated home and in the process becomes obsessed with the area's mysterious and neglected past. Shot largely before Hurricane Katrina and edited afterwards, the film is both celebratory and elegiac in tone.

Portrays Casanova in his waning days, travelling from a bubonic-plagued Venice to a syphilitic London via a tubercular Germany, engaging in various amorous and political adventures with an air of bored detachment. Imbued with a romantic pessimism, the film debunks the myth of Casanova as a great lover and instead presents him as an ordinary man swept along by extraordinary circumstances.

After an arranged marriage, King Ferdinando and Carolina allow themselves increasing indulgences in their sexual desires. The sovereigns begin to lapse in their reigning duties, becoming oblivious to the tide of revolution threatening to tear France apart.

Begins with the 1947 U.N. decision to partition Palestine and charts the ensuing half-century of enmity, warfare, mediation and negotiations.

This documentary captures the anticipation that the bout between African American heavyweight Joe Louis and his German opponent Max Schmeling generated, the events leading up to it, the impact Louis's victory had on Blacks and its significance for Jews.

At the end of WWII, 60 minutes of raw film in an East German archive was discovered. Shot by the Nazis in Warsaw in May of 1942, the film became a resource for historians seeking an authentic record of the Warsaw Ghetto. The later discovery of a long-missing reel, including multiple takes and cameramen staging scenes, complicated earlier readings of the footage. Presented is the raw footage in its entirety, falsely showing the 'good life' of Jewish urbanites. Included is an interview, and more.

In the midst of the 2002 riots between the Hindus and the Muslims in Gujarat, the lives of people from different walks of life are all tested, from a couple desperately trying to decide whether or not to stay in their home, to a woman who must deal with the guilt of sending someone away, to a group of men bent on revenge.

The story of the five Marines and one Navy corpsman that were forever immortalized as a symbol of WWII by raising the American flag at the battle of Iwo Jima. When Joe Rosenthal's photograph of the event becomes a symbol of hope for the families at home, the three surviving men are pulled from combat and sent on a tour across America to raise desperately-needed bond money. It is a trip that brings out the truths of both that symbolic act, and of their lives during war.

"In a series of simple and joyous vignettes, director Roberto Rossellini and co-writer Federico Fellini lovingly convey the universal teachings of The People's Saint: humility, faith, and sacrifice. Gorgeously photographed to evoke the medieval paintings of Saint Francis' time, and cast with monks from the Nocera Inferiore Monastery"--Container.

The story of America as seen through the eyes of the former Secretary of Defense, under President Kennedy and President Johnson, Robert S. McNamara. McNamara was one of the most controversial and influential political figures of the 20th century. Now, he offers a candid and intimate journey through some of the most seminal events in contemporary American history. He offers new and often surprising insights into the 1945 bombing of Tokyo, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the effects of the Vietnam War.

"A biographical account of Mei Lanfang, China's greatest opera star." www.imdb.com

Political terrorists, in a desperate bid to focus the world's attention on their fight for freedom, kidnap an American ambassador. Now the diplomat's life hangs in the balance. He's helplessly caught between a government unwilling to cooperate and his fear of the captors themselves.

"Docudrama about the life of St-Francis of Assisi." www.imdb.com

A film about the Prussian king Frederick the Great, focusing on the Seven Year's War.

A look at the life of Indian statesman and nationalist Mahatma Gandhi, focusing especially on his theory of non-violent resistance.

"In 1863, Amsterdam Vallon returns to the Five Points area of New York City seeking revenge against Bill the Butcher, his father's killer." www.imdb.com

Set in Italy in 1938, when Mussolini's anti-Semitic edicts began to isolate the Jews from their communities. Among them were the Finzi-Continis, an aristocratic Jewish family forced for the first time to acknowledge the world beyond its fenced garden.

Loosely based on actual events, quasi-musical co-prod "Ghetto" plays out how Jews in Vilnius' ghetto in Lithuania briefly reopened a theater to maintain morale and entertain occupying Nazis during WWII.

"Based upon the short but fruitful life of illness-racked Italian poet and philosopher Giacomo Leopardi." www.imdb.com

Two idealistic young Bostonians lead the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, America's first Black regiment in the Civil War.

"Awaiting their inevitable deaths at one of the worst concentration camps, a group of Jews make a rabbinical court to decide whether G-d has went against the holy covenant and if He is the one guilty for their suffering." www.imdb.com

"Utilizing hilarious footage from U.S. Government propaganda films and eye-popping animation from underground artist Paul Mavrides, Grass blows the lid off the war on marijuana. Find out how a nice person like yourself became a dangerous criminal"--Container.

Chronicles a unit of Auschwitz [II]'s Sonderkommando, a special squad of Jewish prisoners, who staged the only armed revolt that would ever take place at Auschwitz.

a gripping expose on why the world is so unequal. Professor Jared Diamond traveled the globe for over 30 years trying to answer this question. Based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning book. Why did Eurasians conquer, displace, or decimate Native Americans, Australians, and Africans, instead of the reverse? Diamond dismantles racially based theories of human history by revealing the environmental factors actually responsible for history's broadest patterns.

"An elder ronin samurai arrives at a feudal lord's home and requests an honorable place to commit suicide. But when the ronin inquires about a younger samurai who arrived before him things take an unexpected turn." (www.imdb.com)

"A powerful documentary that exposes the direct connection between the long history of U.S. intervention in Latin America and the immigration crisis we face today." www.imdb.com

"A psychologist discovers troubling links between Nazism and modern-day big business." www.imdb.com

A lawman and a hitman are in love with the same woman. All three are caught up in a devastating class war, when ruthless ranchers decide to kill off the starving immigrants who have been stealing their cattle.

King Henry IV sees his reign marred by uprisings led by young Harry Hotspur and undercut by the impulsive, irresponsible actions of his son Prince Hal. As stakes get even higher, both sides converge in the epic battle of Shrewsbury.

Adaptation of Shakespeare's patriotic historical drama that celebrates the English nation and the greatness of its King. Includes medieval battle sequences with a recreation of the Battle of Agincourt.

Recently crowned king, Henry V. has scarcely settled onto the throne when the French ambassador brings a challenge to his rule. Inspired by his courtiers Exeter and York, Henry swears that he will answer the French with all force. The stage is set for all-out war, and the young ruler must overcome incredible odds and self-doubt to win the day.

"Explores how history was used as a political tool and how the theories of the Nazi historical department provided the ideology used by the SS (Schutzstaffel-- "protection squadron") to justify genocide. The program outlines how the racialist theories of the SS were drawn from archaeology, myth and legend, as well as selected history. Nazi ideas about "Aryans" and the "master race" came out of historical and ethnic fantasies in which legends such as the Holy Grail and the lost city of Atlantis-- supposed to be a home of the Aryan race-- played their part.."--Www. pbs. org.

In this classic propaganda film, Quex, a German youth, faces a conflict of ideals between his Communist father and his growing allegience to the Hitler Youth movement which eventually leads to his own death.

Follows the tragedy and triumph of the Weiss family of Berlin and intertwines their fate as European Jews with the story of a German family, the Dorfs, whose members include a high-ranking Nazi officer ... Uses the stories of these fictional families to portray the atrocities against the Jewish people from the 1930s to 1945, and presents a heart-wrenching portrait of their struggle.

The true story of a five-star-hotel manager who used his wits and words to save more than 1,200 lives during the 1994 Rwandan conflict.

A documentary, noted for its frank and intense revolutionary call to arms, about the revolutionary struggle against neocolonialism and oppression in Latin America and especially Argentina.

Romantic adventure set during the turbulent years of Colonial and Revolutionary America about a conservative bride and her democratic husband who are forced to choose between their love for each other and their political beliefs.

Langston Hughes was one of the most prominent figures of the Harlem Renaissance and is often referred to as Harlem's poet laureate. This film shows how Hughes successfully fused jazz, blues and common speech to celebrate the beauty of Black life. This multi-layered documentary consists of spoken-word sessions, roundtable discussions and a tour of Hughes' Harlem hang-outs.

A dramatization of Robert Graves' version of the times of the Roman Empire from Augustus to Claudius told through the dying Claudius as he sets down the history of his family.

Bob Ford murders his best friend Jesse James in order to obtain a pardon that will free him to marry his girlfriend, but is plagued by guilt and self-disgust.

The star of the early 20th century, the Warsaw actress Maria Visnovskaya was the dizzying dream woman for many a European nobleman, and was famous for her extravagant ways. 'Modern' was the high fashion style of the moment. The notion of modernism went far beyond the style. It was an overall idea of adapting life to the laws of beauty. Sometimes, adaptations of this kind are lethal.

Explores the history and current state of immigration in France and attitudes toward immigrants.

A hard-hitting docu-drama about two ex-cons who ruthlessly murder a Kansas family in 1959 in order to steal their non-existent stash of money. Based on the novel by Truman Capote.

" Western frontiers of the USSR, 1942. The region is under German occupation. A man is wrongly accused of collaboration. Desperate to save his dignity, he faces impossible moral choice." www.imdb.com

"A passionate telling of the story of Sada Abe, a woman whose affair with her master led to a sexual obsession which then came to a violent end." www.imdb.com

In the spring of 1918, an army private reported to a hospital in Kansas. He was diagnosed with the flu, an illness that doctors knew little about. By the end of WWI, America was ravaged by a flu epidemic that killed 675,000 people.

A small Tennessee town gained national attention in 1925 when a biology schoolteacher was arrested for violating state law and teaching Darwin's theory of evolution in the classroom.

Examines the portrayal of Germany between the world wars in George Grosz's drawings. The visual component of the film is entirely his drawings (with some manipulation).

Switches back and forth between four separate stories from Babylonian times to the twentieth century to show humanity's inhumanity and intolerance through the ages. The Babylonian story deals with the fall of Babylon in 538 B.C. The Judean story treats the life of Christ. The French story centers on the Massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day in 1572. The modern story is set in an American mill town and the slum area of an American city.

Alice Paul and Lucy Burns were two defiant suffragist women who fought for the passage of the 19th Amendment. The two activists broke from the mainstream women's rights movement and created a more radical wing, daring to push the boundaries to secure women's voting rights in 1920. Along the way, sacrifices were made: Alice gave up a chance for love, and colleague Inez Mulholland gave up her life.

First-hand accounts of U.S. Veterans' experiences during the Vietnam War matched with in-country archival film footage, audio recordings and personal photos. Using innovative tactics like helicopter warfare, U.S. soldiers fought bloody battles at Ia Drang River Valley, Dak To and the Iron Triangle and undertook large-scale operations such as Cedar Falls and Junction City.

Historical documentary tells the story of the adoption of the South African Charter (6/26/55). Includes documentary footage and photos of the Congress and a depiction of the government's response. Includes contemporary interviews with leaders of the African National Congress and other organizations involved.

Part I starts with the coronation of Ivan the Terrible and concludes with his return to power after the death of his wife. Part II covers the attempt to assassinate him in 1564. The third part of the saga was never made due to the death of Eisenstein.

Traces the history of Hull-House from Jane Addam's childhood to the contemporary work of both the Hull-House Association and the Jane Addams Hull-House Museum.

An African American soldier flees to the African desert during WWI after he accidentally causes the death of his sergeant and is sentenced to death for murder.

The story of New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison whose investigation into the assassination of John F. Kennedy became an obsession. Director Oliver Stone seamlessly blends archival film with acted sequences in his version of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, which alleges that there was a massive plot and cover-up surrounding JFK's death.

"Uncovers new evidence that reveals how John F. Kennedy reversed years of entrenched United States government policy to embark on secret back-channel peace efforts with Nikita Krushchev, Fidel Castro, and other ... American enemies. The film brings to light how President Kennedy was subverted by top US officials and considers how the world might be different had he lived."--Container.

While our new nation was suffering attacks from both within and without, John Adams had a vision of a nation of liberty and justice for all. He guided his peers--General George Washington, Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson--in setting the values and agenda for a glorious, free America. Adams and his wife Abigail refined these ambitious democratic ideals, and their partnership became one of the most moving love stories in American history.

A startling look at preacher Jim Jones, his life prior to the mass-suicides in Guyana, and the event that took place leading up to that fateful day in 1978.

Loosely based on true episodes, this film tells the story of German, French, and Scottish soldiers in the bloody trenches of World War I and the miraculous Christmas Eve truce they unexpectedly forge. Follows a French lieutenant, a Scottish priest, and a German tenor and his beloved Danish soprano as music and the spirit of Christmas create bonds between enemies.

"In 1948, an American court in occupied Germany tries four Nazi judges for war crimes." www.imdb.com

An adaptation of the classic Shakespeare play, chronicling the events around the assassination of Julius Caesar.

A play about power, assassination and revenge. Presents a broad range of historical personalities as complicated human beings in agonizing conflict with one another and themselves.

"A petty thief with an utter resemblance to a samurai warlord is hired as the lord's double. When the warlord later dies the thief is forced to take up arms in his place." www.imdb.com

The massacre of 20,000 people (interned Polish officers as well as civilians accused of treason by the occupying Soviet forces) by the Soviet secret police at Katyń in the spring of 1940, and the cover-up that followed. It follows the fictional stories of four families, separated from one another in the confusion of September 1939, when the Soviets and Germans invaded Poland, through the Soviet occupation in 1945 when the truth of the massacre gets suppressed.

The story of a Jewish girl from Paris sent to a concentration camp during World War II and her struggle to survive by stealing another's identity and becoming a warden.

Dith Pran is an aide, translator and friend of a journalist who is covering the war in Cambodia. He is eventually exiled to the labor camps in Cambodia's countryside, where he endures four years of starvation, torture and war before escaping to Thailand.

The life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., from the beginnings of the Civil Rights movement in Montgomery, Alabama, and culminating with his assassination in Memphis in 1968. Including archival footage, this film is an indispensable primary resource of a pivotal moment in American and world history. Originally screened in theaters for only a single night in 1970.

Shakespeare's plays in which tragedy occurs when an old king divides his kingdom between his daughters.

Shakespeare's historical play about the dynastic struggle between Richard II and Henry Bolingboke (later Henry IV).

The story of King George VI of Britain, his impromptu ascension to the throne and the speech therapist who helped the unsure monarch become worthy of it.

"When Russia's first nuclear submarine malfunctions on its maiden voyage, the crew must race to save the ship and prevent a nuclear disaster." www.imdb.com

"One of the Third Reich's most ambitious spectaculars, three years in the making, mobilized Germany's most talented artists and thousands of extras to re-create the true story of a Prussian town's rebellion against Napoleon's army of occupation. Laced with anti-Christian symbolism and National Socialist ideology, the film is a mirror of Hitler Germany's own war for survival. In its characterization of Kolberg's besieged citizenry, the epic allegorically reflects the spirit of fanatical resolve to fight on, that Nazi propaganda was attempting to instill in the German population during the final years of World War II"--Container.

Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl crossed the Pacific Ocean in a balsa wood raft in 1947, together with five men, to prove that South Americans back in pre-Columbian times could have crossed the sea to settle on Polynesian islands. After gathering financing for the trip with loans and donations, they set off on an epic 101-day-long journey across eight thousand kilometers, all while the world was watching.

A dramatization of the life and work of the current (14th) Dalai Lama and his ongoing struggle to regain independence for Tibet.

An epic tale of love and revolution during the Spanish Civil War. The story involves a British political activist as he aligns with an international band of revolutionaries fighting Franco's rise to power.

A compilation of the very earliest films from the first projections of moving images to the advent of the feature film, an area of film history often underseen, underappreciated and understudied. Includes films from Pathe frénes, Vitagraph Co., Biograph Co., and Keystone Film Co. Includes films by Thomas Edison, Louis Lumière, Edwin S. Porter, George Méliès, Charles Pathé, Ferdinand Zecca, Max Linder, D.W. Griffith, and Henry Lehrman.

Two Polish Holocaust survivors, a Gentile political prisoner and a headstrong Jewish girl, begin a romantic relationships in the days after their liberation by the Allies.

Traces the history of a burial song of the Mende people brought by slaves to the rice plantations of the Southeast coast of the United States over two hundred years ago, and preserved among the Gullah people there. In the 1930s a pioneering Black linguist, Lorenzo Turner, recognized its origin, and in the 1990s scholars Joe Opala and Cynthia Schmidt discovered that the song was still remembered in a remote village in Sierra Leone. Dramatically demonstrates how African Americans retained links with their African past, and concludes with the visit of the Gullah family which had preserved the song to the Mende village, where villagers re-enact the ancient burial rites for them.

An exiled Russian general turned Hollywood extra lands a role playing a version of his former czarist self, bringing about his emotional downfall.

"'The Lessons of Hayti' is a historical documentary that details the rise of Black economic power that began in the United States during slavery and elevated following the Civil War, when over 100 independent, self sufficient Black towns and over 75 Historically Black Colleges and Universities were built within 40 years of Abraham Lincoln's signing of the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863."--Container

Shakespeare's play about the weak and despicable King John, who tries to fend off the royal claims of Arthur, Duke of Brittany, who is supported by the King of France. In spite of the support of Faulconbridge, John alienates the English nobility and runs afoul of the Pope. In the end he is poisoned and his son Henry III becomes King.

Five women, who worked in the shipyards and defense plants during World War II, recount their experiences at work and offer comments on society's expectations of them during the war effort and after the war.

Historical drama of the conflict between King Henry II of England and his wife Eleanor of Aquitaine over Henry's successor to the British throne.

North Carolinians have always shaped their schools to reflect and reinforce prevailing attitudes about race. Even today, fifty years after the Supreme Court's landmark 1954 Brown v. Board of Education ruling, no single factor explains more about the dynamics of our schools. This documentary traces the issue of race and schools from the 1860s to the present. Voices of North Carolina parents, educators, students, and public leaders bring this history to life.

Documentary about Richard & Mildred Loving, a white man & a black woman who were convicted by the state of Virginia for the crime of interracial marriage in the late 1950s and spent much of their lives trying to reverse the decision and return to Virginia.

Dramatizes the life of Congolese revolutionary, Patrice Lumumba, who lead his country to independence from Belgium in 1960. He served for less than a year as the first elected prime minister, until he was brutally assassinated.

English language performance of the ancient Greek comedy by Aristophanes.

In 1973, the Chilean military, under the direction of General Augusto Pinochet and backed by the C.I.A., overthrew the shaky socialist government of democratically elected President Salvador Allende. The coup led to the murder of 3,000 leftist Allende supporters and the detention of an estimated 250,000 political prisoners. Set against the background of the political instability that led to the crisis, Machuca is the story of a friendship between two boys from different sides of the social spectrum.

Screen version of the life of Malcolm X, who through his religious conversion to Islam, found the strength to rise up from a criminal past to become an influential civil rights leader.

" The story of Thomas More, who stood up to King Henry VIII when the King rejected the Roman Catholic Church to obtain a divorce and remarriage." www.imdb.com

A strike by the Polish union Solidarity takes place at the Gdansk shipyard in the summer of 1980. An alcoholic TV journalist is ordered to smear one of Solidarity's key figures, nicknamed the "Man of Iron."

Based on South African President Nelson Mandela's autobiography of the same name, it chronicles his early life, coming of age, education and 27 years in prison before becoming President and working to rebuild the country's once segregated society.

Based on the life and times of Mangal Pandey, 1857: The Rising is a film about the leader of the 1857 mutiny and his fight against the British rule.

"A fascinating look at the grand and grueling British class system of the early 1900s. Another adventure in placing contemporary people into the lifestyle of a previous historical era." container

Witness the compelling and dramatic story of the 1963 March on Washington, where Dr. Martin Luther King gave his stirring "I Have a Dream" speech. This watershed event in the Civil Rights Movement helped change the face of America. Recounts the events when 250,000 people came together to form the largest demonstration the young American democracy had ever seen.

" Life story of the controversial African-American leader Marcus Garvey." www.imdb.com

I Have A Dream contains King's entire inspirational speech in Washington D.C. on August 28, 1963.

During the Napoleonic wars, a young widow who is saved from an attempted rape finds herself mysteriously pregnant several months later. Unaware of how this happened, she is sent away by her family and ends up marrying her rescuer, whom she doesn't know is the child's father.

"During the colorful ceremonies of the Nuremberg rallies, Hitler Youth parade before their Fuehrer and are addressed by Nazi youth leader Baldur von Schirach, Rudolf Hess, and Hitler himself." www.imdb.com

A labor leader seeking to organize the workers of a company town sets off a powder keg of racial hostility, corruption and betrayal in this tale of the bitter clash between unionist miners and the tyrannical coal company owners in West Virginia in the 1920s.

A young baron's daughter begins a tumultuous affair with an Archduke that is heir to the Austrian throne. Based on the true story of the tragic events surrounding the life of Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria and Baroness Mary Vetsera.

A tale of one family's ambition and of Europe's struggle to emerge from the ravages of the Dark Ages. The Medici used charm, skill and ruthlessness to garner unparalleled wealth and power, ruling Europe for more than 300 years.

Photographs, interviews with veterans, and film from the French and American National Archives are used to recount the saga of the black American soldiers of the 369th combat regiment, known as the "Harlem Hellfighters," who served with the French Army in World War I.

"A realistic look at the horrors of the slave trade, told entirely through the voice of a dead African slave whose spirit haunts the ocean route." www.imdb.com

"The story of Harvey Milk, and his struggles as an American gay activist who fought for gay rights and became California's first openly gay elected official."

"When an idealistic writer disappears during the Right Wing military coup in 1973 Chile, his wife and American businessman father try to find him." www.imdb.com

A dying man thinks back to the hunting party that forever changed his life.

"An unlikely World War II platoon is tasked to rescue art masterpieces from Nazi thieves and return them to their owners." www.imdb.com

In The mummy in disguise, John Schultz and Tiffiny Tung discover that wrapped remains found in Cocachacra, Peru, which were previously presumed to be an ancient mummy, are actually the remains of two persons who lived much more recently, probably a husband and wife who were killed in the War of the Pacific (1879-1884). In The Rio mummy, James Murrell and Ken Nystrom examine an Egyptian mummy that has been in Rio de Janeiro for 200 years. The details of the embalming, wrapping and decoration indicate that the mummy was created by the same people who made two others which are now in the Netherlands, and suggest that the three persons mummified may have been related.

It's the 1972 Olympics and PLO terrorists have just kidnapped and murdered 11 Israeli athletes. After the tragic incident is over and several of the terrorists have gone free, the Israeli government of Golda Meir recruits Avner to lead a team of undercover agents to hunt down those responsible throughout Europe, and eliminate them one-by-one. It is physically and emotionally messy work, and conflicts between Avner and his team's handler, Ephraim, over information Avner doesn't want to provide only make things harder. Soon the work starts to take its toll on Avner, especially as it becomes clear that Avner is being hunted in return, and that his family's safety may be in jeopardy.

The murder of 14-year-old Emmett Till, a black boy who whistled at a white woman in a Mississippi grocery store in 1955, was a powerful catalyst for the civil rights movement. Although Till's killers were apprehended, they were quickly acquitted by an all-white, all-male jury and proceeded to sell their story to a journalist, giving grisly details of the murder. Three months after Till's body was recovered, the Montgomery Bus Boycott began. Till's mother Mamie Till-Mobley and prosecution witness Willie Reed, among others, speak.

This series presents the legacy of medieval women dedicated to God who challenged society through their visions, teachings, and writings, and who continue to provoke discussion today.

This series presents the legacy of medieval women dedicated to God who challenged society through their visions, teachings, and writings, and who continue to provoke discussion today.
v.1: Hildegard of Bingen, v.2: The Hungarian Princesses, v.3: Divine Negotiators, v.4: Joan of Arc

This series presents the legacy of medieval women dedicated to God who challenged society through their visions, teachings, and writings, and who continue to provoke discussion today.

This series presents the legacy of medieval women dedicated to God who challenged society through their visions, teachings, and writings, and who continue to provoke discussion today.

Namibia's struggle for independence from apartheid-era South Africa. The film focuses on the rise of Samuel Nujoma (Lumbly), a prominent leader in the fight for independence and the country's first president.

Nathan the Wise tells the story of Jerusalem in 1192, during a truce that brought the bloody fighting of the Third Crusade to a temporary halt.

a political semi-documentary formed from staged reenactments, leads viewers on an emotional tour of the pre-World War II U.S. and its freedom-based ideologies and looks at the the forces it sees as threatening to undermine America's strengths from within: greedy capitalists, professional strikebreakers, and the Ku Klux Klan.

Set admidst the first encounter of European and Native American cultures during the founding of the Jamestown Virginia settlement in 1607. Tells the classic tale of Pocahontas and her relationships with adventurer John Smith and aristocrat John Rolfe. This woman's journey of love lost and found again takes her from the untouched beauty of the Virginia wilderness to the upper crust of English society as we witness the dawn of a new America.

Ten years after the liberation of the Nazi concentration camps, this piece documents the abandoned grounds of Auschwitz and Majdanek. One of the first cinematic reflections on the horrors of the Holocaust and contrasts the stillness of the abandoned camps' quiet, empty buildings with haunting wartime footage.

A film based upon the testimony of Pablo Diaz. In 1976, Argentine security forces kidnapped seven student leaders who were agitating for reduced bus fares. Four years later, Pablo was set free, while the other six were among the many who "disappeared" during the Argentine military dictatorship.

Based on the true story of the 9th company during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Young Soviet Army recruits are sent from boot camp directly into the war in Afghanistan. The men fought bravely, but were all killed during battle. The remaining survivor discovers that despite their calls for help, they were simply forgotten.

Drawing on previously unseen footage and only recently released audio tapes, Nixon : a presidency revealed explores the unlikely origin, the thrilling promise, and downfall of the 37th President of the U.S. Features rare footage from home movies shot by Nixon staffers and in-depth interviews with Henry Kissinger, Alexander Haig, John Dean, Ben Bradlee and many more.

" An ad executive comes up with a campaign to defeat Augusto Pinochet in Chile's 1988 referendum." www.imdb.com

"This critique of U.S. sports culture shows how 20th-century sports has consistently reflected the hegemonic political discourse of the day, specifically, elite narratives about nationalism, war, gender, race, homosexuality and capitalism." www.imdb.com

Eight French Christian monks live in harmony with their Muslim brothers in a monastery in the mountains of North Africa in the 1990's. When a crew of foreign workers are massacred by an Islamic fundamentalist group, fear sweeps though the region. The army offers them protection, but the monks refuse. Should they leave? Despite the growing menace in their midst, they slowly realize that they have no choice but to stay, come what may.

"After the end of the Dirty War, a high school teacher sets out to find out who the mother of her adopted daughter is." www.imdb.com

The first of two films made to record the 1936 Summer Olympic Games in Berlin. Although controversial for its ties to, and representation of National Socialism, it is considered by many to be a brilliant and ground-breaking sports documentary.

Pt. 1. Festival of the Nations -- Pt. 2. Festival of beauty.

Romance and class struggles clash against a background of the 1863 uprising against Russian occupation. Based on the classic Polish novel The River Niemen by Eliza Orzeszkowa.

The story of young Huang Fei-hung, the legendary Cantonese martial arts master and folk hero, at the turn of the century.

Mexico, 1521. The Spanish army of Hernando Cortés has swept through the New World, forcing their religious beliefs on the Aztec people. A skillful Aztec scribe, who survived the Massacre of the Temple in 1520, spends years trying to preserve the rites and customs of his people. The Spanish army would conquer their land, but not the soul of the Aztecs.

Our daily bread (King Vidor 1934) is a depression-era drama in which a young couple leads a group of unemployed people in making a communal farm succeed. Includes a prologue to the movie by King Vidor. -- The fake newsreels "California Election News #1 and #2 (1934), were secretly produced by MGM as "dirty tricks" in the film industry's political war against Upton Sinclair. -- The River (Pare Lorentz 1937) dramatizes the stripping of the Mississipi River basin and the effort to restore this region. -- The Plow that broke the plains (Pare Lorentz 1936) focuses on the ecological and human tragedy of the Dust Bowl. -- Power and the Land (Rural Electrification Administration), elevates the photogenic Parkinson family to iconic figures of Americana. -- The New Frontier is a government documentary.

In a series of 22 tableaux set on a soundstage, Syberberg makes use of puppets, props, a Wagnerian soundtrack, and rear-screen projection to evoke Nazi Germany, the origins of the Third Reich, and the aftermath that followed.

On August 15th, 1914, the Panama Canal opened, connecting the world's two largest oceans and signaling America's emergence as a global superpower. This film, using an extraordinary archive of photographs and footage, interviews with canal workers, and firsthand accounts of life in the Canal Zone, unravels the remarkable story of one of the world's most significant technological achievements.

"A film about the true reasons for the 1989 US invasion of Panama and big media complicity in these activities." www.imdb.com

"A grand and patriotic tale of Poland's struggle for freedom just before Napoleon's war with Russia. Written in poetic style by Adam Mickiewicz, this story follows two feuding Polish families as they overcome their old conflicts and petty lives. However, they are able unite as one with the patriotic and rebelious efforts to free the country they deeply love from Russian control."--Container insert.

A German woman on a ship coming back to Europe notices a face of another woman which brings recollections from the past. She tells her husband that she has been an overseer in Auschwitz during the war, but she has actually saved a woman's life. Two versions of the past are shown.

"A chronicle of the trial of Jeanne d'Arc on charges of heresy, and the efforts of her ecclesiastical jurists to force Jeanne to recant her claims of holy visions." www.imdb.com

The film opens in a dark and drab contemporary setting but comes alive with light and color when Mahmoud remembers his childhood from the late 1940s, a time of respite for Iran before the political crises of the 1950s.

In this course of lectures Prof. Fischer surveys anthropology, the study of human societies and comparative customs with a special emphasis on pre-capitalist societies and the things which pre-capitalist societies and modern societies have in common.

The Prince of Tyre is pursued by the vengeance of King Antiochus because he discovered the monarch's incestuous relationship with his daughter. Fleeing from place to place, Pericles is shipwrecked, courts, and marries Thaisa. Their child, Marina, raised by friends when Thaisa is believed to have died, is kidnapped by pirates and sold into a brothel before Thaisa is discovered alive and the family is joyfully reunited.

Explores the art and culture around the Bay of Naples before Mount Vesuvius erupted in AD 79.

The Swedish army's 17th century invasion of Poland is intertwined with the love story of Andrzej and Oleńka.

A moving tribute to peaceful revolution. The 80's introduction of 'Glasnost and Perestroika'. Student leaders in the late 80's sought to commemorate the death of a student protester against the Nazi occupation were granted permission by the communists to hold a rally on Nov. 17 1989. The students conspired to lead a march from their designated rally point into the symbolic center of Czech government, Wenceslas square. However, the government learned of the plan and cordoned off the area with special forces and riot police. Cordoned off and surrounded the 80,000 strong students sat and attempted to wait out the police. Unfortunately, the police attacked and in the melee one student died.

It is in the 17th century that the first European adventurers, known as "coureurs des bois", appeared in New France. On a trip that takes us from Quebec to Montreal, then to the Great Lakes, we follow, beyond time and beyond seasons, the traces of these early trappers who confronted great difficulties with courage, enabling them to get their cargo of fur pelts to Europe where they were so valuable. At the same time, as we get to know some colourful characters, the coureurs des bois' journey will take us through stunning countryside that inspires celebration and meditation.

In 17th century Brazil groups of runaway black slaves escaped to mountainous jungle strongholds, where they formed self-governing communities known as quilombos. This film chronicles the most famous, the Palmares, and their legendary chieftain Ganga Zumba.

Fame and fortune become a hotbed of scandal when a Washington investigator uncovers corruption beneath the TV's hottest quiz show's glittering facade. The scandal implicates both the wildly popular champion and the disgruntled ex-champ.

A dramatization of the famous novel by Henryk Sienkiewicz about the birth of Christianity in ancient Rome. Focuses on the love between a Roman Patrician and a Christian daughter of a Barbarian Commande during the time of the Great Fires, Nero's tyranny and the persecution of Christians.

A selection of stories from Chaucer's "The Canterbury Tales". Shot in England, it offers an earthy re-creation of the medieval era. From the story of a nobleman struck blind after marrying a much younger and promiscuous bride, to a climactic trip to a hell populated by friars and demons (surely one of the most outrageously conceived and realized sequences ever committed to film), this is a work of merry blasphemy, framed by Pasolini's portrayal of Chaucer himself.

This is the story about the youth of India today. A young London based film-maker comes upon the diaries of her grandfather, who served in the British police force in India during the freedom struggle. She plans to shoot a film based on the diaries and casts a group of friends to play the roles of the revolutionaries described in the diaries. The friends cannot identify with the characters and would rather enjoy today's life than get involved in a project that seems like the stuff of textbooks.

"The story of Nazi Germany's plundering of Europe's great works of art during World War II and Allied efforts to minimize the damage." www.imdb.com

Pedro Churruca, a marine, has been killed in Cuba during the confrontation between Spain and the United States. His widow, Isabel Acuña educates her children to follow very different paths. Isabel lives with a military man; Jaime enters a monastary; Pedro pursues a political career, and José a military career. The Spanish Civil War provokes a disintegration of the family.

Uses archival footage and interviews with activists involved to trace the history of Students for a Democratic Society through the 1960's. Growing out of student involvement with the black civil rights movement in the South, SDS grew quickly with the escalation of the war in Vietnam. Discusses how the Black Power movement shook the SDS, and the women's movement grew out of it. After 1968, the SDS was thrown into internal conflict with the Weathemen faction and the surveillance of the FBI. Interviewees talk about the legacy of the SDS for them.

The story of the tumultuous years after the Civil War during which America grappled with how to rebuild itself, how to successfully bring the South back into the Union and, at the same time, how former slaves could be brought into the life of the country.

Shows the human side of victims and participants of the British invasion of Tibet in 1904. A young Chinese girl escapes from a religious sacrifice and is taken in by an old Tibetan woman and her herdsman son. They rescue two British men from the aftermath of an avalanche and take them to the region's ruler and his proud daughter to determine the foreigners' fate. One Brit remains in the valley to recover and is pleasantly overwhelmed by the Tibetans' kindness and innocence. After leaving the valley, he returns with an imperialistic commander and countrymen to invade and massacre the innocent.

The true story of the love affair of John Reed, American Communist, journalist and activist and Louise Bryant, writer and feminist and how the Russian Revolution shook their lives.

A documentary film about refuseniks, Soviet Jews who sought to emigrate from the Soviet Union to Israel. Focuses especially on the political activism efforts of the movement, both in the Soviet Union and abroad.

A drama of forced high school integration in Alexandria, Virginia in 1971. After leading his team to fifteen winning seasons, white football coach Bill Yoast is demoted and replaced by African-American Herman Boone, tough, opinionated and as different from Yoast as could be. The two men overcome their differences and turn a group of hostile young men into champions. A rousing celebration of how a town torn apart by resentment, friction and mistrust comes together in triumphant harmony.

A historical film about Ecuadorian politics of the early 20th century, with a focus on President Eloy Alfaro.

King Richard , a vain, self-indulgent man who rules with little regard for his people's welfare, is called upon to settle a dispute between his cousin Henry Bolingbroke and Thomas Mowbray. In an act that will spell doom for his reign, he banished both men, and sets into motion a chain of events that will change British history forever.

Richard, Duke of Gloucester through a set of murderous machinations, steals the crown from his brother Edward.

In 1930's Britain, in the wake of a bloody civil war, the younger brother of the new King sets in motion a monstrous scheme to claim the throne for himself. Updated version of Shakespeare's tale.

Documents the story of assassin James Earl Ray, his target, Martin Luther King, Jr., and the seething, turbulent forces in American society that led these two men to their violent and tragic collision in Memphis in April of 1968.

Using extensive state-of-the-art CGI animation this documentary chronicles the spectacular as well as sordid history of the Roman Empire from the rise of Julius Caesar in 55 BC to its fall around 537 AD. The CGI animation gives the viewers an opportunity to see Rome's greatest structures the way the ancient Romans saw them. The insights of engineers, archaeologists and historians add depth to segments on Hadrian's Wall, Caesar's Bridge, the aqueducts, the Colosseum, the Pantheon, the Baths of Caracalla, and the remains of Emperor Nero's lavish Golden Palace for a rare look at how one of Rome's most notorious megalomaniacs lived. Also never-before-seen footage shot on a diving expedition in the water channels underneath the Colosseum, channels once used to flood the arena for mock naval battles.

Four hundred years after the founding of the Republic, Rome is the wealthiest city in the world, a cosmopolitan metropolis of one million people, epicenter of a sprawling empire. The Republic was founded on principles of shared power and fierce personal competition, never allowing one man to seize absolute control. But now, those foundations are crumbling, eaten away by corruption and excess. After eight years of war, soldiers Lucius Vorenus and Titus Pullo unwittingly become entwined in the historical events of ancient Rome.

"The mechanic Behnke wants to join the Nazi party to secure a good living. However, after his Jewish neighbors have been taken away, he changes his views." www.imdb.com

Nadia Kamel is an Egyptian with Jews, Muslims and Christians in her family. Her documentary uses her multicultural ancestry to examine Egyptian history and identity.

"An American photojournalist gets caught in a political struggle at El Salvador in 1980." www.imdb.com

Commissioner Sanders, representative of the British Crown, puts down a bloody rebellion and re-establishes harmony for the pro-British river people in this tale of adventure in Nigeria.

Starting from the city's earliest known history, this film traces the building of St. Petersburg, leading you through all the city's remarkable spots in time and space.

When an idealistic governor disobeys the reigning feudal lord, he is cast into exile, his wife and children left to fend for themselves and eventually wrenched apart by vicious slave drivers.

"Part of the Who Built America? series, this video examines American overseas expansion at the turn of the century and tells the story of how the Philippine War and American domestic culture forged a new U.S. foreign policy." Cinema Guild website

" In Poland during World War II, Oskar Schindler gradually becomes concerned for his Jewish workforce after witnessing their persecution by the Nazis." www.imdb.com

"The history of the 'Scottsboro Boys,' a group of African American men who were victims of a racist miscarriage of justice that became a national controversy." www.imdb.com

"Reassigned to a lowly outpost, a Roman guard's Christian beliefs clash with his gay commander's desire for closeness. Being tortured becomes pleasurable." www.imdb.com

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s historical struggle to secure voting rights for all people. A dangerous and terrifying campaign that culminated with an epic march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama in 1964.

"A troubled and neurotic Italian Countess betrays her entire country for a self-destructive love affair with an Austrian Lieutenant." www.imdb.com

This film dramatizes the events leading to the landmark Supreme Court decision outlawing segregation.

Part 7 of a ten-part series of documentaries which explore Arab history, culture and society from within and through the lives and opinions of Arabs today. The main focus of this film is the plight of the Palestinians which can be seen as the most enduring residue of the modern encounter between the Arabs and the West. Edward Said traces the course of European involvement with the Near East via the Crusades to Napoleon's campaign in Egypt and the French and English entrepreneurs, adventurers and empire-builders who came in his wake.

The Nazi extermination of Jews is examined through interviews of survivors, witnesses and perpetrators and through footage of the sites of the death camps and environs as they appear today. Those interviewed include Jewish survivors of the death camps and the Warsaw ghetto uprising, Polish farmers and villagers who lived near the camps and Nazis who worked in the camps and the ghettos.

An epic romantic drama about three generations of two feuding families, the rich Solomins and the poor Ustyuzhanins, of a rural Siberian village, from the time of the Russian Revolution to the present-day exploration of hidden resources of Siberian soil.

"A Roman soldier becomes torn between his love for a Christian woman and his loyalty to Emperor Nero." www.imdb.com

Tsar Boris Godunov and his family are brutally slaughtered. Russia decends into a country of chaos. Andrey is the only witness to the massacre. Guided by faith and mysticism he transforms himself from a servant to a cavalier and sets off on a quest to save Princess Ksenia, who is the missing daughter of Godunov. Andrey joins forces with the people's army leader, Prince Pozharski, and faces down the Polish army in an explosive battle for Moscow.

Sobibor: In his last documentary, Claude Lanzmann used the same cinematic method that forces one to reconstruct reality in one's mind. It tells a story about a unique event in the history of concentration camps when six hundred inmates organized the mass revolt and escape in the camp Sobibor in Poland. The story is told by a single survivor, Yehuda Lerner, who arrived to the camp together with the Soviet army colonel Petchersky and sixty other strong men. Thanks to this, they had the necessary military expertise and human power to organize a successful uprising. They all knew the attack had to happen simultaneously and on October 14, 1943, at precisely 4 pm, the inmates killed the majority of the guards using knives and hatchets. The success of their mission was partly based on the punctuality of the Nazis and their schedule, enabling the inmates to know precisely where each of the guards will be located at the exact time. After the successful revolt, the entire camp broke free through the barbed wire, but half of them did not survive the heavy machine-gun fire and minefields. By recollecting this successful escape from a concentration camp, carried out with precision and discipline, Claude Lanzmann filmed a crucial account of the Jews in action, in contrast to their usual representation as victims only.

Based on the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, where over the course of 100 days an estimated 800,000 people were killed in a terrifying purge by Hutu nationalists against their Tutsi countrymen.

The true story of Germany's most famous anti-Nazi heroine, Sophie Scholl, the fearless activist of the underground student resistance group, The White Rose. The last six days of Sophie Scholl's life is dramatized, from arrest to interrogation, trial, and sentence in 1943 Munich. Unwavering in her convictions and loyalty to her comrades, her cross-examination by the Gestapo quickly escalates into a searing test of wills as Scholl delivers a passionate call to freedom and personal responsibility that is both haunting and timeless.

Despite its relatively low budget, this portrait of Korean War soldiers grappling with moral and racial issues while trying to stay alive remains one of the director's most gripping, realistic depictions of the blood and guts of war, as well as a reflection of Fuller's social conscience.

"The Story of the Jews is a television series, in five parts, presented by British historian Simon Schama." www.imdb.com

Chronicles the events leading up to Emperor Hirohito's momentous speech, the historic renunciation of his divine status, and his meetings with General Douglas MacArthur, the commander-in-chief of the occupying American forces, who advises his own president not to declare the Japanese leader a war criminal.

A look at the Dalai Lama's tireless efforts to gain justice and respect for the people of Tibet while trying to deal with the younger generation of Tibetans who want to take matters in their own hands.

In 1865 Kyoto, a handsome new recruit causes sexual tension in a traditional samurai militia group, Shinsengumi, at the end of the Shōgunate era in Japan.

A look at the life and career of charismatic Washington D.C.-area radio personality Ralph "Petey" Green, who was renowned for his "tell it like it is" approach to politics and race.

Terry Eagleton, who introduced the Continental philosophical tradition to Britain, discusses Karl Marx's critique of morality, then explicates Marxist theory, its interpretation of history, and its impact on literary criticism today.

Traces the story of the filmmaker's family as she confronts her German father and Jewish mother over the secrets and painful silence about the past as she struggles to reconcile her dual identity as both a German and a Jew. The blending of German and Jewish cultures relatively soon after World War II is the central motif of the documentary with a theme of "coping, rather than victimization." Family ties are tested throughout the film as she travels to Germany and struggles with issues of race, religion and prejudice on both sides of the family.

"Teotihuacan - City of the gods is a 12 minute documentary of an enormous archaeological site in the Basin of Mexico, containing some of the largest pyramidal structures built in the pre-Colombian Americas." www.imdb.com

A dramatic look at the historic Danton.

A dramatic retelling of the last three years of Robespierre's life.

In June 1791, Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette flee Paris at night. They are followed by a writer, Nicolas Restif de la Bretonne, Casanova himself, Thomas Paine, and various other famous and non-famous people who must confront their own political ideas.

Action is set in Russia in July of 1942 during the Second World War. The advancing Nazi Armies are approaching Stalingrad. The Russians are exhausted and outnumbered. But in a bloody battle the invading Nazi Armies are stopped at Stalingrad.

Examines the life of Thomas Jefferson, third President of the United States and author of the Declaration of Independence.

"Thomas Jefferson's world tells the story of Jefferson's important contributions to American independence and the enduring influence of his world-changing ideas about human rights and liberty. The film capture the beautiful Monticello- the complex plantation- that continually drew him home even while he played major roles in shaping the young American nation." Film Container

Three stories about Russia, situated in three different cities. Komsomolsk-on-Amur in the country's far east, the city of dreams; the metropolis Moscow, the city of sorrow; and the Siberian Khanty-Mansiysk, the city of hope. Respectively speaking, these cities are symbols of the country's past, present and future. The elderly pioneers who cheerfully built the warplane factory in Komsomolsk-on-Amur in the 1930s reflect on an eventful history. The assassination of journalist and human rights activist Anna Politkovskaya in Moscow indicates the deplorable state of the freedom of speech in today's Russia. The Siberian oil town of Khanty-Mansiysk boasts a new biathlon stadium, the highest birth rate in the country and a low crime rate; here, the hope for a better future pervades. The trilogy constitutes a sampling of a country in transition, told in little over 30 minutes. Unlike what people in the West often think, Russia is everything but uniform. In the first story, for instance, the opinions about the Communist regime are rather divided: Stalin is called both a hero and a black page in Russian history. The fast editing clearly brings out the similarities and differences between the two visions.

Three films depicting the struggles of resistance fighters in Poland during World War II.

Contents: Pt 1, A Generation (1955) --- Pt. 2, Kanal (1957) --- Pt. 3, Ashes and Diamonds (1958)

Portrait of photographer Tina Modotti in revolutionary 1920s Mexico. Looks at her work and her passionate relationships with contemporary artists and revolutionaries, including Edward Weston and Diego Rivera.

Building the Titanic has been a huge financial effort, and White Star Line president Bruce Ismay wants her maiden voyage to hit the headlines. It is at Ismay's urging that Capt. Edward J. Smith pushes for a record speed in their voyage to New York, and that eventually sows the seeds for later disaster. This Titanic features a number of rich, decadent British passengers and a handful of noble German peasants. Ends with the court tribunal acquitting Ismay of any wrong-doing for the sinking of the great ship.

Shakespeare's play about a proud Roman general who conquers the Volscians, leads them against Rome in revenge for his banishment, and is killed by the Volscian general when Coriolanus is persuaded to spare the city.

Shakespeare's play about Richard of Gloucester, a self-proclaimed villian who usurps the crown. Through family machinations, political marriages and military coups, this play portrays the tumultous reign of King Edward IV and the ascension of Richard to the throne, an intricate period in English history.

Documents the forced removal in 1838 of the Cherokee Nation from the southeastern United States to Oklahoma. Shows the suffering endured by the Cherokees as they lost their land and the difficult conditions they endured on the trail. Describes how thousands of Cherokees died during the Trail of Tears, nearly a quarter of the nation, including most of their children and elders.

"It was Squier's love of Nicaragua that made him travel rivers, lakes, valleys, volcanoes, villages, cities, explore in depth the history, soul, traditions, speech and customs of Nicaragua at a time when wild animals still roamed the roads." www.worldcat.org

"In 16th-century Russia in the grip of chaos, Ivan the Terrible strongly believes he is vested with a holy mission. Believing he can understand and interpret the signs, he sees the Last Judgment approaching. He establishes absolute power, cruelly destroying anyone who gets in his way. During this reign of terror, Philip, the superior of the monastery on the Solovetsky Islands, a great scholar and Ivan's close friend, dares to oppose the sovereign's mystical tyranny. What follows is a clash between two completely opposite visions of the world, smashing morality and justice, God and men." www.imdb.com

"In 16th-century Russia in the grip of chaos, Ivan the Terrible strongly believes he is vested with a holy mission. Believing he can understand and interpret the signs, he sees the Last Judgment approaching. He establishes absolute power, cruelly destroying anyone who gets in his way. During this reign of terror, Philip, the superior of the monastery on the Solovetsky Islands, a great scholar and Ivan's close friend, dares to oppose the sovereign's mystical tyranny. What follows is a clash between two completely opposite visions of the world, smashing morality and justice, God and men. A grand-scale film with excellent leading roles by Mamonov and Yankovsky. An allegory of Stalinist Russia"--Written by Warsaw Film Festival and viewed in IMDB.

"In the antebellum United States, Solomon Northup, a free black man from upstate New York, is abducted and sold into slavery." www.imdb.com

Examines the critical events that took place in the fall of 1967, from the ambush of an American battalion by the Viet Cong that led to skepticism of whether the Vietnamese conflict was winnable, to the first violent anti-war demonstration on a campus in Wisconsin.

"Slavery tears apart a black family in the South before the start of the Civil War." (www.imdb.com)

A war widow sets out to clear the name of her disgraced husband, a Japanese soldier who was court-martialed for desertion & executed during World War II.

An alien in the form of a voluptuous young woman combs the streets of Scotland in search of men. She lures a succession of lost souls into her otherworldly lair, where they are seduced, stripped of their humanity, and never heard from again.

History of the battle of Iwo Jima.

The story of farmer Aschoff, his wife Maria, his daughter Anni and their friends and relatives and how they saved the lives of the Spiegel family.

Saartjie Baartman, the "Hottentot Venus," a South African slave, was exhibited in public halls and theaters in London and Paris in the early 19th century. Due in part to her enormous posterior, she attracted the attention of French anatomists, who declared her the missing link between man and ape.

"The story of Mussolini's secret lover, Ida Dalser, and their son Albino." www.imdb.com

The story of cinematography as seen through the lenses of the world's greatest filmmakers and captured in classic scenes from over 125 immortal movies. Traces the evolution and innovations of cinematography beginning in an era when the movie camera was a marvelous invention, and examines how the filmmaking process was complicated by new cinematic trends and technologies.

Film presenting a partially fictionalized and romanticized view of the life of Mexican revolutionary, Emiliano Zapata, from his upbringing, rise to power, and finally his death in the early 1900s.

This documentary tells the story of the revolt aboard the slave ship La Amistad, in which Africans abducted from Sierra Leone in violation of international law took over the ship on which they were held, only to end up in the American court system. They took their case all the way to the Supreme Court, with various abolitionists and former president John Quincy Adams leading the way. Based on court documents and transcripts, letters written by the Africans and their lawyers, newspaper articles, and testimony from present-day scholars.

A painstakingly detailed adaptation of the Tolstoy novel which follows the interconnected lives of a group of Russian aristocrats from 1805 to 1812, including Napoleon's invasion of Russia.

" A drama that chronicles the life of Winnie Mandela from her childhood through her marriage and her husband's incarceration." www.imdb.com

Set in 17th century Poland during the Cossack uprising against the Polish nobility. As the violent confrontation builds, there is also a battle between a Pole and a Ukrainian for the heart of a beautiful girl.

The true story of Port Authority policemen John McLoughlin and William J. Jimeno, who volunteered for rescue duty and became trapped in the rubble of the Towers on September 11, 2001. The men became two of the last survivors extracted from Ground Zero. It is a story of the true heroes and of that fateful time in United States history, when buildings would fall and heroes would rise, literally from the ashes to inspire the entire human race.

Joseph Stalin - the supreme leader of the Soviet Union - was a tyrant responsible for the death of millions. He also had some unlikely relationships during the Second World War. This ambitious series uses exclusive evidence gained from the actual conversations and secret meetings Stalin conducted. Dramatic reconstructions carefully sourced from archive material, reveal how the great leaders decided the future shape of the post-war world. These decisions had immediate and often harrowing effects for those on the ground. Their story is told through documentary footage, dramatic reconstructions and illuminating interviews.

A yound swordman named Fox is on a quest to recover a sacred scroll stolen from the imperial library. The scroll contains the secret to a powerful martial arts technique. Whoever possesses it is assured of martial arts supremacy. The eunuch guardians want it back at all costs. So do many warring martial arts factions. they are all more than willing to kill and get it. This leads to betrayal, double crosses and broken allegiances, culminating in a spectacular showdown.

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With an entirely new set of actors, this movie continues the story from Swordsman (1990). Blademaster and his martial arts school decide to retire to a distant mountain. Before leaving, he visits his friends, a tribe of snake-wielding women warriors. He finds that they have been attacked, and their leader, Princess Yin-Yin, toward whom he has some romantic feelings, has been abducted. The attacker is her evil uncle Fong, who years before overthrew Yin-Yin's father and took over their sect. Fong also has possession of a sacred scroll which tells how to achieve ultimate martial arts power. Blademaster decides to help Yin-Yin and her imprisoned father, and his romantic complications deepen when his childhood chum and Yin-Yin are joined by a new rival. Blademaster thinks she is an innocent village girl he has saved, but in fact she is Fong! The process of gaining ultimate martial arts power requires self- castration and transmogrification into female form."
- Reid Gagle www.imdb.com

"You Got to Move is a documentary by Lucy Massie Phenix (Winter Soldier) and Veronica Selver (Word Is Out) that follows people from communities in the Southern United States in their various processes of becoming involved in social change." www.imdb.com

Chronicles the decade-long search for Osama bin Laden following the September 2001 attacks, and his death at the hands of Navy SEAL Team 6.

The story of the Battle of Rorke's Drift, fought in 1879 during the Zulu War. A small contingent of British soldiers stand their ground at a farm house at Rorke's Drift against an onslaught of wave after wave of Zulus.